Matthew Holden | Lightnews

Matthew Holden 🏳️‍🌈

@matthholden.bsky.social

2.3K followers 860 following 80 posts

Mathematician working in Ecology, Biodiversity Conservation, Fisheries, Natural Resource Management, Wildlife Trade, and Sustainability. Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland. Vice president of the Resource Modeling Association #LGBTQSTEM he/they .. more

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Matthew Holden Jr. was an American political scientist.

Source: Wikipedia

Environmental science 52%

Geography 13%

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Matthew Holden 🏳️‍🌈 @matthholden.bsky.social · Nov 18

When do you need to collect more data? ... surprisingly, more data often has little value for decisions. Our new paper unravels why "Value of Information Analyses" can yield surprising results in #ecology doi.org/10.1111/2041... w @katehelmstedt.bsky.social in @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social 🌍

3D plots showing how the value of information is often low and only high when an analytic condition is met. See the paper in link for a full description

Plots showing how the value of information depends on the number of actions and states, with more actions and states often leading to higher value of information. See the paper in the link for a full description

Matthew Holden 🏳️‍🌈 @matthholden.bsky.social · 19d

Our new paper: If you get a bit more conservation $ should you expand a protected area or improve management? Past work suggests management is often more cost effective but we show when threats are concentrated near edges we find expanding may be optimal doi.org/10.1016/j.bi... 🌍

Redirecting

doi.org

Reposted by Shannon Vallor, Lesley A. Hall, Matthew Holden

madeline odent @oldenoughtosay.com · Oct 8

the answer to the trolley problem is not to pick who to sacrifice, it’s to dismantle the system that led to an unsafe trolley crossing.

if any part of your morality strategy involves picking a group to let die on a hill, throw the entire strategy out. it’s wrong.

Reposted by Hugh P. Possingham

Matthew Holden 🏳️‍🌈 @matthholden.bsky.social · Sep 25

New blog: As a grant peer reviewer I consider Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) even if the scheme doesn't list EDI criteria. Key is to tie the selection criteria to EDI. This is how I do it mathemagicalconservation.wordpress.com/2025/09/23/a... @katehelmstedt.bsky.social @hugepossum.bsky.social

As a grant reviewer, how do you request Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, even if it isn’t an explicit selection criterion

Many funding schemes now include equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) as an explicit selection criterion. But what happens when it isn’t written into the rubric? Should applicants still consider …

mathemagicalconservation.wordpress.com

Matthew Holden 🏳️‍🌈 @matthholden.bsky.social · Sep 16

Happy 4^ / 3^2 / 5^2 day!!! (3^2/ 4^2 / 5^2 for us weird Americans) Not too many days satisfy the Pythagorean thm. @amermathsoc.bsky.social @austms.bsky.social @stevenstrogatz.com @monsoon0.bsky.social ht Peter Baxter for noticing. Looking forward to coming back to the US for joint maths in Jan.

Reposted by Matthew Holden, Kate J. Helmstedt

Matt Mack @matthras.bsky.social · Aug 12

Ooh arXiv paper from @matthholden.bsky.social @katehelmstedt.bsky.social about embedding sustainability in undergraduate maths with case studies 👀 Looks very actionable!

arxiv.org/abs/2508.07594

Embedding Sustainability in Undergraduate Mathematics with Actionable Case Studies

There is a growing need to integrate sustainability into tertiary mathematics education given the urgency of addressing global environmental challenges. This paper presents four case studies from Aust...

arxiv.org

Reposted by Hugh P. Possingham, Julie L. Lockwood, Elena Litchman , and 1 more Hugh P. Possingham, Julie L. Lockwood, Elena Litchman, Laura E. Dee

Matthew Holden 🏳️‍🌈 @matthholden.bsky.social · Jul 17

Excited for our annual conference on modeling for ecology, biodiversity, sustainability, environment, water, energy, climate, fisheries, forestry, & ag. Love all the cool #math & stats used to save the world. Join us in Stellenbosch 2026. 🌍#MathSky @hugepossum.bsky.social @katehelmstedt.bsky.social

Resource Modeling Association (RMA) @resourcemodeling.bsky.social · Jul 16

Announcement: The World Conference on Natural Resource Modeling 2026 will be in Stellenbosch, South Africa, set in the heart of Africa’s Cape Winelands (30 min uber from Cape Town Int. Airport) June 30 – July 3. Propose a special session & bring your friends here resourcemodeling.org/wcnrm2026-st...

WCNRM#2026 Stellenbosch, South Africa - Resource Modeling Association

resourcemodeling.org

Reposted by Hugh P. Possingham, Julie L. Lockwood, Elena Litchman

Resource Modeling Association (RMA) @resourcemodeling.bsky.social · Jul 16

WCNRM#2026 Stellenbosch, South Africa - Resource Modeling Association

resourcemodeling.org

Reposted by Benjamin Jones, Matthew Holden

Benjamin Pope @benjaminpope.bsky.social · Jul 7

getting in an arms race with LLMs over em-dashes by using dashes so long ——— so very long ——— that they have never appeared in training data

Matthew Holden 🏳️‍🌈 @matthholden.bsky.social · Jul 1

Great work classifying ecosystems around the world to create an IUCN red list of ecosystems presented by Prof Emily Nicholson. Shows a small global decline in ecosystems but with extreme variation with some declining rapidly. 🌍
@aciucn.bsky.social @uq-cbcs.bsky.social

Matthew Holden 🏳️‍🌈 @matthholden.bsky.social · Jun 29

Just saw this amazing science article - Beetle grows replica ‘termite’ on back to steal food www.science.org/content/arti.... Despite it being in Australia it wasn't one of the 1,168 species in our Brisbane home but we did find 6 species of rove beetle doi.org/10.1002/ecy....

Beetle grows ‘termite’ on back to steal food

Puppet helps insect trick real termites into feeding it

www.science.org

Matthew Holden 🏳️‍🌈 @matthholden.bsky.social · Jun 21

Yes, where nuclear plants exist they should continue and be maximised to produce relatively clean energy. Of course, in Australia, and other sunny locations building new nuclear plants is extremely costly compared to solar, even accounting for storage and would be wildly irresponsible.

Matthew Holden 🏳️‍🌈 @matthholden.bsky.social · Jun 16

The latter (sorry character limits created the ambiguity). Agree with you, given that accounting for species protection only adds 2-3%cost, it would be interesting to see what the cost contribution of the renewables are alone. Would help to put that 2-3% in context.

Matthew Holden 🏳️‍🌈 @matthholden.bsky.social · Jun 16

He accounted for infrastructure to go the longer distance from the network when avoiding threatened species. Don't think there would be a difference in storage requirements with the increased distance. Storage is mostly about the baseline cost of renewables the % increase is on top of that.

Matthew Holden 🏳️‍🌈 @matthholden.bsky.social · Jun 16

Bycatch reduction interventions are effective for improving marine species populations but very few studies report the impacts on fisher safety, and other fisher objectives. This is a major barrier to adoption. Great talk by Cindy Vargas @arizonastateuni.bsky.social at #iccb2025.

Matthew Holden 🏳️‍🌈 @matthholden.bsky.social · Jun 16

We can achieve 100% renewable energy in Australia & also protect threatened species impacted by wind and solar developments with only 2-3% increase in electricity bills compared to if we didn't consider threatened species. #iccb2025 great talk by A Rogers

Reposted by Matthew Holden

Dr. Casey Fiesler @cfiesler.bsky.social · Jun 2

I really dislike this sentiment re: AI impacts on education: If an assignment can be completed by AI then it is clearly just busy work; educators need to create better assignments.

Absolutely not true. Just because AI can do something too doesn't mean that doing it doesn't have pedagogical value.

Reposted by Matthew Holden

Dr Lucy Stewart @lcsnz.bsky.social · May 22

The push for AI makes this even worse because we could very quickly end up in a situation where there are few or no early-career roles. Having computers do the easy stuff is all well and good until you realise *people* have to do the easy stuff to learn how to do the complex stuff.

Reposted by Matthew Holden

aaron @lordreptar.bsky.social · Apr 17

hi guys ik i don’t get political often, but this is super important and incredibly messed up. please like, repost, and fill out a comment

www.regulations.gov/commenton/FW...

#wildlife #ecology #conservation #biology #usa #habitatdisruption #preservation #development #earthday #government

On April 16th 2025, the federal government proposed to change the interpretation of the Endangered Species Act so that it no longer protects habitat

Scan to submit a public comment April 17th – May 18th

Matthew Holden 🏳️‍🌈 @matthholden.bsky.social · May 7

My top tips for conferences 1) have fun, Skip some talks 2) go to the poster session 3) focus your talk/poster around one main message w email address on last slide 4) see who's attending in the program before you arrive and schedule meetings. @iccb2025.bsky.social
www.instagram.com/reel/DJQd0_h...

Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.

www.instagram.com

Matthew Holden 🏳️‍🌈 @matthholden.bsky.social · May 6

Amazing talk by Dr Helen Mayfield on building models to manage ecosystems by consulting experts in a systematic way (expert elicitation) ... and most importantly an evaluation of whether it worked. @uq-cbcs.bsky.social @martinemaron.bsky.social

Matthew Holden 🏳️‍🌈 @matthholden.bsky.social · Apr 8

Great talk by @alicetwomey.bsky.social on solving the barriers for transdisciplinary research in conservation at the @uq-cbcs.bsky.social seminar. The methods exist we just need to use them. doi.org/10.1016/j.pe...

Reposted by Matthew Holden, Kate J. Helmstedt

Greg Jericho @grogsgamut.bsky.social · Mar 19

Always remember - budgets are about choices
www.theguardian.com/business/gro...

Charts showing cost of increasing Jobseeker to 90% of age pension base - $3.5bn; raising it to 90% of total age pension - $5.2bn. Cost of super concessions for the richest 10% - $9.9bn + $10.4bn, cost of capital gains discount for the richest 10% - $18.6bn, cost of fuel tax credit for mining companies - $4.8bn

Reposted by Kate J. Helmstedt

Matthew Holden 🏳️‍🌈 @matthholden.bsky.social · Mar 18

Job alert: 3 Aotearoa New Zealand Postdoctoral fellowships in complex systems www.tepunahamatatini.ac.nz/2025/03/07/p...

Postdoctoral fellowships in complex systems

We're looking for three postdoctoral fellows to join our newly created Modelling for Impact Hub.

www.tepunahamatatini.ac.nz

Reposted by Matthew Holden

Kate Helmstedt @katehelmstedt.bsky.social · Mar 6

We introduce a method to quantify how extreme events affect ecosystem function and services. Paper out today in @natureecoevo.bsky.social - very fitting on a day that Cyclone Alfred is looming off the coast of my city!

Laura Dee @lauradee.bsky.social · Mar 5

Thanks to @natureecoevo.bsky.social & the reviewers for the great process and highlighting this work in a News & Views: Effects of extreme events on nature’s benefits to people www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Reposted by Matthew Holden, Kate J. Helmstedt

Laura Dee @lauradee.bsky.social · Mar 5

Matthew Holden 🏳️‍🌈 @matthholden.bsky.social · Feb 24

I'd like to be added

Matthew Holden 🏳️‍🌈 @matthholden.bsky.social · Feb 22

Wow what a planthopper! very cool. Fulgora sp. are such amazing bugs.

Nick Volpe @nvolpe.bsky.social · Feb 21

MR. PEANUT HEAD!!🤯🤯🤯

In all its glory, MARVEL at this incredible Lanternfly which can be found in the Peruvian Amazon!🌳🥜

One of the BEST & most unique insects in the world, this giant bug can be tricky to find and only lives and feeds on a few specific trees!

Another insane day at Manu Biolodge!💚

Reposted by Matthew Holden

Nick Volpe @nvolpe.bsky.social · Feb 21

Matthew Holden 🏳️‍🌈 @matthholden.bsky.social · Feb 21

Great paper by @kleshnina.bsky.social my goal in life is to get a whole blog written about one of my papers. Excellent blog @nadiah.bsky.social

Reposted by Matthew Holden

UQ Centre for Biodiversity & Conservation Science @uq-cbcs.bsky.social · Feb 21

Here, CBCS speaks to Harris Wei-Khang Heng, a PhD student about his research where he investigates the influence of seagrass connectivity on the distribution and population structure of megaherbivores at different geographical scales.

Read the full interview here:

CBCS Q and A with Harris Wei-Khang Heng

cbcs.centre.uq.edu.au

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