Tom Le Breton | Lightnews

Ella Plumanns Pouton @ellapouton.bsky.social · Sep 22

🔥New Paper!🔥 from Julianna Santos,
@ltkelly.bsky.social @lluisbrotons.bsky.social @urbanfrogger.bsky.social @cristinaaponte.bsky.social , Lauren Ponisio, Stephen Mason, and David Keith!

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The Mechanisms Through Which Fire Drives Population Change in Terrestrial Biota

Understanding the mechanisms through which fire influences populations is necessary to protect species from fire regime change. We develop a cross-taxa framework that identifies mechanisms through wh...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Diana Fisher @dianafisher1080.bsky.social · Sep 18

Inferring recent and ongoing plant extinctions. Katus shortfall- the unknown loss of biodiversity past, present and future is broader than ‘dark extinction’- species becoming extinct before being formally described nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Dana Bergstrom @danambergstrom.bsky.social · Sep 16

National climate change risk assessment for #Australia’s natural ecosystems tech reports are online: We report

Australia’s natural ecosystems are highly exposed & vulnerable to climate change across the land and sea. 1/🧵

29 Natural Ecosystems Technical Report: Synthesis

This assessment found Australia’s natural environment is highly exposed and vulnerable to climate change. The projected change is outside the conditions to which most native species have adapted.

www.acs.gov.au

Chantelle Doyle @saltandbrine.bsky.social · Aug 6

What happens when an 'extinct' plant species is rediscovered?

We a casestudy Atriplex, and found...not much

Despite being 'rediscovered' three times in the last decade Atriplex acutiloba remains listed as extinct. And it isn't alone. Nor is the phenomenon new.

doi.org/10.1111/aec.70101

We Need a Process for Managing and Reassessing Rediscovered Species: A Case Study With the ‘Extinct’ Atriplex acutiloba

Rediscovery of extinct species is an exciting prospect and, surprisingly, a common reason for changes to species' listings. In Australia, however, species declared ‘extinct’ are afforded no legal pro....

doi.org

Australian Journal of Botany @ausjbotany.bsky.social · Jul 8

🔥Are you investigating how plants respond to shifting fire regimes? Submit to our new Special Collection🌱
Title: "After the fires: Plant responses and resilience under shifting fire regimes"
📖 Submit by 30 Sept 2025.
🧪 Details 👉 www.publish.csiro.au/bt/content/C...
#Fire #Botany #Plantscience

UNSW Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences @unswbees.bsky.social · Jul 2

Congratulations to Dr Chantelle Doyle @saltandbrine.bsky.social - joining ABC's Top5 Science program for 2025 www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

TOP 5 2025: WINNERS - ABC listen

The ABC is pleased to introduce the 2025 winners in Science, Humanities and Arts Top5 programs.The successful applicants will spend two weeks in residence at ABC Radio National.

www.abc.net.au

Jess Marsh @jessmarsh.bsky.social · Jun 30

Hugely excited for our work on the Nullarbor Caves to be featured on the ever excellent First Dog on the Moon. Oh yeah...

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Did you know that there are huge caves full of weirdy bugs and ancient life right under the Nullarbor desert? | First Dog on the Moon

We simply don’t know even a fraction of what is in them

www.theguardian.com

Tom Fairman @itsnotfairman.bsky.social · Jun 21

I've been banging on about this issue - immature alpine ash, fire and seed - for years so it was great to get a chance to contribute to this ABC Landline story about it. "A 'time bomb' in the state's ash forests" www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06...

Alpine forests face collapse without urgent reforestation, say scientists

Bushfires and a lack of seed have created a "ticking time bomb" in Victoria's alpine and mountain ash forests, scientists are warning.

www.abc.net.au

Mark Ooi @markooiecol.bsky.social · Jun 17

Finite resources, lots of species requiring conservation. @saltandbrine.bsky.social asks the question - how far do we go for each plant species? A simple question generating deep thought! #ICCB2025

Fonti Kar @fontikar.bsky.social · Jun 11

🗺️ Ever wander to a new place and think, "Hmm I wonder what birds/plants/[insert favourite taxonomic group] I can find here?" 🔍

We built {infinitylists} 📋 to help nature lovers create personalised, location-based taxon lists! 🌏

Yung En Chee @yungenchee.bsky.social · Jun 1

There's "a false perception that Labor values the environment movement & its endorsement. In reality, Labor only wants to neutralise it. [..] They want to be able to name-drop supportive organisations in press conferences, but they’re far less willing to adopt those same groups’ policy proposals"

When nice isn’t working: Rethinking climate advocacy under a Labor government — campaign-republic.com

After Labor’s recent election win, many in the climate and environment space breathed a sigh of relief. The Coalition and its nuclear fantasy were resoundingly rejected. In its place, a government tha...

www.campaign-republic.com

Tom Le Breton @tomlebreton.bsky.social · May 12

Thank to everyone involved, not sure whos on here sorry if you don't get tagged

P.S. the papers pay walled but I know a guy who can pass it on for free.... 4/4

@markooiecol.bsky.social @saltandbrine.bsky.social @seedysarah.bsky.social @joe-atkinson.bsky.social

Tom Le Breton @tomlebreton.bsky.social · May 12

Our study shows managers can have confidence in rapid assessments of extinction risk and it has great potential as a tool for quickly responding to megadisturbances. We also believe the project shows comprehensive assessments of the Australian flora are within reach given the right resourcing 3/4

Tom Le Breton @tomlebreton.bsky.social · May 12

The rapid assessments accurately identified species as threatened in 84% of cases despite much less time and data per species. Importantly they were accurate in identifying Critically Endangered species (67%) and Endangered species (54%). 2/4

Tom Le Breton @tomlebreton.bsky.social · Mar 11

Thanks to my awesome coauthors Dr Chantelle Doyle @saltandbrine.bsky.social, Dr Amy-Marie Gilpin and Associate Professor Mark Ooi @markooiecol.bsky.social. And thanks to the Editorial team and reviewers at @ausjbotany.bsky.social their input was invaluable. 5/5

#bees #varroamite #plantconservation

Tom Le Breton @tomlebreton.bsky.social · Mar 11

To get started we are launching a citizen science project on iNaturalist where anyone can contribute images of honeybees or native pollinators visiting native flowers so we can have a baseline for how flower visitation changes before and after varroa mite reaches different parts of the country 4/5

Honeybee visitation and native plant pollination Australia

Honeybee visitation and native plant pollination Australia What insect pollinators are visiting flowers in your area? Are the pollinators European honeybees or are they something else? As varroa mite ...

www.inaturalist.org

Tom Le Breton @tomlebreton.bsky.social · Mar 11

There is a huge need for more research on pollination in native species and support for existing work. Collection of baseline data is crucial as is monitoring already threatened species. There may also be unexpected impacts arise through interactions with other threats like fragmentation or fire 3/5

Tom Le Breton @tomlebreton.bsky.social · Mar 11

We found a decline in feral honeybees will be good news for some plants and bad news for others. But we found major gaps in our knowledge of how honeybees influence native plant pollination and pollinators. The loss of feral honeybees due to varroa mite is an opportunity to fill these gaps 2/5

A figure showing the impending spread of varroa mite across Australia and the possibly positive effects of a reduced honeybees on fruit set for some native plant species

Tom Le Breton @tomlebreton.bsky.social · Mar 11

Varroa mite arriving in Australia has been a big worry for agriculture and bee keeping but it will also result in a massive decline in feral honeybee populations. This will affect many native plant species visited by honeybees, our new paper aimed to understand what those effects might be 1/5

CSIRO Publishing @csiropublishing.bsky.social · Mar 10

A new #OpenAccess article in #AusJBotany identifies potential consequences of the spread of varroa mite and highlights the large knowledge gaps that currently limit understanding of the subsequent impacts on the Australian flora.

@ausjbotany.bsky.social

www.publish.csiro.au/bt/BT24020

CSIRO Publishing @csiropublishing.bsky.social · Mar 10

A new #OpenAccess article in #AusJBotany identifies potential consequences of the spread of varroa mite and highlights the large knowledge gaps that currently limit understanding of the subsequent impacts on the Australian flora.

@ausjbotany.bsky.social

www.publish.csiro.au/bt/BT24020

David Green, PhD @ecologistgreen.bsky.social · Jan 10

There are many issues with preprints, but one of the biggest is when they are seen as credible before being peer-reviewed.

This is potentially very dangerous. A 🧵

🧪 #SciPub #AcademicSky

Preprints often make news. Many people don’t know what they are

The public needs context about unreviewed manuscripts, survey suggests

www.science.org

Jess Marsh @jessmarsh.bsky.social · Dec 10

10 = The officially recognised number of #extinct Australian #invertebrates.

We show the actual number is likely much higher, 9,000+ species. AND 1-3 invertebrate species are being lost each week.

This level of loss is not sustainable. This is a wake up call 🌍🧪

theconversation.com/around-9-000...

Around 9,000 species have already gone extinct in Australia and we’ll likely lose another this week – new study

A new study estimates there have been more than 9,000 Australian invertebrate extinctions since 1788. Only one has been officially listed.

theconversation.com

Tom Le Breton @tomlebreton.bsky.social · Dec 10

Thanks to everyone who came, if you still have questions or just want to chat and see me around #ESAus2024 come say hi.

Mark Ooi @markooiecol.bsky.social · Dec 10

For those who saw @tomlebreton.bsky.social talk about threat mitigation to #ozflora at #ESAus2024 on Day 1 and are interested to know more, here's the paper conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Mark Ooi @markooiecol.bsky.social · Dec 10

For those who saw @tomlebreton.bsky.social talk about threat mitigation to #ozflora at #ESAus2024 on Day 1 and are interested to know more, here's the paper conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Tom Le Breton @tomlebreton.bsky.social · Nov 19

While questions still remain around this case study, we identified some easy steps that can be taken to improve the outcomes for threatened species. More importantly we hope and believe our conceptual model can help examine similar questions of threat management and species conservation. 4/4

Tom Le Breton @tomlebreton.bsky.social · Nov 19

Our conceptual model considered 5 key aspects required for threat management to be applied to species and found that for each aspect there was evidence that the policy had been effective but also was also falling short of achieving threat mitigation for all species that needed it. 3/4

Tom Le Breton @tomlebreton.bsky.social · Nov 19

We wanted to see whether a policy aimed at protecting threatened plants from being burned too often by prescribed fire was working in southeast Australia. To do this we realised we needed to step back and look more broadly at the science-policy-management framework around the threat. 2/4

Tom Le Breton @tomlebreton.bsky.social · Nov 19

New paper out in Conservation Biology. We propose a simple conceptual model for examining threat management programs and identifying areas for improvement. We show how it can be used in the context of managing fire around threatened flora. 1/4

dx.doi.org/10.1111/cobi...

Conceptual model for assessing a science–policy–management framework for threat mitigation

Fire regimes are changing globally, leading to an increased need for management interventions to protect human lives and interests, potentially conflicting with biodiversity conservation. We conceptu...

dx.doi.org

Tom Le Breton @tomlebreton.bsky.social · Nov 18

Can I please be added too

Don A. Driscoll @dadriscoll.bsky.social · Nov 13

The condition of sites affected how severe impacts of the 2019-20 fires were. Most important was the number of preceding fires, with implications for prescribed burning🌏
The conversation theconversation.com/catastrophic...
The paper www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The video youtu.be/kCPjowmxH3Q

‘Catastrophic declines’: massive data haul reveals why so many plants and animals suffer after fire

Frequent fuel-reduction burning appears to prime ecosystems for major disruption when the next wildfire hits.

theconversation.com

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