Lily Dun
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lilydun.bsky.social
Lily Dun
@lilydun.bsky.social
PhD UQ🌳understanding link between organ-level traits and complex architectural traits (she/her)
Reposted by Lily Dun
Yesterday we were treated to an inspirational seminar from Dr Laura Williams from @westsyduhie.bsky.social all about the importance of tree diversity, novel ways to quantify it and its consequences for how forests function. Good luck with the richly-deserved DECRA Laura!!! Ping @bmedlyn.bsky.social
October 25, 2025 at 12:21 AM
Reposted by Lily Dun
My day in photos (hours of driving excluded). Lots of talk about trees and lidar with @lilydun.bsky.social and the brilliant folks at ArborMeta.
The access code to the cafe toilet was an unexpected challenge.
September 22, 2025 at 8:19 AM
Reposted by Lily Dun
So proud of Beibei Zhang for leading this paper in @newphyt.bsky.social showing how soils & topography shape variation in canopy dynamics across tropical forest landscapes 🌳🔃🌐

Link to 📃: nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

A short 🧵
Soils and topography drive large and predictable shifts in canopy dynamics across tropical forest landscapes
Tropical forests can vary enormously in their 3D structure and dynamics across surprisingly small spatial scales. However, the drivers that underpin this local-scale variation in forest structure an.....
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
June 14, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Reposted by Lily Dun
Congratulations to @jradford-smith.bsky.social for making the cover of @ecography.bsky.social with his stunning photo of subtropical #rainforest at Mt Glorious, less than an hour from Brisbane in beautiful Queensland (1 of 2).
June 4, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Reposted by Lily Dun
Excited to share this paper led by ECR Tiantian Pan: Adaptation in eucalyptus wood anatomy to site climate, just published in PCE.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/.... Wonderful coauthors including
@julianschrader.bsky.social and @deannicolle1.bsky.social e1.bsky.social #FunctionalTraits
April 28, 2025 at 8:36 AM
Reposted by Lily Dun
I had serious FOMO over the long weekend when @lilydun.bsky.social and @jradford-smith.bsky.social headed north to collect more data in scanned forest plots. Thanks to our amazing collaborators ArborMeta for scanning in such awesome places! 🧵 #lidar #TLS #FunctionalTraits #rainforest
April 28, 2025 at 6:58 AM
Reposted by Lily Dun
📢 New publication 'Do trait–growth relationships vary with plant age in fire-prone heathland #shrubs?' by Lily Dun, Elizabeth Wenk, Daniel Falster, Mark Westoby and Ian Wright in Journal of Ecology 🧪

doi.org/10.1111/1365...
Do trait–growth relationships vary with plant age in fire‐prone heathland shrubs?
We demonstrate that key functional traits undergo shifts in their relationship with growth as plants mature. Therefore, it will be valuable to shift our understanding of plant strategies away from th...
doi.org
April 28, 2025 at 1:55 AM
Reposted by Lily Dun
A beautiful day in Lamington National Park with @lilydun.bsky.social and Dr Bill McDonald (rainforest royalty) identifying trees in a scanned plot #TLS #lidar #Brachychiton
April 22, 2025 at 8:03 AM
Reposted by Lily Dun
Bitter-sweet last week of field for my PhD. Gonna miss beautiful days like this up on Kosciuszko, not gonna miss crouching under drought shelters being bitten by ants all day. Now all that's left is data analysis and the write-up, easy!
April 10, 2025 at 5:25 AM
Reposted by Lily Dun
I’m back in the beautiful Bunya Mountains, this time with @lilydun.bsky.social on the lookout for amazing #trees to capture with #lidar. The stylish ☂️ keeps your 2010 iPad dry @bapswijas.bsky.social 😭😭😭
March 27, 2025 at 2:41 AM
Reposted by Lily Dun
The next exciting instalment from @jradford-smith.bsky.social on how climate filters rainforest tree strategies in the Australian subtropics. Now available in early view at @ecography.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1111/ecog...
March 21, 2025 at 9:12 PM
Reposted by Lily Dun
New paper open access in @plantspeopleplanet.bsky.social: nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Cit sci data quality is a hot topic, and assumptions about ID accuracy are often made without evidence. We decided to test identification accuracy for a WA plants @inaturalist.bsky.social dataset
Expert identification blitz: A rapid high value approach for assessing and improving iNaturalist identification accuracy and data precision and confidence
Citizen science data are increasingly used in research and conservation, so assessing and improving data accuracy is important. We recruited 50 experts to review a dataset of Western Australian plant....
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
March 17, 2025 at 4:42 AM
New paper! How does age affect plant trait-growth relationship? Does how you measure growth matter? 🌱📏Big thank you to @ianjwright.bsky.social for giving me the opportunity to lead this when I was just a research assistant. doi.org/10.1111/1365...
Do trait–growth relationships vary with plant age in fire‐prone heathland shrubs?
We demonstrate that key functional traits undergo shifts in their relationship with growth as plants mature. Therefore, it will be valuable to shift our understanding of plant strategies away from th...
doi.org
March 12, 2025 at 7:07 AM
Reposted by Lily Dun
We’re hiring again! Our new Leader Systematic Botany role at Botanic Gardens of Sydney is an exciting opportunity to join a vibrant, diverse, and inclusive team of 15 scientists working on systematics, phylogenomics, and macroevolution of the Australian flora.
iworkfor.nsw.gov.au/job/leader-s...
February 21, 2025 at 12:56 AM
Reposted by Lily Dun
Spent the last few days in World Heritage-listed Lamington National Park recensusing an old forest plot with @ecologyella.bsky.social, @lilydun.bsky.social and the indomitable Bill McDonald. Pictured are two of our old-growth rainforest giants - the strangler fig and purple cherry.
January 25, 2025 at 11:35 PM
Reposted by Lily Dun
Only 8 days left to apply for our fully-funded 4 years #PhD position in island biogeography for plants!
Work with Prof Rampal Etienne and me at @unigroningen.bsky.social & Macquarie University in #Sydney.
Don’t miss this unique opportunity!

Please share widely!
Global PhD in island biogeography for plants
This scholarship supports PhD candidates studying ecology and evolutionary biology of plants. Research in Groningen, The Netherlands, and in Sydney, Australia.
www.mq.edu.au
January 7, 2025 at 12:43 AM
Reposted by Lily Dun
Best talk of #ESAus2024
@jradford-smith.bsky.social eco-physiology of Australian rainforest trees
December 12, 2024 at 12:29 AM
Reposted by Lily Dun
If you are at #ESAus24, may I interest you in my talk on "Understanding links between plant allometry, functional traits and the environment using first principles"?
10:30 AM today, Room 103.
December 11, 2024 at 8:28 PM
Reposted by Lily Dun
Wow #ESAus2024 has been huge and exciting this year - I’ll be speaking on how we’re working to integrate plant drought physiology into conservation science tomorrow in the plenary 3 (scary large room!) at 11am
December 10, 2024 at 1:00 AM
Had a great time at #ESAus2024 poster night! Lots of discussions about architectural and functional traits, sparking new ideas for my PhD. Thanks to everyone who stopped by! 🌱✨
December 9, 2024 at 9:03 PM
Reposted by Lily Dun
🔥 in Ecology Letters 🔥
#Traits describing hydraulic strategies and deciduousness explain the occurrence trends of almost 300 #rainforest #tree species across a steep rainfall gradient in Australia. #FunctionalTraits
dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele....
A Functional Basis for the Assembly of Australian Subtropical Rainforest Tree Communities
We surveyed rainforest tree communities across the Australian subtropics (spanning 600 to 2500 mm rainfall year−1) and measured functional traits on 285 (91%) of all recorded species. Hydraulic strat....
dx.doi.org
December 3, 2024 at 9:17 AM