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Michael Kearney

@ecophys.bsky.social
1.4K followers 569 following 26 posts

Professor in Ecology and Evolution and ARC Laureate Fellow @unimelb interested in what limits life | Mechanistic Niche Models | Functional Traits | Metabolic Theory | Microclimate | Climate Change | Dynamic Energy Budget Theory | Life History | NicheMapR

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Michael Kearney @ecophys.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
I'm looking for a postdoc to work on an Australian Research Council Laureate Project on climate change responses, applying a Julia implementation of the NicheMapR package. The work could go in control theory, DEB theory or population process directions unimelb.wd105.myworkdayjobs.com/UoM_External...
unimelb.wd105.myworkdayjobs.com
Research Fellow in Biophysical Ecology
Role type: Full Time (1.0 FTE); Fixed term for 2 years Faculty: Faculty of Science Department/ School: School of BioSciences Salary: Level A: $87,266 - $118,416 p.a. plus 17% super ARC-funded climate ...
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Michael Kearney @ecophys.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
one of Australia's worst weeds and can safely said to be more damaging than cane toads theconversation.com/should-this-...
theconversation.com
Should this plant be declared one of the worst weeds in Australia?
Without a national policy, the spread of smothering buffel grass will continue unchecked.
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Michael Kearney @ecophys.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
You can now model human heat exchange in R (and via a Shiny app). I started work on this with Shane Maloney (Uni of WA) way back in 2014, with Duncan Mitchell (Uni of the Witwatersrand) joining us along the way onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1... @globalchangebio.bsky.social @unimelb.edu.au
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
HomoTherm: An Open‐Source Approach to Modelling Heat Exchange in Humans and Other Hominins in Diverse Environments
We present ‘HomoTherm’, a human heat budget model for simulating humans and related species with diverse traits in diverse environments. It is part of the NicheMapR package for biophysical modelling ...
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Michael Kearney @ecophys.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Help put pressure on the govt to fight the curse of buffel by declaring it a weed of national significance. Buffel is transforming our beautiful desert ecosystems through its dominance and alteration of fire regimes. It is arguably our worst invasive species invasives.org.au/how-to-help/...
invasives.org.au
Let the Desert Breathe: Demand National Buffel Grass Action
Across the heart of our continent, a dull straw-green tide is taking over. Buffel grass, Tjanpi kura (bad grass), Mama Tjunpi (devil grass) is transforming our deserts into dangerous monocultures that...
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Michael Kearney @ecophys.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
Urgent: Help Pacific Villagers save their Leatherback Turtles chuffed.org/project/emer...
chuffed.org
Urgent: Help Pacific Villagers save their Leatherback Turtles
The Pacific Leatherback turtle faces an imminent threat of extinction due to recent US policy cuts halting conservation efforts. These ocean giants have roamed the Pacific Ocean for over 100 million y...
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Michael Kearney @ecophys.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
A must read if you care about the arid zone: cosmosmagazine.com/australia/bu...
cosmosmagazine.com
Can we keep our grass and control it too?
Buffel grass is one of rangeland Australia’s most wicked and unresolved challenges – a plant that is valued in some areas and despised in others.
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Michael Kearney @ecophys.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
Here are some new Shiny apps that allow hindcasts of animal life histories using the microclimate, ectotherm and DEB models of NicheMapR: bioforecasts.science.unimelb.edu.au/app_direct/e... bioforecasts.science.unimelb.edu.au/app_direct/e... bioforecasts.science.unimelb.edu.au/app_direct/e...
screen grab of the global ectotherm life history hindcaster
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BHL Australia @bhl-au.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
New to BHL this week: more "Herpetofauna". Filled with observations, husbandry & traits data, this publication is hard to find both online & in libraries. We're hoping to have all volumes freely accessible on @biodivlibrary.bsky.social soon. #herpetology www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography...
The front cover of a journal (Herpetofauna), featuring a brown and black snake (a Pygmy Python) on a red rock. The front cover of a journal (Herpetofauna), featuring a brown gecko (a rainforest gecko) on a mossy rock.
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BHL Australia @bhl-au.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
📢 Big news from the Biodiversity Heritage Library: The Smithsonian will no longer host BHL’s central operations from Jan 2026. After 20 years, we’re entering a new chapter – seeking new funding and support to sustain our global staff and infrastructure. Please share. 🌱 #ILoveBHL #OpenAccess
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Biodiversity Heritage Library @biodivlibrary.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Hi Bluesky, the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest #OpenAccess digital library of biodiversity literature and archives. We're a global consortium of 660 contributors who've made 63 million pages of biodiversity knowledge freely accessible online. www.biodiversitylibrary.org
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Michael Kearney @ecophys.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
This is a Len Beadell marker I photographed last weekend on the Gunbarrel Hwy in South Australia, surrounded by an ecological and social disaster called Buffel Grass. Anangu call it tjanpi mamu which means "devil grass" in Pitjantjatjara. It's steadily eroding the flora and fauna of our deserts.
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Patrice Pottier @patricepottier.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
How vulnerable are #amphibians to extreme heat? 🐸🌡️ Our paper in @nature.com shows that many amphibians are already overheating, and many more species will be impacted by climate warming globally. See the thread below for a digest 🧵 Link to the paper: doi.org/10.1038/s415... #Nature
Photo credit: Peter soltys. Image created by Nicholas Wu.
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Michael Kearney @ecophys.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
New book out on invasions by the brilliant @benflips.bsky.social academic.oup.com/book/59515
academic.oup.com
The Ecology and Evolution of Invasive Populations
Abstract. Why do populations spread through space, and how do they change as they do so? In answering these questions, this book shows that phenomena as di
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Michael Kearney @ecophys.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
A great summary by @nicholaswu.bsky.social on a paper applying #NicheMapR to model climate change impacts on heat stress in frogs globally, led by @patricepottier.bsky.social. Note how different the +2 and +4 warming scenarios. Climate warming impacts on biology are very nonlinear. #UniMelb #ARC
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Michael Kearney @ecophys.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
I’m in the Western Australian mining town of Kalgoorlie where I’ve set up a makeshift grasshopper brothel in a cabin at a caravan park. In this historically male-dominate town of humans one of the grasshoppers - Warramaba virgo - is all female …
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Michael Kearney @ecophys.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
DEB theory is on bluesky
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Michael Kearney @ecophys.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
The late Eric Pianka made thousands of observations of desert lizard body temperature and activity. We used them to test biophysical models of their cost of living and projected the models to past and future climates in Africa and Australia #unimelb #ARC @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Climate change and the cost-of-living squeeze in desert lizards
Climate warming can induce a cost-of-living “squeeze” in ectotherms by increasing energetic expenditures while reducing foraging gains. We used biophysical models (validated by 2685 field observations...
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Michael Kearney @ecophys.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
Please circulate: Postdoc position on responses of Australian mammal pests to climate change. Part of my ARC Laureate Fellowship research. Lots of hands-on fieldwork. Learn about biophysical models. Remote locations. Collaboration with #EcologicalHorizons and #AWC jobs.unimelb.edu.au/en/job/91880...
jobs.unimelb.edu.au
Details : Research Fellow in Mammalian Movement Ecology and Energetics : The University of Melbourne
Careers at The University of Melbourne
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Nicole Kearney @nicolekearney.bsky.social · 12/01/2025
This week I assisted with the annual pitfall trapping at Secret Rocks on the Eyre Peninsula. This beautiful place is a living arc for so many species of endangered wildlife, including Numbats, Malleefowl, Red-tailed Phascogales and the Sandhill Dunnart. 1/2
A sunrise above the mallee. Trees and scrub on red sand. Two people walking through the bush. A scene of mallee scrub, trees, small shrubs and red sand.
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Methods in Ecology and Evolution @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
📖Published📖 Our latest review article presents 10 practical guidelines for ground-based research of terrestrial microclimates, covering methods and best practices from initial conceptualisation of the study to data analyses 🌎 🧪 Read more here 👇 buff.ly/41BKn8o
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Nicole Kearney @nicolekearney.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
RIP Michael Leunig. Thank you for your reflections on our lives. Your mirror was whimsical, beautiful, wise & sometimes very uncomfortable. You made us love ducks, gaze at clouds & look deep within ourselves. www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12...
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T.M. Perez @tmperez.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
I like the last paper I published- In it collaborators and I test a classic hypothesis in ecology for the first time (that we are aware of) in plants. The take-home message is plants that like temperature variability may “win” in future climates. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10....
journals.uchicago.edu
Climate Constrains Photosynthetic Strategies in Darwin’s Daisies: A Test of the Climatic Variability and Jack-of-All-Trades Hypotheses | The American Naturalist: Vol 201, No 1
Abstract Empirical evidence for the climate variability and performance trade-off hypotheses is limited to animals, and it is unclear whether climate constrains the photosynthetic strategies of plants...
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Michael Kearney @ecophys.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
I'm sharing one that an exceptional MSc student led showing how plant growth trajectories, from seeds onward, can be predicted in different microclimates using a theory deeply rooted (sorry) in physics #DEBtheory @juliacon.bsky.social #NicheMapR. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Integrating dynamic plant growth models and microclimates for species distribution modelling
Climate is a major factor determining the distribution of plant species. Correlative models are frequently used to model the relationships between spe…
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Michael Kearney @ecophys.bsky.social · 14/12/2024
I'm happy to use my first #Bluesky post to announce that there's now a shiny app for the endotherm model of the #NicheMapR package bioforecasts.science.unimelb.edu.au/app_direct/e...
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