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Simon Heyes

@simondheyes.bsky.social
1.6K followers 608 following 295 posts

Rare plants | drought and climate change | soil specialist plants | grassy ecosystems PhD student @ La Trobe, Australia He/Him Fedi: ecoevo.social/@SimonDHeyes Blog: sdheyes.wixsite.com/ecologyblog

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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 6h
My son did this with his favourite book and had me do silly voices for different characters which would make him laugh uncontrollably. Try getting some dumb LLM to do this. What a sad existence these tech bros must have
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
That's a good question but I don't think so. I'll let you know
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
New paper by fellow PhD student Mark Clifton @ the Plant Reproductive Ecology & Conservation Genomics Lab! This study investigates polyploidy and hybridisation in endangered, clonal Callistemon species from Victoria, Aus. doi.org/10.1071/BT25... 🌏 🌿 🧪
doi.org
Polyploidy arises independently of hybrid status in clonal narrow-range endemic Callistemon from East Gippsland, Victoria
Three threatened narrow-range Callistemon species from East Gippsland are highly clonal, but differ in their evolutionary origins. Previous genomic studies
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Same here in Australia. Our leader had a nice working class origin story but now we see policy attacking people with disabilities while ring fencing billionaire profits.
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Andy Fleming @slackbastard.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
1/ Given recent attacks on Camp Sovereignty & the fact that a little rich kid racist is assembling the troops agen this Sunday, it'd neat if lots of people attended this I reckon. 2–8pm Camp Sovereignty · Naarm Free concert + delicious food
Camp Sovereignty presents Rock Against Racism.
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juli g pausas @jgpausas.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Fires beyond fire-prone ecosystems: the erosion of beech forest doi.org/10.1111/gcb.... @globalchangebio.bsky.social Global warming weakens the flammability barrier & enables fire to spread beyond fire-prone ecosystems, into fire-sensitive spp 🧪🌍🔥🪴🌱🍁🌐 wildfire #ClimateChange #GlobalChange #Fagus
Effect of the 2025 Barniedo fire (Picos de Europa, León, Spain) on the beech forest (Fagus sylvatica). The figure shows the area (in ha) of pure beech forest affected by fire in relation to the remotely sensed fire severity (x-axis; RBR: Relativized Burn Ratio). Inset: The same data in cumulative area; horizontal lines are the 1/3 and 2/3 of the total beech forest within the fire (714 ha).Photo of dead beech trees 10 months after an understory fire. In this site, the fire was of low intensity but of high severity, as it killed all beech trees. Note the effect of the heat of the fire on the bark.
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Professor Euan Ritchie FAMS @euanritchie.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
This article is excellent. It speaks volumes about how governments take so many in the environmental and conservation sectors and communities for granted theconversation.com/australia-ha.... As H5N1 begins to spread and devastate Australian wildlife the dire consequences of this are evident.
theconversation.com
Australia has long relied on volunteers and wildlife carers. As bird flu spreads, they will need support
Volunteers have been a mainstay of conservation in Australia. As bird flu spreads, they must be supported – and kept safe.
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Melts with the slightest amount of heat like an ice-cream on a beach in February
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Two dollar shop Versailles
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Yung En Chee @yungenchee.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
1/ A lil🧵collecting the illuminating public interest reporting of Pauline Hanson nemesis—"trashy journo" Sarah Martin Rinehart puppet, "Pauline Hanson & her chief of staff, James Ashby, flew to Florida on Gina Rinehart’s private jet in October & stayed at the mining magnate’s Palm Beach mansion"
theguardian.com
Pauline Hanson travelled to US on Gina Rinehart’s private jet to attend CPAC
Exclusive: One Nation senator travelled on mining magnate’s Gulfstream 700 in October and stayed at Rinehart’s US$66m Palm Beach mansion
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Stay safe! These are like images of the SE Australia megafire in 2020.
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Yea my Dad and brother took me last year when I flew back over. I presume the name must be Norman French
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Love that place.
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Biodiversity Heritage Library @biodivlibrary.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Help shape the future of BHL 🌱 As we begin to modernise the BHL platform, we’re inviting BHL users to share their experiences through a 3–5 minute survey. Your responses will directly inform our priorities, identify problems, guide improvements, and shape a better BHL experience: bit.ly/4fpc75D 🧪
bit.ly
BHL User Experience
BHL is beginning a major modernisation of its platform. We’d like users to help shape what comes next. This 3–5 minute survey asks about how you use BHL and the improvements you’d like to see. Your r...
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Lying to the people to steal their water just so the oligarchy can continue to grow their wealth on inflated AI stocks. Despicable
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
For anyone that's interested, Ian Lunt wrote a cool paper comparing the species area relationships with other biodiversity hotspots. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Species‐area curves and growth‐form spectra for some herb‐rich woodlands in western Victoria, Australia
Species-area curves are presented for three woodlands with herbaceous understoreys in western Victoria. Australia. Up to 93 species of vascular plant were recorded from 128 m2. making these woodlands...
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Two well needed hikes exploring Mt Langi Ghiran an imposing granite inselberg with its breathtaking views and diverse wildflowers.
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Professor Euan Ritchie FAMS @euanritchie.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Just published. A correspondence in @nature.com from Dr Marissa Parrott and I about the risk that the H5N1 strain of bird flu poses to Australian wildlife, including mammals, and the need for all of us to work together! rdcu.be/ftIkt
rdcu.be
Bird flu H5N1 in Australia: protect Australian species from bird flu virus | Nature
Letter to the Editor
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juli g pausas @jgpausas.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Now in summer, we can confirm that a large part of the beech (Fagus sylvatica) forests that burned in low‑intensity understory fires have died. This constitutes a clear case of a low‑intensity, high‑severity fire (I had expected bsky.app/profile/jgpa...) 🧪🌍🔥🌳🍁🪴 wildfires Picos de Europa, N Spain
A mosaic of patches of beech forests that survived the fire (in green), and patches that did not (in brown).
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
Bark looks pretty thin, I can't imagine it's providing much protection to the cambium during the fire.
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Cool, it's like a trebuchet
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Belinda Medlyn @bmedlyn.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
I am hiring! My former postdocs have all gone on to great ongoing roles, so I am now looking for 2 new postdocs in dynamic vegetation modelling: Modelling vegetation-fire interactions in Australia Modelling Australian vegetation distributions Details linked below - please share!
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
No worries, I really enjoyed the chat
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Yea I think temperature is definitely a limiting factor and the plants in South appear to invest less in seed - fewer and less viable seed from my experience. The plants I've seen from the North are the opposite of this. Maybe trade-off between persistence/competitive dominance and seed qual/quant 🤷
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Cockatoos and Parrots are clever birds and adaptable to different food sources. Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos have probably evolved side by side with Proteaceae but now exploit introduced Pinus radiata and cypress pine. I've seen Correllas eating Artichoke seeds too. Smart birds
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
It's interesting that here in Victoria Themeda triandra is considered difficult to grow, establish and recovers poorly from disturbance. Where you see Themeda you can guarantee they're remnant old growth grasslands and yet your example suggests they're more like a weed.
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Here's the paper by my good friend and colleague, Susanna Bryceson. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
The Australasian grass flora in a global context
Australasia is known for its globally unique flora and fauna, but does this apply to its grasses? We found that Australasian grass genera and species are either endemic or globally widespread, with 8...
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Grasslands here are not as old as Africa and Sth America because a lot of the dominant species are new arrivals (neo-endemics). The shrublands of SW Australia and the Gondwanan forests of SE Australia are where all the old paleo-endemics are. Still uniquely Australian and deserve our protection.
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
On the subject of American plants with weird distributions we also have the Microseris genus aka murnong or yam daisy. We only have three species and their closest relatives are in the Americas.
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
A bunch of C4 grasses have recent arrival (pre-European but still recent) in Australia. I think Kangaroo grass only arrived between 1-2mya which is old by most European standards but it's a baby compared to all the Gondwanan paleoendemics. In the North there are lots that came via PNG land bridge.
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Who does this kind of thing? I just like working with nice smart people and learning stuff but seems some people treat it like a competitive sport. Maybe I'm naive
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
These tactics haven't changed since 1920/30s so why are we still falling for it?
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
War Criminal lost all credibility back in 2003
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Well there you go, heritage listed Osage Orange hedgerow in NSW, Australia. www.environment.nsw.gov.au/sites/defaul...
environment.nsw.gov.au
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
I'm in SE Australia and in the early 2000s someone brought in an Osage fruit they found on a tree in a paddock and it had us stumped for weeks. Early settlers in Australia played around with different hedge species like boxthorn and gorse (terrible weeds here) so I assume it was another hedgerow sp
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
Perhaps B. cunninghamii actually
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
Is that Banksia canei?
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Yen @botanybyyen.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Its been a while! March was extremely hectic between working on submitting a manuscript for review, giving talks and general Masters work. Have a photo of some Grevillea pollen from the archives (Grevillea jephcottii, taken in 2022). The centre pollen grain is showing pollen tube growth!
A microscopy photo taken under brightfield of several Grevillea pollen. The pollen is fat and triangular, with each tip bearing a rounded protrusion. A pollen grain in the centre has a gelatenous-looking tube extending out of one of the bulbus tips. This is a pollen tube.
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Simon Rosenberg @simonrosenberg.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
After decades of environmental and biodiversity failure, the idea of relying on "nature markets" is just the latest sick joke from the neoliberals who brought us the destructive privatization of public services. #auspol
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Handsome plant.
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
They'll be rifling through his bins next.
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Puff piece platforming of the far-right.
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
Same pattern happening elsewhere like the UK and US is beginning to happening here. Rising inequality and the ultra wealthy attempting to buy our politics. youtu.be/wPoXOwiEfrQ?...
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Very depressing results for my home town in the UK with Reform winning 24 out of 25 local council seats.
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Aurelien Mondon @aurelmondon.com · 02/05/2026
The mainstream media and parties in this country has almost entirely given up any pretence that they are here to serve democracy Some may think I'm helping fuelling the growing distrust in institutions but they don't need my help to pave the way for the far right to take over Utterly grim...
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Worse, he chose to be Keir Starmer.
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Dana Bergstrom @danambergstrom.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Been playing with an eye opening website from the Australian #Greens, new tax the 1% campaign. It calculates how many hours it takes Gina or other billionaires to earn your annual salary. 2.9 hr to earn the Australian median salary of $73k 😮😡 www.taxthe1percent.com.au
taxthe1percent.com.au
Tax the 1% | Australian Greens
Things are hard right now, but not for everyone. Use our brand new tool to compare your income and tax to Australia's billionaires and big corporations to see for yourself how rigged the system is, an...
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
@australianlabor.bsky.social the new party of vested interests.
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Dana Bergstrom @danambergstrom.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
At the same time the most immediate risk is a 25% chance of a super El Niño. Think heatwaves, think fire, think crop failure, think mouse plague ( oh we already have that in WA). Think only 7 months prep time. Would you catch a plane with a 25% chance of crashing ? 11/
media.tenor.com
a painting of a burning forest with a tree in the middle
Alt: a burning forest
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Simon Heyes @simondheyes.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Labor has been totally captured by corporate interests.
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