Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 09/01/2026Lots of charcoal particles observed in our daily pollen count slides from 8th January. These particles are likely derived from the northward spread of smoke (visible over the ACT) from the extensive bushfires in Victoria. For advice see lnkd.in/gSgTTHxY from ACT Health 031
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 31/12/2025Why is it so? Low post - mid November grass pollen counts appear to be driven by: - reduced rainfall and low root level moisture in the Canberra region during spring and early summer - this led to reduced grass growth and below average pollen production through the second half of the season. 030
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 31/12/2025The Canberra grass pollen daily count for 2025 started with a bang and ended with a whimper. - strong grass pollen season began in late September - by mid November the daily counts began to plateaus to reach below average levels by end of December. - only 3 EXTREME grass pollen days were recorded. 150
Reposted by Simon HaberleDr. Michela Mariani @michela-mariani.bsky.social · 06/11/2025🔥 Call for Abstracts – #EGU26 Interdisciplinary Session: Cultural Pyroscapes Through Time ITS3.5/BG5.6 🔥 📅 Deadline 15/01/2026. @gilromera.bsky.social @hcadd.bsky.social @thatpollenguy.bsky.social 👉[https://lnkd.in/eWYtRsge] #Wildfire #Palaeoecology #Archaeology #ClimateChange #FireEcology 033
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 14/07/2025Elevated Cupressaceae pollen appear a week earlier than reported last year (2024). Overall, a wet winter this year and the prospect of above average rainfall and warm temperatures in the September to November period (BOM forecast) point to a challenging hay fever season ahead. 030
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 14/07/2025It seems a little early to start talking about the pollen-hay fever season in Canberra, but over the weekend we saw the first hint of elevated pollen levels in Cupressaceae pollen (Cypress pine family) - 14 grains/m3 - still LOW, but hinting at the beginnings of elevated levels to come. 161
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 21/06/2025See the full paper here, led by Matthew Adeleye, with images of remnant pedestals left after the peat fires. Adeleye, M.A., et al. (2025) Palaeoecological Analyses Reveal Recent Fires Have Destroyed Late-Holocene Peat Deposits in Tasmania's Largest Ramsar Reserve. Austral Ecology, 50: e70087 060
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 21/06/2025Our latest paper on degradation of peatland systems on King Island (Lutruwita/Tasmania) shows how vulnerable peatlands are under current land management practices. Is the sudden loss if ~4000 years of peat from this site a “canary in the coal mine” for Tasmania/Australia? doi.org/10.1111/aec....doi.orgPalaeoecological Analyses Reveal Recent Fires Have Destroyed Late‐Holocene Peat Deposits in Tasmania's Largest Ramsar ReserveAustralian peat-forming wetlands, including those in Tasmania's largest Ramsar reserve—Lavinia State Reserve (LSR), are under threat from climate change, wildfires and human activities. A palaeoecolo.... 1205
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 20/06/2025Migrating bogong moths use the stars and Earth’s magnetic field to find ancestral summer caves each year theconversation.com/migrating-bo...theconversation.comMigrating bogong moths use the stars and Earth’s magnetic field to find ancestral summer caves each yearAustralia’s iconic bogong moths are the first creatures other than humans and some birds known to navigate by the night sky. 0101
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 19/06/2025Bogong moths use a stellar compass for long-distance navigation at night Each spring, billions of Bogong moths migrate up to 1,000 km They use stellar cues and the Earth’s magnetic field for long-distance nocturnal navigation towards a specific destination. www.nature.com/articles/s41...nature.comBogong moths use a stellar compass for long-distance navigation at night - NatureEvery spring, Bogong moths use the starry night sky as a compass to navigate up to 1,000 km towards their alpine migratory goal. 050
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 19/06/2025#ICCB2025 great to be able to present alongside Ramya Bala Prabhakaran, Meghna Agarwala, and Patrick Moss in the “using Palaeoecology for Fire Management and Landscape Conservation” session today (organised by Ramya). 0100
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 17/06/2025#ICCB2025 Looking forward to presenting “Palaeoecological records from peat mounds in Tasmania as a tool to advance endangered bird research and inform conservation strategies” as part of the Palaeoecology and Conservation Biology session on Thursday June 19, 2.15 PM - 3:15 PM, Meeting Room P4 060
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 17/06/2025Connections and collections: The pope, the prime minister and the ethics of diplomatic gift exchange by @anu-chl.bsky.social Research Fellow Dr Katherine Aigner and Prof Kylie Message-Jones www.abc.net.au/religion/pop...abc.net.auConnections and collections: Pope Leo, the PM and the ethics of diplomatic gift exchange - ABC Religion & EthicsContemporary gifts made by Indigenous artists carry the legacy of colonisation. The ethics of gift exchange need to be discussed more openly — which might include public discussion about how and why c... 000
Reposted by Simon HaberleNeil Pederson @yellowbuckeye.bsky.social · 10/06/2025Does climate play a role in tree longevity? A paleo study in Georgia suggests that might be a possibility: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... 1239
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 10/06/2025Another great deep-time palynology paper by Mike MacPhail from the ANU PalaeoWorks Lab @palaeoworks.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... Fossil pollen from Goat Paddock Crater, Kimberley Plateau, are restricted to the Late Cretaceous Epoch. => meteor impact during/before the Mesozoic. 020
Reposted by Simon HaberleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences @pnas.org · 02/06/2025Pollen grains from 123 million years ago show the grooved shape characteristic of eudicots. The findings, from the Lusitanian Basin of Portugal, are the earliest known tricolpate pollen and provide insight into the diversification of flowering plants. In PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... 084
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 30/05/2025Was extinction of New Zealand's avian megafauna an unavoidable consequence of human arrival? Using process-explicit ecological models, the authors show that Moa persistence was not compatible with even low rates of hunting. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...sciencedirect.comWas extinction of New Zealand's avian megafauna an unavoidable consequence of human arrival?Human overexploitation contributed strongly to the loss of hundreds of bird species across Oceania, including nine giant, flightless birds called moa.… 020
Reposted by Simon HaberleICP2026 Stockholm @palaeogenomics.bsky.social · 27/05/2025The FIRST International Conference on Palaeogenomics will happen in Stockholm, Sweden, June 23-26, 2026! Topics will encompass all corners of ancient DNA research, from humans to wildlife and sediments🧬🦣💀🦠 Save the dates ✅ Check the website icp2026.palaeogenomics.org and follow us for updates! 08149
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 27/05/2025The dust originated from drought-stricken parts of SA and VIC as a strong cold front past over SE Australia. Observations from Canberra Airport reported haze overnight, with visibility reduced to 5-6 km for more than one hour as the dust blew over the ACT. www.weatherzone.com.au/news/hazy-mo...weatherzone.com.auHazy morning in eastern NSW as outback dust reaches Tasman SeaA huge dust storm whipped up in South Australia on Monday has swept over Sydney and other areas of NSW on Tuesday morning. 000
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 27/05/2025Wondering what was in the air during the dust storm that passed over Canberra this week? Our daily pollen monitoring slide collected on the morning of the 27/5/25 shows the dense brown particles captured over the event. The fine particles of dust can be seen at 400x magnification. 110
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 27/05/2025theconversation.com/ancient-poll...theconversation.comAncient pollen reveals stories about Earth’s history, from the asteroid strike that killed the dinosaurs to the Mayan collapsePalynologists who study tiny pollen fossils share 4 stories found in grains that fell hundreds to millions of years ago. 082
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 24/05/2025Great podcast by Madeleine Bessel-Koprek, ANU PhD student, with a fascinating discussion about her research on reconstructing the past vegetation and fire history of Long Island (Tasmania). Outreach stretching 16,750km to the southern shores of Long Island (New York, USA)! spotify.link/aRpInNUeCTbspotify.linkEpisode 203: Madeleine Bessell‑Koprek and the Paleoecology of Long Island, AustraliaThe Long Island History Project · Episode 010
Reposted by Simon HaberleEncarni Montoya (she/her) @palaeoecology.bsky.social · 03/04/2025Supper happy to announce that Dael Sassoon’s documentary Echoes of the Rainforest will be screened at this year’s @egu.eu conference, at the GeoCinema session in room E1 on Tuesday 29 April, 18:50-19:20. Please come along and spread the word for a good turnout! #EGU #MSCA @geo3bcn-csic.bsky.social 072
Reposted by Simon HaberleAgathe Lisé-Pronovost @agathe-mag.bsky.social · 07/03/2025Check it out! New speleothem magnetism paper from semi-arid Australia. Led by postdoc Tom Mallet in my #ARC-DECRA www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 071
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 05/03/2025Under Bass Strait's surface lies a vast land humans once called home www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03...abc.net.auUnder Bass Strait's surface lies a vast land humans once called homeThe mountain peaks of a landscape now under water are all that remains visible of a once grassy plain that connected Tasmania to mainland Australia. 082
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 27/02/2025Humans in Africa’s wet tropical forests 150 thousand years ago. The onset of human occupations at Bété I found to be ~150 ka, linking them with Homo sapiens. Plant wax biomarker, stable isotope, phytolith and pollen analyses all point to a wet forest environment. rdcu.be/ebrSR 0112
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 27/02/2025The summer Elm pollen season is well underway this year with an early start in late January and EXTREME levels experienced over the last few day. Extended and elevated tree pollen seasons in winter and summer are becoming increasingly common in Canberra. 040
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 14/02/2025Congratulation to Annika Herbert, @palaeoworks.bsky.social and @ciehf.bsky.social postdoc fellow, on her first sole-author publication! A review of the potential of using magnetic susceptibility to create records of ancient Australian bushfires. Enjoy! www.publish.csiro.au/WF/WF24093publish.csiro.auThe potential of using magnetic susceptibility to identify past wildfires in AustraliaFully understanding the causes and frequency of wildfires has never been more important than it is today, with potentially thousands of lives at risk from wildfire smoke in Australia alone. Until now ... 173
Reposted by Simon HaberleKale Sniderman @muddypollen.bsky.social · 12/02/2025#Australian #ornithologists, can you see benefits in collaboration with a palynologist to better understand bird habitats, movement, migration, diet/feeding strategies, by using pollen analysis? (dm me for the paper, if you can't get past paywall) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1... 🧪🦉🦆🦅🦜onlinelibrary.wiley.comPollen analysis as a tool to advance avian research and inform conservation strategiesOrnithologists use many methods to advance understanding of birds and inform conservation strategies. These include field methods (e.g. censusing, ringing), laboratory analysis (e.g. molecular taxono... 2127
Reposted by Simon HaberleDr Dan Shugar 🇨🇦 @watershedlab.bsky.social · 12/02/2025Who wants to go hunting for ancient forests with me in the Canadian Rockies? 🧪⚒️https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/ancient-forest-melting-ice-1.7443094cbc.caAncient forest uncovered by melting ice in the Rocky Mountains | CBC RadioA nearly 6,000-year-old forest is once again seeing daylight after millennia hidden under ice in the Rocky Mountains. A team of scientists from Montana State University uncovered the ancient forest wh... 8689
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 03/02/2025Still can’t shake the sneezing and wheezing this summer? One of the reasons may be the onset of She Oak (Casuarina) and Chinese Elm (Ulmus parvifolia) summer pollen season - a very CBR phenomenon. This year (and last year) we saw a much earlier onset of these allergenic tree pollen in Canberra 031
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 28/01/2025New paper just published in Data Science Journal led by Annika Herbert “Collaborative Effort Towards a FAIR and OPEN Indo-Pacific Pollen Database (IPPD)” The IPPD is a collection of Australian, Southeast Asian, and Oceanian Quaternary pollen records datascience.codata.org/articles/10....datascience.codata.orgCollaborative Effort Towards a FAIR and OPEN Indo-Pacific Pollen Database (IPPD) | Data Science JournalThe CODATA Data Science Journal is a peer-reviewed, open access, electronic journal, publishing papers on the management, dissemination, use and reuse of research data and databases across all researc... 051
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 28/01/2025Chinese Elm tree or Ulmus parvifolia pollen is increasing in Canberra this week marking the beginning of the late summer-autumn pollen season. If you are experiencing hay fever symptoms this might be the culprit! 010
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 23/01/2025This study emphasises the importance of palaeoecological studies, specifically their value in understanding modern ecosystems in their historic context. This data is critical in understanding the island’s current landscape and how this might change into the future. 000
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 23/01/2025Sediment cores, historical documents and air photos from Long Island, Furneaux Group, Lutruwita/Tasmania show that grasslands have been an important feature of the island for at least the last 1000 years, and are reminiscent of Last Glacial Maximum grasslands of the now-submerged Bassian Plain. 120
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 23/01/2025Congratulations to Madeleine Bessell-Koprek on the publication of her 2024 honours project through the Palaeoworks Lab at the School Of Culture, History & Language and Fenner School of Environment and Society at The Australian National University (ANU) link.springer.com/article/10.1...link.springer.comReconstructing the long-term ecological history of Long Island, Furneaux Group (Bass Strait), Lutruwita/Tasmania - Regional Environmental ChangeThe Bass Strait islands are the elevated remnants of a now-submerged continental land bridge that connected the mainland of Australia to Lutruwita/Tasmania during low sea level phases of the Quaterner... 120
Reposted by Simon HaberleUCLA LOSH @uclalosh.bsky.social · 08/01/2025Wildfires are currently impacting air quality for workers across the Los Angeles region. Exposure to wildfire smoke can cause a range of adverse health effects such as fatigue, coughing, and chronic bronchitis. 2118
Reposted by Simon HaberleTom Swetnam @firescar.bsky.social · 10/01/2025We reconstructed 300 yrs of fire history in transverse ranges of CA from fire scars in the Bigcone Douglas-fir. The fire history of chaparral/BCDF may reflect fire history in the LA Basin, to some degree. A paper from Keith Lombardo’s dissertation is here: link.springer.com/content/pdf/... 49535
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 09/01/2025See Science article here: Dietary breadth in kangaroos facilitated resilience to Quaternary climatic variations | by Sam Arman et al. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...science.orgDietary breadth in kangaroos facilitated resilience to Quaternary climatic variationsIdentifying what drove the late Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions on the continents remains one of the most contested topics in historical science. This is especially so in Australia, which lost 90% ... 020
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 09/01/2025New study challenges a major theory on why some kangaroos mysteriously went extinct | by Sam Arman theconversation.com/new-study-ch...theconversation.comNew study challenges a major theory on why some kangaroos mysteriously went extinctRoughly 40,000 years ago, the short-faced cousins of modern kangaroos died out. The cause has been the subject of fierce debate. 266
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 09/01/2025LA is on fire. How will Australia cope when bushfires hit Sydney, Melbourne or another major city? By David Bowman theconversation.com/la-is-on-fir...theconversation.comLA is on fire. How will Australia cope when bushfires hit Sydney, Melbourne or another major city?We knew this would happen eventually. We have moved from possible futures to these things now happening. The deferment has ended. 060
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 04/01/2025Pollen and sub-pollen particles: External interactions shaping the allergic potential of pollen | by Sudharsun Venkatesan et al. - Source, chemical and biological interactions, such as changes in soil pH, influence pollen allergenicity. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 020
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 04/01/2025Canberra's 'forever' hayfever season causing headaches | in CanberraTimes 020
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 23/12/2024Stay safe and wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas 🎄 (Greeting card curtesy of the AirHealth team - www.airhealthlab.com) 020
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 23/12/2024Seek advice from your GP and pharmacists regarding the best plan toreduce the impact of hay fever or asthma on your daily life. Follow our daily counts and forecasts for grass pollen and other airborne allergens on our websites and phone apps - www.canberrapollen.com.au and www.AirRater.orgcanberrapollen.com.auCanberra Pollen Count and ForecastOfficial Pollen Count data and 7-day forecast of pollen count levels for sufferers of hay fever and other pollen-related allergies generated by the Australian National University in Canberra and the H... 110
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 23/12/2024A 🎄Christmas Eve🎄 update on the pollen and spores counts for 2024. The grass pollen season continues to be of low intensity The combined impact of LOW to MODERATE grass pollen, plus Alternaria spores will cause wheezing and sneezing from Christmas Day onwards into January 120
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 13/12/2024Great to see the December 2024 issue of Quaternary Australasia out. Lots of great content related to academic staff and student projects, conferences, field trips, and reflections on Quaternary research in Australasia. See more here: aqua.org.au 051
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 12/12/2024It’s going to get sticky!! the-riotact.com/its-going-to...the-riotact.comIt's going to get sticky: Canberra region in for unusual tropical heat wave | RiotactThe heat is on, and not in the usual way for the Canberra region. Local temperatures are rising close to… 021
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 12/12/2024The increase in heat and moisture over the next few days in Canberra will no doubt exacerbate the rising Alternaria spore counts following recent rains. If you are allergic to airborne spores, take precautions by staying inside, wear a mask and seek advice from your GP and/or pharmacist. 161