Primary Menu

Skip to content
Menu
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Macquarie Island FAQ
Header Toggle

Far South Ecology

Adventures of a plant nerd south of Australia

Category: Subantarctic

Pictures of landscapes past, part 1

Posted onJune 10, 2016August 24, 20161 Comment

Repeat photography, or rephotography, is an established method for studying landscape change. A big advantage of this technique is that it can provide a record going back decades wherever there is old photographs of scenes which can be relocated. Another Read More …

CategoriesSubantarcticTagsMacquarie Island, rephotography, Subantarctic

Plan B

Posted onMarch 24, 2016August 6, 2016Leave a comment

When the French ship L’Astrolabe departs Hobart for Macquarie Island later today I won’t be aboard. The passenger capacity of the ship is only enough for essential logistical operations (like refuelling and provisioning the research station) and personnel changeover. The Read More …

CategoriesSubantarcticTagsfield work, Macquarie Island, Subantarctic

Hurry up and wait…

Posted onMarch 16, 2016August 6, 2016Leave a comment

The Aurora Australis recently arrived back in Australia and is currently in Fremantle for repairs to the hull which was damaged when the ship ran aground in Antarctica last month. Meanwhile, alternative plans for the season’s fourth and final Australian Read More …

CategoriesSubantarcticTagsfield work, Macquarie Island, Subantarctic

The A-Factor

Posted onMarch 2, 2016August 6, 20161 Comment

In Antarctic slang it’s called the “A-factor”. Experienced expeditioners will tell you that things rarely go according to plan in the Antarctic and Subantarctic. It is wise to expect the unexpected and to have a string of contingency plans. If Read More …

CategoriesSubantarcticTagsfield work, Macquarie Island, Subantarctic

First glimpses of a post-feral future

Posted onDecember 16, 2015August 6, 2016Leave a comment

In April 2015 the short grasslands of Macquarie Island are at the end of their summer growing season. The plants are the tallest they have been for years, probably for many decades. There is virtually no bare ground visible as Read More …

CategoriesSubantarcticTagsfield work, Macquarie Island, rabbits, Subantarctic

Feral rabbits and the baseline problem

Posted onJuly 13, 2015August 6, 20162 Comments

Rabbits were already locally abundant on Macquarie Island by the time the first descriptions of the island’s vegetation were made by Scott (1880) and A. Hamilton (1884). Consequently there is no information to give us a baseline of the vegetation Read More …

CategoriesSubantarcticTagsMacquarie Island, rabbits, Subantarctic

The mysterious case of the Subantarctic Bedstraw

Posted onMay 28, 2015August 6, 2016Leave a comment

What is Macquarie Island’s rarest plant? One contender for the title is Subantarctic bedstraw or Antarctic bedstraw (Galium antarcticum), a small creeping herb with tiny delicate pinkish flowers. The species was first recorded in 1983, growing near Skua Lake around Read More …

CategoriesSubantarcticTagsflora, Macquarie Island, Subantarctic, threatened species

A one-way ticket to a remote island

Posted onMay 8, 2015January 13, 20182 Comments

Where did Macquarie Island’s plants come from? Being hundreds of kilometres from its nearest neighbours, all of the plants must have been transported to this tiny speck of land in the ocean since it rose from the seabed less than Read More …

CategoriesSubantarcticTagsbiogeography, dispersal, Macquarie Island, Subantarctic

Penguins

Posted onApril 26, 2015August 6, 20161 Comment

If ever one needed an excuse to post pictures of penguins, yesterday was World Penguin Day. Four penguin species breed on Macquarie Island. King penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) can reach a metre tall and can dive to deeper than 300 metres. Read More …

CategoriesSubantarcticTagsfauna, Macquarie Island, penguins, Subantarctic

Four years without bunnies

Posted onApril 22, 2015August 6, 2016Leave a comment

Walking is getting harder on Macquarie Island. Previously short-cropped grass only centimetres tall is now a knee-deep meadow of grass matted with mosses and herbs. This is one of the initial observations from last week’s field trip to the Subantarctic Read More …

CategoriesSubantarcticTagsfield work, Macquarie Island, rabbits, Subantarctic

Post navigation

← Older posts
Newer posts →

AAD alpine Athrotaxis Aurora Australis biogeography bushfire Central Plateau conifers dispersal extinction fauna feldmark field work fieldwork fire ecology flora forest invasive species Macquarie Island megaherbs MIPEP penguins rabbits rephotography revegetation rewilding subalpine Subantarctic Tasmania threatened species treeline trees wind World Heritage

Copyright © 2023 Far South Ecology. All Rights Reserved.
Full Frame by Catch Themes
Scroll Up
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Macquarie Island FAQ