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Far South Ecology

Adventures of a plant nerd south of Australia

Far South Ecology

Adventures of a plant nerd south of Australia

The mysterious case of the Subantarctic Bedstraw

Posted onMay 28, 2015August 6, 2016

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, 2018

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, 2016

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, 2016

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

Goodbye Macca

Posted onApril 15, 2015August 6, 2016

Just arrived back at the station via helicopter. Unfortunately we lost about half of our planned fieldwork time: operations on the island are winding up early due to forecast bad weather, and earlier in the week we had two days Read More …

CategoriesSubantarcticTagsfield work, Macquarie Island, Subantarctic

Into the field!

Posted onApril 11, 2015August 6, 2016

We landed on Macquarie Island yesterday and spent a few hours setting up and testing an automatic weather station. Now it is ready to be airlifted to over 300 m elevation on the plateau, ready for installation. We’ll find out Read More …

CategoriesSubantarcticTagsfield work, Macquarie Island, Subantarctic

Expedition begins

Posted onApril 6, 2015August 6, 2016

How much has the vegetation changed in the past two years? We’ll soon see. Finally it’s time to do some field work. The Aurora Australis is loaded up and heading south. In 3 days time we will be at Macquarie Read More …

CategoriesSubantarcticTagsfield work, Macquarie Island, Subantarctic

The project – vegetation change on Subantarctic Macquarie Island

Posted onApril 6, 2015August 6, 2016

My research project is looking at vegetation change on Macquarie Island. Since rabbits were eradicated from the island in 2011 the plants which had been subject to intensive grazing by these pest animals are now growing back. Nobody knows what Read More …

CategoriesSubantarcticTagsMacquarie Island, Subantarctic

The Subantarctic – where 43 plant species is a lot

Posted onMarch 26, 2015August 6, 2016

Macquarie Island’s total of 43 native vascular plant species is low by most standards – some Tasmanian National Parks of similar size have more than ten times this diversity.* But amongst the Subantarctic islands, none come close to Macca’s species Read More …

CategoriesSubantarcticTagsbiogeography, flora, Macquarie Island, Subantarctic

Land of the megaherbs

Posted onMarch 20, 2015August 6, 2016

There are no trees. No shrubs even. The tallest plants are  ‘megaherbs’, which can just reach over head height. This is the unusual assemblage of plants which inhabit Macquarie Island. In contrast to the Northern Hemisphere tundra where low-growing shrubs Read More …

CategoriesSubantarcticTagsbiogeography, flora, Macquarie Island, Subantarctic

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