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

Tag: Macquarie Island

Which winds have most influence on plants in windswept environments?

Posted onDecember 8, 2017December 9, 2017Leave a comment

You know a location is very windy when the trees and shrubs permanently lean in one direction. They might even be one-sided, with no foliage and scarred bark on the exposed side. Obviously, they will lean away from the strongest Read More …

CategoriesSubantarctic, TasmaniaTagsalpine, feldmark, Macquarie Island, Tasmania, wind

Tramping around the ‘big green sponge’

Posted onJune 28, 2017January 9, 2018Leave a comment

Forty-five degree slopes, putrid seal wallows and gale force winds – these are some of the challenges and hazards of getting around Macquarie Island. Several walking tracks provide access between field huts and key locations on the island. To go Read More …

CategoriesSubantarcticTagsfieldwork, Macquarie Island, revegetation

Penguin Day

Posted onApril 25, 2017April 25, 2017Leave a comment

World Penguin Day (25th April) seems like a good excuse to share some photos of one of Macquarie Island’s four resident penguin species, the king penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus).   And a video of a typically inquisitive and slightly pugnacious posse Read More …

CategoriesSubantarcticTagsMacquarie Island, penguins

Return of the Megaherbs

Posted onMarch 31, 2017March 31, 2017Leave a comment

Four years have passed since I first visited Macquarie Island and now the subantarctic island looks like a different place. The distinctive tussock grass is dotted across the coastal slopes in a scene reminiscent of the 1980s and 1990s when Read More …

CategoriesSubantarcticTagsMacquarie Island, megaherbs, rabbits, rephotography, Subantarctic

Rewilding Macquarie Island

Posted onDecember 21, 2016March 26, 2018Leave a comment

There is a long list of extinct animals which were endemic to a particular island. Island endemics are particularly vulnerable to introduced predators which can rapidly eliminate a small island population. Such was the fate of Macquarie Island’s only native Read More …

CategoriesSubantarcticTagsextinction, fauna, invasive species, Macquarie Island, rewilding, Subantarctic, threatened species

The last of Macquarie Island’s rabbits

Posted onNovember 8, 2016March 8, 20181 Comment

Five years ago this month, hunters on Macquarie Island killed six rabbits. The hunters had been patrolling the Subantarctic tundra for a little over three months in the search for feral rabbits. At the time nobody knew these were the Read More …

CategoriesSubantarcticTagsinvasive species, Macquarie Island, MIPEP, rabbits, Subantarctic

Do treelines in the Southern Hemisphere follow the rules?

Posted onOctober 25, 2016January 13, 2018Leave a comment

The southernmost treelines The treeline at the southern tip of South America, in Tierra del Fuego, reaches up to 600 m.a.s.l.  At the same latitude, Macquarie Island has no trees or shrubs. Is the lack of trees in the Subantarctic Read More …

CategoriesSubantarctic, TasmaniaTagsalpine, forest, Macquarie Island, Subantarctic, treeline

The end of an era: Macquarie Island research station to close down

Posted onSeptember 15, 2016September 23, 2016Leave a comment

UPDATE 19 SEPT 2016: Following a backlash from the public and scientific community the Australian Government is reconsidering the plan to close Macquarie Island station (see the backflipping ministerial announcement). We shall have to wait and see what the plan Read More …

CategoriesSubantarcticTagsAAD, Macquarie Island

Pictures of landscapes past, part 2

Posted onJuly 14, 2016August 11, 20161 Comment

(Continued from Part 1). The kind of things plant ecologists often measure in the field – the height and percentage foliage cover of different plants, species lists – are difficult to obtain from looking at a photograph of the landscape Read More …

CategoriesSubantarcticTagsMacquarie Island, rephotography, 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

Post navigation

← Older 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