Michael Kearney
@ecophys.bsky.social
Professor in Ecology and Evolution and ARC Laureate Fellow @unimelb interested in what limits life | Mechanistic Niche Models | Functional Traits | Metabolic Theory | Microclimate | Climate Change | Dynamic Energy Budget Theory | Life History | NicheMapR
Pinned
Michael Kearney
@ecophys.bsky.social
· Dec 14
I'm happy to use my first #Bluesky post to announce that there's now a shiny app for the endotherm model of the #NicheMapR package bioforecasts.science.unimelb.edu.au/app_direct/e...
Urgent: Help Pacific Villagers save their Leatherback Turtles chuffed.org/project/emer...
Urgent: Help Pacific Villagers save their Leatherback Turtles
The Pacific Leatherback turtle faces an imminent threat of extinction due to recent US policy cuts halting conservation efforts. These ocean giants have roamed the Pacific Ocean for over 100 million y...
chuffed.org
November 9, 2025 at 6:23 AM
Urgent: Help Pacific Villagers save their Leatherback Turtles chuffed.org/project/emer...
A must read if you care about the arid zone: cosmosmagazine.com/australia/bu...
Can we keep our grass and control it too?
Buffel grass is one of rangeland Australia’s most wicked and unresolved challenges – a plant that is valued in some areas and despised in others.
cosmosmagazine.com
August 12, 2025 at 12:35 PM
A must read if you care about the arid zone: cosmosmagazine.com/australia/bu...
Here are some new Shiny apps that allow hindcasts of animal life histories using the microclimate, ectotherm and DEB models of NicheMapR:
bioforecasts.science.unimelb.edu.au/app_direct/e...
bioforecasts.science.unimelb.edu.au/app_direct/e...
bioforecasts.science.unimelb.edu.au/app_direct/e...
bioforecasts.science.unimelb.edu.au/app_direct/e...
bioforecasts.science.unimelb.edu.au/app_direct/e...
bioforecasts.science.unimelb.edu.au/app_direct/e...
June 18, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Here are some new Shiny apps that allow hindcasts of animal life histories using the microclimate, ectotherm and DEB models of NicheMapR:
bioforecasts.science.unimelb.edu.au/app_direct/e...
bioforecasts.science.unimelb.edu.au/app_direct/e...
bioforecasts.science.unimelb.edu.au/app_direct/e...
bioforecasts.science.unimelb.edu.au/app_direct/e...
bioforecasts.science.unimelb.edu.au/app_direct/e...
bioforecasts.science.unimelb.edu.au/app_direct/e...
Reposted by Michael Kearney
New to BHL this week: more "Herpetofauna". Filled with observations, husbandry & traits data, this publication is hard to find both online & in libraries. We're hoping to have all volumes freely accessible on @biodivlibrary.bsky.social soon. #herpetology www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography...
April 29, 2025 at 12:37 AM
New to BHL this week: more "Herpetofauna". Filled with observations, husbandry & traits data, this publication is hard to find both online & in libraries. We're hoping to have all volumes freely accessible on @biodivlibrary.bsky.social soon. #herpetology www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography...
Reposted by Michael Kearney
📢 Big news from the Biodiversity Heritage Library: The Smithsonian will no longer host BHL’s central operations from Jan 2026. After 20 years, we’re entering a new chapter – seeking new funding and support to sustain our global staff and infrastructure. Please share. 🌱
#ILoveBHL #OpenAccess
#ILoveBHL #OpenAccess
Change is in the air for BHL! In 2026, BHL hosting will transition away from the Smithsonian, opening doors to reimagine our future. Rest assured, our 63 million pages of biodiversity knowledge remain secure and accessible.
Learn what's next for BHL ➡️
Learn what's next for BHL ➡️
A New Future for the Biodiversity Heritage Library
The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. A global consortium of over 660 contributors, BHL has made more …
blog.biodiversitylibrary.org
April 23, 2025 at 1:40 AM
📢 Big news from the Biodiversity Heritage Library: The Smithsonian will no longer host BHL’s central operations from Jan 2026. After 20 years, we’re entering a new chapter – seeking new funding and support to sustain our global staff and infrastructure. Please share. 🌱
#ILoveBHL #OpenAccess
#ILoveBHL #OpenAccess
Reposted by Michael Kearney
Hi Bluesky, the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest #OpenAccess digital library of biodiversity literature and archives. We're a global consortium of 660 contributors who've made 63 million pages of biodiversity knowledge freely accessible online. www.biodiversitylibrary.org
April 16, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Hi Bluesky, the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest #OpenAccess digital library of biodiversity literature and archives. We're a global consortium of 660 contributors who've made 63 million pages of biodiversity knowledge freely accessible online. www.biodiversitylibrary.org
This is a Len Beadell marker I photographed last weekend on the Gunbarrel Hwy in South Australia, surrounded by an ecological and social disaster called Buffel Grass. Anangu call it tjanpi mamu which means "devil grass" in Pitjantjatjara. It's steadily eroding the flora and fauna of our deserts.
April 8, 2025 at 2:45 PM
This is a Len Beadell marker I photographed last weekend on the Gunbarrel Hwy in South Australia, surrounded by an ecological and social disaster called Buffel Grass. Anangu call it tjanpi mamu which means "devil grass" in Pitjantjatjara. It's steadily eroding the flora and fauna of our deserts.
Reposted by Michael Kearney
How vulnerable are #amphibians to extreme heat? 🐸🌡️
Our paper in @nature.com shows that many amphibians are already overheating, and many more species will be impacted by climate warming globally.
See the thread below for a digest 🧵
Link to the paper: doi.org/10.1038/s415...
#Nature
Our paper in @nature.com shows that many amphibians are already overheating, and many more species will be impacted by climate warming globally.
See the thread below for a digest 🧵
Link to the paper: doi.org/10.1038/s415...
#Nature
March 6, 2025 at 11:36 PM
How vulnerable are #amphibians to extreme heat? 🐸🌡️
Our paper in @nature.com shows that many amphibians are already overheating, and many more species will be impacted by climate warming globally.
See the thread below for a digest 🧵
Link to the paper: doi.org/10.1038/s415...
#Nature
Our paper in @nature.com shows that many amphibians are already overheating, and many more species will be impacted by climate warming globally.
See the thread below for a digest 🧵
Link to the paper: doi.org/10.1038/s415...
#Nature
New book out on invasions by the brilliant @benflips.bsky.social academic.oup.com/book/59515
The Ecology and Evolution of Invasive Populations
Abstract. Why do populations spread through space, and how do they change as they do so? In answering these questions, this book shows that phenomena as di
academic.oup.com
March 6, 2025 at 8:37 PM
New book out on invasions by the brilliant @benflips.bsky.social academic.oup.com/book/59515
A great summary by @nicholaswu.bsky.social on a paper applying #NicheMapR to model climate change impacts on heat stress in frogs globally, led by @patricepottier.bsky.social. Note how different the +2 and +4 warming scenarios. Climate warming impacts on biology are very nonlinear. #UniMelb #ARC
New paper in @nature.com led by @patricepottier.bsky.social! We demonstrated global vulnerability of amphibians to warming, threatening 10% of >5,000 species examined. How did we do it? See thread🧵
Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
March 6, 2025 at 8:35 PM
A great summary by @nicholaswu.bsky.social on a paper applying #NicheMapR to model climate change impacts on heat stress in frogs globally, led by @patricepottier.bsky.social. Note how different the +2 and +4 warming scenarios. Climate warming impacts on biology are very nonlinear. #UniMelb #ARC
I’m in the Western Australian mining town of Kalgoorlie where I’ve set up a makeshift grasshopper brothel in a cabin at a caravan park. In this historically male-dominate town of humans one of the grasshoppers - Warramaba virgo - is all female …
February 23, 2025 at 12:40 AM
I’m in the Western Australian mining town of Kalgoorlie where I’ve set up a makeshift grasshopper brothel in a cabin at a caravan park. In this historically male-dominate town of humans one of the grasshoppers - Warramaba virgo - is all female …
DEB theory is on bluesky
Hello world! Are you interested in the world of metabolic theory? Follow us for more!
February 4, 2025 at 2:23 PM
DEB theory is on bluesky
The late Eric Pianka made thousands of observations of desert lizard body temperature and activity. We used them to test biophysical models of their cost of living and projected the models to past and future climates in Africa and Australia #unimelb #ARC @science.org
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Climate change and the cost-of-living squeeze in desert lizards
Climate warming can induce a cost-of-living “squeeze” in ectotherms by increasing energetic expenditures while reducing foraging gains. We used biophysical models (validated by 2685 field observations...
www.science.org
January 16, 2025 at 9:59 PM
The late Eric Pianka made thousands of observations of desert lizard body temperature and activity. We used them to test biophysical models of their cost of living and projected the models to past and future climates in Africa and Australia #unimelb #ARC @science.org
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Please circulate: Postdoc position on responses of Australian mammal pests to climate change. Part of my ARC Laureate Fellowship research. Lots of hands-on fieldwork. Learn about biophysical models. Remote locations. Collaboration with #EcologicalHorizons and #AWC jobs.unimelb.edu.au/en/job/91880...
Details : Research Fellow in Mammalian Movement Ecology and Energetics : The University of Melbourne
Careers at The University of Melbourne
jobs.unimelb.edu.au
January 15, 2025 at 3:47 AM
Please circulate: Postdoc position on responses of Australian mammal pests to climate change. Part of my ARC Laureate Fellowship research. Lots of hands-on fieldwork. Learn about biophysical models. Remote locations. Collaboration with #EcologicalHorizons and #AWC jobs.unimelb.edu.au/en/job/91880...
Reposted by Michael Kearney
This week I assisted with the annual pitfall trapping at Secret Rocks on the Eyre Peninsula. This beautiful place is a living arc for so many species of endangered wildlife, including Numbats, Malleefowl, Red-tailed Phascogales and the Sandhill Dunnart. 1/2
January 12, 2025 at 8:18 AM
This week I assisted with the annual pitfall trapping at Secret Rocks on the Eyre Peninsula. This beautiful place is a living arc for so many species of endangered wildlife, including Numbats, Malleefowl, Red-tailed Phascogales and the Sandhill Dunnart. 1/2
Reposted by Michael Kearney
📖Published📖
Our latest review article presents 10 practical guidelines for ground-based research of terrestrial microclimates, covering methods and best practices from initial conceptualisation of the study to data analyses 🌎 🧪 Read more here 👇
https://buff.ly/41BKn8o
Our latest review article presents 10 practical guidelines for ground-based research of terrestrial microclimates, covering methods and best practices from initial conceptualisation of the study to data analyses 🌎 🧪 Read more here 👇
https://buff.ly/41BKn8o
December 23, 2024 at 12:00 PM
📖Published📖
Our latest review article presents 10 practical guidelines for ground-based research of terrestrial microclimates, covering methods and best practices from initial conceptualisation of the study to data analyses 🌎 🧪 Read more here 👇
https://buff.ly/41BKn8o
Our latest review article presents 10 practical guidelines for ground-based research of terrestrial microclimates, covering methods and best practices from initial conceptualisation of the study to data analyses 🌎 🧪 Read more here 👇
https://buff.ly/41BKn8o
Reposted by Michael Kearney
RIP Michael Leunig. Thank you for your reflections on our lives. Your mirror was whimsical, beautiful, wise & sometimes very uncomfortable. You made us love ducks, gaze at clouds & look deep within ourselves. www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12...
December 20, 2024 at 12:47 AM
RIP Michael Leunig. Thank you for your reflections on our lives. Your mirror was whimsical, beautiful, wise & sometimes very uncomfortable. You made us love ducks, gaze at clouds & look deep within ourselves. www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12...
Reposted by Michael Kearney
I like the last paper I published- In it collaborators and I test a classic hypothesis in ecology for the first time (that we are aware of) in plants.
The take-home message is plants that like temperature variability may “win” in future climates.
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10....
The take-home message is plants that like temperature variability may “win” in future climates.
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10....
December 16, 2024 at 5:00 AM
I like the last paper I published- In it collaborators and I test a classic hypothesis in ecology for the first time (that we are aware of) in plants.
The take-home message is plants that like temperature variability may “win” in future climates.
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10....
The take-home message is plants that like temperature variability may “win” in future climates.
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10....
I'm sharing one that an exceptional MSc student led showing how plant growth trajectories, from seeds onward, can be predicted in different microclimates using a theory deeply rooted (sorry) in physics #DEBtheory @juliacon.bsky.social #NicheMapR. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
December 16, 2024 at 3:09 AM
I'm sharing one that an exceptional MSc student led showing how plant growth trajectories, from seeds onward, can be predicted in different microclimates using a theory deeply rooted (sorry) in physics #DEBtheory @juliacon.bsky.social #NicheMapR. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
I'm happy to use my first #Bluesky post to announce that there's now a shiny app for the endotherm model of the #NicheMapR package bioforecasts.science.unimelb.edu.au/app_direct/e...
December 14, 2024 at 5:51 AM
I'm happy to use my first #Bluesky post to announce that there's now a shiny app for the endotherm model of the #NicheMapR package bioforecasts.science.unimelb.edu.au/app_direct/e...