New Guinea is the heart of global linguistic diversity. New Guinea makes up 1% of the global land area as an island, containing less than <0.2% of the world's population and 20% of all languages. The obvious linguistic and anthropological question is why?

Bushfires are a major disturbance process in the Australian landscape, affecting our native wildlife and their habitat. The dry sclerophyll forests of south-eastern Australia are one of the most fire-prone regions in the world and are dominated by tree species from the Eucalyptus genus.

The Australian Acoustic Observatory (A2O) was created five years ago, a unique infrastructure to monitor vocal fauna across Australia using a network of solar powered acoustic recorders.

Fitness depends entirely on how well individuals can survive and reproduce – both of which can be quite stressful. What makes these even more challenging is that the traits that may increase reproductive success can often decrease survivorship. 

Over previous decades, the fields of phylogeography, macroecology, and macrophysiology have helped us to understand natural systems and how they respond to anthropogenic disturbance.

Several iconic, sclerophyllous, endemic lineages among Gondwanan families (e.g. Proteaceae, Myrtaceae, Goodeniaceae, and Restionaceae) are characteristic features of the Australian flora.