Zoe Xirocostas
Chancellor’s Research Fellow at the University of Technology Sydney | Board member @ecolsocaus.bsky.social | plant ecology, climate change, biological invasions, interactions, scicomm | invert-lover 🪲 and beach fiend 🏝️ | she/her | zoexiro.com
- Reposted by Zoe XirocostasFinally, standardised protocols for measuring reproductive plant traits! This handbook covers 58 traits across flowers, fruits, seeds & seedlings. Designed for global applicability across diverse ecosystems and enables large-scale research 🌼 📖 buff.ly/TcagpiT
- Reposted by Zoe XirocostasA Christmas lesson from plant ecology: why plants like holly and mistletoe may not be as well defended as we think: jeffollerton.co.uk/2025/12/24/a... Merry Christmas everyone! #ecology #biodiversity #Christmas
- Nice way to wrap up 2025 🎓🌱 Published the final paper from my PhD! Across Europe & Australia, we found that common leaf defence traits don’t predict enemy release in introduced plants. A reminder that invasion success may hinge on factors we’re still missing. 📄 link.springer.com/article/10.1...
- Excited to be in Edinburgh for #BES2025 🏴 If you’re around please come say hi tonight at my poster A4.21 👋
- Reposted by Zoe XirocostasIt was a big week for team AJB at #ESA2025! From the @csiropublishing.bsky.social stall to dinner tables, Social Media Editors/Guest Editors/Co-Editors in Chief caught up with colleagues to discuss all things ecology and publishing 🌱
- Reposted by Zoe XirocostasSo excited to hear that Olivia De La Mare, an MSc student in my research group, has won the 2026 Bundanon Ecological Researcher in Residence award. Science meets art, well done Liv! www.bundanon.com.au
- Excited for the week ahead in Adelaide at #ESA2025! Started off slightly earlier than most as the Board got together to strategise at our annual Planning Day yesterday. Love working with such amazing and passionate people 💚
- Currently listening to: the snap, crackle and pop of ballistic seed dispersal 🎶 💥
- Look at this monstrous beauty!!! Double headed hawk moth caterpillar 🐛 .. good luck with the metamorphosis buddy
- Some snaps from the field today in Heathcote National Park on Dharawal land 🌱
- Saw a red beardie yesterday (YES that's really one of its common names!!!) - or for the scientifically inclined, Calochilus paludosus🧔♂️❗
- Spotted this big fella while teaching in the Blue Mountains with @ecologybrad.bsky.social
- Reposted by Zoe Xirocostas🐝🌸 With climate change, many organisms are shifting their ranges, but some are shifting in the opposite direction to what we expect. Insightful and entertaining seminar by Inna Osmolovsky @innaosmol.bsky.social on "Climate Change and Shifting Interactions: Where Do Species Go from Here?"
- Reposted by Zoe XirocostasIt was such an honour to present my research at UTS! Thank you to @zoexiro.bsky.social and @ecologybrad.bsky.social for the invitation and to everyone who came to listen to my talk 🌿
- 🐝🌸 With climate change, many organisms are shifting their ranges, but some are shifting in the opposite direction to what we expect. Insightful and entertaining seminar by Inna Osmolovsky @innaosmol.bsky.social on "Climate Change and Shifting Interactions: Where Do Species Go from Here?"
- Reposted by Zoe Xirocostas🌱 New research from The Australian PlantBank reveals how 4 threatened Australian Grevillea species respond to temperature changes. Good news, 3 species show resilience to future warming, but G. iaspicula prefers cooler conditions & may struggle with climate change. Read more 🔗 buff.ly/b4pbbgv
- Reposted by Zoe XirocostasThe "living fossil" Wollemi pine🌲can self-fertilise! New research from #CharlesSturtUni shows this critically endangered conifer produces viable seeds without cross-pollination - which helps explain their low genetic diversity in natural systems 🧬 Open access paper 🔗 buff.ly/l3yG5Rt
- Spent the past month in Greece 🇬🇷 on holiday and visiting family. But surprised to see so many reminders of Aus (Eucalypts) planted on so many islands! (could they be contributing to the wildfires Greece is being ravaged by? So many questions!)
- Reposted by Zoe Xirocostas📖Published📖 Arnold et al. propose a design that will allow ecologists to simulate more realistic heat events in the field by combining a controllable convection heater system with a semi-enclosed chamber with adjustable vents 🌍 🧪 buff.ly/k2GJSA2
- Reposted by Zoe XirocostasA HIDDEN SABOTEUR: Pilostyles hamiltoniorum is a parasitic plant that lives INSIDE its host, only revealing itself through tiny flowers on the stems. New research shows this endoparasite slashes flower production by 52% in its host plants, despite being almost invisible! OA paper ➡️ buff.ly/gArS9tO
- Hot off the press 🌱🔥
- Great fun working with Lyndle Hardstaff, Megan Murray, and @zoexiro.bsky.social on our latest flammability project Toward a macroevolutionary understanding of live-leaf flammability in plant species of fire-prone forests @botsocamerica.bsky.social doi.org/10.1002/ajb2...
- Reposted by Zoe Xirocostas🔥🌱 From the #AJB Special Issue: “Understanding novel #fire regimes using plant trait‐based approaches" 🌱🔥 Toward a macroevolutionary understanding of live-leaf flammability in plant species of fire-prone #forests By @ecologybrad.bsky.social, @zoexiro.bsky.social, et al. doi.org/10.1002/ajb2...
- Reposted by Zoe Xirocostas🌎 My first paper is out in @globalchangebio.bsky.social ! We propose the Interaction Opportunists Hypothesis: changes in biotic interactions may drive species downhill, equatorward, or to shallower waters under #ClimateChange. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #RangeShifts #Ecology
- This title 🤌
- Reposted by Zoe XirocostasOur paper on unifying theory around biodiversity–consumer relationships (pathogens & herbivores) is now out in TREE! I hope it helps those navigating the forest of theories & hypotheses in this space to see more clearly 🤓 Check out @fletcher-h.bsky.social great summary of the paper here 👇
- As a special Earth Day gift, our new paper integrating decades of related, but siloed research on how changing biodiversity drives plant disease and herbivory is out today in TREE www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Thanks to @idiv-research.bsky.social for supporting our sConsume working group!
- Reposted by Zoe XirocostasOur paper on the integration of biodiversity-disease and biodiversity-herbivore relationships is out now! Thanks to @idiv-research.bsky.social for supporting us through #sDiv working group funding to bring together two typically disparate fields in ecology! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
- Reposted by Zoe XirocostasAs a special Earth Day gift, our new paper integrating decades of related, but siloed research on how changing biodiversity drives plant disease and herbivory is out today in TREE www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Thanks to @idiv-research.bsky.social for supporting our sConsume working group!
- Happy #EarthDay everyone 🌍 🌱 from a gloomy yet hopeful Sydney 🌈
- Hey y'all! I have a few ecology honours projects available in Sydney starting either in Spring 2025 or Autumn 2026. Project details available at: zoexiro.com/research/ Please share widely 🌼
- Very surprised to see things still flowering so late in the season but made my walk much brighter 🌸 (1. Crowea saligna, 2. Epacris longiflora, 3. Acacia terminalis, 4. Giant aerial termite mound?)
- Just wrapped up our second (very productive!) meeting for the sConsume working group at iDiv in Leipzig 🇩🇪 So glad to have such fantastic group members as collaborators and friends 💚🌿🐛🦠 @fletcher-h.bsky.social @suzeveringham.bsky.social @ebelingae.bsky.social @annekempel.bsky.social
- That’s a wrap on Science Meets Parliament 🤝 2 packed days in Canberra with panels featuring Ministers/Senators and R&D leaders, all aiming to infuse more evidence into decision making. Highlights were meeting with my local MP, connecting with non-ecologist ECRs & the fabulous gala dinner! #SMP2025
- You know you’re an ecologist when you bring a collection of leaves to Day 2️⃣ of #SMP2025 at Parliament House 🍃
- Excited to be attending Science Meets Parliament 2025 in Canberra. Kicked off this morning with insights from Bill Shorten around R&D investment and amplifying science within government policy #SMP2025
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- Checkout this postdoc opportunity in Fletcher's lab. Would be a lovely place to work!
- Please spread the word - I am looking for a postdoc to join my lab at @osubpp.bsky.social to study diversity and interactions of plants and pathogens in wild and working landscapes! More information here: agsci-labs.oregonstate.edu/diseaseecolo...
- Check out our new paper brilliantly led by @danielwanoble.bsky.social!
- Want to know more about preprints, and in particular EcoEvoRxiv? Check out our new paper doi.org/10.1098/rspb... with a fantastic team off @sortee.bsky.social collaborators!
- This is a masterpiece (😉) of an example!
- spAbundance package (Doser et al. doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.14332) was published this year at @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social! It fits a variety of single/multispecies abundance models using Bayesian Inference allowing also for hierarchical frameworks. Let me show you a funny example 🧵👇(1/6) #rstats
- I really should have more hesitation before picking up cool bugs
- Snapped in Meroo National Park 🏞️
- Friends found yesterday
- Hey friends 👋 this weird lumpy thing is growing on a tree in my friend’s garden. Any idea what it is? She is curious and I feel a bit useless not having an answer for her 😅
- Reposted by Zoe XirocostasRemoving institutional barriers to long-term fieldwork is critical for advancing ecology @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...
- Thanks @ecolsocaus.bsky.social for another wonderful conference 🪲🐛🌱🐍 always fun to see old and new friends and learn what everyone is up to (and inspire ideas too)!
- This morning’s cafe stop seems very #ESAus2024 appropriate
- Todays fieldwork with @ydavila.bsky.social involved collecting Lantana samples and dodging cicada pee from the trees above us 🥴
- Reposted by Zoe XirocostasLong-term data is critical for understanding how ecosystems work and how they might look in the future. But it's getting harder and harder to do due to funding limitations. We need to prioritise this sort of research and to stop cutting funding for it.
- Reposted by Zoe Xirocostas🔥 Global emergence of regional heatwave hotspots outpaces climate model simulations by @kornhuber.bsky.social et al. @pnas.org 👉 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Climate models underestimating warming by 4x for the most extreme temperatures Biodiversity calls for more research on heatwaves now! 🧪🌍🦤🌐
- Do you estimate % cover in your research? Check out COVERater (coverater.com), a standardised method of training to improve visual estimates of cover. Our app helps streamline data collection in global studies and is a useful teaching tool for undergrads! 🌿(paper here: doi.org/10.1002/ece3...)
- Cowboy beetle 🪲 🤠
