Dr. Luke Jeffrey
ARC DECRA Fellow | Biogeochemist | Senior researcher investigating the role of tree stems and their microbial communities within the global climate cycles. #Treethane #Methane #Wetlands #Carbon #Forests 🌱
- (1/8) 🚨Thrilled to share our new research, now published on the cover of @science.org ! 🌳🦠 We discovered that tree #Bark — largely regarded as inert — hosts vast #Microbial communities that actively interact with the atmosphere. 🧵👇 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
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View full thread(7/8) Bottom line: trees aren’t just carbon stores. They’re hosts to complex microbial ecosystems that play an active role in regulating the atmosphere www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Congrats 🙌 @bobpmleung.bsky.social @greening.bsky.social @drdamo77.bsky.social @jodittmann.bsky.social et al.
- (8/8) Also see the short piece we wrote for @theconversation.com here: theconversation.com/we-discovere...
- (5/8) Why this matters: the global surface area of tree bark is immense — comparable to Earth’s land surface!! This points to a previously unrecognised, large-scale atmospheric sink. See video explainer📽️: www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5eV...
- (6/8) These systems are dynamic. Under low-oxygen conditions inside bark, some microbes can switch to producing methane or hydrogen — meaning climate change (e.g. flooding, warming) could alter these processes...
- (3/8) These bark microbes aren’t just living there — they’re active. Many use trace gases like #Hydrogen (H₂), #Methane (CH₄), and #CarbonMonoxide (CO) as #Carbon and energy sources.🦠
- (4/8) Our lab and field experiments show bark microbes can remove multiple climate-relevant gases from the atmosphere, with particularly strong uptake and affinity for hydrogen.
- (2/8) Across 8 common Australian tree species (paperbarks, eucalypts, acacias, mangroves & more), bark contains trillions of microbial cells per m² — distinctly unique from soil or water communities.
- New #PrePrint by #PhD @jodittmann.bsky.social open for discussion on @egubg.bsky.social investigating the question: 'Are #GhostForests a substantial source of #Methane from #Reservoirs?' 👻🪵 👇 egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/20...
- One way to collect 500 mL of #methane ebullition from a #GhostForest in 8 m of standing water…
- What a way to start the (sampling) day 👌 with @jodittmann.bsky.social
- Top winters day back at the Ghost Forest sampling for @jodittmann.bsky.social PhD projects. Plenty of ebullition bubbles down there!!
- Last week I had the pleasure of hosting our @soaes-unisq.bsky.social undergrad students studying Water Science during the WAT1101 residential school. In true Toowoomba style, the students had the full immersion experience, with consistent rain during the entire 3 days of our field tour.
- Looks like an amazing field trip for your undergrads Jackie!
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- Looks awesome, wish I was there and hope it all went well!
- And that’s a wrap! Huge effort from #SCU team working in the hot and humid tropical #wetland and #Savannah #forests in the Northern Territory. Many thanks to #CDU colleagues for incredible support and assistance 🙌 Now it’s time for GHG data analysis…
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- Photo dump from amazing field sites in Australia’s Northern Territory. Our #PhD students are collecting data to better understand #carbon, #nutrient and green house gas fluxes in #tropical wetland and upland forests.🌳
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- Our terrestrial #biogeochemistry research team in action yesterday investigating #GHG, #nutrient and #carbon fluxes in tropical wetland forests in the Northern Territory. #treethane
- Tropical fieldwork day 2. Only 102 mm of rain yesterday🙃A few pics between the deluge ⛈️
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- Boat is a life saver with gear. Ladder works a treat!
- Fieldwork in the tropics - 12 degrees south 🐊⛈️🦟
- New Zealand tree appreciation after a recent holiday. Amazing Redwoods, deadwoods, Kauri and Pohutukawa on the north island.
- A new paper by Amaral et al., showing that #TreeStem #Methane fluxes exceeds #Ebullition and #Diffusive flux pathway from innundated #Amazonian #Wetland #Forests www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
- A new paper: 'Tidal influence on #CarbonDioxide and #Methane fluxes from #TreeStems and soils in #Mangrove forests' in @eurogeosciences.bsky.social bg.copernicus.org/articles/21/...
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- Nice work! I think out biggest challenge will be a solid foundation for a ladder in wetland soils…Another use for pool noodles - amazing !🙌
- Recent #Fieldwork rekkie scouting out forested #wetland sites for new #PhD student Scott Cramb to investigate #tree dwelling trace gas #microbial communities and fluxes
- Is that 4m? We are purchasing a ladder. How do you secure this?
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- Wow, that is 'significantly different'!
- Honoured to receive Monash University's inaugural Researcher of the Year award last night. Since starting my group eight years ago, the university has enabled us to do creative, impactful, often programmatic research. This award recognises a huge collective effort from our team and collaborators.
- Congratulations Chris to you and the team! Very well deserved 👏
- Check out our new paper in STOTEN 🚨 #Groundwater discharge and bank overtopping drive large #Carbon exports from Indian #Sundarban #Mangroves 🍃 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
- Another top day in the #Rainforest wrapping up a long term study of tree #Methane cycling for @jodittmann.bsky.social #PhD 🙌
- Look up, tree barks contain active microbial communities that cycle climate-active gases including CH₄, H₂, CO and VOCs. In our new #Preprint we coupled genome-resolved #Metagenomics with #Biogeochemical fluxes to highlight this cryptic process 🦠🍃 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Beautiful day for fieldwork measuring #rainforest #methane fluxes for @jodittmann.bsky.social ‘s #PhD.
- Big week in the forest sampling various biomes, biogeochemisty and bark for Paula’s PhD. We even managed managed to find a little sunshine at times!
- An amazing green tree snake literally just sliding on up the side of a tree at my fieldwork site! 🐍
- Had the pleasure of showing a couple of visitors around my supratidal and freshwater Melaleuca wetland sites. Jeff Kelleway and Raf Carvalho measuring site elevation with RTK GNSS. Tree L21 is in fact 6.7 MASL!
- New project funding = new #PhD position! Come work with me investigating #Microbes and #Methane fluxes in Australian #Wetlands #Mangroves and #Rainforests #FindAPhD #Treethane Full details on how to apply: tinyurl.com/udb3xepm
- Prof Scott Johnson was taking the science to the next level today!🤙🧗
- Very very very very wet day, sampling rainforest during the rain with Paula and @jodittmann.bsky.social 🌧️ Lucky the river didn’t rise any more otherwise we’d be camping in there overnight!
- New paper led by Fern Adame showing that 'All tidal #Wetlands are #BlueCarbon ecosystems' in Oxford BioScience Here we discuss & suggest that all wetlands & #Forests influenced by tides should be considered as #BlueCarbon ecosystems🌱 academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...
- 🚨@newphyt.bsky.social Commentary: 'Researchers barking up (the right) tree find new mechanisms controlling #methane transport by woody vegetation' - a thoughtful & well-written commentary by Ward& Megonigal on the importance of our recent #Melaleuca paper🌱 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
- Was privileged to be hosted by Clem Duvert at tropical CDU (Darwin) with a bunch of clever folks working towards refining the Australian inland water C-Budget last week..
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View full thread...and visiting CDU's long-tern stream carbon monitoring sites + measuring the 'first' Australian tropical headwater riparian tree stem methane fluxes...
- ...we also managed to have a quick swim in tropical Litchfield National Park during the wet season 🐊
- Highlights of the trip included a field trip to Litchfield NP TERN flux tower site...
