September
Field season is well underway for many students in the Mayfield Ecology Lab. PhD students Manuel Sevenello, Lisa Buche and Winnie Siu are currently undertaking surveys in the York Gum Woodlands of SW Western Australia The region is experiencing a bumper year for flowering following good winter rains. Honours student Aurora Robertson is similarly collecting data in the region, working on a project as part of Bug-Nut.
In other news, PhD candidate Lisa Buche has recently had a paper published in the Journal of Ecology – exploring how niche differences are important for species coexistence. Congratulations, Lisa!
Buche, L., Spaak, J.W., Jarillo, J. and De Laender, F. (2022), Niche differences, not fitness differences, explain predicted coexistence across ecological groups. J Ecol. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.13992
August
The Mayfield Ecology Lab are working with the Indigenous Knowledge Institute to develop projects on Indigenous knowledge of bees, including the impacts of climate change on the bees and their economic value as honey producers and pollinators of native bush foods.
In July, Margie and postdoc Rachele Wilson visited East Arnhem Land with Aaron Corn of the Indigenous Knowledge Institute to meet with community Elders to discuss and develop potential projects. We were privileged to have Renelle Gondarra, a senior Yolŋu leader, share her traditional knowledge of sugarbag bee hunting and show several locations where her people have long collected honey from stingless bees.
Rachele hunting bees in NE Arnhem Land 
Ranelle and her grandson Jet 
Eucalyptus tetrodonta (Stringybark) flowers. An important food source for sugarbag bees 
Hunting for bees 
Location of sugarbag bee hunting
The Mayfield Lab also has had some recent publications, including a paper lead by Catherine Bowler – published in Ecology Letters. Great work, Cath! This open access paper can be found here.
Bowler, C.H., Weiss-Lehman, C., Towers, I.R., Mayfield, M.M. & Shoemaker, L.G. (2022) Accounting for demographic uncertainty increases predictions for species coexistence: A case study with annual plants. Ecology Letters, 25, 1618– 1628. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.14011
May
A big congratulations to Mayfield Lab alumni – Travis Britton!
Travis was awarded a Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarship. With this scholarship, Travis will be spending 9 months in the US at UC Santa Barbara, continuing his research into tree mortality and drought with the Trugman Lab.
We can’t wait to see all the amazing work and wonderful experience that you’ll have. Well done!
You can read more about Travis’ Fulbright research goals here.
March
Margie has now officially started her position as Head of School, BioScience with the University of Melbourne! While a few of our members have remained at UQ (though we regularly enjoy virtual catch-ups) many of our lab group are now settling into their new homes in Melbourne. Pictured on the right, Margie enjoyed a wonderful welcoming party with members of the School of BioScience during her first week on the job.
With the move to Melbourne, an exciting new Lab Manager Position is now available with the Mayfield Lab. Applications close on the 4th of April 2022 at 11:55 PM AUS Eastern Standard Time.
We are also incredibly happy (and sad) to announce that Dr Cath Bowler has now officially completed her PhD, and will be leaving the lab to continue working as an ecologist with S5 Environmental. Thank you for your hard work, comradeship and for blessing the lab with fantastic laugh over the years.
January
It has been a big start to the year, with lots going on in the Mayfield lab!
Firstly, a big congratulations to Cath Bowler for defending her thesis this month! Cath submitted her thesis back in August, where she explored coexistence theory and mechanisms within diverse communities.
Specifically, Cath’s research focused on am exploring the biological realism of theories and models and community ecology, and the efficacy of these as tool in restoration and invasion ecology management.
Cath spent MANY field seasons out in Western Australia, conducting extensive field work in the annual plant understory of the highly degraded York-gum woodlands.
She also delved into a large, 15 year dataset from Europe’s largest biodiversity-ecosystem-functioning experiment. Where she explored the role of complex plant-plant interactions during community re-assembly.
Well done Cath! We wish you all the best with your future, and will miss you dearly.
Our second piece of big news is to announce that the Mayfield Lab has moved to the University of Melbourne. Margie will be starting her new role as Head of School, BioScience in March, and in the meantime is taking a well deserved break, while coordinating her move from Brisbane to Melbourne.
We were all lucky enough to get together for our joint Dwyer/Mayfield Lab Christmas gathering (and farewell) back in December, managing to have a few drinks and hugs before COVID once again unleashed itself.
Margie spent 14 wonderful years at UQ, and is sad to be leaving so many wonderful colleagues, friends and students. But we can’t wait to see what comes out of the Mayfield Lab at their new home in Uni Melb.
And finally, now that the Australian borders have opened, two new lab members have joined us from overseas – Welcome to Manuel Sevenello Montagner and Lisa Buche! We are so happy to finally have you in Australia with us, and can’t wait to have our first lab get together soon.