Heat stress from ocean warming harms octopus vision

While climate change has led to an increase in the abundance of octopuses, heat stress from projected ocean warming could impair their vision and impact the survivability of the species. “We found several proteins important for vision that were affected by thermal stress,” Qiaz Hua, a recent PhD graduate from […]

Assessing blue whale populations

Although the world’s largest living mammal was protected from commercial whaling in 1966 – 20 years before the 1986 global moratorium on whaling was implemented through the International Whaling Commission – the blue whale’s recovery has been slow. Researchers from Flinders University conducted a major new study to assess the […]

Extinction looms large for our birds

When celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio take to social media to champion Tasmania’s swift parrots, a species that faces extinction, awareness of the threat becomes global. The seriousness of the threat to birds was confirmed in a study published recently in the journal Emu – Austral Ornithology. It found Australian birds living […]