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Chat Ecology @ChatEcology

We are a platform for anyone involved in Ecology education to network and share ideas. Part of @ChatSci. Tag us #ChatEcology

Joined June 2022
  • Tweets 195
  • Following 129
  • Followers 266
Photos and videos
Thanks folks, over & out from me, @CookeJulia. I'll leave you with this picture of mistletoe leaves with pupating caterpillars. Some butterflies (Delias and Ogyris sp) lay eggs on mistletoe leaves for their offspring to feed on. Why might mistletoes leaves might make good food?
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Have you come across this quick guides before? Do you think they are beneficial for subject knowledge enhancement? #ChatEcology
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Here are the answers #ChatEcology
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I have used this in teaching (lectures). Student can feel overwhelmed by all the new information, then as a group smash this quiz and realise they know more than they think!
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Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed the discussions since September, and thank you to @CookeJulia for leading this evening. If you have been inspired to read more ecology stuff, please do join @BES_TLSIG (free) or join @BritishEcolSoc (£30.50 with the code)
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We are currently doing some research about mistletoes in Australia, which are purported to mimic their hosts, but this hasn’t been comprehensively tested. Can you help us by playing this game? conflict-ecology-games.githu… #ChatEcology

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There are quite a few quick guides: cell.com/current-biology/lib…. I’ve enjoyed reading the one on Bioluminescence doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.0… and Peppered moths doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.0… and Seagrass meadows doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2017.0…

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Last one for 2022-23, how can/will you use this new knowledge in your classroom? #ChatEcology
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Parasitic plants pop up in exams but... What do your students think about with parasitic plants? Do they confuse insectivous ones with parasites? Do they know any? Why do some students not notice them? #ChatEcology
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Perhaps students will have seen rafflesias in nature documentaries? It is amazing that they take all their water, nutrients incl. carbon from their hosts, yet make the biggest single flowers of all plants! The Green Planet exert: youtube.com/watch?v=YxIpl38r…

Corpse Flower Stinks of Death I The Green Planet I BBC Earth

It appears to have fur, whiskers and teeth. Its blood-red surface i...

youtube.com
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You shared a great picture @BeaulieuBio of mistletoe in France. Visiting friends in Spain, I discovered there is a mistletoe that occurs in olive trees - news to me! It is Viscum cruciatum, in the same genus as the mistletoe that occurs in the UK.
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T-2 mins for tonight's chat with @CookeJulia about parasitic plants and the usefulness of the QuickGuide series in @CurrentBiology: cell.com/current-biology/lib…
A eucalyptus tree in a sheep paddock (with sheep) and lots of mistletoe plants on it. There are almost more mistletoe leaves than eucalypt leaves.

ALT A eucalyptus tree in a sheep paddock (with sheep) and lots of mistletoe plants on it. There are almost more mistletoe leaves than eucalypt leaves.

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Perhaps, but it might be fine - just in a bit of a drought, when the host loses leaves, but the mistletoe doesn't. I'll make sure I drive past next time in that part of Australia and see how it is doing!
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We hope you enjoyed the short read on parasitic plants and developed a little more knowledge. So lets find out. Remember to use the hashtag #ChatEcology
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Fantastic @leysbiotutor 5 minute warning for chat tonight on parasitic plants led by @CookeJulia #ChatEcology
head-in-the-clouds.bsky.social@leysbiotutor
15 Jun 2023
Replying to @ChatEcology @CookeJulia
Dose of #ParasiticPlants this afternoon: Lathraea clandestina (Purple toothwort) hidden under one of the Willow trees @CUBotanicGarden #ChatEcology
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Join me tonight at 8:30 BST. Some of my research is on mistletoes - that's me below with a very large Australian mistletoe - but there are lots of other parasitic plants. This @CurrentBiology QuickGuide is super: cell.com/current-biology/pdf…
A woman standing in front of a cascade of leaves. They look like leaves from a tree, but actually they are a big mistletoe!

ALT A woman standing in front of a cascade of leaves. They look like leaves from a tree, but actually they are a big mistletoe!

Several groups of flowers hanging amongst leaves. The flowers have long slender petals in reds and oranges, and a long stigma.

ALT Several groups of flowers hanging amongst leaves. The flowers have long slender petals in reds and oranges, and a long stigma.
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It's @CookeJulia here, looking forward to a chat about parasitic plants tonight. I've a quiz to help with classification skills & a citizen science game to play. Did you know there are mistletoes that grow on mistletoes? Parasites on parasites! See here: anbg.gov.au/mistletoe/images…

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Hopefully you've seen the @SEBiology Christmas Lecture to get you in the zone youtu.be/FfZtEIL7ZcQ #ChatEcology

Christmas tradition: structure, ecology and evolution of mistletoes...

Mistletoes are often associated with Christmas decorations, traditional medicine, and damage to horticulture and timber-producing trees. At the same time, th...

youtube.com
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Tomorrow we will be discussing this short guide, there's still time to read it! cell.com/current-biology/ful…

Parasitic plants

In this quick guide, Twyford introduces the reader to parasitic plants, explaining how they steal nutrients from host plants and how this lifestyle has evolved multiple times in plants.

cell.com
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