10 years of Blog writing

It was 10 years ago that I wrote my first blog post (see here). The original idea was to use the blog to record things I had to report on at the end of the year as they happened. At the end of 2014, I had to report on all the things that I had done in my (then) new position at the CIB. I found it really hard to remember and so vowed that I would make a record as they happened in 2015. Around the same time, I was reading blogs from other labs and thought that a new blog would be a good vehicle to act as an aide memoire. And that's how the MeaseyLab blog was born. Now, nearly 400 blog posts and 10 years later, it is a good time to reflect on that original aim and see what else has happened along the way.

First, I should note that this was a really good way to track what happened at the lab through the year. In subsequent years, I was able to flick back through the pages of the blog and check to see what had happened and when. This made reporting a lot easier! But other opportunities also began to arise. I was able to track milestones in particular projects by having different tags for each project. Tags meant that visitors could quickly find the content that they required, but it also made it easier for me to report on those projects quickly and efficiently. 

I also started some longer blog posts aimed at supporting my students in their writing endevours. These posts on writing became rambling and diverse until mid-2019 when I realised that I had covered most aspects of writing issues that students in my lab faced, and that if I filled in the gaps, it should be able to publish them as a Fool's Guide to writing a thesis. I approached a few publishers, and eventually found one who would permit me to keep the online material free to all, while at the same time producing two printed books.

Most of all though, it turned out that the blog was mostly about people. People that worked with me as students and post-docs, and those that I collaborate with around the world. It was a way in which I was able to thank and celebrate all of the people that have made the last ten years an amazing experience. Looking back through ten years of the blog, I am most impressed at the number of happy faces of people enjoying conducting reearch. Perhaps those posts, above all others, are the ones that have become most valuable and help me to remember that everything the lab has acheived in the last ten years has really been the result of lots of different people working together.

I also need to make a special mention to my brother, Richard, who maintains john.measey.com. It is only because he was able to set me up with the stub of the blog (within a few days of asking) that it started at all. Despite hackers and take-down attempts, Richard has kept the MeaseyLab blog up and running throughout. 

Many thanks to Richard and to everyone who has featured in the blog throughout the last 10 years. Here's to the next 10 years and may it be as full of diverse smiling faces as the first ten.

What is the MeaseyLab blog?

The MeaseyLab blog focuses on research in ecology, evolution, and conservation, particularly concerning amphibians and reptiles. The blog features updates on recent publications, fieldwork experiences, and discussions on various herpetological topics. It also highlights the lab's involvement in outreach activities and collaborations with other researchers. While the blog primarily centers on African herpetofauna, it provides valuable insights into global amphibian and reptile research. The MeaseyLab blog also offers several resources to assist students in improving their writing skills including articles on structuring scientific papers, emphasizing clarity and coherence, and tips for effective communication with practical advice to help students convey their research findings succinctly and effectively. These resources aim to support students in developing their writing abilities, particularly in the context of scientific research.

Temperature of the water in a Jonkershoek pond

Temperature is pivotal to the functioning physiology of ectotherms, and for the principally aquatic frog Xenopus laevis the water temperature dictates the temperature of the animals throughout the year. We know that most of the invasive populations of X. laevis were sourced from the South African Cape region in general, and the Jonkershoek hatcheries near Stellenbosch in particular (van Sittert & Measey 2016). 

For the past year, I have had a temperature logger recording the water temperature just above the bottom in a pond in Jonkershoek. 

The same pond has been the source of Xenopus laevis for numerous studies, and likely contains animals that are closely related to those shipped from South Africa all over the world. 

The temperatures between November 2023 and 2024 show that the water reaches maximum temperatures in early February (27.32 C), and a low 6 months later in early August (7.98 C). Despite these extremes, the water temperature varied only 15 C between 10 and 25 C. This is relatively little change compared to the same loggers deployed in Kwa-Zulu Natal (see here). 

Thanks to Martine Jordaan and Andrew Turner who helped with the deployment and collection of this logger. 

A joint meeting of the Herpetological Association of Africa and the African Amphibian Working Group in Wilderness, South Africa: 26 – 29 November 2024

Each of these groups usually meets every two years separately, so it was for the first time in their existance that they met in back-to-back meetings in Wilderness South Africa. First up was the 20th meeting of the AAWG, with plenty of familiar faces from across the globe. 

Next was the 16th meeting of the HAA, which also had great representation and considerably more delegates. 

   

The meeting featured presenters from 9 different African countries: Madagascar, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana, Namibia and South Africa. This was certainly the best representation of the continent since each of the meetings started. 

The following talks featured MeaseyLab members:

Home and away: the gut microbiome of Xenopus laevis in native and invasive populations

John Measey; Jiankun Yu; Dareen Almojil; Stephane Boissinot; Laurie Araspin; Carla Wagener; Greg Pauly; Reed Ojala-Barbour; Claudio Soto-Azat

The vertebrate gut microbiome is a community largely composed of bacterial, fungal and viral components, whose molecular component equal that of the host. The influence of the microbiome is known to be significant both on an individual basis, and also on population scales in a wide range of host organisms. The gut microbiome is known to be involved with key attributes of animal health, including assimilation of nutrients, immuno-defensive functions and host behaviour. In this study, we used bacterial 16S rRNA amplicon-based sequencing for metataxonomic classification of the gut microbiome of individuals from 12 native populations of Xenopus laevis. These populations were selected to represent the native range of the host species. From the 16S rRNA community profiles, we determine the components of the core microbiome of X. laevis and ask whether deviations from the core are associated with the environmental context in which they live. In addition, we sampled populations from Chile (4) and USA (7) to determine what aspects of the core microbiome are retained by non-native populations. This represents the first time that the microbiome of X. laevis has been assessed across such diverse conditions and provides data that will help understand the role played by the environment within this model organism.

Southern Africa Amphibian Red List Project – updated assessments for the region lead the GAA3

Jeanne Tarrant; Joshua Weeber; Oliver Angus; Adrian J. Armstrong; Ninda L. Baptista; Francois S. Becker; Rebecca M. Brunner; Werner Conradie; Louis H. du Preez; James Harvey; Adriaan Jordaan; Keir Lynch; John Measey; Mohlamatsane Mokhatla; Darren W. Pietersen; Fortunate M. Phaka; Jennifer Swanby; Krystal A. Tolley; Andrew A. Turner; Luke Verburgt

As the most threatened vertebrate class on earth, amphibians are leading the biodiversity extinction crisis. The 2nd Global Amphibian Assessment (GAA2) found that 41.5% of species globally are at risk of extinction, these extraordinary and diverse creatures are experiencing the worst population declines and highest extinction risk of any vertebrate group. South Africa has a good history of updating Red List assessments and has done so consistently since 2004 with the publication of the Atlas and Red Data Book. As some of the first assessments to contribute to GAA3, regional updates are in process for 246 southern African amphibian species. A very high proportion (approximately 74%) are endemic to the region, emphasizing the need to understand their conservation status, and prioritize conservation resources. Over 150,000 records were collated from 16 institutions (including citizen science platforms) and numerous private collections. A team of twenty experts contributed to assessment updates, with the support of the IUCN Amphibian Red List Authority, Amphibian Arc, SANBI and Re:Wild. Applying the IUCN Red List criteria according to IUCN guidelines, the current assessments have resulted in category changes for over 40% of priority species, including assigning a status to all but one Data Deficient species and all Not Evaluated species. Future climate scenarios (2050s) were modelled for South Africa’s threatened frog species and predict a wide range of distributional impacts, which will be exacerbated by ongoing land-use change. 35% of threatened species are likely to be highly impacted by future climate change scenarios. The updated assessments will be published by IUCN in the first half of 2025, and the outcomes of this work will be invaluable in informing an updated conservation and research strategy, the National Biodiversity Assessment, and has already contributed to identifying species in need of urgent recovery in the next decade.

The BioSoundSCape project: Automating frog detection for ecological monitoring in the Cape Floristic Region

Andrew A. Turner; John Measey; Oliver Angus; Colleen Seymour; Alan Lee; Rose Snyder; Festus Adebgola; Leo Salas; Matt Clarke

Monitoring frogs has the potential to provide useful insights into measuring ecosystem health and the management of these ecosystems. Yet currently this monitoring is highly restricted, in space and time consuming. Data acquired from automated sound recording devices can extend the reach of ecological monitoring. The BioSCape project is a large, multi-party collaboration with NASA that aims to relate biodiversity patterns on the ground with remotely sensed, cutting edge spectral imaging that provides very high spectral resolution across the electromagnetic spectrum. One of the novel ways to measure biodiversity is to measure bioacoustic diversity. The BioSoundSCape project deployed a large number of automated sound recorders (AudioMoths) across the Cape Floristic Region and recorded nearly 1 million sound recordings. These recordings are freely available on NASA’s Distributed Active Archive Center. The project set up pattern matching algorithms to detect frog calls of 13 frog species, ran statistical pattern matching, validated results and used the resultant validated sound sonographic signatures for training input to a machine learning (computational neural network) system as implemented by RFCx in Arbimon. From this we calculated diversity indices and present examples of these outputs. Once the entire data collection, processing and analysis can be automated, it can realise the ability for large-scale, frog and ecosystem monitoring.

Management Measures and Costs note (MMC) for the EU on Xenopus laevis released

As Xenopus laevis is now on the list of concern for invasions in the European Union, a guide of measures how to mitigate and potential costs incurred was required. The production of this note required an online workshop (which took place in May 2024), with participants from around the world. The expertise of all those who have engaged with control and mitigation of Xenopus  invasions was sought and distilled into an MMC which was released today (see here). 

The final MMC is nearly 40 pages long and contains lots of really useful information on Xenopus laevis invasions. Many thanks to all those who participated, especially Ana Nunes and Grace Bond from IUCN.

Measey, J. (2024). The management of invasive alien Xenopus laevis. Information on measures and associated costs for species on the Union list. Technical note prepared by IUCN for the European Commission

School for Climate Studies (SCS) and Centre for Invasion Biology (CIB) Annual Research Meeting

Regular readers of this blog will be familiar with the CIB-ARM which is hosted annually in November. This year (after a 2 year interim), we see the new SCS-CIB ARM: a joint venture where Masters and PhD students present on their latest research. This event provides an important forum for networking for post-docs and students alike. For the CIB, the entire Core Team is invited to come together with their students from universities up and down South Africa.

Policy from Science

This year, there was a promient flavour of policy from science both at the national and international level. Prof. Melodie McGeogh (Monash University) provided a plenary from her perspectives after participating in the recent IPBES report Thematic Assessment Report on Invasive Alien Species and their Control. 

In addition, Peter Lukey (Chief Director: Environment Knowledge and Information at DFFE) provided an overview of his experience as a policy maker in the South African government.

In addition to these plenary talks, we had a host of marvellous talks from postgraduate students from the SCS and CIB. This included Jonathan Bell who presented an update on his MSc work on improving the efficacy of the Gutteral Toad eradication programme.

Another great ARM from another year of research for 10s of students working on invasions and climate change. We look forward to next year when the intersection of these two disciplines will be dissected in more detail.