The Antarctic is considered to be a pristine environment relative to other regions of the Earth, but it is increasingly vulnerable to invasions by marine, freshwater and terrestrial non‐native species. The Antarctic Peninsula region (APR), which encompasses the Antarctic Peninsula, South Shetland Islands and South Orkney Islands, is by far the most invaded part of the Antarctica continent. The risk of introduction of invasive...

Summary Phenotypic variation is a fundamental requirement for evolution by natural selection. While evidence of phenotypic variation in natural populations abounds, its genetic basis is rarely understood. Here we report variation in the ability of plant‐colonizing Pseudomonas to utilize histidine, and its derivative, urocanate, as sole sources of carbon and nitrogen. From a population of 164 phyllosphere‐colonizing Pseudomonas...

Forecasting how species and ecosystems will respond to climate change has been a major aim of ecology in recent years. Much of this research has focused on phenology – the timing of life‐history events. Phenology has well‐demonstrated links to climate, from genetic to landscape scales; yet our ability to explain and predict variation in phenology across species, habitats and time remains poor. Here, we outline how merging appr...

Progress in the development of millennia‐long tree‐ring chronologies from Australia and New Zealand is reviewed from the perspective of modelling long‐term climate variability there. Three tree species have proved successful in this regard: Huon pine ( Lagarostrobos franklinii ) from Tasmania, silver pine ( L. colensoi ) from the South Island of New Zealand, and kauri ( Agathis australis ) from the North Island of New Zealand....