Trevor Padgett

‘I love midges because I know what their hearts look like’: is the passion for taxonomy in danger of dying out? Insect taxonomist Art Borkent has described and named more than 300 species of midges but fears his field of science is dying out, despite millions of insects, fungi and other organisms waiting to be ...

Incredible article about Art Borkent, biting midges, and aging taxonomists.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Good article, but the framing is wrong. There is not a dearth of interest in taxonomy. There is a scarcity of funding and positions, which is a deliberate choice by funding agencies and institutions. The youth love taxonomy! It's the olds that are failing to meet their passion!

These little plants have a story to tell!

Excited to share my research on the drivers of spatial distribution patterns in parasitic plants - March 4th, Biodiversity Research Center of Academia Sinica, #Taiwan.

Come learn about the evolution of these enigmatic plants, their spatial patterns, & their conservation outlook.

International coral reef symposium

June 6-7, 2026 @ Kaohsiung, #Taiwan

Registration is open for presentations or to just come and watch and learn and enjoy some amazing marine research!

Pioneer generation shapes long-term recovery of coral populations - Coral Reefs Reef recovery following a disturbance largely depends on successful coral recruitment and the absence of chronic stressors. However, recent recovery events show increasing homogenization, with dominan...

NEW PAPER “Pioneer generation shapes long-term recovery of coral populations"

Here we challenge what a reef recovery looks like and show:

🪸 Early recruits drive long-term recovery
🪸Later recruits failed to survive
🪸 Apparent recovery masks declining diversity

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

A big congrats to Botanical Wonders!

TISCR 2026 The Taiwan International Symposium on  Coral Reefs is hosted by the Taiwanese Coral Reef Society and will be held at National Sun Yat-sen University (Kaohsiung, Taiwan) on June 6th and 7th, 2026....

Come join us in Kaohsiung June 6-7 for the 'Taiwan International Symposium on Coral Reefs'. We have a great lineup of speakers and an array of sessions to join! Early bird registration is available until March 8th.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me.

tiscr2026.weebly.com

How These Plants Create a Special Environment ǀ Botanical Wonders YouTube video by TaiwanPlus

Taste Awards: www.thetasteawards.com/17th-annual-...

Botanical Wonders: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sect...

It is an honour to have our work with Botanical Wonders recognized by the Taste Awards in the "Breakout Storytellers of the Year" category.

A giant thank you to all involved in creating the series and to all who watched and loved our series - #Taiwan has so many more stories to tell!
#Taiwan

What This Tree Means To Indigenous Culture ǀ Botanical Wonders YouTube video by TaiwanPlus

Pometia pinnata (Fiji Longan, Island Lychee) is a massive evergreen tree with monstrous buttress roots native to Taiwan.

Join us to explore how this unique tree is central to the Yami (Tao) people of Orchid Island & how it fits into the island ecosystem.

#Taiwan

www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1Cl...

How These Plants Thrive in Water ǀ Botanical Wonders YouTube video by TaiwanPlus

Explore Taiwan's aquatic plants with the new Botanical Wonders (@taiwanplusshows) episode on youtube!

Lotus & water lily species have evolved unique ways to live submerged in water, including Taiwan's beautiful endemic minimalist － the yellow water lily.

youtu.be/43it_bWEFy4?...

How These Plants Create a Special Environment ǀ Botanical Wonders YouTube video by TaiwanPlus

Taiwan's forested coral reef! (new YT upload)

Once a thriving coral reef (under water...), tectonic forces thrust it out of the sea and time covered it with a forest.

A truly unique ecosystem, with truly unique plants - click and explore!

#Taiwan
#botany
#forest

youtu.be/sectVDvOSp4?...

Global use of coal hit record high in 2024 Bleak report finds greenhouse gas emissions are still rising despite ‘exponential’ growth of renewables

There’s no way to stop climate change without consuming less.

Mitigation efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and meet the Paris Agreement have been offset by economic growth - Communications Earth & Environment Global carbon dioxide intensity declined from 2015 to 2024 following the Paris Agreement, but total emissions still increased due to economic growth, according to a global analysis of population, gros...

Good news: carbon intensity has declined

Bad news: carbon emissions increased, due to the rapid rise in world GDP

Also bad news: the chance of staying below 2°C remained low, at 17%

Better news: chance of going above 3°C has gone down substantially, from 26% to 9%

Teens Who Sued Hawai‘i Say Climate Plan For Aviation Doesn’t Fly Interisland flights are Hawaiʻi’s biggest transportation carbon producer, making up more than half of all emissions related to civilian travel in the state.

Teens who won a lawsuit requiring Hawaiʻi to eliminate carbon emissions from the state’s transportation system in the next 20 years rightly call out sustainable aviation fuel as bullshit.

Australia's tropical trees emit more carbon than they absorb: study Climate change is killing trees faster than they can be replaced leading to greater carbon emissions, according to a new study.

The wet tropical rainforests of Queensland are now a carbon source because CO₂ emitted from trees dying and decaying outstripped the CO₂ taken up by trees growing. 😕

Photo of a hand grasping a small, leafy plant with reddish leaves and terminal racemes of pink, tubular flowers. Photo by Scott Zona CCBYNC4.

Neobartsia mutica is another hemiparasite. It has a broad distribution across South America (I recently saw it in the Andes of Peru). Like so many of these hemiparasites, it has showy flowers. This one may be adapted to hummingbird pollination. #parasite #Orobanchaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Carbon dioxide removal is not a current climate solution — we need to change the narrative Drastically reduce emissions first, or carbon dioxide removal will be next to useless.

In recognition of us doing fuck all to reduce emissions, let me remind y'all that carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is useless unless we decarbonize drastically.

rdcu.be/dbFbB

How These Plants Create a Special Environment ǀ Botanical Wonders YouTube video by TaiwanPlus

Taiwan's forested coral reef! (new YT upload)

Once a thriving coral reef (under water...), tectonic forces thrust it out of the sea and time covered it with a forest.

A truly unique ecosystem, with truly unique plants - click and explore!

#Taiwan
#botany
#forest

youtu.be/sectVDvOSp4?...

Photo of a cluster of black palm fruits (drupes) hanging on red, dangling stalks.

A close-up photo of a bug climbing on a plant shoot. The bug is all black with red spots.

It blows my mind that red-&-black fruits and seeds are attractive, but red-&-black insects are repellent (aposematic). In dispersal, as in life, context is everything! 📷1: Ripe fruits of Pinanga malaiana (#Arecaceae). 📷2: red-spotted stink bug, Jose Amorin CCBYNCSA2. #dispersal #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

How These Plants Thrive in Water ǀ Botanical Wonders YouTube video by TaiwanPlus

Explore Taiwan's aquatic plants with the new Botanical Wonders (@taiwanplusshows) episode on youtube!

Lotus & water lily species have evolved unique ways to live submerged in water, including Taiwan's beautiful endemic minimalist － the yellow water lily.

youtu.be/43it_bWEFy4?...

Nine Taiwanese a month vanish or held in China - Taipei Times Bringing Taiwan to the World and the World to Taiwan

Of the reported cases, 50 people were “disappeared” after entering China, 19 were detained and 119 had their movement restricted in some form, the MAC said on social media on Wednesday. www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/...

A botanical breakthrough: OHIO undergraduate and professor discover several new species of violets in the mountains of Virginia OHIO senior Collin Thacker, under the mentorship of professor Harvey Ballard, discovered four new species of violets in the mountains of Virginia, including two tucked away in Shenandoah National Park...

Awesome: Undergraduate and professor discover several new species of violets in the mountains of Virginia.

“Put very simply, we looked."

#iamabotanist #plantpeopleFTW

www.ohio.edu/news/2025/09...

I wanted to get a video of this ghost crab but every time I got close to their hole they scuttled back in, so I tried getting clever with it. I made a little sandcastle and shoved my phone into it, hit record, and walked away. Crab was VERY suspicious of this addition to their environment.

Without clear planning and sustained coordination with the US, Taiwan will struggle to keep pace with China’s advances and regional stability will suffer. More critically, failure by Taiwan to skillfully manage internal political contradictions will weaken Taipei’s credibility and reputation abroad.

Trump Halts $400 Million in Taiwan Military Aid, Post Reports President Donald Trump has declined to approve a more than $400 million military aid package for Taiwan as he seeks a trade deal with China, according to the Washington Post.

President Donald Trump has declined to approve a more than $400 million military aid package for Taiwan as he seeks a trade deal with China, according to the Washington Post

What This Tree Means To Indigenous Culture ǀ Botanical Wonders YouTube video by TaiwanPlus

Pometia pinnata (Fiji Longan, Island Lychee) is a massive evergreen tree with monstrous buttress roots native to Taiwan.

Join us to explore how this unique tree is central to the Yami (Tao) people of Orchid Island & how it fits into the island ecosystem.

#Taiwan

www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1Cl...

And so we choose to do battle against the forces of darkness, #ghting back against a malevolent movement that represents all that is bad in the world— fascism, authoritarianism, racism, misogyny, and bigotry— a movement that uses antiscienti#c disinformation as its preferred weapon. We do this not because our success is guaranteed. Given the forces mobilized against us, we are clearly the underdog. And no white wizard will come to our rescue. But we have truth and justice on our side. And the stakes simply couldn’t be greater. We #ght for a livable planet, for us, our children, and future generations. Because it’s worth #ghting for.8

The concluding paragraph of #ScienceUnderSiege
(www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/micha...)

screen cap of Amazon ranking

We're excited to see that #ScienceUnderSiege has broken the top 1000 on Amazon.

Please consider purchasing from e.g. @barnesandnoble.com or your local independent bookseller (or ask your local library to acquire). Thanks!