Aspects of Western Australian Natural Sciences: Research Highlights, 2025, John Glover Scholars

Each year The Royal Society of Western Australia makes John Glover Research-Support Grants, at present valued at $15,000 each for one year, to PhD students undertaking projects in Natural Sciences, Anthropology or Archaeology. The students are selected based on open competition among applicants from the active PhD-student cohort at Western Australian universities. After one year as a John Glover Scholar the students are given the opportunity to present highlights of their year’s work to a special meeting of the Society and to incorporate a summary of their work in a joint research article for this journal. This is intended to cover particularly the aspects of the project for which the John Glover grant funding was sought. The summaries are based on preliminary results for one year of the projects that usually extend over three to four years. Seven of the 2025 John Glover Scholars have contributed to this paper in four major research areas. (1) Plant–Soil Interactions: Recently burned soils show greater ectomycorrhizal loss following pathogen invasion (Mnqobi Zuma); Biochemical phosphorus allocation is linked to photosynthetic phosphorus-use efficiency in a phosphorus-impoverished environment (Ling-Ling Chen); Protection of eucalypt species against Phytophthora infection in phosphorus-impoverished environments: roles of mycorrhizal fungi (Zhe Zhang). (2) Terrestrial animals: Cryptic kultarr: investigating a potential new species of kultarr ( Antechinomys sp.) not caught alive for 50 years (Cameron Dodd); How do predators prefer to move through the landscape? An analysis of telemetry data (Natalie Grassi). (3) Freshwater invertebrate ecology: Biodiversity responses in temporary waters due to a rapidly drying climate. (Zac Kayll). (4) Coastal oceanography: Observations of 2024/2025 marine heatwave along Ningaloo coast (Hannah Whitaker).