Dr. Matthew Biddick
Postdoctoral researcher, ecologist
Current projects
- Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellowship | Research on species evolution on isolated islands
- Dynacom
See all projects here: link
Background
Since 2020 Postdoctoral researcher at the Chair of Terrestrial Ecology, Technische Universität München as a Alexander-von-Humboldt postdoctoral fellow. 2017 – 2020 PhD Ecology & Biodiversity (School of Biological Sciences) at the Victoria University Wellington, New Zealand 2012 – 2020 Graduate Teaching Assistant (School of Biological Sciences) at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand 2012 – 2016 BSc (hons) Ecology & Biodiversity (School of Biological Sciences) at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand Growing up in New Zealand, I was always fascinated by the world around me. After spending untold hours in the temperate rain forests near my home town, I decided to dedicate my life to understanding what makes New Zealand’s flora and fauna so unique. Naturally, this led to a career in evolutionary ecology. I have spent the last 8 years teaching students about New Zealand’s natural history. I now work as an Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral researcher at TUM, examining how the evolutionary trajectory of species changes on isolated islands – though I remain broadly interested in a range of topics within Evolution, Ecology, Biogeography and Botany.
Publications
2021
- Biddick M (2021). Are island plants really poorly defended? No support for the loss of
the defense hypothesis in domatia-bearing plants. Biology Letters DO Ihttps://doi.org/10.1101/2021.11.11.468197 - Biddick M, Van Stan JT (2021) (in press). Rainfall harvesting in plants. Current Biology.
*Special issue ‘Economies in Biology’. - Jaganathan GK, Biddick M (2021) (in press). Climate warming depletes the persistence of
physically dormant seeds in the tropics. Frontiers in Plant Science - Schmack JM, Biddick M (2021). Island biogeography. In: Biogeography: an integrative
approach to life evolution (ed. Eric Guilbert). ISTE, London. - Biddick, M., Hendriks, A, Burns, C. K. 2021. Minimal models provide maximally parsimonious explanations. Ecology Letters. DOI: 10.1111/ele.13882 PDF
- Biddick, M., Hendriks, A, Burns, C. K. 2021. A simple null model predicts the island rule. Ecology Letters. DOI:10.1111/ele.13781 PDF
- Biddick M, Schmack J (in press). Island biogeography. In Guilbert E (Ed.), Biogeography: an integrative approach to life evolution. ISTE, London.
- Biddick M, Burns KC (in prep). Biogeographic trends in the evolution of leaf size on New Zealand’s offshore islands
- Biddick M, Burns KC (in revision). Ecological drift predicts the island rule. Ecology Letters.
- Jaganathan GK, Biddick M (in revision). Climate warming depletes the persistence of physically dormant seeds in the tropics. American Journal of Botany.
2020
- Jaganathan GK, Biddick M (2020). Critical role of air and soil temperature in the development of primary and secondary dormancy in Albizia julbium. Journal of Tropical Ecology: 1-7. DOI:10.1017/S0266467420000206. PDF
- Biddick M (2020). Repeated patterns in the evolution of size in island plants. Victoria University of Wellington PDF
2019
- Biddick M, Burns KC (2019). Support for the island rule does not hide morphological disparity in insular plants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1917767116. PDF
- Biddick M, Hendriks A, Burns KC (2019). Plants obey (and disobey) the island rule. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116(36): 17632-17634. *cover article. PDF
- Yang Y, Jaganathan GK, Biddick M et al. (2019). Identification of the water gap in Albizia jubibrissin Durazz (Fabaceae: Mimosoideae) during wet and dry heat. Plant Biosystems. DOI: 10.1080/11263504.2019.1651781. PDF
- Jaganathan GK, Li J, Yang Y, Biddick M et al. (2019). Physical dormancy in Astragalus adsurgens: mechanisms underpinning the onset of seed coat impermeability and dormancy break. Scientific Reports 9. PDF
- Biddick M (2019). The tree that waters itself. Australasian Science Jan/Feb Issue. PDF
2018
- aganathan GK, Yule KJ, Biddick M (2018). Determination of the water gap and germination ecology of Adananthera pavonina (Fabaceae, Mimosoideae); the adaptive role of dormancy in mimetic seeds. Annals of Botany Plants 10: ply048
- Biddick M (2018). The Lord Howe screw pine is a self-watering island giant. The Conversation
- Biddick M, Hutton I, Burns KC (2018). An alternative water transport system in land plants. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London: Series B 285. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2018.0995
- Biddick M, Hutton I, Burns KC (2018). Independent evolution of allometric traits. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 126(1): 203-211
- Biddick M, Burns KC (2018). Phenotypic trait matching predicts the structure of an insular plant-bird pollination network. Integrative Zoology 13: 336-344. *invited special issue
Conference talks and posters
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I“The effects of isolation, area, and age on size changes in island plants” Island Biology Conference, St Denis, La Réunion, 2019 |
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“Do plants obey the island rule?” |
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Awards
- 2019 Research Excellence Award (PGSA)
- 2019 Graduate Research Excellence Grant (SSE, United States of America)
- 2019 Faculty Strategic Research Grant (School of Biological Sciences)
- 2018 Travel Award (International Biogeography Society)
- 2018 Conference Grant (Centre for Biodiversity & Restoration Ecology)
- 2017 Best Post-Graduate Teacher Award – Faculty of Sciences
- 2017 Student Research Grant (Wellington Botanical Society)
- 2017 Doctoral Scholarship (Victoria University of Wellington)
- 2017 Ross McQueen Memorial Research Ecology Prize
