Patricia Margaret Selkirk, (née Connell; born 1942) is an Australian plant biologist and ecologist. Her career has focused on Antarctic and subantarctic terrestrial ecosystems and she is recognized as being a pioneering female Australian Antarctic scientist. Life and career Patricia Margaret Connell was born in Newcastle, and educated at Narrabeen Girls' High School and The Women's College, The University of Sydney (BSc Hons, PhD). Her father, William Fraser (Bill) Connell (OBE) had been educated at the University of Melbourne, the University of London and the University of Illinois. He held the Chair in Education at the University of Sydney for many years focusing on educational research and teaching. Her mother Margaret Lloyd Peck, studied at the University of Melbourne and the Associated Teachers Training Institute, then taught secondary school maths and science. Selkirk has two younger sisters, Raewyn Connell and Helen Connell. She is married to Antarctic biologist, historian and author, Herbert Dartnall. She has two daughters. Selkirk held positions at both Sydney and Macquarie Universities including teaching in the open university mode at Macquarie University. Between 1979 and 2005 Selkirk took part in 18 field trips to the Antarctic and subantarctic islands with Australian, French and New Zealand national polar expeditions including Macquarie and Heard Islands, Iles Kerguelen, the Windmill Islands and the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica. Research and publications A plant biologist, Selkirk has published more than 80 papers on a wide range of Antarctic subjects including landscape-level geomorphology, vegetation history and palynology, and studies of plant reproduction and genetics, particularly in mosses. She is lead author, with R. D. Seppelt and the late D. R. Selkirk of the influential 1990 book, Subantarctic Macquarie Island: Environment and Biology. She was the first to recognise the importance of studying the impact of climate change on the subantarctic islands. Selkirk and colleagues established that Macquarie Island had not been significantly glaciated during the last glacial maximum due to the island's low altitude. They also calculated uplift rates for the island, calculating that the island first appeared above the ocean some 700 to 600 thousand years ago. In Antarctica, working with Rod Seppelt, they were instrumental in recognising the importance of the moss beds (lush patches of mosses, growing on ancient abandoned penguin colonies) and establishing the area as a SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest), now Antarctic Specially Protected Area 135. She continues her research with numerous Australian and