Biotic connectivity within the temperate Australian marine protected area network at three levels of biodiversity, communities, populations and genes. Project outcomes will improve management of coastal biodiversity through a multi-state collaboration of managers, marine ecologists, population geneticists and taxonomists. Sites most needed within marine protected area (MPA) networks for maintaining resilience of populations across seascapes will be identified, including sites with exceptional en ....Biotic connectivity within the temperate Australian marine protected area network at three levels of biodiversity, communities, populations and genes. Project outcomes will improve management of coastal biodiversity through a multi-state collaboration of managers, marine ecologists, population geneticists and taxonomists. Sites most needed within marine protected area (MPA) networks for maintaining resilience of populations across seascapes will be identified, including sites with exceptional endemism or key roles in dispersal of larvae. The ecological efficacy of the temperate Australian MPA network will be assessed through analysis of long-term ecological datasets and further development of a novel 'remote sensing' methodology, whereby surveys are undertaken by volunteer divers across much greater spatial and temporal scales than could be studied by dedicated scientific dive teams.Read moreRead less
Rehabilitating a changing landscape: using the latest advances in koala ecology to direct adaptive management. The koala has been identified as one of the world's flagship species suffering from environmental change. In contrast to the decline of koalas in New South Wales generally, the eucalypts planted in Gunnedah to combat salinity led to an increase in koalas. However, the startlingly high death rate of Gunnedah koalas (25 per cent of the population) in the heatwave during the drought in 200 ....Rehabilitating a changing landscape: using the latest advances in koala ecology to direct adaptive management. The koala has been identified as one of the world's flagship species suffering from environmental change. In contrast to the decline of koalas in New South Wales generally, the eucalypts planted in Gunnedah to combat salinity led to an increase in koalas. However, the startlingly high death rate of Gunnedah koalas (25 per cent of the population) in the heatwave during the drought in 2009 must be understood. There are also new threats brought about by intensive land modification. This project aims to determine the effects of environmental change on the koala population through a study of landscape ecology, leaf chemistry, disease epidemiology and koala movements. This aims to lead to better management decisions for arboreal fauna.Read moreRead less
Integrating the rice industry with biodiversity conservation: the spatial ecology of waterfowl in agricultural and natural landscapes. Waterfowl damage to rice crops is a significant problem for the rice industry worldwide. The management and conservation of waterfowl requires an explicit understanding of the effect of rice bays on habitat structure for waterfowl and how these interact with population processes operating at broad scales. This project will analyse the spatial ecology of waterfowl ....Integrating the rice industry with biodiversity conservation: the spatial ecology of waterfowl in agricultural and natural landscapes. Waterfowl damage to rice crops is a significant problem for the rice industry worldwide. The management and conservation of waterfowl requires an explicit understanding of the effect of rice bays on habitat structure for waterfowl and how these interact with population processes operating at broad scales. This project will analyse the spatial ecology of waterfowl in agricultural and natural landscapes in the Murray-Darling Basin. Specifically we will (1) track waterfowl, (2) analyse wetland distribution at fine and broad scales, (3) develop spatial models to describe the relationships between waterfowl movements and wetland distribution, including rice bays, and (4) develop models of agronomic risk based on landscape structure and the known responses of waterfowl.Read moreRead less
Fire severity, habitat heterogeneity and life histories. Resolving the persistence ability of plants in frequently fired landscapes. The wise management of Australia's biodiversity has major economic and social benefits for the nation through the provision of ecosystem services, bio-products and tourism. Fire is a pivotal environmental factor that will continue to influence plant biodiversity in fire-prone ecosystems. Inappropriate fire regimes, however, threaten biodiversity through disruption ....Fire severity, habitat heterogeneity and life histories. Resolving the persistence ability of plants in frequently fired landscapes. The wise management of Australia's biodiversity has major economic and social benefits for the nation through the provision of ecosystem services, bio-products and tourism. Fire is a pivotal environmental factor that will continue to influence plant biodiversity in fire-prone ecosystems. Inappropriate fire regimes, however, threaten biodiversity through disruption of life cycles. If too many or too few fires occur in an area this can lead to decline and extinction of plant and animal species. This research will provide a risk-assessment tool for the management of biodiversity to reverse population declines and prevent extinctions.
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Conserving and recovering the koala populations on NSW Far North Coast. Conserving and recovering the koala populations on NSW Far North Coast. This project aims to develop a novel, integrated socio-ecological approach for connecting landscapes and communities for the recovery of threatened koala populations on the New South Wales far north coast. This should increase understanding of how local landholders and land managers respond to koala recovery programs and why they respond positively and b ....Conserving and recovering the koala populations on NSW Far North Coast. Conserving and recovering the koala populations on NSW Far North Coast. This project aims to develop a novel, integrated socio-ecological approach for connecting landscapes and communities for the recovery of threatened koala populations on the New South Wales far north coast. This should increase understanding of how local landholders and land managers respond to koala recovery programs and why they respond positively and become engaged for the long-term. The intended outcome is a spatial prioritisation framework for species recovery that integrates social and ecological values, and increased global knowledge of how to recover declining wildlife populations.Read moreRead less
Why isn’t the world full of mistletoe? An integrative approach to understanding dispersal, recruitment and distribution of parasitic plants. Parasitic plants are less affected by resource constraints than other plants, but they are characteristically rare in undisturbed habitats?an apparent paradox that challenges current thinking about ecological constraints. To determine which factors limit recruitment and distribution of parasitic plants, we will conduct integrative research on two mistleto ....Why isn’t the world full of mistletoe? An integrative approach to understanding dispersal, recruitment and distribution of parasitic plants. Parasitic plants are less affected by resource constraints than other plants, but they are characteristically rare in undisturbed habitats?an apparent paradox that challenges current thinking about ecological constraints. To determine which factors limit recruitment and distribution of parasitic plants, we will conduct integrative research on two mistletoes and a sandalwood in a structurally simple semi-arid shrubland, combining experimental germination trials and chemical analyses of hosts with ecological studies of seed vectors in a spatially-explicit framework. This study will also yield powerful insights into the general mechanisms underlying the relationships between life-history traits, species distributions and resource availability in dynamic landscapes.Read moreRead less
Leaf economics, and the acquisition and use of water and nitrogen for photosynthesis. Successful and sustainable management of both natural and human-modified ecosystems flows from advances in our understanding of the fundamentals of plant ecology. Improved understanding of acquisition and use of water and nutrients by plants should lead not only to better management in the present day, but better-founded management decisions under possible future scenarios such as global warming, higher atmosph ....Leaf economics, and the acquisition and use of water and nitrogen for photosynthesis. Successful and sustainable management of both natural and human-modified ecosystems flows from advances in our understanding of the fundamentals of plant ecology. Improved understanding of acquisition and use of water and nutrients by plants should lead not only to better management in the present day, but better-founded management decisions under possible future scenarios such as global warming, higher atmospheric CO2 concentrations or altered rainfall regimes. High-impact publications resulting from this project will sustain Australian leadership in environmental plant biology.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200101226
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$426,071.00
Summary
Success and the city: biodiversity responses in urban environments. This project aims to quantify the species traits and environmental conditions that enable wildlife to persist in an increasingly urbanised world. Through developing and testing a framework linking unprecedented urban expansion and biodiversity change, this project will identify favourable conditions that support biodiversity in the face of global urbanisation. Project outcomes will inform appropriate real-world management action ....Success and the city: biodiversity responses in urban environments. This project aims to quantify the species traits and environmental conditions that enable wildlife to persist in an increasingly urbanised world. Through developing and testing a framework linking unprecedented urban expansion and biodiversity change, this project will identify favourable conditions that support biodiversity in the face of global urbanisation. Project outcomes will inform appropriate real-world management actions and equip scientists, policy-makers and planners with tools to forecast the persistence of biodiversity in Australian cities. By discovering the attributes species need to survive city life this project will help prevent future catastrophic declines of global biodiversity in our increasingly urbanised world.Read moreRead less
Mistletoe as a keystone resource---an experimental test. My recent synthesis of known interactions between animals and mistletoe suggests that mistletoe functions as a keystone resource, influencing diversity patterns in forested ecosystems worldwide. This project tests the keystone hypothesis explicitly for woodland communities using landscape-scale manipulation. In 40 woodland remnants, all mistletoes will be removed from 20, with subsequent seasonal censuses of woodland birds, arboreal mars ....Mistletoe as a keystone resource---an experimental test. My recent synthesis of known interactions between animals and mistletoe suggests that mistletoe functions as a keystone resource, influencing diversity patterns in forested ecosystems worldwide. This project tests the keystone hypothesis explicitly for woodland communities using landscape-scale manipulation. In 40 woodland remnants, all mistletoes will be removed from 20, with subsequent seasonal censuses of woodland birds, arboreal marsupials and butterflies. Incorporating data on spatial and temporal variation in fruit, nectar and arthropod availability, this study represents a model system for understanding the ecosystem-wide role of ecological keystones and the influence of resource distribution on diversity patterns in fragmented habitats generally.Read moreRead less
Novel habitat quality assessment to inform the development of recreational boating infrastructure. As Australians migrate towards the coast, the demand for recreational boating facilities such as moorings and marinas is increasing rapidly. These structures can remove habitat and fragment the seascape in a similar manner to roads and clearings in forest and grasslands. Coastal infrastructure can also reduce the quality of existing habitats and their full impact must be assessed if the diversity a ....Novel habitat quality assessment to inform the development of recreational boating infrastructure. As Australians migrate towards the coast, the demand for recreational boating facilities such as moorings and marinas is increasing rapidly. These structures can remove habitat and fragment the seascape in a similar manner to roads and clearings in forest and grasslands. Coastal infrastructure can also reduce the quality of existing habitats and their full impact must be assessed if the diversity and function of coastal seascapes is to be conserved. This project aims to use a combination of novel modelling, surveys, and large experiments to understand how threatened seagrass, fish, and sediment habitats are altered in human modified seascapes, and to assess the success of habitat restoration following the removal of boating structures.Read moreRead less