ORCID Profile
0000-0003-0457-8144
Current Organisation
University of Queensland
Does something not look right? The information on this page has been harvested from data sources that may not be up to date. We continue to work with information providers to improve coverage and quality. To report an issue, use the Feedback Form.
Research Topics
In Research Link Australia (RLA), "Research Topics" refer to ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes. These topics are either sourced from ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes listed in researchers' related grants or generated by a large language model (LLM) based on their publications.
Top 5 Research Topics
ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)
Landscape Ecology | Ecological Applications | Conservation and Biodiversity | Environmental Science and Management | Climate Change Processes | Landscape Ecology | Conservation And Biodiversity | Atmospheric Sciences | Natural Resource Management | Ecological Impacts of Climate Change | Historical Studies | Spatial Information Systems | History: Australian | Photogrammetry And Remote Sensing | Climatology (excl. Climate Change Processes) | Environmental Management | Urban And Regional Studies | Palaeoclimatology | Wildlife and Habitat Management | Aboriginal Studies | Geomatic Engineering | Global Change Biology | Population And Ecological Genetics | Forestry Management and Environment |
ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)
Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity at Regional or Larger Scales | Climate Change Adaptation Measures | Ecosystem Assessment and Management of Forest and Woodlands Environments | Living resources (flora and fauna) | Remnant vegetation and protected conservation areas | Climate variability | Climate change | Living resources (incl. impacts of fishing on non-target species) | Remnant Vegetation and Protected Conservation Areas at Regional or Larger Scales | Remnant Vegetation and Protected Conservation Areas in Farmland, Arable Cropland and Permanent Cropland Environments | Living resources (flora and fauna) | Global climate change adaptation measures | Farmland, Arable Cropland and Permanent Cropland Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity | Ecosystem Assessment and Management of Farmland, Arable Cropland and Permanent Cropland Environments | Ecosystem Adaptation to Climate Change | Land Stewardship | Effects of Climate Change and Variability on Australia (excl. Social Impacts) | Climate Change Mitigation Strategies | Ecosystem Assessment and Management at Regional or Larger Scales | Remnant vegetation and protected conservation areas | Integrated (ecosystem) assessment and management | Living resources (flora and fauna) | Control of pests and exotic species | Remnant vegetation and protected conservation areas | Remnant vegetation and protected conservation areas | Ecosystem Assessment and Management of Urban and Industrial Environments | Land and water management | Air Quality not elsewhere classified | Social Impacts of Climate Change and Variability | Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage
Related Links
Publications
Relative influence of habitat modification and interspecific competition on woodland bird assemblages in eastern Australia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-2011
DOI: 10.1071/MU09108
A composite descriptor for shape retrieval
Publisher: IEEE
Date: 2007
DOI: 10.1109/ICIS.2007.13
Integrating design thinking with sustainability science: a Research through Design approach
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 20-08-2018
DOI: 10.1007/S11625-018-0618-6
Abstract: Design disciplines have a long history of creating well-integrated solutions to challenges which are complex, uncertain and contested by multiple stakeholders. Society faces similar challenges in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals, so design methods hold much potential. While principles of good design are well established, there has been limited integration of design thinking with sustainability science. To advance this integration, we examine the process of designing MetaMAP: an interactive graphic tool for collaborating to understand social–ecological systems and design well-integrated solutions. MetaMAP was created using Research through Design methods which integrate creative and scientific thinking. By applying design thinking, researchers and practitioners from different backgrounds undertook multiple cycles of problem framing, solution development, testing and reflection. The testing was highly collaborative involving over 150 people from erse disciplines in workshops, case studies, interviews and critique. Reflecting on this process, we discuss design principles and opportunities for integrating design thinking with sustainability science to help achieve Sustainable Development Goals.
Unplanned land clearing of Colombian rainforests: Spreading like disease?
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2006
Some practical suggestions for improving engagement between researchers and policy-makers in natural resource management
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-2008
The importance of forest area and configuration relative to local habitat factors for conserving forest mammals: A case study of koalas in Queensland, Australia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2006
Modelling the potential range of the koala at the Last Glacial Maximum: Future conservation implications
Publisher: Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales
Date: 2011
DOI: 10.7882/AZ.2011.052
The impact of climate change on the distribution of two threatened Dipterocarp trees
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-03-2017
DOI: 10.1002/ECE3.2846
Using multilevel models to identify drivers of landscape-genetic structure among management areas
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 04-06-2013
DOI: 10.1111/MEC.12359
Abstract: Landscape genetics offers a powerful approach to understanding species' dispersal patterns. However, a central obstacle is to account for ecological processes operating at multiple spatial scales, while keeping research outcomes applicable to conservation management. We address this challenge by applying a novel multilevel regression approach to model landscape drivers of genetic structure at both the resolution of in iduals and at a spatial resolution relevant to management (i.e. local government management areas: LGAs) for the koala (Phascolartos cinereus) in Australia. Our approach allows for the simultaneous incorporation of drivers of landscape-genetic relationships operating at multiple spatial resolutions. Using microsatellite data for 1106 koalas, we show that, at the in idual resolution, foliage projective cover (FPC) facilitates high gene flow (i.e. low resistance) until it falls below approximately 30%. Out of six additional land-cover variables, only highways and freeways further explained genetic distance after accounting for the effect of FPC. At the LGA resolution, there was significant variation in isolation-by-resistance (IBR) relationships in terms of their slopes and intercepts. This was predominantly explained by the average resistance distance among LGAs, with a weaker effect of historical forest cover. Rates of recent landscape change did not further explain variation in IBR relationships among LGAs. By using a novel multilevel model, we disentangle the effect of landscape resistance on gene flow at the fine resolution (i.e. among in iduals) from effects occurring at coarser resolutions (i.e. among LGAs). This has important implications for our ability to identify appropriate scale-dependent management actions.
Modelling seasonal habitat suitability for wide-ranging species: invasive wild pigs in northern Australia
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 04-05-2017
Retention and restoration priorities for climate adaptation in a multi-use landscape
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2019
Matrix Intensification Affects Body and Physiological Condition of Tropical Forest-Dependent Passerines
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 24-06-2015
Prioritizing regions to conserve a specialist folivore: Considering probability of occurrence, food resources, and climate change
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 21-08-2015
DOI: 10.1111/CONL.12125
The eco-social transformation of urban wetlands: A case study of Colombo, Sri Lanka
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2014
Faustian bargains? Restoration realities in the context of biodiversity offset policies
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2012
Spatial scale and movement behaviour traits control the impacts of habitat fragmentation on individual fitness
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 14-09-2016
Abstract: Habitat fragmentation, that is the breaking apart of habitat, can occur at multiple spatial scales at the same time, as a result of different land uses. In iduals of most species spend different amounts of times moving in different modes, during which they cover different distances and experience different fitness impacts. The scale at which fragmentation occurs interacts with the distance that in iduals move in a particular mode to affect an in idual's ability to find habitat. However, there is little knowledge of the fitness consequences of different scales of fragmentation for in iduals with different traits of movement behaviour. This is critical to understand the mechanisms of persistence of different species in fragmented landscapes. The aim of this study was to quantify the impacts of habitat fragmentation at different scales on the fitness components (reproduction and survival) of in iduals with different traits of movement behaviour. We developed a demographic model of in iduals that adopt short and tortuous movements within foraging areas (foraging mode) and long and straight movements between foraging areas (searching mode). We considered in iduals that adopt different movement modes with varying frequencies, inherently move different searching distances and experience different risks of mortality during searching. We then applied the model within a spatially explicit simulation framework where we varied simultaneously the degree of fragmentation within (fine scale) and between foraging areas (coarse scale). Fine-scale fragmentation had a greater impact on reproduction and survival than coarse-scale fragmentation, for those in iduals with a low searching propensity. The impact of fine-scale fragmentation on reproduction and survival interacted with the impact of coarse-scale fragmentation on reproduction and survival, to affect the fitness of in iduals with a high searching propensity, large inherent searching distances and high searching mortality rates. Habitat selection strongly mitigated the impact of the scale at which fragmentation occurred on in idual fitness. Our findings suggest that the land use to target with conservation actions to reduce fragmentation, such as financial schemes that promote re-vegetation or retention of standing vegetation, depends on the scale at which fragmentation occurs and the movement behaviour traits of the species of conservation concern.
Subsistence lifestyles and insular forest loss in the Louisiade Archipelago of Papua New Guinea: An endemic hotspot
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2018
DOI: 10.1071/PC17047
Abstract: Insular areas of the south-west Pacific support high levels of global bio ersity and are undergoing rapid change. The Louisiade Archipelago of Papua New Guinea is a poorly known location with high levels of endemism. The largest island, Sudest Island, supports single-island endemic species and has the largest tract of forest remaining in this island group. The islands still support traditional subsistence lifestyles. This study investigated the patterns of forest loss since 1974 and predicted future forest loss to identify areas of conservation concern. We collected village population census data to assess population growth from 1979–2011. Historical vegetation mapping from 1974 was compared with Global Forest Change data from 2000–14. The geospatial drivers of forest loss were investigated using a generalised linear mixed model. Projected forest cover loss patterns in the islands were modelled in GEOMOD to the year 2030. Resident populations grew rapidly (6.0% per year, 1979–2011) but only a low rate of forest loss (e.g. −0.035% per year, Sudest Island) was observed between 1974 and 2014, restricted to low elevations near villages. Future modelling showed varied impacts on the remaining forest extents of the larger islands. The study offers a rare contemporary ex le of a bio erse hotspot that has remained relatively secure. We concluded that local cultural and environmental settings of islands in the south-west Pacific can strongly determine the patterns and processes of forest cover change, and need to be considered in programs to conserve endemic ersity.
Climatic-Induced Shifts in the Distribution of Teak (Tectona grandis) in Tropical Asia: Implications for Forest Management and Planning.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 04-05-2017
DOI: 10.1007/S00267-017-0884-6
Abstract: Modelling the future suitable climate space for tree species has become a widely used tool for forest management planning under global climate change. Teak (Tectona grandis) is one of the most valuable tropical hardwood species in the international timber market, and natural teak forests are distributed from India through Myanmar, Laos and Thailand. The extents of teak forests are shrinking due to deforestation and the local impacts of global climate change. However, the direct impacts of climate changes on the continental-scale distributions of native and non-native teak have not been examined. In this study, we developed a species distribution model for teak across its entire native distribution in tropical Asia, and its non-native distribution in Bangladesh. We used presence-only records of trees and twelve environmental variables that were most representative for current teak distributions in South and Southeast Asia. MaxEnt (maximum entropy) models were used to model the distributions of teak under current and future climate scenarios. We found that land use/land cover change and elevation were the two most important variables explaining the current and future distributions of native and non-native teak in tropical Asia. Changes in annual precipitation, precipitation seasonality and annual mean actual evapotranspiration may result in shifts in the distributions of teak across tropical Asia. We discuss the implications for the conservation of critical teak habitats, forest management planning, and risks of biological invasion that may occur due to its cultivation in non-native ranges.
Rotation invariant curvelet features for texture image retrieval
Publisher: IEEE
Date: 06-2009
Community motivations to engage in conservation behavior to conserve the Sumatran orangutan
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-04-2016
DOI: 10.1111/COBI.12650
Abstract: Community-based conservation programs in developing countries are often based on the assumption that heteronomous motivation (e.g., extrinsic incentives such as economic rewards and pressure or coercion to act) will incite local communities to adopt conservation behaviors. However, this may not be as effective or sustainable as autonomous motivations (e.g., an intrinsic desire to act due to inherent enjoyment or self-identification with a behavior and through freedom of choice). We analyzed the comparative effectiveness of heteronomous versus autonomous approaches to community-based conservation programs through a case study of Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) conservation in 3 villages in Indonesia. Each village had a different conservation program design. We surveyed people (n = 240) to determine their motivations for and behavior changes relative to orangutan and orangutan habitat (forest) protection. Heteronomous motivations (e.g., income from tourism) led to greater self-reporting of behavior change toward orangutan protection. However, they did not change self-reported behavior toward forest (i.e., orangutan habitat) protection. The most effective approach to creating self-reported behavior change throughout the community was a combination of autonomous and heteronomous motivations. In iduals who were heteronomously motivated to protect the orangutan were more likely to have changed attitudes than to have changed their self-reported behavior. These findings demonstrate that the current paradigm of motivating communities in developing countries to adopt conservation behaviors primarily through monetary incentives and rewards should consider integrating autonomous motivational techniques that promote the intrinsic values of conservation. Such a combination has a greater potential to achieve sustainable and cost-effective conservation outcomes. Our results highlight the importance of using in-depth sociopsychological analyses to inform the design and implementation of community-based conservation programs.
Squirrel glider home ranges near urban edges in eastern Australia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-07-2011
Landscape ecology: An integrated science for sustainability in a changing world
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 31-08-2010
Correction to: Integrating design thinking with sustainability science: a Research through Design approach
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 20-09-2018
Bayesian Networks and Adaptive Management of Wildlife Habitat
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-07-2010
DOI: 10.1111/J.1523-1739.2010.01451.X
Abstract: Adaptive management is an iterative process of gathering new knowledge regarding a system's behavior and monitoring the ecological consequences of management actions to improve management decisions. Although the concept originated in the 1970s, it is rarely actively incorporated into ecological restoration. Bayesian networks (BNs) are emerging as efficient ecological decision-support tools well suited to adaptive management, but ex les of their application in this capacity are few. We developed a BN within an adaptive-management framework that focuses on managing the effects of feral grazing and prescribed burning regimes on avian ersity within woodlands of subtropical eastern Australia. We constructed the BN with baseline data to predict bird abundance as a function of habitat structure, grazing pressure, and prescribed burning. Results of sensitivity analyses suggested that grazing pressure increased the abundance of aggressive honeyeaters, which in turn had a strong negative effect on small passerines. Management interventions to reduce pressure of feral grazing and prescribed burning were then conducted, after which we collected a second set of field data to test the response of small passerines to these measures. We used these data, which incorporated ecological changes that may have resulted from the management interventions, to validate and update the BN. The network predictions of small passerine abundance under the new habitat and management conditions were very accurate. The updated BN concluded the first iteration of adaptive management and will be used in planning the next round of management interventions. The unique belief-updating feature of BNs provides land managers with the flexibility to predict outcomes and evaluate the effectiveness of management interventions.
Back to the Future? Planning for environmental outcomes and the new Caring for our Country program
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 12-2010
Ranking and mapping koala habitat quality for conservation planning on the basis of indirect evidence of tree-species use: A case study of Noosa Shire, south-eastern Queensland
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2011
DOI: 10.1071/WR07177
Abstract: Context Mapping the habitat and distribution of a species is critical for developing effective conservation plans. Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus, Phascolarctidae) distribution is constrained by the nutritional and shelter requirements provided by a relatively small number of key tree species in any given area. Identifying these key species provides a practical foundation for mapping koala habitat and prioritising areas for conservation. Aims To determine key tree species for koalas in Noosa Shire (south-eastern Queensland, Australia) as a basis for mapping koala habitat quality. Methods We applied a faecal-pellet survey methodology in 1996/97 to assess evidence of use by koalas of 4031 trees from 96 randomly stratified survey sites across different eucalypt-forest and woodland communities. Results were compared with those from a later survey undertaken in 2001/02 involving 5535 trees from 195 sites that were distributed across broadly similar areas with the aim to investigate aspects of koala landscape ecology. Key results A total of 66.7% of the 1996/97 survey sites contained koala faecal pellets, recorded under 953 eucalypt trees (14 species) and 1670 non-eucalypt trees (27 species). The proportion of trees at a given survey site that had koala faecal pellets at the base ranged from 2.2% to 94.7% (mean = 31.13 ± 2.59% s.e.). For the 2001/02 dataset, koala pellets were found at 55.4% of sites, from 794 eucalypt and 2240 non-eucalypt trees. The proportion of trees with pellets ranged from 3% to 80% (mean = 21.07 ± 1.77% s.e.). Both the 1996/97 and 2001/02 surveys identified the same three tree species (forest red gum, Eucalyptus tereticornis, sw mahogany, E. robusta, and tallowwood, E. microcorys) as the highest-ranked for koala use in the study area. Three additional species (red mahogany, E. resinifera, small-fruited grey gum, E. propinqua, and grey ironbark, E. siderophloia) were identified in the 1996/97 surveys as key eucalypt species. Of the non-eucalypts in the 1996/97 dataset, coast cypress pine (Callitris columellaris) and broad-leaved paperbark (Melaleuca quinquenervia) ranked highest for use by koalas, followed by pink bloodwood (Corymbia intermedia) and brush box (Lophostemon confertus). White bottlebrush (Callistemon salignus), hard corkwood (Endiandra sieberi), M. quinquenervia and C. intermedia ranked highest in the 2001/02 dataset. The findings showed significantly greater use of larger eucalypts (i.e. 300-mm to -mm diameter at breast height). Conclusions The identified key eucalypt species, being the critical limiting resource for koalas, were used to assign koala habitat-quality classes to mapped regional ecosystem types to create a Koala Habitat Atlas (KHA) for Noosa Shire. The combined two highest quality classes based on abundance of the key eucalypt species comprised only 15.7% of the total land area of the Shire. Implications The KHA approach provides a practical and repeatable method for developing koala habitat-suitability mapping for national-, regional- and local-scale conservation and recovery planning purposes.
The influence of landscape relative to site and patch variables on primate distributions in the Colombian Llanos
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 21-02-2017
Science for action at the local landscape scale
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 04-08-2013
An assessment of the Tagula Honeyeater Microptilotis vicina, a Data Deficient bird species in a Melanesian endemic hotspot
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 22-07-2019
DOI: 10.1017/S095927091900025X
Abstract: We conducted research into the ‘Data Deficient’ and endemic Tagula Honeyeater Microptilotis vicina of the Louisiade Archipelago, Papua New Guinea. This species was only observed on Sudest and Junet Islands. Islands were visited between October and January in the years from 2012–2014 and in 2016. We conducted the first assessment of spatial and habitat use by this species using radio-tracking in 2016. These findings were also used to inform estimates using traditional population density methods. CTMM package in R was used for home-range estimation for the tracked honeyeaters. Our results supported that members of this species display territoriality during the breeding season, occupying a mean of 2.0 ± 0.6 (SE) ha on Junet Island ( n = 5). Whether in iduals defended defined territories at other times of the year was not known but re-sightings of marked birds confirmed them to be locally resident. Population estimates ranged between 53,000 and 85,000 in iduals. However, more conservative estimates nearing 50,000 in iduals were considered prudent given lower population densities observed on parts of the larger Sudest Island (0.64/ha). This species utilised the canopy and understorey layers in a range of habitats from mangroves at sea-level, gardens and regrowth of various ages to cloud forest on the highest point of Sudest Island (∼800 m asl). Dietary observations support that like many closely related species, Tagula Honeyeaters have a broad diet of mostly insects supplemented with nectar and fruit. Observations indicated that this species had life history attributes toward the slower end of the spectrum but similar to other congeners. Vocalisations were more erse in both structure and complexity than those of suspected close relatives the Mimic Microptilotis analogus and Graceful Microptilotis gracilis Honeyeaters. Morphological measures were similarly different, supporting species level recognition.
MODIS time series as a tool for monitoring fires and their effects on savanna bird diversity
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2012
DOI: 10.1071/WF11031
Abstract: In this study, we aimed to explore the effect of fires on bird ersity in Australia’s tropical savannas. Bird surveys were conducted at 69 sites between 2005 and 2007 to estimate bird species richness and abundance within the Mornington Sanctuary, the Kimberley, north-west Australia. We used MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) and Landsat satellite imagery to map fire scars and to quantify vegetation cover parameters, and QuickBird imagery to map the percentage tree cover. Bird species richness and abundance were higher in areas exhibiting minimum seasonal and interannual changes, e.g. in riparian areas, near water and where tree cover was high. We found a significant negative effect of fire on bird ersity following the extensive late dry-season fires of 2006. These findings support the view that intense and large fires are threatening bio ersity and reinforce the importance of reducing the occurrence of late dry-season fires, which are the most severe and extensive. MODIS satellite imagery was found to provide a cost-effective approach to monitoring savanna landscapes, assessing the state of vegetation and monitoring fire dynamics.
Influence of urban edges on stress in an arboreal mammal: a case study of squirrel gliders in southeast Queensland, Australia
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 25-08-2012
Landscape structure influences urban vegetation vertical structure
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 27-07-2016
Mining matrix effects on West African rainforest birds
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2014
Bird conservation values of off-reserve forests in lowland Nepal
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2014
Can multiscale models of species' distribution be generalized from region to region? A case study of the koala
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 26-11-2008
Drivers of Coastal Shoreline Change: Case Study of Hon Dat Coast, Kien Giang, Vietnam
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 31-03-2015
DOI: 10.1007/S00267-015-0455-7
Abstract: Coastal shorelines are naturally dynamic, shifting in response to coastal geomorphological processes. Globally, land use change associated with coastal urban development and growing human population pressures is accelerating coastal shoreline change. In southern Vietnam, coastal erosion currently is posing considerable risks to shoreline land use and coastal inhabitants. The aim of this paper is to quantify historical shoreline changes along the Hon Dat coast between 1995 and 2009, and to document the relationships between coastal mangrove composition, width and density, and rates of shoreline change. The generalized linear mixed-effects models were used to quantify the major biophysical and land-use factors influencing shoreline change rates. Most significant drivers of the rates of change are cutting of mangroves, the dominant mangrove genus, changes in adjacent shoreline land use, changes of shoreline land cover, and width of fringing mangroves. We suggest that a possible and inexpensive strategy for robust mangrove shoreline defense is direct mangrove planting to promote mangrove density with the presence of breakwater structures. In the shorter term, construction of coastal barriers such as fence-structured melaleuca poles in combination with mangrove restoration schemes could help retain coastal sediments and increase the elevation of the accretion zone, thereby helping to stabilize eroding fringe shorelines. It also is recommended that implementation of a system of payments for mangrove ecosystem services and the stronger regulation of mangrove cutting and unsustainable land-use change to strengthen the effectiveness of mangrove conservation programs and coastal land-use management.
Movements of marine fish and decapod crustaceans: Process, theory and application
Publisher: Elsevier
Date: 2003
DOI: 10.1016/S0065-2881(03)44004-2
Abstract: Many marine species have a multi-phase ontogeny, with each phase usually associated with a spatially and temporally discrete set of movements. For many fish and decapod crustaceans that live inshore, a tri-phasic life cycle is widespread, involving: (1) the movement of planktonic eggs and larvae to nursery areas (2) a range of routine shelter and foraging movements that maintain a home range and (3) spawning migrations away from the home range to close the life cycle. Additional complexity is found in migrations that are not for the purpose of spawning and movements that result in a relocation of the home range of an in idual that cannot be defined as an ontogenetic shift. Tracking and tagging studies confirm that life cycle movements occur across a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. This dynamic multi-scale complexity presents a significant problem in selecting appropriate scales for studying highly mobile marine animals. We address this problem by first comprehensively reviewing the movement patterns of fish and decapod crustaceans that use inshore areas and present a synthesis of life cycle strategies, together with five categories of movement. We then examine the scale-related limitations of traditional approaches to studies of animal-environment relationships. We demonstrate that studies of marine animals have rarely been undertaken at scales appropriate to the way animals use their environment and argue that future studies must incorporate animal movement into the design of s ling strategies. A major limitation of many studies is that they have focused on: (1) a single scale for animals that respond to their environment at multiple scales or (2) a single habitat type for animals that use multiple habitat types. We develop a hierarchical conceptual framework that deals with the problem of scale and environmental heterogeneity and we offer a new definition of 'habitat' from an organism-based perspective. To demonstrate that the conceptual framework can be applied, we explore the range of tools that are currently available for both measuring animal movement patterns and for mapping and quantifying marine environments at multiple scales. The application of a hierarchical approach, together with the coordinated integration of spatial technologies offers an unprecedented opportunity for researchers to tackle a range of animal-environment questions for highly mobile marine animals. Without scale-explicit information on animal movements many marine conservation and resource management strategies are less likely to achieve their primary objectives.
Influence of landscape structure on invasive predators: feral cats and red foxes in the brigalow landscapes, Queensland, Australia
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2012
DOI: 10.1071/WR12008
Abstract: Context Invasive mammalian predators are often associated with fragmented landscapes, and can compound the impacts of habitat loss and fragmentation on native fauna. Knowledge of how invasive predators are influenced by different landscape structures can assist in the mitigation of their impacts. Aims The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of landscape structure and site-scale habitat attributes on the frequency of feral-cat and red-fox detections in fragmented agricultural landscapes. Methods Field surveys of the frequency of red-fox and feral-cat visitation at a site scale were stratified for six different habitat types in six study subregions. The habitat types were large remnant patch interior, large remnant patch edge, small remnant patch, roadside verge, regrowth patch and open agricultural land adjacent to a remnant patch. Sites were centred in a 1-km buffer area from which landscape composition and configuration were calculated. We applied a generalised linear model and an information-theoretic approach to determine the effect size and importance and rank of the explanatory variables on red-fox, feral-cat and pooled cat and fox detection rates. Key results The most important factors influencing detection rates had a positive effect and included: the dominance of cropping in the landscape (cat, fox, pooled cat and fox) and the density of vegetation at a site scale (fox, pooled cat and fox). The number of native habitat patches was also an important factor in the models of red foxes and pooled invasive predators. Conclusion Spatially heterogeneous cropping landscapes incur higher rates of invasive-predator detections than do intact native-woodland and pasture landscapes at the 1-km scale. At a site scale, elevated invasive-predator detections occurred at sites with dense vegetation, characteristic of narrow woodland and the edges of large woodland patches. Implications The research findings highlight that vertebrate pest management needs to target highly fragmented agricultural landscapes that are more likely to have elevated levels of invasive-predator activity. Landscape restoration efforts need to consider the redesign of landscapes to make them less suitable for predators and more hospitable for native wildlife.
Deforestation changes land-atmosphere interactions across South American biomes
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2016
Projecting the performance of conservation interventions
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2017
The importance of fine-scale savanna heterogeneity for reptiles and small mammals
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2010
Identification of fine scale and landscape scale drivers of urban aboveground carbon stocks using high-resolution modeling and mapping
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2018
DOI: 10.1016/J.SCITOTENV.2017.11.255
Abstract: Urban areas are sources of land use change and CO
Regional variation in streamflow drivers across a continental climatic gradient
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 19-01-2017
DOI: 10.1002/ECO.1816
Habitat attributes of landscape mosaics along a gradient of matrix development intensity: matrix management matters
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 16-06-2009
Local government response to the impacts of climate change: An evaluation of local climate adaptation plans
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2012
Reptile abundance, but not species richness, increases with regrowth age and spatial extent in fragmented agricultural landscapes of eastern Australia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2015
Biogeographical and Taxonomic Biases in Tropical Forest Fragmentation Research
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 26-07-2014
DOI: 10.1111/COBI.12348
Abstract: Despite several decades of research on the effects of fragmentation and habitat change on bio ersity, there remain strong biases in the geographical regions and taxonomic species studied. The knowledge gaps resulting from these biases are of particular concern if the forests most threatened with modification are also those for which the effects of such change are most poorly understood. To quantify the nature and magnitude of such biases, we conducted a systematic review of the published literature on forest fragmentation in the tropics for the period 1980-2012. Studies included focused on any type of response of single species, communities, or assemblages of any taxonomic group to tropical forest fragmentation and on fragmentation-related changes to forests. Of the 853 studies we found in the SCOPUS database, 64% were conducted in the Neotropics, 13% in Asia, 10% in the Afrotropics, and 5% in Australasia. Thus, although the Afrotropics is subject to the highest rates of deforestation globally, it was the most disproportionately poorly studied biome. Significant taxonomic biases were identified. Of the taxonomic groups considered, herpetofauna was the least studied in the tropics, particularly in Africa. Research examining patterns of species distribution was by far the most common type (72%), and work focused on ecological processes (28%) was rare in all biomes, but particularly in the Afrotropics and for fauna. We suggest research efforts be directed toward less-studied biogeographic regions, particularly where the threat of forest fragmentation continues to be high. Increased research investment in the Afrotropics will be important to build knowledge of threats and inform responses in a region where almost no efforts to restore its fragmented landscapes have yet begun and forest protection is arguably most tenuous.
Incidence of competitors and landscape structure as predictors of woodland-dependent birds
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 24-08-2013
A GEOMETRIC METHOD TO COMPUTE DIRECTIONALITY FEATURES FOR TEXTURE IMAGES
Publisher: IEEE
Date: 06-2008
Matrix is important for mammals in landscapes with small amounts of native forest habitat
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-04-2011
Changes over 46 years in plant community structure in a cleared brigalow (Acacia harpophylla) forest
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 22-04-2016
DOI: 10.1111/AEC.12354
Climate-induced resource bottlenecks exacerbate species vulnerability: a review
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 18-05-2015
DOI: 10.1111/DDI.12339
Movement patterns of an arboreal marsupial at the edge of its range: A case study of the koala
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-09-2013
A survey of content-based image retrieval with high-level semantics
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2007
A continent under stress: Interactions, feedbacks and risks associated with impact of modified land cover on Australia's climate
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 04-08-2009
Land cover changes and their biogeophysical effects on climate
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 21-06-2013
DOI: 10.1002/JOC.3736
Integrated vegetation designs for enhancing water retention and recycling in agroecosystems
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 20-07-2010
Mapping Foliar Nutrition Using WorldView-3 and WorldView-2 to Assess Koala Habitat Suitability
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 22-01-2019
DOI: 10.3390/RS11030215
Abstract: Conservation planning and population assessment for widely-distributed, but vulnerable, arboreal folivore species demands cost-effective mapping of habitat suitability over large areas. This study tested whether multispectral data from WorldView-3 could be used to estimate and map foliar digestible nitrogen (DigN), a nutritional measure superior to total nitrogen for tannin-rich foliage for the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus). We acquired two WorldView-3 images (November 2015) and collected leaf s les from Eucalyptus woodlands in semi-arid eastern Australia. Linear regression indicated the normalized difference index using bands “Coastal” and “NIR1” best estimated DigN concentration (% dry matter, R2 = 0.70, RMSE = 0.19%). Foliar DigN concentration was mapped for multi-species Eucalyptus open woodlands across two landscapes using this index. This mapping method was tested on a WorldView-2 image (October 2012) with associated koala tracking data (August 2010 to November 2011) from a different landscape of the study region. Quantile regression showed significant positive relationship between estimated DigN and occurrence of koalas at 0.999 quantile (R2 = 0.63). This study reports the first attempt to use a multispectral satellite-derived spectral index for mapping foliar DigN at a landscape-scale (100s km2). The mapping method can potentially be incorporated in mapping and monitoring koala habitat suitability for conservation management.
Integration of social spatial data to assess conservation opportunities and priorities
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2019
The impact of climate change and urban growth on urban climate and heat stress in a subtropical city
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-02-2019
DOI: 10.1002/JOC.5998
The consequences of using indirect signs that decay to determine species' occupancy
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-2011
Continuum or discrete patch landscape models for savanna birds? Towards a pluralistic approach
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 29-09-2009
Spatial and temporal patterns of land clearing during policy change
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2018
Spatial variation in the importance of different prey types in the diet of red foxes
Publisher: Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales
Date: 2017
DOI: 10.7882/AZ.2017.025
Saving our national icon: An ecological analysis of the 2011 Australian Senate inquiry into status of the koala
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2015
Regrowth woodlands are valuable habitat for reptile communities
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2013
Learning naive bayes classifiers for music classification and retrieval
Publisher: IEEE
Date: 08-2010
Regional Planning in Queensland's Rangelands: Challenges and Prospects for Biodiversity Conservation
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 31-01-2007
The control of rank-abundance distributions by a competitive despotic species
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 04-09-2014
DOI: 10.1007/S00442-014-3060-1
Abstract: Accounting for differences in abundances among species remains a high priority for community ecology. While there has been more than 80 years of work on trying to explain the characteristic S shape of rank-abundance distributions (RADs), there has been recent conjecture that the form may not depend on ecological processes per se but may be a general phenomenon arising in many unrelated disciplines. We show that the RAD shape can be influenced by an ecological process, namely, interference competition. The noisy miner (Manorina melanocephala) is a hyperaggressive, 'despotic' bird that occurs over much of eastern Australia (>10(6) km(2)). We compiled data for bird communities from 350 locations within its range, which were collected using standard avian survey methods. We used hierarchical Bayesian models to show that the RAD shape was much altered when the abundance of the strong interactor exceeded a threshold density RADs consistently were steeper when the density of the noisy miner ≥2.5 birds ha(-1). The structure of bird communities at sites where the noisy miner exceeded this density was very different from that at sites where the densities fell below the threshold: species richness and Shannon ersity were much reduced, but mean abundances and mean avian biomass per site did not differ substantially.
The consequences of interactions between dispersal distance and resolution of habitat clustering for dispersal success
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 27-03-2013
Forest loss and Borneo’s climate
Publisher: IOP Publishing
Date: 23-03-2018
The Effect of Urban Density and Vegetation Cover on the Heat Island of a Subtropical City
Publisher: American Meteorological Society
Date: 11-2018
Abstract: The urban heat island (UHI) has a negative impact on the health of urban residents by increasing average temperatures. The intensity of the UHI effect is influenced by urban geometry and the amount of vegetation cover. This study investigated the impact of urban growth and loss of vegetation cover on the UHI in a subtropical city (Brisbane, Australia) during average and extreme conditions using the Conformal Cubic Atmospheric Model, run at a 1-km spatial resolution for 10 years. The average nighttime temperature increase was 0.7°C for the “Medium Density” urban growth scenario and 1.8°C for the “No Vegetation” scenario. During two widespread extreme heat events, the mean maximum increase in urban temperatures above the Control was between 2.2° and 3.8°C in the No Vegetation scenario and between 0.3° and 1.6°C in the Medium Density urban growth scenario. The results are similar to previous findings for temperate cities, with the intensity of the UHI effect higher at night and during winter than during the day and summer. Vegetation cover had the strongest impact on temperatures, more so than building height and height/width ratio. Maintaining and restoring vegetation, therefore, is a key consideration in mitigating the urban heat island. The large temperature increases found in this study, particularly during extreme heat events, shows the importance of reducing the UHI for protecting the health of urban residents, and this should be a priority in urban landscape planning and design.
Assessing spatio-temporal priorities for species' recovery in broad-scale dynamic landscapes
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 14-05-2015
An ecological paradox: More woodland predators and less artificial nest predation in landscapes colonized by noisy miners
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-08-2013
DOI: 10.1111/AEC.12074
Modelling species distributional shifts across broad spatial extents by linking dynamic occupancy models with public-based surveys
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-03-2014
DOI: 10.1111/DDI.12189
Climate change impacts on tropical forests: Identifying risks for tropical Asia
Publisher: Forest Research Institute Malaysia
Date: 25-04-2018
Identifying multiscale habitat factors influencing koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) occurrence and management in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 14-07-2008
Land use/land cover changes and climate: modeling analysis and observational evidence
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-10-2011
DOI: 10.1002/WCC.144
Abstract: This article summarizes the changes in landscape structure because of human land management over the last several centuries, and using observed and modeled data, documents how these changes have altered biogeophysical and biogeochemical surface fluxes on the local, mesoscale, and regional scales. Remaining research issues are presented including whether these landscape changes alter large‐scale atmospheric circulation patterns far from where the land use and land cover changes occur. We conclude that existing climate assessments have not yet adequately factored in this climate forcing. For those regions that have undergone intensive human landscape change, or would undergo intensive change in the future, we conclude that the failure to factor in this forcing risks a misalignment of investment in climate mitigation and adaptation. WIREs Clim Change 2011, 2:828–850. doi: 10.1002/wcc.144 This article is categorized under: Paleoclimates and Current Trends Climate Forcing
Power, politics and policy in the appropriation of urban wetlands: the critical case of Sri Lanka
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 21-11-2019
Assessing the validity of crowdsourced wildlife observations for conservation using public participatory mapping methods
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2018
Impediments to the success of management actions for species recovery
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 03-04-2014
New regionalism and nature conservation: Lessons from South East Queensland, Australia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2007
Testing the relevance of binary, mosaic and continuous landscape conceptualisations to reptiles in regenerating dryland landscapes
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 04-02-2015
Ruminants, climate change and climate policy
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 20-12-2013
DOI: 10.1038/NCLIMATE2081
The relationship of spatial–temporal changes in fringe mangrove extent and adjacent land-use: Case study of Kien Giang coast, Vietnam
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2013
Multi-scaled habitat considerations for conserving urban biodiversity: Native reptiles and small mammals in Brisbane, Australia
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-04-2010
Impact of historical land cover change on daily indices of climate extremes including droughts in eastern Australia
Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Date: 04-2009
DOI: 10.1029/2009GL037666
Climate and exotic pasture area in landscape determines invasion of forest fragments by two invasive grasses
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-09-2014
Environmental implications of using ‘underutilised agricultural land’ for future bioenergy crop production
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2015
Modelling habitat preferences of feral pigs for rooting in lowland rainforest
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 13-12-2013
Modelling changes in the distribution of the critical food resources of a specialist folivore in response to climate change
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 22-02-2012
Characterizing a tropical deforestation wave: a dynamic spatial analysis of a deforestation hotspot in the Colombian Amazon
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 04-07-2006
Linking the Budyko framework and the Dunne diagram
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2016
Landscape Fragmentation and Ecosystem Services: A Reply to Andrieu et al.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2015
Modeling the impact of historical land cover change on Australia's regional climate
Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Date: 11-2007
DOI: 10.1029/2007GL031524
GLAMS: A graphical method for capturing land and water management practices in agroecosystems
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 24-04-2007
Foraging guild perturbations and ecological homogenization driven by a despotic native bird species
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 17-03-2014
DOI: 10.1111/IBI.12136
Land use and land cover change impacts on the climate of non-Amazonian South America
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2015
Disentangling How Landscape Spatial and Temporal Heterogeneity Affects Savanna Birds
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 16-09-2013
Land's complex role in climate change
Publisher: AIP Publishing
Date: 11-2016
DOI: 10.1063/PT.3.3364
Abstract: To mitigate climate change at local, regional, and global scales, we must begin to think beyond greenhouse gases.
Matrix Intensification Alters Avian Functional Group Composition in Adjacent Rainforest Fragments
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 13-09-2013
Conserving koalas: A review of the contrasting regional trends, outlooks and policy challenges
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2015
Influence of contrasting urban edges on the abundance of arboreal mammals: A study of squirrel gliders (Petaurus norfolcensis) in southeast Queensland, Australia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2010
Squeezing information from regional climate change projections - results from a synthesis of CMIP5 results for south-east Queensland, Australia
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-10-2013
Time-delayed influence of urban landscape change on the susceptibility of koalas to chlamydiosis
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 07-01-2017
More than carbon sequestration: Biophysical climate benefits of restored savanna woodlands
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 04-07-2016
DOI: 10.1038/SREP29194
Abstract: Deforestation and climate change are interconnected and represent major environmental challenges. Here, we explore the capacity of regional-scale restoration of marginal agricultural lands to savanna woodlands in Australia to reduce warming and drying resulting from increased concentration of greenhouse gases. We show that restoration triggers a positive feedback loop between the land surface and the atmosphere, characterised by increased evaporative fraction, eddy dissipation and turbulent mixing in the boundary-layer resulting in enhanced cloud formation and precipitation over the restored regions. The increased evapotranspiration results from the capacity deep-rooted woody vegetation to access soil moisture. As a consequence, the increase in precipitation provides additional moisture to soil and trees, thus reinforcing the positive feedback loop. Restoration reduced the rate of warming and drying under the transient increase in the radiative forcing of greenhouse gas emissions (RCP8.5). At the continental scale, average summer warming for all land areas was reduced by 0.18 o C from 4.1 o C for the period 2056–2075 compared to 1986–2005. For the restored regions (representing 20% of Australia), the averaged surface temperature increase was 3.2 °C which is 0.82 °C cooler compared to agricultural landscapes. Further, there was reduction of 12% in the summer drying of the near-surface soil for the restored regions.
Conserving forest biodiversity across multiple land ownerships: Lessons from the Northwest Forest Plan and the Southeast Queensland regional forests agreement (Australia)
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2007
Conservation implications of ecological responses to extreme weather and climate events
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 11-12-2018
DOI: 10.1111/DDI.12878
The relative importance of habitat quality and landscape context for reptiles in regenerating landscapes
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2016
Global prioritisation of renewable nitrogen for biodiversity conservation and food security
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 28-09-2018
Forty-three years of Ramsar and urban wetlands
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2015
Despotic, high‐impact species and the subcontinental scale control of avian assemblage structure
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-2012
DOI: 10.1890/10-2340.1
Abstract: Some species have disproportionate influence on assemblage structure, given their numbers or biomass. Most ex les of such "strong interactors" come from small-scale experiments or from observations of the effects of invasive species. There is evidence that entire avian assemblages in open woodlands can be influenced strongly by in idual species over very large areas in eastern Australia, with small-bodied species ( 2000 km). A series of linked Bayesian models was used to identify large-bodied (> or = 50 g) bird species that were associated with changes in occurrence and abundance of small-bodied species. One native species, the Noisy Miner (Manorina melanocephala family Meliphagidae), was objectively identified as the sole large-bodied species having similar detrimental effects in all districts, depressing occurrence of 57 of 71 small-bodied species. Adverse effects on abundances of small-bodied species were profound when the Noisy Miner occurred with mean site abundances > or = 1.6 birds/2 ha. The Noisy Miner may be the first species to have been shown to influence whole-of-avifauna assemblage structure through despotic aggressiveness over subcontinental scales. These substantial shifts in occurrence rates and abundances of small-bodied species flow on to alter species abundance distributions of entire assemblages over much of eastern Australia.
Using a Bayesian belief network to predict suitable habitat of an endangered mammal - The Julia Creek dunnart (Sminthopsis douglasi)
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2007
The impact of urbanization and climate change on urban temperatures: a systematic review
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 08-08-2017
Reframing landscape fragmentation's effects on ecosystem services
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2015
DOI: 10.1016/J.TREE.2015.01.011
Abstract: Landscape structure and fragmentation have important effects on ecosystem services, with a common assumption being that fragmentation reduces service provision. This is based on fragmentation's expected effects on ecosystem service supply, but ignores how fragmentation influences the flow of services to people. Here we develop a new conceptual framework that explicitly considers the links between landscape fragmentation, the supply of services, and the flow of services to people. We argue that fragmentation's effects on ecosystem service flow can be positive or negative, and use our framework to construct testable hypotheses about the effects of fragmentation on final ecosystem service provision. Empirical efforts to apply and test this framework are critical to improving landscape management for multiple ecosystem services.
Eucalypts face increasing climate stress
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-11-2013
DOI: 10.1002/ECE3.873
Genetic Architecture of Carotid Artery Intima-Media Thickness in Mexican Americans
Publisher: Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Date: 04-2013
DOI: 10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.113.000079
Abstract: Intima-media thickness (IMT) of the common and internal carotid arteries is an established surrogate for atherosclerosis and predicts risk of stroke and myocardial infarction. Often IMT is measured as the average of these 2 arteries yet, they are believed to result from separate biological mechanisms. The aim of this study was to conduct a family-based genome-wide association study (GWAS) for IMT to identify polymorphisms influencing IMT and to determine if distinct carotid artery segments are influenced by different genetic components. IMT for the common and internal carotid arteries was determined through B-mode ultrasound in 772 Mexican Americans from the San Antonio Family Heart Study. A GWAS using 931219 single-nucleotide polymorphisms was undertaken with 6 internal and common carotid artery IMT phenotypes using an additive measured genotype model. The most robust association detected was for 2 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (rs16983261, rs6113474 P =1.60e −7 ) in complete linkage disequilibrium on chromosome 20p11 for the internal carotid artery near wall, next to the gene PAX1 . We also replicated previously reported GWAS regions on chromosomes 19q13 and 7q22. We found no overlapping associations between internal and common carotid artery phenotypes at P .0e −6 . The genetic correlation between the 2 carotid IMT arterial segments was 0.51. This study represents the first large-scale GWAS of carotid IMT in a non–European population and identified several novel loci. We do not detect any shared GWAS signals between common and internal carotid arterial segments, but the moderate genetic correlation implies both common and unique genetic components.
Modelling climate-change-induced shifts in the distribution of the koala
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2011
DOI: 10.1071/WR10156
Abstract: Context The impacts of climate change on the climate envelopes, and hence, distributions of species, are of ongoing concern for bio ersity worldwide. Knowing where climate refuge habitats will occur in the future is essential to conservation planning. The koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) is recognised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as a species highly vulnerable to climate change. However, the impact of climate change on its distribution is poorly understood. Aims We aimed to predict the likely shifts in the climate envelope of the koala throughout its natural distribution under various climate change scenarios and identify potential future climate refugia. Methods To predict possible future koala climate envelopes we developed bioclimatic models using Maxent, based on a substantial database of locality records and several climate change scenarios. Key results The predicted current koala climate envelope was concentrated in south-east Queensland, eastern New South Wales and eastern Victoria, which generally showed congruency with their current known distribution. Under realistic projected future climate change, with the climate becoming increasingly drier and warmer, the models showed a significant progressive eastward and southward contraction in the koala’s climate envelope limit in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. The models also indicated novel potentially suitable climate habitat in Tasmania and south-western Australia. Conclusions Under a future hotter and drier climate, current koala distributions, based on their climate envelope, will likely contract eastwards and southwards to many regions where koala populations are declining due to additional threats of high human population densities and ongoing pressures from habitat loss, dog attacks and vehicle collisions. In arid and semi-arid regions such as the Mulgalands of south-western Queensland, climate change is likely to compound the impacts of habitat loss, resulting in significant contractions in the distribution of this species. Implications Climate change pressures will likely change priorities for allocating conservation efforts for many species. Conservation planning needs to identify areas that will provide climatically suitable habitat for a species in a changing climate. In the case of the koala, inland habitats are likely to become climatically unsuitable, increasing the need to protect and restore the more mesic habitats, which are under threat from urbanisation. National and regional koala conservation policies need to anticipate these changes and synergistic threats. Therefore, a proactive approach to conservation planning is necessary to protect the koala and other species that depend on eucalypt forests.
Spurious thresholds in the relationship between species richness and vegetation cover
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 11-08-2012
Can offsets really compensate for habitat removal? The case of the endangered red-tailed black-cockatoo
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 04-2010
Spatial patterns of kangaroo density across the South Australian pastoral zone over 26 years: aggregation during drought and suggestions of long distance movement
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 23-07-2007
Agricultural landscape modification increases the abundance of an important food resource: Mistletoes, birds and brigalow
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2009
Mapping forest patches and scattered trees from SPOT images and testing their ecological importance for woodland birds in a fragmented agricultural landscape
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 20-06-2009
How do community-based conservation programs in developing countries change human behaviour? A realist synthesis
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2016
Converting tropical forests to agriculture increases fire risk by fourfold
Publisher: IOP Publishing
Date: 23-09-2022
Abstract: Deforestation exacerbates climate change through greenhouse gas emissions, but other climatic alterations linked to the local biophysical changes from deforestation remain poorly understood. Here, we assess the impact of tropical deforestation on fire weather risk—defined as the climate conditions conducive to wildfires—using high-resolution convection-permitting climate simulations. We consider two land cover scenarios for the island of Borneo: land cover in 1980 ( forest scenario ) and land cover in 2050 ( deforestation scenario ) to force a convection-permitting climate model, using boundary conditions from ERA-Interim reanalysis for the 2002–2016 period. Our findings revealed significant alterations in post-deforestation fire precursors such as increased temperature, wind speed and potential evapotranspiration and decreased humidity, cloud cover and precipitation. As a result, fire weather events that would occur once a year in the forested scenario, are likely to occur four times a year following deforestation. Likewise, for extreme conditions, such as those occurring on longer time-horizons than 20 years, the magnitude of extreme fire weather is likely to double following deforestation. These increases in extreme fire weather conditions demonstrate the key role of tropical forests in regulating regional climate processes, including reduced fire weather risk.
Land-use and environmental pressures resulting from current and future bioenergy crop expansion: A review
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2012
Using Species Distribution Models to Predict Potential Landscape Restoration Effects on Puma Conservation
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 06-01-2016
Historical patterns and drivers of landscape change in Colombia since 1500: A regionalized spatial approach
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 05-02-2008
Estimating future changes in flood risk: Case study of the Brisbane river, Australia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2014
Modelling the Potential of Integrated Vegetation Bands (IVB) to Retain Stormwater Runoff on Steep Hillslopes of Southeast Queensland, Australia
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 20-08-2015
DOI: 10.3390/LAND4030711
Erratum to: The Human and Physical Determinants of Wildfires and Burnt Areas in Israel (Environmental Management, 10.1007/s00267-016-0715-1)
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 22-06-2016
CO2 -vegetation feedbacks and other climate changes implicated in reducing base flow
Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Date: 14-03-2017
DOI: 10.1002/2017GL072759
The exceptional value of intact forest ecosystems
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 26-02-2018
DOI: 10.1038/S41559-018-0490-X
Abstract: As the terrestrial human footprint continues to expand, the amount of native forest that is free from significant damaging human activities is in precipitous decline. There is emerging evidence that the remaining intact forest supports an exceptional confluence of globally significant environmental values relative to degraded forests, including imperilled bio ersity, carbon sequestration and storage, water provision, indigenous culture and the maintenance of human health. Here we argue that maintaining and, where possible, restoring the integrity of dwindling intact forests is an urgent priority for current global efforts to halt the ongoing bio ersity crisis, slow rapid climate change and achieve sustainability goals. Retaining the integrity of intact forest ecosystems should be a central component of proactive global and national environmental strategies, alongside current efforts aimed at halting deforestation and promoting reforestation.
Climate-relevant land use and land cover change policies
Publisher: American Meteorological Society
Date: 02-2016
DOI: 10.1175/BAMS-D-14-00221.1
Abstract: Both observational and modeling studies clearly demonstrate that land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) play an important biogeophysical and biogeochemical role in the climate system from the landscape to regional and even continental scales. Without comprehensively considering these impacts, an adequate response to the threats posed by human intervention into the climate system will not be adequate. Public policy plays an important role in shaping local- to national-scale land-use practices. An array of national policies has been developed to influence the nature and spatial extent of LULCC. Observational evidence suggests that these policies, in addition to international trade treaties and protocols, have direct effects on LULCC and thus the climate system. However, these policies, agreements, and protocols fail to adequately recognize these impacts. To make these more effective and thus to minimize climatic impacts, we propose several recommendations: 1) translating international treaties and protocols into national policies and actions to ensure positive climate outcomes 2) updating international protocols to reflect advancement in climate–LULCC science 3) continuing to invest in the measurements, databases, reporting, and verification activities associated with LULCC and LULCC-relevant climate monitoring and 4) reshaping Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation+ (REDD+) to fully account for the multiscale biogeophysical and biogeochemical impacts of LULCC on the climate system.
Influence of Interspecific Competition and Landscape Structure on Spatial Homogenization of Avian Assemblages
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 28-05-2013
The influence of sampling design on spatial data quality in a geographic citizen science project
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 11-07-2019
DOI: 10.1111/TGIS.12568
Measurement matters in managing landscape carbon
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2015
Impacts of Land Use/Land Cover Change on Climate and Future Research Priorities
Publisher: American Meteorological Society
Date: 2010
Biomass retention and carbon stocks in integrated vegetation bands: A case study of mixed-age brigalow-eucalypt woodland in southern Queensland, Australia
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2015
DOI: 10.1071/RJ14023
Abstract: Regrowth of native woody vegetation has the potential to provide an economically valuable source of carbon storage and other ecosystem services. There is a lack of readily applicable ex les of how regrowth of forests and woodlands can be integrated with existing grazing production systems and provide soil-protection and water-retention benefits. A system of integrated vegetation bands (IVB) was applied to patchy regrowth of acacia and eucalypt vegetation in a grazed landscape of southern Queensland, Australia. Across a 39.8-ha catchment with 3–5% slope, regrowth of scattered native vegetation (18.4 ha) was surveyed and diameter at breast height and height for all woody plants were recorded. The IVB (6.3 ha) were then marked out as 25-m-wide bands set 100 m apart and offset at ~2–3% gradient to the contour line, retaining the densest/largest regrowth where possible. The data on diameter at breast height and height were analysed using allometric equations to compare aboveground biomass in the original regrowth condition (‘Original’) to that retained in the installed IVB (‘IVB-Riparian’). Estimates of aboveground biomass were calculated for the Original and IVB-Riparian and compared with three other potential regrowth-vegetation management ‘treatments’ in a desktop-modelling study. The models were designated as: (1) ‘Original’ (2) ‘Broad’ (broad-scale cleared with only a few large trees along a creek retained)’ (3) ‘Big Trees’ (only large trees cm diameter at breast height retained) (4) ‘Riparian-IVB (bands of vegetation) and (5) ‘Riparian-IVB-Big Trees’ (large trees together with ‘IVB-Riparian’). In the non-forested area of the catchment, ‘Riparian-IVB-Big Trees’ (301 t), ‘Big Trees’ (249 t) and ‘Riparian-IVB’ (200 t) had the highest aboveground biomass retained, whereas ‘Broad’ resulted in the most pasture area (~33 ha) followed by ‘Riparian-IVB’ (~26 ha). The ‘Riparian-IVB’ treatment had the highest tree density within the vegetation bands and more than half (53%) of the original woody biomass in regrowth was retained on just under a quarter (23%) of the land area minimising the impact on the area of pasture/grazing land. This subsequently resulted in the ‘Riparian-IVB’ treatment having the highest carbon offset value (A$605 ha–1). The results demonstrate that the retention of native regrowth vegetation in either IVB or as large paddock trees can retain a large amount of aboveground biomass, with IVB having greater returns per hectare.
A few large roads or many small ones? How to accommodate growth in vehicle numbers to minimise impacts on wildlife
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 19-03-2014
Are changes in global oil production influencing the rate of deforestation and biodiversity loss?
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2016
Using multiple survey methods to detect terrestrial reptiles and mammals: what are the most successful and cost-efficient combinations?
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2007
DOI: 10.1071/WR06111
Abstract: The selection of methods for wildlife surveys is a decision that will influence the accuracy and comprehensiveness of survey outcomes. The choice of methods is commonly based on the species of interest, yet is often limited by the project budget. Although several studies have investigated the effectiveness of various survey techniques for detecting terrestrial mammal and reptile species, none have provided a quantitative analysis of the costs associated with different methods. We compare the detection success and cost efficiency of cage traps, Elliott traps, pit-fall traps, hair funnels, direct observation, and scat detection/analysis for detecting the occurrence of terrestrial reptile and small mammal species in urban bushland remnants of Brisbane City, Queensland, Australia. Cage traps and Elliott traps coupled with hair funnels were the most cost-effective methods for detecting the highest number of ground-dwelling mammal species. Pit-fall traps and direct observations were the most cost-effective methods for maximising the number of reptile species identified. All methods made a contribution to overall detection success by detecting at least one species not detected by any other method. This suggests that a combination of at least two complementary methods will provide the most successful and cost-efficient detection of reptile and mammal species in urban forest remnants. Future studies should explicitly test these findings and examine efficient trapping combinations across different habitat types and for other fauna groups.
Governing the urban wetlands: a multiple case-study of policy, institutions and reference points
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 28-11-2013
DOI: 10.1017/S0376892913000519
Abstract: Worldwide, coastal and floodplain wetlands are rapidly urbanizing, making them highly vulnerable to bio ersity loss, biological invasion and climate change. Yet urban wetlands management is an understudied area of global environmental research. Different policy approaches and institutional arrangements in place for urban wetlands governance have to be studied comparatively to obtain a better understanding of the current issues. This paper investigates four urban wetland policy regimes and the application of ecological reference points across four countries. The regimes are discussed within the context of global policy trends, urbanization patterns and environmental change. The analysis illustrates that the four cases deviate substantially in certain characteristics and converge in others. Global trends such as environmental treaties and restructuring of city spaces are common policy drivers for all cases. Conversely, the localized specific problems have yielded specialized policy responses in each case. Declaration of fixed biological reference points for wetlands were not used at any stage of the policy development process. However, the wetland managers formally or informally set up ecosystem-services oriented benchmarks for urban wetland management. Globally-applicable normative policy directives or universal ecological reference points seem bound to fail in urban wetlands governance. However, in designing effective urban wetland policy and institutions at the regional scale, both context-specific and generalized lessons from empirical policy evaluation of multiple case studies need to be jointly considered. Based on the characteristics of the policy regimes analysed in this study, a hypothetical framework for urban wetland policy evaluation is proposed this has yet to be validated by empirical application to actual cases.
The Human and Physical Determinants of Wildfires and Burnt Areas in Israel
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 31-05-2016
DOI: 10.1007/S00267-016-0715-1
Abstract: Wildfires are expected to increase in Mediterranean landscapes as a result of climate change and changes in land-use practices. In order to advance our understanding of human and physical factors shaping spatial patterns of wildfires in the region, we compared two independently generated datasets of wildfires for Israel that cover approximately the same study period. We generated a site-based dataset containing the location of 10,879 wildfires (1991-2011), and compared it to a dataset of burnt areas derived from MODIS imagery (2000-2011). We hypothesized that the physical and human factors explaining the spatial distribution of burnt areas derived from remote sensing (mostly large fires, >100 ha) will differ from those explaining site-based wildfires recorded by national agencies (mostly small fires, <10 ha). Small wildfires recorded by forestry agencies were concentrated within planted forests and near built-up areas, whereas the largest wildfires were located in more remote regions, often associated with military training areas and herbaceous vegetation. We conclude that to better understand wildfire dynamics, consolidation of wildfire databases should be achieved, combining field reports and remote sensing. As nearly all wildfires in Mediterranean landscapes are caused by human activities, improving the management of forest areas and raising public awareness to fire risk are key considerations in reducing fire danger.
An Approach to Mapping Forest Growth Stages in Queensland, Australia through Integration of ALOS PALSAR and Landsat Sensor Data
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 02-08-2012
DOI: 10.3390/RS4082236
Impacts of extractive forest uses on bird assemblages vary with landscape context in lowland Nepal
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2015
Cascading effects of cyclones on the biodiversity of Southwest Pacific islands
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2016
Regrowth forests on abandoned agricultural land: A review of their habitat values for recovering forest fauna
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2007
Erratum to The consequences of interactions between dispersal distance and resolution of habitat clustering for dispersal success (Landscape Ecol, 10.1007/s10980-013-9881-1)
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 13-06-2013
Region-based image retrieval with high-level semantics using decision tree learning
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2008
Contrasting effects of mosaic structure on alpha and beta diversity of bird assemblages in a human-modified landscape
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 17-10-2019
DOI: 10.1111/ECOG.02981
Region based color image retrieval using curvelet transform
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Date: 2010
Regional variation in habitat-occupancy thresholds: A warning for conservation planning
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 14-11-2008
Land-use drivers of forest fragmentation vary with spatial scale
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 26-05-2014
DOI: 10.1111/GEB.12187
Using broad-scale, community survey data to compare species conservation strategies across regions: A case study of the Koala in a set of adjacent 'catchments'
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-04-2009
What do we know about the effect of patch size on primate species across life history traits?
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 25-11-2016
Forest restoration: Transformative trees
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 18-10-2019
Assessing ecosystem service trade-offs and synergies: The need for a more mechanistic approach
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 24-11-2018
Overcoming barriers to sustainability by combining conceptual, visual, and networking systems
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 25-05-2018
Compounding impact of deforestation on Borneo’s climate during El Niño events
Publisher: IOP Publishing
Date: 20-07-2020
Mammal responses to matrix development intensity
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 25-01-2011
The importance of underground shelter resources for reptiles in dryland landscapes: A woma python case study
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 13-05-2014
DOI: 10.1111/AEC.12150
Adaptive management and planning for the conservation of four threatened large Asian mammals in a changing climate
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 27-04-2019
Change in habitat resources and structure near urban edges and its influence on the squirrel glider (Petaurus norfolcensis) in southeast Queensland, Australia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-2010
Habitat structure is more important than vegetation composition for local-level management of native terrestrial reptile and small mammal species living in urban remnants: A case study from Brisbane, Australia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-08-2007
Using integrated population modelling to quantify the implications of multiple threatening processes for a rapidly declining population
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2011
Complex adaptive landscapes (CAL): A conceptual framework of multi-functional, non-linear ecohydrological feedback systems
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2007
Notes on the cultural value, biology and conservation status of the Data Deficient Tagula butcherbird (Cracticus louisiadensis Tristram, 1889)
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2020
DOI: 10.1071/PC19014
Abstract: The Tagula butcherbird (Cracticus louisiadensis) is an endemic island species of butcherbird that has remained virtually unknown for over 130 years. The lack of information on the species has resulted in it being assigned to the Data Deficient category by BirdLife International and the IUCN, leaving its conservation status open to continuing speculation. This is an ongoing concern given the rapid environmental changes occurring in the region. Here, we describe the first observations of the habitat use, life history and ecology of the species. We also present information collected across the island distribution of the species, including density and population estimates. We found the Tagula butcherbird to be culturally important and relatively common in suitable habitats across four islands of the Louisiade Archipelago (Papua New Guinea). However, the species was absent from highly disturbed areas. We estimated this species’ extent of occurrence to be ~1200km2 and area of occupancy to be less than 800km2. Population densities were estimated via pre-dawn assessments of singing birds and line transects. Density estimates were found to be between 0.14 and 0.53 in iduals per hectare, with the highest density observed on Sabara Island. These densities were combined with remote sensing data to estimate the amount of available habitat and the species’ population size, which was estimated to be between ~11500 and 23000 in iduals. The species’ dependence on forest habitat with a relatively intact canopy, combined with the likely continuing destruction of habitat on Junet and Panawina Islands, remains a conservation concern.
Related Organisations
Related Funding Activities
Linkage Projects - Grant ID: LP0775264
Start Date: 04-2007
End Date: 04-2010
Amount: $355,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityLinkage Projects - Grant ID: LP100100738
Start Date: 2010
End Date: 11-2014
Amount: $385,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityARC Future Fellowships - Grant ID: FT100100338
Start Date: 2011
End Date: 11-2015
Amount: $813,192.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityLinkage Projects - Grant ID: LP0990178
Start Date: 12-2009
End Date: 12-2013
Amount: $352,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityDiscovery Projects - Grant ID: DP0667029
Start Date: 04-2006
End Date: 12-2010
Amount: $380,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityLinkage Projects - Grant ID: LP0882090
Start Date: 06-2008
End Date: 06-2011
Amount: $459,804.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityLinkage Projects - Grant ID: LP140100279
Start Date: 06-2015
End Date: 12-2019
Amount: $384,853.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityDiscovery Projects - Grant ID: DP160102107
Start Date: 06-2016
End Date: 06-2022
Amount: $478,600.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityLinkage Projects - Grant ID: LP160100486
Start Date: 12-2016
End Date: 06-2020
Amount: $232,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityDiscovery Projects - Grant ID: DP130100218
Start Date: 2013
End Date: 12-2016
Amount: $280,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityLinkage Projects - Grant ID: LP200100060
Start Date: 08-2021
End Date: 08-2024
Amount: $372,498.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityLinkage Projects - Grant ID: LP170100557
Start Date: 07-2019
End Date: 07-2019
Amount: $421,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityDiscovery Projects - Grant ID: DP150101300
Start Date: 02-2015
End Date: 04-2018
Amount: $395,500.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityLinkage Projects - Grant ID: LP0775186
Start Date: 2007
End Date: 12-2011
Amount: $602,313.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded Activity