ORCID Profile
0000-0003-1760-6706
Current Organisation
Tasmanian Land Conservancy
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Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-07-2021
DOI: 10.1111/REC.13470
Abstract: Habitat loss is a primary cause of population decline for 85% of species recognized as threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Ecological restoration can mitigate and reverse the effects of habitat loss on wildlife, but many restoration programs lack a systematic approach to monitoring outcomes, if indeed restoration sites are monitored at all. Here, we evaluate the response of wildlife to restoration plantings in an agricultural landscape in Tasmania, Australia, five years after their establishment. We surveyed three faunal groups—ground‐dwelling invertebrates, birds and terrestrial mammals—and compared community composition in plantings with those of nearby livestock pasture and remnant woodlands. Habitat type had some influence on invertebrate communities with more pollinators, but fewer nectivores (predominantly Lepidoptera) and engulf predators in riparian plantings than in paddocks. In comparison, nonriparian plantings had more nectivores and pollinators and a greater proportion of small‐bodied invertebrates than in paddocks. Invertebrate biomass was positively associated with the presence of large ground‐foraging birds. Habitat type had a significant effect on the composition of bird communities in nonriparian areas, with small native species more abundant in plantings than in paddocks. Endangered mammal species were recorded using planting sites, including eastern bettongs and spotted‐tailed quolls. We describe possible trajectories to inform adaptive management of local restoration efforts. Our study provides a rare ex le that considers the response of multiple faunal groups to restoration concurrently and highlights differences in wildlife communities between restoring and reference habitats that are likely to impact ecosystem services.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 05-10-2018
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-06-2019
DOI: 10.1111/AEC.12785
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 03-2020
DOI: 10.1098/RSOS.200076
Abstract: Birds are declining in agricultural landscapes around the world. The causes of these declines can be better understood by analysing change in groups of species that share life-history traits. We investigated how land-use change has affected birds of the Tasmanian Midlands, one of Australia's oldest agricultural landscapes and a focus of habitat restoration. We surveyed birds at 72 sites, some of which were previously surveyed in 1996–1998, and tested relationships of current patterns of abundance and community composition to landscape and patch-level environmental characteristics. Fourth-corner modelling showed strong negative responses of aerial foragers and exotics to increasing woodland cover arboreal foragers were positively associated with projective foliage cover and small-bodied species were reduced by the presence of a hyperaggressive species of native honeyeater, the noisy miner ( Manorina melanocephala ). Analysis of change suggests increases in large-bodied granivorous or carnivorous birds and declines in some arboreal foragers and nectarivores. Changes in species richness were best explained by changes in noisy miner abundance and levels of surrounding woodland cover. We encourage restoration practitioners to trial novel planting configurations that may confer resistance to invasion by noisy miners, and a continued long-term monitoring effort to reveal the effects of future land-use change on Tasmanian birds.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-2021
DOI: 10.1111/EMR.12505
Abstract: The benefits of using remote sensing technologies for informing and monitoring ecological restoration of forests from the community to the in idual are presented. At the community level, we link remotely sensed measures of structural complexity with animal behaviour. At the plot level, we monitor the return of vegetation structure and ecosystem services (e.g. carbon sequestration) using data‐rich three‐dimensional point clouds. At the in idual‐level, we use high‐resolution images to accurately classify plants to species and provenance and show genetic‐based variation in canopy structural traits. To facilitate the wider use of remote sensing in restoration, we discuss the challenges that remain to be resolved.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-11-2017
DOI: 10.1111/MEC.14385
Abstract: Extra-pair paternity (EPP), where offspring are sired by a male other than the social male, varies enormously both within and among species. Trying to explain this variation has proved difficult because the majority of the interspecific variation is phylogenetically based. Ideally, variation in EPP should be investigated in closely related species, but clades with sufficient variation are rare. We present a comprehensive multifactorial test to explain variation in EPP among in iduals in 20 populations of nine species over 89 years from a single bird family (Maluridae). Females had higher EPP in the presence of more helpers, more neighbours or if paired incestuously. Furthermore, higher EPP occurred in years with many incestuous pairs, populations with many helpers and species with high male density or in which males provide less care. Altogether, these variables accounted for 48% of the total and 89% of the interspecific and interpopulation variation in EPP. These findings indicate why consistent patterns in EPP have been so challenging to detect and suggest that a single predictor is unlikely to account for the enormous variation in EPP across levels of analysis. Nevertheless, it also shows that existing hypotheses can explain the variation in EPP well and that the density of males in particular is a good predictor to explain variation in EPP among species when a large part of the confounding effect of phylogeny is excluded.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 11-2014
DOI: 10.1111/MEC.12959
Abstract: The frequency of extra-pair paternity (EPP) in socially monogamous birds varies substantially between and within species, but ecological drivers of this variation remain poorly understood. Habitat configuration could influence EPP by moderating access to extra-pair mates, because species occupying territories in a clustered 'honeycomb' configuration have a larger pool of potential extra-group mates in their immediate neighbourhood than those living in linearly arranged territories (e.g. along narrow strips of riparian or fragmented habitat). We exploited variation in the spatial arrangement of territories due to anthropogenic modification of habitat of the cooperatively breeding superb fairy-wren Malurus cyaneus to test whether habitat configuration influenced the frequency of EPP. In this species, most paternity is obtained by males outside the social group [extra-group paternity (EGP)]. We found that the frequency of EGP among groups living in linear strips of roadside vegetation (41% of 44 offspring) was lower than it was for groups living in clustered territories within continuous habitat (59% of 70 offspring). Differences in group size and pair relatedness did not explain differences in EGP associated with territory configuration, although the frequency of EGP was negatively correlated with pair relatedness. Our finding suggests that territory configuration can influence rates of EGP and that anthropogenic habitat fragmentation has the potential to limit access to extra-pair mates, affecting mating systems and ultimately fitness.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-2021
DOI: 10.1111/EMR.12504
Abstract: Temperate woodlands are amongst the most threatened ecosystems in Australia because the land on which they occur is highly suited to agriculture. Two hundred years of habitat loss and fragmentation in the Midlands agricultural region in Tasmania have led to widespread declines in native vertebrates and landscapes with populations of predators including feral Cat ( Felis catus ) and the native‐invasive Noisy Miner ( Manorina melanocephala ). Ecologists at the University of Tasmania co‐designed mechanistic animal‐centric research on mammals and birds in the Midlands to inform vegetation restoration carried out by Greening Australia that would support the recovery of wildlife species. We used species‐appropriate technologies to assess the decisions made by in idual animals to find food and shelter and to disperse across this fragmented landscape, and linked these, together with patterns of occupancy, across multiple spatial and temporal scales. We focussed on a native (Spotted‐tailed Quoll, Dasyurus maculatus ) and an invasive (feral Cat, Felis catus ) carnivore, a woodland‐specialist herbivore (Eastern Bettong, Bettongia gaimardi ) and woodland birds including the native‐invasive Noisy Miner. Our results, which show intense predatory and competitive pressure of cats and populations of Noisy Miner on native fauna, highlight how grounding restoration in the context of ecological interactions is essential to success in managing the impacts of invasive species in restored landscapes. Successful restoration will require innovative approaches in plantings and field experimentation with artificial refuges, to reduce habitat suitability for the Noisy Miner and cats and provide refuges for native mammals and birds to live in the landscape where cats also occur. Our results emphasise the significance of structural complexity of restoration plantings for supporting the recolonisation and persistence of native fauna. At large landscape‐scale, we demonstrate the importance of retaining small habitat elements, including ancient paddock trees, pivot irrigation corners and small, degraded remnants, in facilitating occupancy and dispersal and, therefore, persistence of wild animals across this agricultural region.
No related grants have been discovered for Glen Bain.