Ralph Mac Nally

Fragmentation, vegetation change and irruptive competitors affect recruitment of woodland birds

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 09-06-2014

DOI: 10.1111/ECOG.00936

Carbon-focused conservation may fail to protect the most biodiverse tropical forests

Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Date: 16-07-2018

DOI: 10.1038/S41558-018-0225-7

Ecological Resistance – Why Mechanisms Matter: A Reply to Sundstrom et al.

Publisher: Elsevier BV

Date: 06-2016

DOI: 10.1016/J.TREE.2016.03.015

Regional patterns of nectar availability in subtropical eastern Australia

Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Date: 09-05-2018

DOI: 10.1007/S10980-018-0647-7

Avifaunal disarray: Quantifying models of the occurrence and ecological effects of a despotic bird species

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 14-01-2015

DOI: 10.1111/DDI.12294

Evaluating where and how habitat restoration is undertaken for animals

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 16-05-2019

DOI: 10.1111/REC.12958

Function regression in ecology and evolution: FREE

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 24-11-2014

DOI: 10.1111/2041-210X.12290

Is environmental legislation conserving tropical stream faunas? A large‐scale assessment of local, riparian and catchment‐scale influences on Amazonian fish

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 12-11-2017

DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.13028

Balancing generality and specificity in ecological gradient analysis with species abundance distributions and individual size distributions

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 04-11-2016

DOI: 10.1111/GEB.12537

Green Tongues into the Arid Zone: River Floodplains Extend the Distribution of Terrestrial Bird Species

Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Date: 31-10-2016

DOI: 10.1007/S10021-016-0059-Y

Nitrogen loads influence trophic organization of estuarine fish assemblages

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 29-02-2016

DOI: 10.1111/1365-2435.12647

Bird responses to riparian management of degraded lowland streams in southeastern Australia

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 08-12-2015

DOI: 10.1111/REC.12158

Integrated terrestrial-freshwater planning doubles conservation of tropical aquatic species

Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Date: 02-10-2020

DOI: 10.1126/SCIENCE.ABA7580

Abstract: When designing terrestrial reserves, it is common to consider the needs of species and systems from a terrestrial perspective, with an assumption that any freshwater systems will benefit as well. Leal et al. tested this assumption by analyzing data from two locations in the Brazilian Amazon and found that it is far from accurate: Terrestrial systems confer little benefit to freshwater systems (see the Perspective by Abell and Harrison). However, the authors also found that integrating the needs of freshwater species into overall reserve planning increased freshwater benefits by 600% while only decreasing terrestrial outcomes by 1%. They argue that reserve planning must take freshwater systems into account if they are to protect across both realms. Science , this issue p. 117 see also p. 38

Seeing the woods through the saplings: Using wood density to assess the recovery of human‐modified Amazonian forests

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 30-04-2018

DOI: 10.1111/1365-2745.12991

Environmental correlates of food-chain length, mean trophic level and trophic level variance in invaded riverine fish assemblages

Publisher: Elsevier BV

Date: 12-2018

DOI: 10.1016/J.SCITOTENV.2018.06.304

Abstract: Examining how the trophic structure of biotic assemblages is affected by human impacts, such as habitat degradation and the introduction of alien species, is important for understanding the consequences of such impacts on ecosystem functioning. We used general linear mixed models and hierarchical partitioning analyses of variance to examine for the first time the applicability of three hypotheses (ecosystem-size, productivity and disturbance) for explaining food-chain length (FCL) in invaded fish assemblages. We used Fishbase trophic level (TL) estimates for 16 native and 18 alien fish species in an extensive riverine system in north-eastern Spain (99,700 km

A commentary on 'Long-term ecological trends of flow-dependent ecosystems in a major regulated river basin', by Matthew J. Colloff, Peter Caley, Neil Saintilan, Carmel A. Pollino and Neville D. Crossm

Publisher: CSIRO Publishing

Date: 2015

DOI: 10.1071/MF15185

Abstract: Colloff et al. in Marine and Freshwater Research (0.1071/MF14067) examined time-series data for flow-dependent vegetation, invertebrates, fish, frogs, reptiles and waterbirds in the Murray–Darling Basin, 1905–2013. They concluded that temporal patterns fluctuated, declining during droughts and recovering after floods. They suggested that major changes in land use in the late 19th century permanently modified these freshwater ecosystems, irretrievably degrading them before major water ersions. Restoring water to the environment might then be interpreted as not addressing biotic declines. We argue that their conclusions are inadequately supported, although data quality remains patchy and they neglected the influence of hydrology and the timing and extent of water resource development. We are critical of the lack of adequate model specification and the omission of statistical power analyses. We show that declines of native flow-dependent flora and fauna have continued through the 20th and early 21st centuries, in response to multiple factors, including long-term changes in flow regimes. We argue that flow-regime changes have been critical, but not in isolation. So, returning water to the environment is a prerequisite for sustained recovery but governments need to improve monitoring and analyses to adequately determine effectiveness of management of the rivers and wetlands of the Murray–Darling Basin.

Balancing the environmental benefits of reforestation in agricultural regions

Publisher: Elsevier BV

Date: 07-2015

DOI: 10.1016/J.PPEES.2015.06.001

Model selection using information criteria, but is the “best” model any good?

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 26-12-2017

DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.13060

Anthropogenic disturbance in tropical forests can double biodiversity loss from deforestation

Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Date: 29-06-2016

DOI: 10.1038/NATURE18326

Abstract: Concerted political attention has focused on reducing deforestation, and this remains the cornerstone of most bio ersity conservation strategies. However, maintaining forest cover may not reduce anthropogenic forest disturbances, which are rarely considered in conservation programmes. These disturbances occur both within forests, including selective logging and wildfires, and at the landscape level, through edge, area and isolation effects. Until now, the combined effect of anthropogenic disturbance on the conservation value of remnant primary forests has remained unknown, making it impossible to assess the relative importance of forest disturbance and forest loss. Here we address these knowledge gaps using a large data set of plants, birds and dung beetles (1,538, 460 and 156 species, respectively) s led in 36 catchments in the Brazilian state of Pará. Catchments retaining more than 69–80% forest cover lost more conservation value from disturbance than from forest loss. For ex le, a 20% loss of primary forest, the maximum level of deforestation allowed on Amazonian properties under Brazil’s Forest Code, resulted in a 39–54% loss of conservation value: 96–171% more than expected without considering disturbance effects. We extrapolated the disturbance-mediated loss of conservation value throughout Pará, which covers 25% of the Brazilian Amazon. Although disturbed forests retained considerable conservation value compared with deforested areas, the toll of disturbance outside Pará’s strictly protected areas is equivalent to the loss of 92,000–139,000 km2 of primary forest. Even this lowest estimate is greater than the area deforested across the entire Brazilian Amazon between 2006 and 2015 (ref. 10). Species distribution models showed that both landscape and within-forest disturbances contributed to bio ersity loss, with the greatest negative effects on species of high conservation and functional value. These results demonstrate an urgent need for policy interventions that go beyond the maintenance of forest cover to safeguard the hyper- ersity of tropical forest ecosystems.

Nitrogen stable isotope values of large-bodied consumers reflect urbanization of coastal catchments

Publisher: Inter-Research Science Center

Date: 19-01-2016

DOI: 10.3354/MEPS11543

How do different aspects of biodiversity change through time? A case study on an Australian bird community

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 03-06-2016

DOI: 10.1111/ECOG.02306

Influence of climate on individual tree growth and carbon sequestration in native‐tree plantings

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 15-04-2019

DOI: 10.1111/AEC.12756

Climate drying amplifies the effects of land-use change and interspecific interactions on birds

Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Date: 21-06-2015

DOI: 10.1007/S10980-015-0229-X

A bust but no boom: responses of floodplain bird assemblages during and after prolonged drought

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 04-09-2015

DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.12424

Abstract: Climate change alters the frequency and severity of extreme events, such as drought. Such events will be increasingly important in shaping communities as climate change intensifies. The ability of species to withstand extreme events (resistance) and to recover once adverse conditions abate (resilience) will determine their persistence. We estimated the resistance and resilience of bird species during and after a 13-year drought (the 'Big Dry') in floodplain forests in south-eastern Australia. We conducted bird surveys at the beginning and end of the Big Dry, and after the abrupt end to the drought (the 'Big Wet'), to evaluate species-specific changes in reporting rates among the three periods. We assessed changes in bird-breeding activity before and after the Big Wet to estimate demographic resilience based on breeding. Between the start and the end of the Big Dry (1998 vs. 2009), 37 of 67 species declined substantially. Of those, only two had increased reporting rates after the Big Wet (2009 vs. 2013) that were equal to or larger than their declines, while three partially recovered. All other declining species showed low resilience: 25 showed no change in reporting rates and seven declined further. The number of breeding species and total breeding activity of all species declined after the Big Wet, and there was no change in the number of young produced. The Big Dry caused widespread declines in the floodplain avifauna. Despite the drought being broken by 2 years of well-above-average rainfall and subsequent near-average rainfall, most species showed low resilience and there was little indication that overall breeding had increased. The effects of drought appeared to be pervasive for much of the floodplain avifauna, regardless of species traits (species body mass, fecundity, mobility or diet). Ecosystems such as these are likely to require active management and restoration, including reinstatement of natural flooding regimes, to improve ecological condition, to enhance resistance and resilience to extreme climate events.

Spinifex–mallee revegetation: implications for restoration after mineral-sands mining in the Murray–Darling Basin

Publisher: CSIRO Publishing

Date: 2016

DOI: 10.1071/BT15265

Abstract: Mineral-sands mining in the semiarid and arid zone of south-eastern Australia is now a widespread disturbance that may adversely affect large areas of remnant vegetation, including mallee (Eucalyptus spp.) with hummock grass or spinifex (Triodia scariosa) understorey. No broad-scale restoration projects have been undertaken to revegetate mallee Eucalyptus species with spinifex. We report on the survivorship and relative importance (spatial coverage) of hand-planted tubestock 10 years after establishment in 2001, which included mallee Eucalyptus, Triodia scariosa, Acacia spp. and Hakea spp. These taxa are the dominant plants in a semiarid dune–swale system on a former mineral-sands mine licence area in semiarid, north-western Victoria. Mean survivorship of tubestock was 0.58 ± 0.04. Spinifex (Triodia scariosa), needlewood (Hakea) and several mallee species (Eucalyptus spp.) survived substantially better than the average of all tubestock-planted species, although Acacia spp. had low survivorships. Although the plantings were undertaken in the early stages of the most severe drought in the instrumental record (the ‘Millennium drought’), several taxa survived well and species such as spinifex established and developed ground coverage greater than the benchmark values for the ecological vegetation class of the location. We conclude that hand-planting of tubestock can achieve restoration objectives for this component of spinifex–mallee vegetation, even under extremely arduous conditions associated with long-term drought. We also herald the importance of taking a long-term view to the assessment of revegetation success, in this case 10 years.

Harnessing knowledge of animal behavior to improve habitat restoration outcomes

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 04-2020

DOI: 10.1002/ECS2.3104

Resistance and resilience of terrestrial birds in drying climates: do floodplains provide drought refugia?

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 07-04-2015

DOI: 10.1111/GEB.12305

Recruitment of a keystone tree species must concurrently manage flooding and browsing

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 2016

DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.12601

Second rate or a second chance? Assessing biomass and biodiversity recovery in regenerating Amazonian forests.

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 04-10-2018

DOI: 10.1111/GCB.14443

Abstract: Secondary forests (SFs) regenerating on previously deforested land account for large, expanding areas of tropical forest cover. Given that tropical forests rank among Earth's most important reservoirs of carbon and bio ersity, SFs play an increasingly pivotal role in the carbon cycle and as potential habitat for forest biota. Nevertheless, their capacity to regain the biotic attributes of undisturbed primary forests (UPFs) remains poorly understood. Here, we provide a comprehensive assessment of SF recovery, using extensive tropical bio ersity, biomass, and environmental datasets. These data, collected in 59 naturally regenerating SFs and 30 co-located UPFs in the eastern Amazon, cover >1,600 large- and small-stemmed plant, bird, and dung beetles species and a suite of forest structure, landscape context, and topoedaphic predictors. After up to 40 years of regeneration, the SFs we surveyed showed a high degree of bio ersity resilience, recovering, on average among taxa, 88% and 85% mean UPF species richness and composition, respectively. Across the first 20 years of succession, the period for which we have accurate SF age data, biomass recovered at 1.2% per year, equivalent to a carbon uptake rate of 2.25 Mg/ha per year, while, on average, species richness and composition recovered at 2.6% and 2.3% per year, respectively. For all taxonomic groups, biomass was strongly associated with SF species distributions. However, other variables describing habitat complexity-canopy cover and understory stem density-were equally important occurrence predictors for most taxa. Species responses to biomass revealed a successional transition at approximately 75 Mg/ha, marking the influx of high-conservation-value forest species. Overall, our results show that naturally regenerating SFs can accumulate substantial amounts of carbon and support many forest species. However, given that the surveyed SFs failed to return to a typical UPF state, SFs are not substitutes for UPFs.

A function-based typology for Earth’s ecosystems

Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Date: 12-10-2022

DOI: 10.1038/S41586-022-05318-4

Abstract: As the United Nations develops a post-2020 global bio ersity framework for the Convention on Biological Diversity, attention is focusing on how new goals and targets for ecosystem conservation might serve its vision of ‘living in harmony with nature’ 1,2 . Advancing dual imperatives to conserve bio ersity and sustain ecosystem services requires reliable and resilient generalizations and predictions about ecosystem responses to environmental change and management 3 . Ecosystems vary in their biota 4 , service provision 5 and relative exposure to risks 6 , yet there is no globally consistent classification of ecosystems that reflects functional responses to change and management. This h ers progress on developing conservation targets and sustainability goals. Here we present the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Global Ecosystem Typology, a conceptually robust, scalable, spatially explicit approach for generalizations and predictions about functions, biota, risks and management remedies across the entire biosphere. The outcome of a major cross-disciplinary collaboration, this novel framework places all of Earth’s ecosystems into a unifying theoretical context to guide the transformation of ecosystem policy and management from global to local scales. This new information infrastructure will support knowledge transfer for ecosystem-specific management and restoration, globally standardized ecosystem risk assessments, natural capital accounting and progress on the post-2020 global bio ersity framework.

Open access solutions for biodiversity journals: Do not replace one problem with another

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 2019

DOI: 10.1111/DDI.12885

Beyond refuges: Identifying temporally dynamic havens to support ecological resistance and resilience to climatic disturbances

Publisher: Elsevier BV

Date: 05-2019

DOI: 10.1016/J.BIOCON.2019.02.034

Effects of fish kills on fish consumers and other water-dependent fauna: exploring the potential effect of mass mortality of carp in Australia

Publisher: CSIRO Publishing

Date: 2020

DOI: 10.1071/MF19035

Abstract: Although the effects of mass fish mortality (MFM) events on fish populations and water quality are frequently reported, the effects on consumers of fish and other water-dependent fauna are relatively poorly understood. Managing the effects of MFM events on other fauna is important when they occur in ecologically or culturally sensitive locations, or involve protected or significant species or ecosystems. Better understanding of the effects of such events on fish consumers and other water-dependent fauna would aid proactive management of predictable events, such as pest-fish biocontrol releases. We conducted a global literature review to synthesise the effects of unexpected MFM events on fish consumers and other water-dependent fauna in freshwater, estuarine and marine ecosystems. We then constructed two conceptual models distinguishing between the short-term (hours to weeks) and long-term (months to years) effects of such events, highlighting the importance of key factors in determining the magnitude of the response. Last, we used these models and relevant literature to explore the potential implications of the proposed release of cyprinid herpes virus 3 as a biological control agent for the invasive common carp (Cyprinus carpio) in Australia and develop recommendations to minimise adverse effects of carp mass mortality on food webs.

Multi-scale assessment of human-induced changes to Amazonian instream habitats

Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Date: 14-06-2016

DOI: 10.1007/S10980-016-0358-X

How sensitive are invertebrates to riparian-zone replanting in stream ecosystems?

Publisher: CSIRO Publishing

Date: 2016

DOI: 10.1071/MF14360

Abstract: Clearing native vegetation has pervasive effects on stream and river ecosystems worldwide. The stated aims of replanting riparian vegetation often are to restore water quality and to re-establish biotic assemblages. However reach-scale restoration may do little to combat catchment-scale degradation, potentially inhibiting restoration success. Whether reinstating bio ersity is a realistic goal or appropriate indicator of restoration success over intermediate timeframes ( years) is currently unclear. We measured the response of aquatic macroinvertebrate assemblages to riparian replanting in a chronosequence of replanted reaches on agricultural streams in south-eastern Australia. Sites had been replanted with native vegetation 8–22 years before the study. Indices of macroinvertebrate sensitivity did not respond to replanting over the time gradient, probably because replanting had little benefit for local water quality or in-stream habitat. The invertebrate assemblages were influenced mainly by catchment-scale effects and geomorphological characteristics, but were closer to reference condition at sites with lower total catchment agricultural land cover. Reach-scale replanting in heavily modified landscapes may not effectively return bio ersity to pre-clearance condition over decadal time-scales. Restoration goals, and the spatial and temporal scale of processes required to meet them, should be carefully considered, and monitoring methods explicitly matched to desired outcomes.

Linking species richness and size diversity in birds and fishes

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 19-04-2018

DOI: 10.1111/ECOG.03582

High‐productivity vegetation is important for lessening bird declines during prolonged drought

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 28-12-2017

DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.13052

Ecological and life‐history traits may say little about birds’ vulnerability to high‐amplitude climatic fluctuations

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 21-05-2020

DOI: 10.1111/AEC.12902

Idiosyncratic responses of Amazonian birds to primary forest disturbance

Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Date: 13-11-2015

DOI: 10.1007/S00442-015-3495-Z

Abstract: As humans continue to alter tropical landscapes across the world, it is important to understand what environmental factors help determine the persistence of bio ersity in modified ecosystems. Studies on well-known taxonomic groups can offer critical insights as to the fate of bio ersity in these modified systems. Here we investigated species-specific responses of 44 forest-associated bird species with different behavioural traits to forest disturbance in 171 transects distributed across 31 landscapes in two regions of the eastern Brazilian Amazon. We investigated patterns of species occurrence in primary forests varyingly disturbed by selective-logging and fire and examined the relative importance of local, landscape and historical environmental variables in determining species occurrences. Within undisturbed and disturbed primary forest transects, we found that distance to forest edge and the biomass of large trees were the most important predictors driving the occurrence of in idual species. However, we also found considerable variation in species responses to different environmental variables as well as inter-regional variation in the responses of the same species to the same environmental variables. We advocate the utility of using species-level analyses to complement community-wide responses in order to uncover highly variable and species-specific responses to environmental change that remain so poorly understood.

Australian Research Council

Location: No location found

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The University Of Canberra

Location: Australia

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Australian Research Council

Location: Australia

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Monash University

Location: Australia

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University Of Melbourne

Location: Australia

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Discovery Projects - Grant ID: DP0984170

Start Date: 07-2009

End Date: 06-2012

Amount: $440,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Discovery Projects - Grant ID: DP120100797

Start Date: 07-2012

End Date: 12-2015

Amount: $880,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Linkage Projects - Grant ID: LP0776494

Start Date: 06-2007

End Date: 06-2010

Amount: $330,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Discovery Projects - Grant ID: DP0343898

Start Date: 2003

End Date: 06-2006

Amount: $300,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Linkage Projects - Grant ID: LP110100040

Start Date: 01-2011

End Date: 12-2014

Amount: $284,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Linkage Projects - Grant ID: LP130100684

Start Date: 06-2014

End Date: 12-2017

Amount: $465,440.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Linkage Projects - Grant ID: LP0561958

Start Date: 10-2005

End Date: 06-2009

Amount: $328,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Linkage Projects - Grant ID: LP0560518

Start Date: 07-2005

End Date: 06-2008

Amount: $344,237.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Linkage Projects - Grant ID: LP120200217

Start Date: 05-2013

End Date: 12-2017

Amount: $396,203.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Linkage Projects - Grant ID: LP0990038

Start Date: 07-2009

End Date: 12-2015

Amount: $708,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR0354789

Start Date: 01-2004

End Date: 06-2004

Amount: $10,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Discovery Projects - Grant ID: DP0771672

Start Date: 01-2007

End Date: 07-2010

Amount: $375,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Linkage Projects - Grant ID: LP0560309

Start Date: 06-2005

End Date: 12-2008

Amount: $224,696.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Discovery Projects - Grant ID: DP0664065

Start Date: 01-2006

End Date: 06-2009

Amount: $366,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Linkage Projects - Grant ID: LP160100093

Start Date: 02-2017

End Date: 06-2021

Amount: $340,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR0354605

Start Date: 12-2003

End Date: 12-2004

Amount: $10,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council