Towards a Landscape Conservation Culture - broadening the spatio-temporal scope of ecological studies to anticipate change in Australian forested ecosystems. This project in south-western Australia develops an integrated framework to interpret knowledge about landscape processes and future trajectories of species and assemblages at different spatio-temporal scales. A synthesis of data obtained through repeated biological surveys and remote sensing, with spatial data handled through GIS is used i ....Towards a Landscape Conservation Culture - broadening the spatio-temporal scope of ecological studies to anticipate change in Australian forested ecosystems. This project in south-western Australia develops an integrated framework to interpret knowledge about landscape processes and future trajectories of species and assemblages at different spatio-temporal scales. A synthesis of data obtained through repeated biological surveys and remote sensing, with spatial data handled through GIS is used in an explanatory modeling approach to make predictions under different disturbance regimes. Models built from combined spatial layers exhibiting continuous variation in environmental variables will provide area-class maps at different scales, allowing the portrayal of uncertainty associated with vegetation units - a considerable innovation over maps depicting homogenous discrete zones.Read moreRead less
The role of learning in conservation management: developing adaptive approaches for the conservation of biodiversity in a changing climate. Biodiversity underpins several major industries: agriculture, tourism, forestry and fisheries. To mitigate the loss of biodiversity, there have been significant investments from all levels of government, including 2.2 billion dollars to manage biodiversity and 138 million dollars simply to gather data on the impact of climatic changes. Despite this well inte ....The role of learning in conservation management: developing adaptive approaches for the conservation of biodiversity in a changing climate. Biodiversity underpins several major industries: agriculture, tourism, forestry and fisheries. To mitigate the loss of biodiversity, there have been significant investments from all levels of government, including 2.2 billion dollars to manage biodiversity and 138 million dollars simply to gather data on the impact of climatic changes. Despite this well intended funding, the key questions of how to best allocate this money between the many threatened species and regions of Australia, and how to adapt this allocation in light of climatic changes, remain unanswered. Our research will develop explicit and practical frameworks by which we can cost efficiently learn and act simultaneously.Read moreRead less
Ecological consequences of global warming: predicting effects on biodiversity on intertidal assemblages on the east coast of Australia. Understanding what conserves biodiversity is a crucial challenge for Australian science. This research will provide critical information on the consequences of global climatic change: southerly shifts in distributions of animals due to rising temperatures; vertical shifts due to rising sea level and changes in amounts of food for grazing species. This informatio ....Ecological consequences of global warming: predicting effects on biodiversity on intertidal assemblages on the east coast of Australia. Understanding what conserves biodiversity is a crucial challenge for Australian science. This research will provide critical information on the consequences of global climatic change: southerly shifts in distributions of animals due to rising temperatures; vertical shifts due to rising sea level and changes in amounts of food for grazing species. This information will underpin the future management of conservation and will improve understanding on issues such as how and why species are able to invade new areas, the effects on the resident species and how species change distribution in relation to the availability of specific needs for habitat.Read moreRead less