Conservation management of seed-eating birds in the tropical savannas. Biodiversity loss in the savannas indicates unsustainable management. This research will enhance our abilities to effectively manage Australia's tropical savannas, as well as contributing to several State and Territory, Commonwealth and international obligations to maintain biodiversity. Understanding the processes underlying current declines will also make the effects of future management or environment changes easier to pre ....Conservation management of seed-eating birds in the tropical savannas. Biodiversity loss in the savannas indicates unsustainable management. This research will enhance our abilities to effectively manage Australia's tropical savannas, as well as contributing to several State and Territory, Commonwealth and international obligations to maintain biodiversity. Understanding the processes underlying current declines will also make the effects of future management or environment changes easier to predict. Retaining threatened species can benefit remote and regional communities through tourism, and also through the extra employment required to implement the management prescriptions that will be developed from this research.Read moreRead less
Change ecology - gaining broad-scale, timely biodiversity knowledge in a time of uncertainty. Australians are confronted daily with the consequences of changes wrought by human over-exploitation of natural resources. Our capacity to track and respond to change is very limited and slow. Thus, rapid deterioration of ecologically important aspects is detected late and is not reflective of the general state because knowledge is derived from small-scale measurements that are difficult to generalize. ....Change ecology - gaining broad-scale, timely biodiversity knowledge in a time of uncertainty. Australians are confronted daily with the consequences of changes wrought by human over-exploitation of natural resources. Our capacity to track and respond to change is very limited and slow. Thus, rapid deterioration of ecologically important aspects is detected late and is not reflective of the general state because knowledge is derived from small-scale measurements that are difficult to generalize. We will build a capacity for providing large-scale knowledge of vegetation condition and flow-on effects on biodiversity, which also will allow us to make informed assessments of the ecological consequences of some existing (climate change, drying) and imminent (biofuel plantings) drivers of change.Read moreRead less
Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR0354582
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$20,000.00
Summary
Australia-NZ Network for Vegetation Function and Futures. Plants shape our landscapes and drive ecosystem processes from local to global scale. Plant species vary widely in quantitative functional traits. Global datasets about functional variation are emerging, with Australian and NZ leadership. A network would be supported in both Australia and NZ and with strong links elsewhere. It would target seven ambitious but achievable research developments. Each of them demands intensive conversation be ....Australia-NZ Network for Vegetation Function and Futures. Plants shape our landscapes and drive ecosystem processes from local to global scale. Plant species vary widely in quantitative functional traits. Global datasets about functional variation are emerging, with Australian and NZ leadership. A network would be supported in both Australia and NZ and with strong links elsewhere. It would target seven ambitious but achievable research developments. Each of them demands intensive conversation between separate disciplines. Networking across all seven strands will create a broader linkage, spanning across palaeobiology, ecosystem function, vegetation structure, global change, ecophysiology, phylogeny, genomics, ecoinformatics and evolutionary theory.Read moreRead less
Mammal declines in northern Australia: science for conservation and recovery. Australia’s unique mammal fauna is a rich biological heritage for the nation. It provides a wealth of ecosystem services, and many mammal species have special cultural or aesthetic value. However, our mammals are sadly depleted, and we already have the worst record of recent mammal extinction of any nation. Preventing further mammal extinctions, and managing environments to allow declined mammals to recover, will be of ....Mammal declines in northern Australia: science for conservation and recovery. Australia’s unique mammal fauna is a rich biological heritage for the nation. It provides a wealth of ecosystem services, and many mammal species have special cultural or aesthetic value. However, our mammals are sadly depleted, and we already have the worst record of recent mammal extinction of any nation. Preventing further mammal extinctions, and managing environments to allow declined mammals to recover, will be of great benefit to Australian biodiversity and to the ecosystem processes and human values that depend on it.Read moreRead less
ARC Australia-New Zealand Research Network for Vegetation Function. Plant species vary widely in quantitative functional traits, and in their relations to climate, soils and geography. Global generalizations are emerging. Vegetation Function network will reach from plant function into genomics and crop breeding, into palaeoecology and vegetation history, into landscape management for carbon, water and salinity outcomes, into forecasting future ecosystems under global change, and into phylogeny, ....ARC Australia-New Zealand Research Network for Vegetation Function. Plant species vary widely in quantitative functional traits, and in their relations to climate, soils and geography. Global generalizations are emerging. Vegetation Function network will reach from plant function into genomics and crop breeding, into palaeoecology and vegetation history, into landscape management for carbon, water and salinity outcomes, into forecasting future ecosystems under global change, and into phylogeny, ecoinformatics and evolutionary theory. Across this span, working groups will target nine identified opportunities for breakthrough research. Each research target needs input from two or more disciplines. Together, the nine targets link across disciplines, as a network that spans from genomic to planetary scales.Read moreRead less
Reconstructing landscapes for biodiversity: From predictive modelling to future scenarios. Many landscapes around the world have been effectively denuded of natural vegetation, causing precipitous declines in native biodiversity. Mitigation of such effects in the near/medium-term future requires substantial ecological advice. We will employ our skills developed in modelling distributions of species across landscapes based on terrain, soils and climate to assess alternative landscape-reconstructi ....Reconstructing landscapes for biodiversity: From predictive modelling to future scenarios. Many landscapes around the world have been effectively denuded of natural vegetation, causing precipitous declines in native biodiversity. Mitigation of such effects in the near/medium-term future requires substantial ecological advice. We will employ our skills developed in modelling distributions of species across landscapes based on terrain, soils and climate to assess alternative landscape-reconstruction scenarios. This links use of existing data sets for initial modelling, a validation phase for testing model reliability and for refining models, and a subsequent GIS-based modelling phase in which alternative options for reconstructing landscapes are evaluated for their effectiveness in sustaining landscape-scale native biodiversity.Read moreRead less
Models for biodiversity futures for massively altered agricultural landscapes. Problems with soil and water and declines in native biodiversity have been linked to clearance of native vegetation. We consider future landscapes with substantially more native vegetation than at present to deal with these natural resource problems. Plantings will be slow to mature so optimal planning for landscape revegetation must consider how long it will take for the new vegetation to provide suitable habitat, bo ....Models for biodiversity futures for massively altered agricultural landscapes. Problems with soil and water and declines in native biodiversity have been linked to clearance of native vegetation. We consider future landscapes with substantially more native vegetation than at present to deal with these natural resource problems. Plantings will be slow to mature so optimal planning for landscape revegetation must consider how long it will take for the new vegetation to provide suitable habitat, both at patch and landscape scales. We will develop an optimization framework incorporating models of vegetation maturation and biotic responses to aid designs for placement and scheduling of replantings to give the best outcomes for biodiversity management given constraints on amounts of retired area and costs of implementation.Read moreRead less
An unprecedented opportunity to quantify biodiversity recovery after major wildfire. Recent fire disasters in southern Australia emphasise that wildfire is one of the major social, economic and ecological issues facing the nation. Biodiversity loss and environmental degradation are also substantial national issues. The outcomes and new understanding obtained from this project will have enormous rural, regional, national and international benefits through developing better informed, and ecologica ....An unprecedented opportunity to quantify biodiversity recovery after major wildfire. Recent fire disasters in southern Australia emphasise that wildfire is one of the major social, economic and ecological issues facing the nation. Biodiversity loss and environmental degradation are also substantial national issues. The outcomes and new understanding obtained from this project will have enormous rural, regional, national and international benefits through developing better informed, and ecologically sustainable, principles and practices for biodiversity conservation, vegetation management, and fire management. It also will guide natural resource managers such as national park staff and state forest managers in best practice methods to manage post-fire ecological recovery on land under their jurisdiction. Read moreRead less
Towards sustainable floodplain communities: Assessing River Red Gum health. Floodplain vegetation in Australia has suffered severe degradation from river regulation but there is limited understanding of the functioning, responses and requirements of the ecosystem's most critical species, the River Red Gum. We will address three knowledge gaps needed for effective management of floodplain river red gums by assessing current and past health, determining stressors affecting health and by building ....Towards sustainable floodplain communities: Assessing River Red Gum health. Floodplain vegetation in Australia has suffered severe degradation from river regulation but there is limited understanding of the functioning, responses and requirements of the ecosystem's most critical species, the River Red Gum. We will address three knowledge gaps needed for effective management of floodplain river red gums by assessing current and past health, determining stressors affecting health and by building a model for predicting future health based on projected trends. Outcomes from this study will help land managers to prioritise environmental flow allocations based on the requirements for sustaining future river red gum populations.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150101870
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$342,100.00
Summary
More than pretty pictures? Ecological applications of modern remote sensing. Recent advances in remote sensing are allowing us to measure the biochemical and structural properties of ecosystems with increasing accuracy. This type of information is essential for sustainable natural resource management. However, we still lack a clear understanding of this technology's capabilities and limitations for environmental decision making. This project aims to investigate key gaps in our knowledge about th ....More than pretty pictures? Ecological applications of modern remote sensing. Recent advances in remote sensing are allowing us to measure the biochemical and structural properties of ecosystems with increasing accuracy. This type of information is essential for sustainable natural resource management. However, we still lack a clear understanding of this technology's capabilities and limitations for environmental decision making. This project aims to investigate key gaps in our knowledge about the extent to which modern remote sensing tools are capable of measuring landscape change and habitat quality. This collaborative research project aims to provide an unparalleled opportunity to examine these issues by combining state-of-the-art remote sensing with data from two intensively studied landscape-scale experiments.Read moreRead less