ORCID Profile
0000-0001-8825-6358
Current Organisation
Australian National University
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Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-08-2021
DOI: 10.1111/ACV.12627
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2020
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 19-12-2021
DOI: 10.1111/REC.13319
Abstract: Nest boxes are widely used for habitat restoration. Unfortunately, competitors of the target species may exploit nest boxes, creating perverse outcomes. Avoiding habitats preferred by nontarget species, while favoring those of the target species, requires an adaptive management approach if limited information about species preferences is available when deploying boxes. Using nest boxes intended for Swift Parrots Lathamus discolor , we identify factors associated with nontarget species occupancy (Common Starling Sturnus vulgaris and Tree Martin Petrochelidon nigricans ) in newly deployed boxes in 2016, and then again after 3 years had elapsed in 2019. Box occupancy by different species depended on the interaction between distance of in idual boxes to the forest edge and year. Although the target species exploited similar numbers of nest boxes in both years, competitors were the main beneficiaries of established boxes. A subordinate native nest competitor increased box occupancy likelihood at greater distances from forest edges in both years, but the relationship was stronger in 2019. Introduced Common Starlings S. vulgaris were most likely to occupy boxes close to forest edges, but the magnitude of this relationship was much greater for established than newly deployed boxes. We suggest that permanent box deployments for Swift Parrots may produce perverse outcomes by increasing nesting habitat for Common Starlings. We suggest that for species that only use cavities for part of their life cycle, managers should limit access to boxes outside of critical times to reduce the likelihood that pest populations can exploit restoration efforts and create new problems.
Publisher: Universidade de Sao Paulo, Agencia USP de Gestao da Informacao Academica (AGUIA)
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 19-03-0007
DOI: 10.1111/AEC.13221
Abstract: Species distribution models (SDMs) are often used during the planning stage of reintroduction programmes to model species' occurrence with the aim of selecting potential release sites. However, for many endangered species, only a low number of records are available, leading to models with low accuracy. When planning reintroductions for rare species, an alternative approach may be to model surrogate species that are more abundant or easier to locate. Here, we modelled the distribution of white gum ( Eucalyptus viminalis ), the preferred food tree of the forty‐spotted pardalote ( Pardalotus quadragintus ), a rare songbird for which reintroduction has been proposed. Using boosted regression trees, we modelled white gum distribution under current and future climate conditions with the aim of identifying areas of high probability of occurrence that later can be used to plan on ground habitat assessments for reintroductions. Our model show areas with high probability of white gum occurrence outside its currently mapped distribution, indicating that there may be opportunities for reintroduction of pardalotes beyond their current range. Predictions of future climate scenarios showed climate space shifts, not only with some decrease but also with substantial increase in the probability of suitability for occurrence under some scenarios. Our spatial predictions for white gum may be used to design a survey to ground‐truth our model and undertake a comprehensive habitat assessment for other habitat features forty‐spotted pardalotes need to persist. The approach used in our study may be used for other highly specialized species, not only in the context of reintroduction planning but also in the general management of data‐poor specialist species that depend on a more common resource.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 30-05-2017
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 25-04-0016
DOI: 10.1111/JZO.12888
Abstract: Life history theory predicts that long‐lived animals trade off the costs of reproduction against in idual survival. If the costs of reproduction are too high, animals should prioritize their own survival. During bad times, mobile animals may be able to compensate for local food shortages by travelling further to provision their offspring. But, whether inherent mobility alleviates in idual fitness costs of this parental strategy is not known. We studied parental investment and breeding success of long‐lived, nomadic, migratory swift parrots Lathamus discolor over two successive years at the same site where food abundance went from locally low to high. We hypothesize that in a bad year, swift parrots should adjust their parental strategy by foregoing breeding altogether, producing smaller clutches/broods or reducing provisioning investment. Fewer swift parrots bred locally when food was scarce. In the bad year, clutch and brood sizes were smaller and nestlings were g lighter (approximately 28% of mean body mass) than in the good year. Compared with the good year, fathers spent longer foraging, less time at the nest and travelled further during provisioning trips in the bad year. Although limited to only 2 years, our results suggest that mobile species may attempt to mitigate the effects of a bad year on their reproductive success by rearing fewer offspring and investing more in provisioning behaviour, but this strategy may not necessarily compensate for environmental conditions.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 02-04-2020
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 05-04-2023
DOI: 10.1038/S41437-023-00609-6
Abstract: Genetic data can be highly informative for answering questions relevant to practical conservation efforts, but remain one of the most neglected aspects of species recovery plans. Framing genetic questions with reference to practical and tractable conservation objectives can help bypass this limitation of the application of genetics in conservation. Using a single-nucleotide polymorphism dataset from reduced-representation sequencing (DArTSeq), we conducted a genetic assessment of remnant populations of the endangered forty-spotted pardalote ( Pardalotus quadragintus ), a songbird endemic to Tasmania, Australia. Our objectives were to inform strategies for the conservation of genetic ersity in the species and estimate effective population sizes and patterns of inter-population movement to identify management units relevant to population conservation and habitat restoration. We show population genetic structure and identify two small populations on mainland Tasmania as ‘satellites’ of larger Bruny Island populations connected by migration. Our data identify management units for conservation objectives relating to genetic ersity and habitat restoration. Although our results do not indicate the immediate need to genetically manage populations, the small effective population sizes we estimated for some populations indicate that they are vulnerable to genetic drift, highlighting the urgent need to implement habitat restoration to increase population size and to conduct genetic monitoring. We discuss how our genetic assessment can be used to inform management interventions for the forty-spotted pardalote and show that by assessing contemporary genetic aspects, valuable information for conservation planning and decision-making can be produced to guide actions that account for genetic ersity and increase chances of recovery in species of conservation concern.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 23-09-2019
DOI: 10.1002/JWMG.21575
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 21-01-2021
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 16-12-2018
DOI: 10.1111/ACV.12471
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 24-09-2020
DOI: 10.1111/AEC.12954
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-01-2023
DOI: 10.1111/ACV.12855
Abstract: Reproductive skew occurs when a few in iduals monopolize breeding output, which can act as a mechanism of natural selection. However, when population sizes become small, reproductive skew can depress effective population size and worsen inbreeding. Identifying the cause of reproductive skew is important for mitigating its effect on conservation of small populations. We hypothesized that superb parrots Polytelis swainsonii , which strongly select for the morphology of tree cavity nests, may be reproductively skewed toward pairs that monopolize access to nests. We use SNP genotyping to reconstruct a pedigree, estimate molecular relatedness and genetic ersity of wild superb parrot in the Australian Capital Territory. We successfully genotyped 181 nestlings (a census between 2015–2019) and showed they were the progeny of 34 monogamous breeding pairs. There was a strong reproductive skew – 21 pairs bred only once producing 40% of the nestlings, whereas 13 pairs bred two to four times, producing 60% of the total nestlings. Five of these repeat‐breeders produced 28% of all nestlings, which was nearly triple the productivity of one‐time breeders. Repeat breeders usually monopolized access to their nest cavities, but the few pairs that switched nests did not differ in fecundity from those that stayed. The cause of nest switching was unknown, but uninterrupted access to a suitable nest (not minor variations in morphology between nests) better predicted fitness of breeding superb parrots. Pedigrees offer powerful insights into demographic processes, and identifying reproductive skew early provides opportunities to proactively avoid irreversible loss of genetic ersity via conservation management. We identify new research questions based on our results to clarify the relationship between access to resources and breeding success.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 16-11-2018
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 13-09-2019
DOI: 10.1111/AEC.12817
Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
Date: 10-09-2021
No related grants have been discovered for Fernanda Alves.