ORCID Profile
0000-0001-5823-4924
Current Organisations
AirSeed Technologies
,
UNSW
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Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 24-12-2022
DOI: 10.3390/MICROORGANISMS11010055
Abstract: Soil microbes play important roles in plant health and ecosystem functioning, however, they can often be disturbed or depleted in degraded lands. During seed-based revegetation of such sites there is often very low germination and seedling establishment success, with recruitment of beneficial microbes to the rhizosphere one potential contributor to this problem. Here we investigated whether Australian native plant species may benefit from planting seed encapsulated within extruded seed pellets amended with one of two microbe-rich products: a commercial vermicast extract biostimulant or a whole-soil inoculum from a healthy reference site of native vegetation. Two manipulative glasshouse trials assessing the performance of two Australian native plant species (Acacia parramattensis and Indigofera australis) were carried out in both unmodified field-collected soil (trial 1) and in the same soil reduced in nutrients and microbes (trial 2). Seedling emergence and growth were compared between pelleted and bare-seeded controls and analyzed alongside soil nutrient concentrations and culturable microbial community assessments. The addition of microbial amendments maintained, but did not improve upon, high levels of emergence in both plant species relative to unamended pellets. In trial 1, mean time to emergence of Acacia parramattensis seedlings was slightly shorter in both amended pellet types relative to the standard pellets, and in trial 2, whole-soil inoculum pellets showed significantly improved growth metrics. This work shows that there is potential for microbial amendments to positively affect native plant emergence and growth, however exact effects are dependent on the type of amendment, the plant species, and the characteristics of the planting site soil.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 18-09-2017
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-09-2022
DOI: 10.1002/PPP3.10329
Abstract: Mixed species plantings present an attractive alternative to monoculture reforestation through their added benefits to bio ersity. Yet there is ambiguity in the use of the term ‘bio ersity’ in carbon and bio ersity markets, which may create perverse outcomes when designing schemes and projects. Here, we review how the concept of bio ersity is defined and applied in reforestation projects, and restoration more broadly. Improved transparency around the use of the term bio ersity is urgently needed to provide rigour in emerging market mechanisms, which seek to benefit the environment and people. Reforestation to capture and store atmospheric carbon is increasingly ch ioned as a climate change mitigation policy response. Reforestation plantings have the potential to provide conservation co‐benefits when erse mixtures of native species are planted, and there are growing attempts to monetise bio ersity benefits from carbon reforestation projects, particularly within emerging carbon markets. But what is meant by ‘bio erse’ across different stakeholders and groups implementing and overseeing these projects and how do these perceptions compare with long‐standing scientific definitions? Here, we discuss approaches to, and definitions of, bio ersity in the context of reforestation for carbon sequestration. Our aim is to review how the concept of bio ersity is defined and applied among stakeholders (e.g., governments, carbon certifiers and farmers) and rights holders (i.e., First Nations people) engaging in reforestation, and to identify best‐practice methods for restoring bio ersity in these projects. We find that some stakeholders have a vague understanding of ersity across varying levels of biological organisation (genes to ecosystems). While most understand that bio ersity underpins ecosystem functions and services, many stakeholders may not appreciate the difficulties of restoring bio ersity akin to reference ecosystems. Consequently, bio ersity goals are rarely explicit, and project goals may never be achieved because the levels of restored bio ersity are inadequate to support functional ecosystems and desired ecosystem services. We suggest there is significant value in integrating bio ersity objectives into reforestation projects and setting specific restoration goals with transparent reporting outcomes will pave the way for ensuring reforestation projects have meaningful outcomes for bio ersity, and legitimate incentive payments for bio ersity and natural capital accounting.
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 2018
DOI: 10.1098/RSOS.171977
Abstract: Functional extinction of once abundant species has frequently preceded understanding of their ecological roles. Consequently, our understanding of ecosystems is prone to shifting baselines because it often relies on observations made on depauperate species assemblages. In Australian deserts, current paradigms are that ants are the dominant granivores, mammals are unimportant seed predators and that myrmecochory in many Australian shrubs is an adaptation to increase dispersal distance and direct seeds to favourable germination sites. Here, we ask whether these paradigms could be artefacts of mammal extinction. We take advantage of a predator-proof reserve within which locally extinct native mammals have been reintroduced to compare seed removal by ants and mammals. Using foraging trays that selectively excluded mammals and ants we show that a reintroduced mammal, the woylie ( Bettongia penicillata ) was at least as important as ants in the removal of seeds of two shrub species ( Dodonaea viscosa and Acacia ligulata ). Our results provide evidence that the dominance of ants as granivores and current understanding of the adaptive benefit of myrmecochory in arid Australia may be artefacts of the functional extinction of mammals. Our study shows how reversing functional extinction can provide the opportunity to rethink contemporary understanding of ecological processes.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2021
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 07-2018
Abstract: Vegetation cover is fundamental in the formation and maintenance of geomorphological features in dune systems. In arid Australia, increased woody shrub cover has been linked to removal of the apex predator (Dingoes, Canis dingo ) via subsequent trophic cascades. We ask whether this increase in shrubs can be linked to altered physical characteristics of the dunes. We used drone-based remote sensing to measure shrub density and construct three-dimensional models of dune morphology. Dunes had significantly different physical characteristics either side of the ‘dingo-proof fence’, inside which dingoes are systematically eradicated and shrub density is higher over vast spatial extents. Generalized additive models revealed that dunes with increased shrub density were higher, differently shaped and more variable in height profile. We propose that low shrub density induces aeolian and sedimentary processes that result in greater surface erosion and sediment transport, whereas high shrub density promotes dune stability. We speculate that increased vegetation cover acts to push dunes towards an alternate stable state, where climatic variation no longer has a significant effect on their morphodynamic state within the bi-stable state model. Our study provides evidence that anthropogenically induced trophic cascades can indirectly lead to large-scale changes in landscape geomorphology.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 19-11-2021
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 21-03-2021
DOI: 10.1002/ECY.3301
Abstract: Herbivory is ubiquitous. Despite being a potential driver of plant distribution and performance, herbivory remains largely undocumented. Some early attempts have been made to review, globally, how much leaf area is removed through insect feeding. Kozlov et al., in one of the most comprehensive reviews regarding global patterns of herbivory, have compiled published studies regarding foliar removal and s led data on global herbivory levels using a standardized protocol. However, in the review by Kozlov et al., only 15 s ling sites, comprising 33 plant species, were evaluated in tropical areas around the globe. In Brazil, which ranks first in terms of plant bio ersity, with a total of 46,097 species, almost half (43%) being endemic, a single data point was s led, covering only two plant species. In an attempt to increase knowledge regarding herbivory in tropical plant species and to provide the raw data needed to test general hypotheses related to plant–herbivore interactions across large spatial scales, we proposed a joint, collaborative network to evaluate tropical herbivory. This network allowed us to update and expand the data on insect herbivory in tropical and temperate plant species. Our data set, collected with a standardized protocol, covers 45 s ling sites from nine countries and includes leaf herbivory measurements of 57,239 leaves from 209 species of vascular plants belonging to 65 families from tropical and temperate regions. They expand previous data sets by including a total of 32 s ling sites from tropical areas around the globe, comprising 152 species, 146 of them being s led in Brazil. For temperate areas, it includes 13 s ling sites, comprising 59 species. Thus, when compared to the most recent comprehensive review of insect herbivory (Kozlov et al.), our data set has increased the base of available data for the tropical plants more than 460% (from 33 to 152 species) and the Brazilian s ling was increased 7,300% (from 2 to 146 species). Data on precise levels of herbivory are presented for more than 57,000 leaves worldwide. There are no copyright restrictions. Please cite this paper when using the current data in publications the authors request to be informed how the data is used in the publications.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2020
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
No related grants have been discovered for Charlotte Mills.