ORCID Profile
0000-0002-8478-373X
Current Organisation
University of Melbourne
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Ecology | Invertebrate Biology | Population, Ecological and Evolutionary Genetics | Freshwater Ecology
Ecosystem Assessment and Management of Fresh, Ground and Surface Water Environments | Documentation of Undescribed Flora and Fauna | Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity at Regional or Larger Scales |
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 16-12-2022
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.16015
Abstract: Globally, urban expansion and climate change interact to threaten stream ecosystems and are accelerating the loss of aquatic bio ersity. Waterway managers urgently need tools to understand the potential combined impacts of urbanization and climate change and to identify effective mitigating management interventions for protecting freshwater biota. We address this challenge using the semi-aquatic mammal the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) as a focal species. We developed high-resolution environmental spatial data for stream networks and spatially explicit habitat suitability models (HSMs) to explore the impact of threats and to identify the combination of management actions most likely to maintain or improve habitat suitability over the next 50 years in greater Melbourne, Australia. We developed and evaluated platypus HSMs (males-and-females and females-only) including validation using an independent environmental DNA data set. Platypus occurred more commonly in larger, cooler streams with greater catchment-weighted discharge, following periods of greater stream flow. They were positively associated with near-stream forest cover and negatively associated with annual air temperature and urban stormwater runoff. Extensive reductions in suitable platypus habitat are predicted to occur under urbanization and climate change scenarios, with the greatest threat expected from reduced streamflows. This emphasizes the importance of maintaining flow regimes as part of conserving platypus in the region however, substantial additional benefit is predicted by concurrent riparian revegetation and urban stormwater management efforts (that also have the potential to contribute to the streamflow objectives). Provision of adequate streamflows in a future with increasing water demands and water security requirements will likely require creative integrated water management solutions. Our high-resolution stream network and HSMs have allowed predictions of potential range-shifts due to urban expansion and climate change impacts at management-relevant scales and at the whole-of-landscape scale. This has enabled systematic strategic planning, priority action planning and target setting in strategic policy development.
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2010
DOI: 10.1071/MF09059
Abstract: With drought and climate change leading to increased water scarcity at a time of increasing consumptive demand, the provision of environmental flows is a potentially isive issue. Demonstrating the ecological effects of environmental flows is thus important for supporting policy and management decisions. We describe the development of a multi-basin monitoring and assessment program for environmental flows in Victoria, Australia. We examine the challenges associated with negotiating the turbulent boundary between water science and water management when building a partnership between multiple partners with differing priorities, expectations and responsibilities. We describe the mistakes made and corrective actions taken, and present a critical analysis of the lessons learned. Strong science–management collaboration will be aided by: explicit recognition of the importance of the engagement process, establishing the partnership at the outset, assessing and understanding the disparate needs of in idual partners, frequent articulation of the shared vision that motivated the collaboration, and providing sufficient opportunities for information exchange among partners. Cullen first described the challenges to science-management collaboration twenty years ago, but to some extent, the same mistakes continue to be made. Our real-world ex le shows that it is possible to develop a strong partnership, even when such mistakes are made at the outset.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-2013
DOI: 10.1111/DDI.12054
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-11-2016
DOI: 10.1111/COBI.12626
Abstract: How should managers choose among conservation options when resources are scarce and there is uncertainty regarding the effectiveness of actions? Well-developed tools exist for prioritizing areas for one-time and binary actions (e.g., protect vs. not protect), but methods for prioritizing incremental or ongoing actions (such as habitat creation and maintenance) remain uncommon. We devised an approach that combines metapopulation viability and cost-effectiveness analyses to select among alternative conservation actions while accounting for uncertainty. In our study, cost-effectiveness is the ratio between the benefit of an action and its economic cost, where benefit is the change in metapopulation viability. We applied the approach to the case of the endangered growling grass frog (Litoria raniformis), which is threatened by urban development. We extended a Bayesian model to predict metapopulation viability under 9 urbanization and management scenarios and incorporated the full probability distribution of possible outcomes for each scenario into the cost-effectiveness analysis. This allowed us to discern between cost-effective alternatives that were robust to uncertainty and those with a relatively high risk of failure. We found a relatively high risk of extinction following urbanization if the only action was reservation of core habitat habitat creation actions performed better than enhancement actions and cost-effectiveness ranking changed depending on the consideration of uncertainty. Our results suggest that creation and maintenance of wetlands dedicated to L. raniformis is the only cost-effective action likely to result in a sufficiently low risk of extinction. To our knowledge we are the first study to use Bayesian metapopulation viability analysis to explicitly incorporate parametric and demographic uncertainty into a cost-effective evaluation of conservation actions. The approach offers guidance to decision makers aiming to achieve cost-effective conservation under uncertainty.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2016
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 25-11-2010
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2004
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 21-09-2010
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 11-2012
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 25-01-2017
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-04-2021
DOI: 10.1186/S12915-021-01006-3
Abstract: Unreliable research programmes waste funds, time, and even the lives of the organisms we seek to help and understand. Reducing this waste and increasing the value of scientific evidence require changing the actions of both in idual researchers and the institutions they depend on for employment and promotion. While ecologists and evolutionary biologists have somewhat improved research transparency over the past decade (e.g. more data sharing), major obstacles remain. In this commentary, we lift our gaze to the horizon to imagine how researchers and institutions can clear the path towards more credible and effective research programmes.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-2010
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-05-2011
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 2005
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2016
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2016
DOI: 10.1016/J.TREE.2016.07.002
Abstract: To make progress scientists need to know what other researchers have found and how they found it. However, transparency is often insufficient across much of ecology and evolution. Researchers often fail to report results and methods in detail sufficient to permit interpretation and meta-analysis, and many results go entirely unreported. Further, these unreported results are often a biased subset. Thus the conclusions we can draw from the published literature are themselves often biased and sometimes might be entirely incorrect. Fortunately there is a movement across empirical disciplines, and now within ecology and evolution, to shape editorial policies to better promote transparency. This can be done by either requiring more disclosure by scientists or by developing incentives to encourage disclosure.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-04-2023
DOI: 10.1111/FWB.14081
Abstract: Iran is one of the world's fish bio ersity hotspots. Most riverine fish species in this country are currently under threat by human activities. In addition to those threats, climate change is expected to alter rainfall and temperature regimes, imposing further limitations, particularly to endemic fishes. Therefore, understanding how these species respond to climate change is an important issue in the conservation of Iranian freshwater bio ersity. This study aimed to predict the potential distribution of 16 endemic fish species under two climate change scenarios (i.e., RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5) in river habitats of Iran in the 2050s and the 2080s. The analysis is conducted using the MaxEnt model. Seven environmental variables were used for modelling: maximum width, elevation, river slope, the basins occupied by the target species, average annual precipitation, annual mean temperature, and the temperature difference between the coldest and hottest months of the year . The validation of the model for each species showed that AUC (area under the ROC curve) scores range from 0.87 to 0.99. Under optimistic (RCP 4.5) and pessimistic (RCP 8.5) scenarios in the 2050s and the 2080s, species will face four different outcomes to their habitat range: reduction (three species), expansion (five species), reduction and expansion (seven species) and no change (one species). It is concluded that most species that are unique in their geographical area will face serious challenges from climate change. Delineating species range changes under climate change scenarios can help prioritise conservation measures for these valuable species. Considering our results, the translocation of species to new locations also should be investigated.
Start Date: 04-2021
End Date: 04-2025
Amount: $495,820.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded Activity