Rainforest, woodland or swampland? Integrating time, space and culture to manage an endangered ecosystem complex in the Australian wet tropics
- Authors: Lynch, A. , Ferrier, Asa , Ford, A. J. , Haberle, Simon , Rule, Stephen , Schneider, Larissa , Zawadzki, A. , Metcalfe, Daniel
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Landscape Ecology Vol. 35, no. 1 (2020), p. 83-99
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Context: Transdisciplinary research is important where information from multiple fields is required to develop ecologically and culturally appropriate environmental planning that protects local conservation and socio-cultural values. Objectives: Here, we describe research to inform ecosystem restoration and conservation of Chumbrumba Swamp within the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, Australia. Many such open wetlands in the region have been degraded through agriculture and pastoral production, but there has been little research into their status, history and conservation needs. Methods: The recent to pre-European settlement history of the site was explored, along with spatial variation of vegetation communities at the site, and these data integrated with historical and ethnographical information on the site and its cultural values. Results: The botanical and palaeoecological analyses showed that Chumbrumba Swamp comprises a unique and highly sensitive ecosystem mosaic with high biodiversity. An endangered ecosystem complex, 82 vascular plant species, several disjunct or endemic taxa, and species at new northern range limits were recorded within its 20 ha area. The site comprises a stable swamp site with fringing woodland and rainforest that has persisted for around 5000 years. European settlement overlaid changes in the vegetation from disturbance (e.g. fire, clearing, grazing). However, fire also affected the swamp site during pre-European times. Conclusions: Historical and ethnographic information contextualised the biophysical data and confirmed the cultural importance of the site and the dynamic interactions between ‘people and nature’. These results have been used to inform environmental restoration and validate the importance of a transdisciplinary and precautionary approach to planning wetland restoration and conservation. © 2019, Springer Nature B.V.
Emerging threats and persistent conservation challenges for freshwater biodiversity
- Authors: Reid, Andrea , Carlson, Andrew , Creed, Irena , Eliason, Erika , Gell, Peter , Johnson, Pieter , Kidd, Karen , MacCormack, Tyson , Olden, Julian , Ormerod, Steve , Smol, John , Taylor, William , Tockner, Klement , Vermaire, Jesse , Dudgeon, David , Cooke, Steven
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Biological Reviews Vol. 94, no. 3 (2019), p. 849-873
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: In the 12 years since Dudgeon et al. (2006) reviewed major pressures on freshwater ecosystems, the biodiversity crisis in the world's lakes, reservoirs, rivers, streams and wetlands has deepened. While lakes, reservoirs and rivers cover only 2.3% of the Earth's surface, these ecosystems host at least 9.5% of the Earth's described animal species. Furthermore, using the World Wide Fund for Nature's Living Planet Index, freshwater population declines (83% between 1970 and 2014) continue to outpace contemporaneous declines in marine or terrestrial systems. The Anthropocene has brought multiple new and varied threats that disproportionately impact freshwater systems. We document 12 emerging threats to freshwater biodiversity that are either entirely new since 2006 or have since intensified: (i) changing climates; (ii) e-commerce and invasions; (iii) infectious diseases; (iv) harmful algal blooms; (v) expanding hydropower; (vi) emerging contaminants; (vii) engineered nanomaterials; (viii) microplastic pollution; (ix) light and noise; (x) freshwater salinisation; (xi) declining calcium; and (xii) cumulative stressors. Effects are evidenced for amphibians, fishes, invertebrates, microbes, plants, turtles and waterbirds, with potential for ecosystem-level changes through bottom-up and top-down processes. In our highly uncertain future, the net effects of these threats raise serious concerns for freshwater ecosystems. However, we also highlight opportunities for conservation gains as a result of novel management tools (e.g. environmental flows, environmental DNA) and specific conservation-oriented actions (e.g. dam removal, habitat protection policies, managed relocation of species) that have been met with varying levels of success. Moving forward, we advocate hybrid approaches that manage fresh waters as crucial ecosystems for human life support as well as essential hotspots of biodiversity and ecological function. Efforts to reverse global trends in freshwater degradation now depend on bridging an immense gap between the aspirations of conservation biologists and the accelerating rate of species endangerment.
Bird responses to riparian management of degraded lowland streams in southeastern Australia
- Authors: Hale, Robin , Reich, Paul , Johnson, Matthew , Hansen, Birgita , Lake, Philip , Thomson, James , Mac Nally, Ralph
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Restoration Ecology Vol. 23, no. 2 (2015), p. 104-112
- Full Text: false
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- Description: We assessed the degree to which fencing, livestock exclusion, and replanting of riparian zones affected avian assemblages in massively cleared landscapes. Measurements were made at three creeks in the southern Murray-Darling Basin in southeastern Australia, each of which had circa 1-km long treated sections and paired "untreated" circa 1-km sections, where no fencing, planting, or stock exclusion was done. We measured the change in vegetation characteristics and abundances of native birds for up to 8 years after works were completed. Prior to data collection, we developed expected responses of bird species based on the anticipated time-courses of change in vegetation structure. We used hierarchical Bayesian models to explore the effects of the management actions, and to account for within-site variation in vegetation characteristics. There were major changes in vegetation structure (reductions in bare ground and increases in shrubs and tree recruitment) but avian responses generally were small and not as expected. There are at least four possible reasons for the limited avian responses: (1) there has been a long-term decline in woodland birds across the region; (2) the study was conducted during the longest drought in the instrumental record in the study region; (3) the total amount of replanted vegetation was small in a massively denuded region; and (4) monitoring may have been over too short a term to detect responses to longer-term changes in structural vegetation. © 2014 Society for Ecological Restoration.
Vegetation change in Hattah Kulkyne National Park: A state-and-transition model
- Authors: Murdoch, Fiona
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria Vol. 118, no. 2 (2006), p. 305-312
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Many arid landscapes worldwide are degraded. Restoration ecology offers a variety of tools to enable managers to restore valued processes to landscapes. One such tool is state-and-transition (S-T) modelling which provides a way to summarise knowledge of vegetation dynamics, tools for restoration and the impact of restoration activities. A theoretical S-T framework was developed and used to organise the history of degradation and restoration in the semi-arid woodlands of Hattah Kulkyne National Park, north-west Victoria. This process highlighted four main opportunities to enhance restoration success including: exploring where, when and why natural recruitment of key species was occurring, utilising the artificial stimulation of root suckers as an alternative tool to enhance the regeneration of desirable species, understanding and developing techniques to enable regenerating or partially restored woodlands to move to the desirable state of a self-perpetuating, restored woodland and a need to monitor and manage the threat posed by emerging weeds.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003004781