What's hot and what's not – Identifying publication trends in insect ecology
- Authors: Andrew, Nigel , Evans, Maldwyn , Svejcar, Lauren , Prendegast, Kit , Barton, Philip
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Journal article , Review
- Relation: Austral Ecology Vol. 47, no. 1 (2022), p. 5-16
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- Description: Research disciplines in science have historically developed in silos but are increasingly multidisciplinary. Here, we assessed how the insect ecology literature published in ecological and entomological journals has developed over the last 20 years and which topics have crossed discipline boundaries. We used structural topic modelling to assess research trends from 34 304 articles published in six ecology journals and six entomology journals between 2000 and 2020. We then identified and compared topics that emerged from the entire body of literature, or corpus, with topics that emerged from a subsection of articles that focused only on insects (insect corpus). We found that, within the entire corpus, topics on ‘Community ecology’, ‘Traits, life history & physiology’ and ‘Ecological methods & theory’ became more prevalent over time (hot topics), whereas ‘Population modelling’, ‘Insect development’, ‘Reproduction & ontogeny’ and ‘Plant growth’ declined in prevalence over the 20 years we surveyed (cold topics). In the insect corpus, we found that hot topics included ‘Thermal tolerance’ and ‘Disease vectors’, whereas cold topics included ‘Herbivore phenology’, ‘Insect-plant interactions’ and ‘Parasitoids and parasites’. ‘Landscape ecology’ was a growth topic area for both corpora. Our findings suggest that insect-related research is a major component of the broader ecological discipline, and there are topics in ecology where insect research aligns with general ecological trends. However, specific topics unique to the insect corpora – such as insect taxonomy – are fundamental to both insect and ecology research. © 2021 Ecological Society of Australia
Two roles for ecological surrogacy : indicator surrogates and management surrogates
- Authors: Hunter, Malcolm , Westgate, Martin , Barton, Philip , Calhoun, Aram , Pierson, Jennifer
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Ecological Indicators Vol. 63, no. (2016), p. 121-125
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- Description: Ecological surrogacy - here defined as using a process or element (e.g., species, ecosystem, or abiotic factor) to represent another aspect of an ecological system - is a widely used concept, but many applications of the surrogate concept have been controversial. We argue that some of this controversy reflects differences among users with different goals, a distinction that can be crystalized by recognizing two basic types of surrogate. First, many ecologists and natural resource managers measure "indicator surrogates" to provide information about ecological systems. Second, and often overlooked, are "management surrogates" (e.g., umbrella species) that are primarily used to facilitate achieving management goals, especially broad goals such as "maintain biodiversity" or "increase ecosystem resilience." We propose that distinguishing these two overarching roles for surrogacy may facilitate better communication about project goals. This is critical when evaluating the usefulness of different surrogates, especially where a potential surrogate might be useful in one role but not another. Our classification for ecological surrogacy applies to species, ecosystems, ecological processes, abiotic factors, and genetics, and thus can provide coherence across a broad range of uses. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. **Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Philip Barton" is provided in this record**
Traits reveal ecological strategies driving carrion insect community assembly
- Authors: Evans, Maldwyn , Wallman, James , Barton, Philip
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Ecological Entomology Vol. 45, no. 5 (2020), p. 966-977
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- Description: 1. The succession of carrion-associated (necrophilous) insects on decomposing carrion is well documented. To exploit the changing nutritious and dynamic resources available throughout the carrion decomposition process, different species colonise and consume carrion in a predictable temporal sequence. The traits of these necrophilous insects should reflect their ecological strategies. Morphological traits of these insects, such as body size and wing size, however, have not previously been examined during active and advanced decomposition. 2. We used fourth-corner multivariate generalised linear models to identify insect community morphological trait patterns and to quantify their change through time on decomposing rabbit carcasses in grassland and woodland environments. 3. We found that larger-bodied species of flies and carrion-specialist beetles were associated with the early stages of decomposition. The morphological traits of ants, in contrast, showed no changes at carcasses through time and instead showed body size differences between grassland and woodland environments. 4. Our findings indicate that specialist flies and beetles that arrive early in the decomposition process possess traits that enable rapid discovery of carrion at a large scale. Generalist beetles and ants do not share this same trait and are instead adapted to locate and consume a wider variety of resources in their preferred habitat type at their local scale. 5. Our results provide insights into the morphological adaptations linked to the ecological strategies of distinct components of carrion insect communities. Further, our results offer insights into the community assembly dynamics that structure the communities of necrophilous insect species. © 2020 The Royal Entomological Society
Towards quantifying carrion biomass in ecosystems
- Authors: Barton, Philip , Evans, Maldwyn , Foster, Claire , Pechal, Jennifer , Bump, Joseph
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article , Review
- Relation: Trends in Ecology and Evolution Vol. 34, no. 10 (2019), p. 950-961
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- Description: The decomposition of animal biomass (carrion) contributes to the recycling of energy and nutrients through ecosystems. Whereas the role of plant decomposition in ecosystems is broadly recognised, the significance of carrion to ecosystem functioning remains poorly understood. Quantitative data on carrion biomass are lacking and there is no clear pathway towards improved knowledge in this area. Here, we present a framework to show how quantities derived from individual carcasses can be scaled up using population metrics, allowing for comparisons among ecosystems and other forms of biomass. Our framework facilitates the generation of new data that is critical to building a quantitative understanding of the contribution of carrion to trophic processes and ecosystem stocks and flows. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. **Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Philip Barton” is provided in this record**
The use and utility of surrogates in biodiversity monitoring programmes
- Authors: Sato, Chloe , Westgate, Martin , Barton, Philip , Foster, Claire , O'Loughlin, Luke
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Applied Ecology Vol. 56, no. 6 (2019), p. 1304-1310
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- Description: **Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Philip Barton” is provided in this record**
The predatory impacts of invasive European wasps on flies are facilitated by carcasses with open wounds
- Authors: Cairncross, Rhys , Barton, Philip , Bonat, Stefanie , Crowther, Matthew , Dickman, Christopher , Vandersteen, James , Newsome, Thomas
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Food Webs Vol. 31, no. (2022), p.
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- Description: Carrion is a vital resource in terrestrial ecosystems, supporting complex networks of interacting consumer organisms. The insect community attending carrion forms a vital part of this food web, but the functional roles of insects as scavengers can be altered by invasive species via the effects of predation and competition. European wasps (Vespula germanica) have invaded many parts of Australia and have been documented to directly kill native insect scavengers, especially necrophilous flies. Yet, little is known about the factors that influence predation rates by European wasps on flies at carcasses. The aim of this study was to determine how carcass state and altitude influences the occurrence and predatory impacts of wasps on flies. We placed 18 kangaroo carcasses along an altitudinal gradient in an Australian alpine ecosystem and manipulated half of the carcasses by splitting them open to simulate the wounds created by vertebrate scavengers present at the time of death. We found that carcasses with open wounds exacerbated already severe predation on flies from wasps, as well as intense scavenging activity, even though wasp abundance remained the same across both treatments. Meanwhile, densities of wasps declined and their impact on flies lessened with higher altitude. We suggest that the suppressive effect of wasps on flies may interrupt key processes triggered by carrion and cause shifts in energy flow through scavenger food webs. Further, under climate change, we predict that wasps will continue to spread into new areas at altitudes the species currently find unhospitable and conclude that carcass management practices must recognise the potential threat that wasps pose to ecosystem stability. © 2022 Elsevier Inc.
The ephemeral resource patch concept
- Authors: Butterworth, Nathan , Benbow, M. , Barton, Philip
- Date: 2023
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Biological Reviews Vol. 98, no. 3 (2023), p. 697-726
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- Description: Ephemeral resource patches (ERPs) – short lived resources including dung, carrion, temporary pools, rotting vegetation, decaying wood, and fungi – are found throughout every ecosystem. Their short-lived dynamics greatly enhance ecosystem heterogeneity and have shaped the evolutionary trajectories of a wide range of organisms – from bacteria to insects and amphibians. Despite this, there has been no attempt to distinguish ERPs clearly from other resource types, to identify their shared spatiotemporal characteristics, or to articulate their broad ecological and evolutionary influences on biotic communities. Here, we define ERPs as any distinct consumable resources which (i) are homogeneous (genetically, chemically, or structurally) relative to the surrounding matrix, (ii) host a discrete multitrophic community consisting of species that cannot replicate solely in any of the surrounding matrix, and (iii) cannot maintain a balance between depletion and renewal, which in turn, prevents multiple generations of consumers/users or reaching a community equilibrium. We outline the wide range of ERPs that fit these criteria, propose 12 spatiotemporal characteristics along which ERPs can vary, and synthesise a large body of literature that relates ERP dynamics to ecological and evolutionary theory. We draw this knowledge together and present a new unifying conceptual framework that incorporates how ERPs have shaped the adaptive trajectories of organisms, the structure of ecosystems, and how they can be integrated into biodiversity management and conservation. Future research should focus on how inter- and intra-resource variation occurs in nature – with a particular focus on resource × environment × genotype interactions. This will likely reveal novel adaptive strategies, aid the development of new eco-evolutionary theory, and greatly improve our understanding of the form and function of organisms and ecosystems. © 2022 The Authors. Biological Reviews published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Cambridge Philosophical Society.
Tests of predictions associated with temporal changes in Australian bird populations
- Authors: Lindenmayer, David , Lane, Peter , Westgate, Martin , Scheele, Ben , Barton, Philip
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Biological Conservation Vol. 222, no. (2018), p. 212-221
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- Description: Global biodiversity loss is the cumulative result of local species declines. To combat biodiversity loss, detailed information on the temporal trends of at-risk species at local scales is needed. Here we report the results of a 13-year study of temporal change in bird occupancy in one of the most heavily modified biomes worldwide; the temperate woodlands of south-eastern Australia. We sought to determine if temporal changes in bird species were different between three broad native vegetation types (old-growth woodland, regrowth woodland and restoration plantings) and between species traits (body size, migratory status, rarity, woodland dependency, or diet). We found evidence of decline for over a quarter of all bird species for which we had sufficient data for detailed analysis (30 out of 108 species). In contrast, only 14 species increased significantly. Temporal change of birds was linked to life-history attributes, with patterns often being habitat-dependent. Nectarivores and large-bodied birds declined across all vegetation types, whereas small-bodied species increased, particularly in restoration plantings. Contrasting with patterns documented elsewhere, resident but not migratory species declined, with this trend strongest in restoration plantings. Finally, our analyses showed that, as a group, common birds tended to decline whereas rare birds tended to increase, with effects for both most pronounced in restoration plantings. Our results highlight the benefit of targeted restoration planting for some species, but also demonstrate that many common species that have long-persisted in human-dominated landscapes are experiencing severe declines. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. **Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Philip Barton” is provided in this record**
Temporal trends in mammal responses to fire reveals the complex effects of fire regime attributes
- Authors: Lindenmayer, David , Blanchard, Wade , MacGregor, Christopher , Barton, Philip , Banks, Sam
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Ecological Applications Vol. 26, no. 2 (2016), p. 557-573
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- Description: Fire is a major ecological process in many ecosystems worldwide. We sought to identify which attributes of fire regimes affect temporal change in the presence and abundance of Australian native mammals. Our detailed study was underpinned by time series data on 11 mammal species at 97 long-term sites in southeastern Australia between 2003 and 2013. We explored how temporal aspects of fire regimes influenced the presence and conditional abundance of species. The key fire regime components examined were: (1) severity of a major fire in 2003, (2) interval between the last major fire (2003) and the fire prior to that, and (3) number of past fires. Our long-term data set enabled quantification of the interactions between survey year and each fire regime variable: an ecological relationship missing from temporally restricted studies. We found no evidence of any appreciable departures from the assumption of independence of the sites. Multiple aspects of fire regimes influenced temporal variation in the presence and abundance of mammals. The best models indicated that six of the 11 species responded to two or more fire regime variables, with two species influenced by all three fire regime attributes. Almost all species responded to time since fire, either as an interaction with survey year or as a main effect. Fire severity or its interaction with survey year was important for most terrestrial rodents. The number of fires at a site was significant for terrestrial rodents and several other species. Our findings contain evidence of the effects on native mammals of heterogeneity in fire regimes. Temporal response patterns of mammal species were influenced by multiple fire regime attributes, often in conjunction with survey year. This underscores the critical importance of long-term studies of biota that are coupled with data sets characterized by carefully documented fire history, severity, and frequency. Long-term studies are essential to predict animal responses to fires and guide management of when and where (prescribed) fire or, conversely, long-unburned vegetation is needed. The complexity of observed responses highlights the need for large reserves in which patterns of heterogeneity in fire regimes can be sustained in space and over time. © 2015 by the Ecological Society of America. **Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Philip Barton” is provided in this record**
Temperature dynamics in different body regions of decomposing vertebrate remains
- Authors: Barton, Philip , Dawson, Blake , Barton, Andrew , Joshua, Sergio , Wallman, James
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Forensic Science International Vol. 325, no. (2021), p.
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- Description: The decomposition of vertebrates is controlled largely by external temperature, yet internal temperatures can also play an important role but are generally poorly documented. In this study, we compared continuous hourly temperature recordings from the mouth, under the head, right chest and right abdomen, and in the rectum of one refrigerated human and one fresh pig cadaver during 29 days of decomposition. Each cadaver differed in its internal starting temperature, thus providing two contrasting case studies for examining temperature dynamics among body regions. We used time-series analysis methods common to hydrology to reveal key differences in internal temperature dynamics. Within both cadavers, the chest region experienced the highest average temperatures, and the mouth experienced the highest maximum hourly temperature. Temperatures exceeded 30 °C inside the pig for between 40% (rectum) and 75% (chest) of the duration of the study, but for only 20% (rectum) and 35% (chest) of the time in the human. Our study provides evidence of the different thermal trajectories occurring in different body regions, and some similarities between two cadavers despite their different starting thermal conditions. These results improve our understanding of why decomposition occurs at different rates within the same cadaver, and that the location of blowfly larvae collections should be noted to improve estimates of the post-mortem interval. © 2021 Elsevier B.V.
Substantial long-term effects of carcass addition on soil and plants in a grassy eucalypt woodland
- Authors: Barton, Philip , McIntyre, Sue , Evans, Maldwyn , Bump, Joseph , Cunningham, Saul , Manning, Adrian
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Ecosphere Vol. 7, no. 10 (2016), p.
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- Description: The decomposition of large vertebrate carcasses generates small-scale disturbances characterized by changes in soil chemistry and new opportunities for plant establishment. Yet few studies have examined whether this effect is still evident several years after death, or has consequences for landscape-scale heterogeneity. We examined soil chemistry and plant species richness and composition at 12 kangaroo carcasses (~30 kg initial mass) five years after their initial placement. Each carcass was paired with a nearby "control" site for comparison. We found that soil phosphorus was eight times higher at carcasses than at control sites, but that nitrogen concentration was similar. We also found that plant composition was substantially different between each carcass and control pair, with 80% of carcasses dominated by exotic species (mostly weedy annuals). Notably, overall variability in plant species composition across carcass sites was not different from the variability at control sites, indicating that the colonization of carcasses by weedy species did not have a homogenizing effect on plant assemblages across our study landscape. Our study demonstrates that a localized effect of large vertebrate carcasses on soil and plants was still evident after five years, indicating a state shift in the soil-plant dynamics at a carcass site. However, the effect of carcasses on landscape-scale plant community heterogeneity was minimal because colonization was by weedy plants already present in the landscape. © 2016 Barton et al.
Species co-occurrence networks show reptile community reorganization under agricultural transformation
- Authors: Kay, Geoffrey , Tulloch, Ayesha , Barton, Philip , Cunningham, Saul , Driscoll, Don , Lindenmayer, David
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Ecography Vol. 41, no. 1 (2018), p. 113-125
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- Description: Agricultural transformation represents one of the greatest threats to biodiversity, causing degradation and loss of habitat, leading to changes in the richness and composition of communities. These changes in richness and composition may, in turn, lead to altered species co-occurrence, but our knowledge of this remains limited. We used a novel co-occurrence network approach to examine the impact of agricultural transformation on reptile community structure within two large (> 172 000 km2; 224 sites) agricultural regions in southeastern Australia. We contrasted assemblages from sites surrounded by intact and modified landscapes and tested four key hypotheses that agricultural transformation leads to (H1) declines in species richness, (H2) altered assemblages, (H3) declines in overall co-occurrence, and (H4) complex restructuring of pairwise associations. We found that modified landscapes differed in composition but not richness compared with intact sites. Modified landscapes were also characterized by differences in co-occurrence network structure; with species sharing fewer sites with each other (reduced co-occurrence connectance), fewer highly-connected species (truncation of the frequency distribution of co-occurrence degree) and increased modularity of co-occurrence networks. Critically, overall loss of co-occurrence was underpinned by complex changes to the number and distribution of pair-wise co-occurrence links, with 41–44% of species also gaining associations with other species. Change in co-occurrence was not correlated with changes in occupancy, nor by functional trait membership, allowing a novel classification of species susceptibility to agricultural transformation. Our study reveals the value of using co-occurrence analysis to uncover impacts of agricultural transformation that may be masked in conventional studies of species richness and community composition. © 2017 The Authors
Soil chemical markers distinguishing human and pig decomposition islands : a preliminary study
- Authors: Barton, Philip , Reboldi, Anna , Dawson, Blake , Ueland, Maiken , Strong, Craig , Wallman, James
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Forensic Science, Medicine, and Pathology Vol. 16, no. 4 (2020), p. 605-612
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- Description: The decomposition of vertebrate cadavers on the soil surface produces nutrient-rich fluids that enter the soil profile, leaving clear evidence of the presence of a cadaver decomposition island. Few studies, however, have described soil physicochemistry under human cadavers, or compared the soil between human and non-human animal models. In this study, we sampled soil to 5 cm depth at distances of 0 cm and 30 cm from cadavers, as well as from control sites 90 cm distant, from five human and three pig cadavers at the Australian Facility for Taphonomic Experimental Research (AFTER). We found that soil moisture, electrical conductivity, nitrate, ammonium, and total phosphorus were higher in soil directly under cadavers (0 cm), with very limited lateral spread beyond 30 cm. These patterns lasted up to 700 days, indicating that key soil nutrients might be useful markers of the location of the decomposition island for up to 2 years. Soil phosphorus was always higher under pigs than humans, suggesting a possible difference in the decomposition and soil processes under these two cadaver types. Our preliminary study highlights the need for further experimental and replicated research to quantify variability in soil properties, and to identify when non-human animals are suitable analogues. © 2020, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
Seal carrion is a predictable resource for coastal ecosystems
- Authors: Quaggiotto, Maria-Martina , Barton, Philip , Morris, Christopher , Moss, Simon , Pomeroy, Patrick
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Acta Oecologica Vol. 88, no. (2018), p. 41-51
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- Description: The timing, magnitude, and spatial distribution of resource inputs can have large effects on dependent organisms. Few studies have examined the predictability of such resources and no standard ecological measure of predictability exists. We examined the potential predictability of carrion resources provided by one of the UK's largest grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) colonies, on the Isle of May, Scotland. We used aerial (11 years) and ground surveys (3 years) to quantify the variability in time, space, quantity (kg), and quality (MJ) of seal carrion during the seal pupping season. We then compared the potential predictability of seal carrion to other periodic changes in food availability in nature. An average of 6893 kg of carrion ∙yr−1 corresponding to 110.5 × 103 MJ yr−1 was released for potential scavengers as placentae and dead animals. A fifth of the total biomass from dead seals was consumed by the end of the pupping season, mostly by avian scavengers. The spatial distribution of carcasses was similar across years, and 28% of the area containing >10 carcasses ha−1 was shared among all years. Relative standard errors (RSE) in space, time, quantity, and quality of carrion were all below 34%. This is similar to other allochthonous-dependent ecosystems, such as those affected by migratory salmon, and indicates high predictability of seal carrion as a resource. Our study illustrates how to quantify predictability in carrion, which is of general relevance to ecosystems that are dependent on this resource. We also highlight the importance of carrion to marine coastal ecosystems, where it sustains avian scavengers thus affecting ecosystem structure and function. © 2018 Elsevier Masson SAS. **Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Philip Barton" is provided in this record**
Responses of necrophilous beetles to animal mass mortality in the Australian Alps
- Authors: Stone, Rebecca , Bonat, Stefanie , Newsome, Thomas , Barton, Philip
- Date: 2023
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Insect Conservation Vol. 27, no. 6 (2023), p. 865-877
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- Description: A diversity of insects can be found at the remains of dead animals (carrion) and they play a vital role in its decomposition and recycling. An emerging global problem with carrion is animal mass mortality events – the sudden, rapid die-off of many animals resulting in a large increase to the localised carrion resource pool. Yet, little is known about how insects respond to sudden and large inputs of carrion. We conducted an experiment in a mountainous alpine region of south-eastern Australia and compared beetle assemblages found at single carcass and mass mortality sites. We also examined the effects of vertebrate exclusion, and decomposition stage on beetles. We found 4,774 beetles representing 146 different species/morphospecies from 17 families. The most abundant species was Saprinus cyaneus cyaneus (Histeridae), and species of Staphylinidae and Silphidae also dominated the fauna, which is typical for necrophilous beetles in Australia. We also found a clear temporal change in beetle assemblages, with abundance and richness peaking during the active decay stage. We found that beetle abundance was greater at single carcasses than mass mortality sites, possibly as an artifact of sampling, and that species richness was similar among these two carcass treatment types. We found no significant effect of vertebrate exclusion on beetles, suggesting that large scavengers in the study system may not influence necrophilous insect communities around carrion. Implications for insect conservation: Our study highlights the diversity of beetles that can be found at carrion and their similar composition to the fauna found in other areas in the south-east of the Australian continent. Beetles may have reduced abundance at mass mortality sites which could affect their ability to contribute to carrion removal relative to smaller carrion quantities. Further research is required to quantify the role of other insects in carrion removal under a range of natural and mass mortality scenarios. © 2023, The Author(s).
Reptiles and frogs use most land cover types as habitat in a fine-grained agricultural landscape
- Authors: Pulsford, Stephanie , Barton, Philip , Driscoll, Don , Kay, Geoffrey , Lindenmayer, David
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Austral Ecology Vol. 43, no. 5 (2018), p. 502-513
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- Description: Agricultural landscapes comprise much of the earth's terrestrial surface. However, knowledge about how animals use and move through these landscapes is limited, especially for small and cryptic taxa, such as reptiles and amphibians. We aimed to understand the influence of land use on reptile and frog movement in a fine-grained grazing landscape. We surveyed reptiles and frogs using pitfall and funnel traps in transects located in five land use types: 1) woodland remnants, 2) grazed pastures, 3) coarse woody debris added to grazed pastures, 4) fences in grazed pastures and 5) linear plantings within grazed pastures. We found that the different land cover types influenced the types and distances moved by different species and groups of species. Reptiles moved both within, and out of, grazed paddocks more than they did in woodland remnants. In contrast, frogs exhibited varying movement behaviours. The smooth toadlet (Uperoleia laevigata) moved more often and longer distances within remnants than within paddocks. The spotted marsh frog (Limnodynastes tasmaniensis) moved out of grazed pastures more than out of pastures with coarse woody debris added or fences and were never recaptured in plantings. We found that most recaptured reptiles and frogs (76.3%) did not move between trapping arrays, which added to evidence that they perceived most of the land cover types as habitat. We suggest that even simple fences may provide conduits for movement in the agricultural landscape for frogs. Otherwise, most reptile and frog species used all land cover types as habitat, though of varying quality. Reptiles appeared to perceive the woodland remnants as the highest quality habitat. This landscape is fine-grained which may facilitate movement and persistence due to high heterogeneity in vegetation cover over short distances. Therefore, intensification and increasing the size of human land use may have negative impacts on these taxa. © 2018 Ecological Society of Australia
Remnant vegetation, plantings and fences are beneficial for reptiles in agricultural landscapes
- Authors: Pulsford, Stephanie , Driscoll, Don , Barton, Philip , Lindenmayer, David
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Applied Ecology Vol. 54, no. 6 (2017), p. 1710-1719
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- Description: Managing agricultural landscapes for biodiversity conservation is increasingly difficult as land use is modified or intensified for production. Finding ways to mitigate the negative effects of agriculture on biodiversity is therefore critical. We asked the question: How do remnant patches, paddock types and grazing regimes influence reptile assemblages in a grazing landscape? At 12 sites, we surveyed reptiles and environmental covariates in remnant woodland patches and in four paddock types: (i) grazed pasture, (ii) linear plantings, (iii) coarse woody debris (CWD) added to grazed pasture and (iv) fences between grazed pasture. Each site was either continuously or rotationally grazed. Remnant vegetation and other vegetation attributes such as tree cover and leaf litter greatly influenced reptiles. We recorded higher reptile abundance and species richness in areas with more tree cover and leaf litter. For rare species (captured in ≤4 sites <70 captures), there were 5·7 more animals and 2·6 more species in sites with 50% woody cover within 3 km compared to 5% woody cover. The abundance and richness of rare species, and one common species differed between paddock types and were higher in linear plantings and fence transects compared to CWD and pasture transects. Synthesis and applications. Grazed paddocks, particularly those with key features such as fences and plantings can provide habitat for reptiles. This suggests that discrete differentiation between patch and matrix does not apply for reptiles in these systems. Management to promote reptile conservation in agricultural landscapes should involve protecting existing remnant vegetation, regardless of amount; and promote key habitat features of trees, leaf litter and shrubs. Establishing plantings and fences is important as they support high numbers of less common reptiles and may facilitate reptiles to move through and use greater amounts of the landscape. © 2017 The Authors. Journal of Applied Ecology © 2017 British Ecological Society
Quantifying shifts in topic popularity over 44 years of austral ecology
- Authors: Westgate, Martin , Barton, Philip , Lindenmayer, David , Andrew, Nigel
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Austral Ecology Vol. 45, no. 6 (2020), p. 663-671
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- Description: The Ecological Society of Australia was founded in 1959, and the society’s journal was first published in 1976. To examine how research published in the society’s journal has changed over this time, we used text mining to quantify themes and trends in the body of work published by the Australian Journal of Ecology and Austral Ecology from 1976 to 2019. We used topic models to identify 30 ‘topics’ within 2778 full-text articles in 246 issues of the journal, followed by mixed modelling to identify topics with above-average or below-average popularity in terms of the number of publications or citations that they contain. We found high inter-decadal turnover in research topics, with an early emphasis on highly specific ecosystems or processes giving way to a modern emphasis on community, spatial and fire ecology, invasive species and statistical modelling. Despite an early focus on Australian research, papers discussing South American ecosystems are now among the fastest-growing and most frequently cited topics in the journal. Topics that were growing fastest in publication rates were not always the same as those with high citation rates. Our results provide a systematic breakdown of the topics that Austral Ecology authors and editors have chosen to research, publish and cite through time, providing a valuable window into the historical and emerging foci of the journal. © 2020 Ecological Society of Australia
Priority effects and density promote coexistence between the facultative predator Chrysomya rufifacies and its competitor Calliphora stygia
- Authors: Dawson, Blake , Wallman, James , Evans, Maldwyn , Butterworth, Nathan , Barton, Philip
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Oecologia Vol. 199, no. 1 (2022), p. 181-191
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- Description: Highly competitive ephemeral resources like carrion tend to support much greater diversity relative to longer-lived resources. The coexistence of diverse communities on short-lived carrion is a delicate balance, maintained by several processes including competition. Despite this balance, few studies have investigated the effect of competition on carrion, limiting our understanding of how competition drives coexistence. We investigated how priority effects and larval density influence coexistence between two blowfly species, the facultative predator Chrysomya rufifacies and its competitor Calliphora stygia, which occupy broadly similar niches but differ in their ecological strategies for exploiting carrion. We examined how adult oviposition, larval survival, developmental duration, and adult fitness were affected by the presence of differently aged heterospecific larval masses, and how these measures varied under three larval densities. We found C. rufifacies larval survival was lowest in conspecific masses with low larval densities. In heterospecific masses, survival increased, particularly at high larval density, with priority effects having minimal effect, suggesting a dependency on collective exodigestion. For C. stygia, we found survival to be constant across larval densities in a conspecific mass. In heterospecific masses, survival decreased drastically when C. rufifacies arrived first, regardless of larval density, suggesting C. stygia is temporally constrained to avoid competition with C. rufifacies. Neither species appeared to completely outcompete the other, as they were either constrained by density requirements (C. rufifacies) or priority effects (C. stygia). Our results provide new mechanistic insights into the ecological processes allowing for coexistence on a competitively intense, ephemeral resource such as carrion. © 2022, The Author(s).
Outfoxing the fox : effect of prey odor on fox behavior in a pastoral landscape
- Authors: Andrewartha, Tim , Evans, Maldwyn , Batson, William , Manning, Adrian , Barton, Philip
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Conservation Science and Practice Vol. 3, no. 12 (2021), p.
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- Description: Invasive mammalian predators have had a devastating effect on native species globally. The European red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is one such species where it has been introduced in Australia. A novel but unexplored tactic to reduce the impact of mammalian predators is the use of unrewarded prey odors to undermine the effectiveness of olfactory hunting behavior. To test the viability of unrewarded prey odors in an applied setting we investigated how foxes responded to the odors of three different prey species. We used the odors of two locally extinct native Australian marsupials; the eastern quoll (a smaller carnivore) and eastern bettong (a fungivore), and the European rabbit, an introduced herbivore. Conducting our research over a period of 3 weeks in a pastoral environment in South-eastern Australia, we used video observations of foxes' behaviors, as they encountered the different odors. We found a reduction in the number of fox visits to bettong odors in the third week. In contrast, we observed a sustained number of visits to rabbit odors. Foxes also spent more time investigating rabbit odors and displayed longer durations of vigilance behavior at quoll odors. Our results support the hypothesis that the exposure of wild foxes to unrewarded odors of novel prey species can reduce their interest in these odors, which might translate to a reduction in predation pressure. Our results also suggest, however, that olfactory pre-exposure may not be as effective at reducing fox interest in a competitor species' odor. © 2021 The Authors. Conservation Science and Practice published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology