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Invertebrate scavenging communities

- Anderson, Gail, Barton, Philip, Archer, Melanie, Wallace, John

  • Authors: Anderson, Gail , Barton, Philip , Archer, Melanie , Wallace, John
  • Date: 2019
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Carrion Ecology and Management p. 45-69
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  • Description: Invertebrate scavengers of terrestrial and aquatic carrion include a broad and enormously diverse grouping of various arthropods, nematodes, and molluscs. By far the most functionally important in terrestrial ecosystems are insects, especially the flies, with crustaceans performing this role in marine ecosystems, although a multi-trophic foodweb of numerous invertebrate taxa can be found at most carcasses in most environments. The occurrence of different taxa, and the dynamics of their colonization and various competitive interactions varies across terrestrial and aquatic realms, and is greatly influenced by geographic region, climate, habitat, season, and other biotic factors. This sub-chapter focuses on the invertebrate use of carrion in both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and highlights the role of different groups of invertebrates, and the biotic and abiotic factors that influence their occurrence and succession at decaying carcasses.

What's hot and what's not – Identifying publication trends in insect ecology

- Andrew, Nigel, Evans, Maldwyn, Svejcar, Lauren, Prendegast, Kit, Barton, Philip

  • 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

Outfoxing the fox : effect of prey odor on fox behavior in a pastoral landscape

- Andrewartha, Tim, Evans, Maldwyn, Batson, William, Manning, Adrian, Barton, Philip

  • 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

Soil chemical markers distinguishing human and pig decomposition islands : a preliminary study

- Barton, Philip, Reboldi, Anna, Dawson, Blake, Ueland, Maiken, Strong, Craig, Wallman, James

  • 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.

Nutrient and moisture transfer to insect consumers and soil during vertebrate decomposition

- Barton, Philip, Strong, Craig, Evans, Maldwyn, Higgins, Andrew, Quaggiotto, Maria

  • Authors: Barton, Philip , Strong, Craig , Evans, Maldwyn , Higgins, Andrew , Quaggiotto, Maria
  • Date: 2019
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Food Webs Vol. 18, no. (2019), p.
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  • Description: Decomposition of organic matter leads to the redistribution of nutrients to organisms and the environment. Yet knowledge of this process has focused largely on plant-derived organic matter, with little known about relative quantities of nutrients and moisture transferred from decomposing animal remains to insect consumers and soil. We used a replicated and spatially blocked experiment to quantify the moisture, carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorous content of rabbit carcasses, maggot consumers, and soil over 20 days of decomposition. We found that maggot biomass reached 22% of the fresh rabbit carcass, or 39% of the consumable soft tissues. Maggots were comprised of 68% moisture, and their dry mass was comprised of 25% carbon, 4.9% nitrogen, and 0.8% phosphorous. Soils accumulated approximately 12.9% of the total carcass moisture, but only 0.7% of the carcass dry mass. The largest quantity of carcass mass loss was attributable to evaporation of moisture to the atmosphere (45%). Approximately 9% of the initial carcass mass was left as unconsumed remains. Our study provides estimates of the quantities of nutrients moving from vertebrate carcasses to insect consumers and soil. This knowledge is critical to scaling up the effects of carcasses and to developing our understanding of their role in biogeochemical cycling in ecosystems. © 2018 Elsevier Inc.

Towards quantifying carrion biomass in ecosystems

- Barton, Philip, Evans, Maldwyn, Foster, Claire, Pechal, Jennifer, Bump, Joseph

  • 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**

Higher-taxon and functional group responses of ant and bird assemblages to livestock grazing : a test of an explicit surrogate concept

- Barton, Philip, Evans, Maldwyn, Sato, Chloe, O'Loughlin, Luke, Foster, Claire

  • Authors: Barton, Philip , Evans, Maldwyn , Sato, Chloe , O'Loughlin, Luke , Foster, Claire
  • Date: 2019
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Ecological Indicators Vol. 96, no. (2019), p. 458-465
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  • Description: Biodiversity monitoring programs are routinely established to quantify changes in biotic communities in response to land management. Surrogacy is implicitly used in many such monitoring programs whereby the measurement of a component of biodiversity is used to infer responses of broader biodiversity. Yet rarely is this surrogacy validated by demonstrating that measured variables and the target variable of interest have matching responses to management treatments. Here we examined the responses of higher-taxon and functional groupings of ants and birds (our surrogate variables) two years after the implementation of experimental livestock grazing treatments, and compared these with the responses of total ant and bird species richness (our target variables) to the same treatments. We found significant and strong correlations between surrogate and target variables, but this did not predict corresponding similar response to treatments. For ants, we found that the genus Monomorium had a negative response to the grazing exclusion treatment, but there was no matching response of species richness, and so no surrogacy was identified. For birds, total species richness had a weak positive response to spring/summer grazing exclusion, and the abundance of honeyeaters (Meliphagidae) showed a similar positive response, suggesting surrogacy. Our study highlights that correlations among variables do not necessarily lead to surrogacy, and indeed that different sub-components of biotic assemblages can respond in ways that contrast with overall species richness. Careful assessment of the matched responses of surrogate and target variables to management can provide a simple and robust way to critically assess biodiversity surrogacy. © 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**

Substantial long-term effects of carcass addition on soil and plants in a grassy eucalypt woodland

- Barton, Philip, McIntyre, Sue, Evans, Maldwyn, Bump, Joseph, Cunningham, Saul, Manning, Adrian

  • 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.

Effects of environmental variation and livestock grazing on ant community structure in temperate eucalypt woodlands

- Barton, Philip, Sato, Chloe, Kay, Geoffrey, Florance, Daniel, Lindenmayer, David

  • Authors: Barton, Philip , Sato, Chloe , Kay, Geoffrey , Florance, Daniel , Lindenmayer, David
  • Date: 2016
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Insect Conservation and Diversity Vol. 9, no. 2 (2016), p. 124-134
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  • Description: Grazing by livestock is a major ecological disturbance, with potential effects on vegetation, soil, and insect fauna. Ants are a diverse and functionally important insect group with many associations with the ground layer, yet recent global syntheses question the importance of grazing effects on ant communities relative to vegetation or soil. We examined the effects of vegetation, soil and grazing on the whole ant community, ant functional groups, and abundant species in temperate eucalypt woodlands, southeastern Australia. We found limited influence of grazing on our vegetation and soil measures, except for a positive association between grazing and exotic perennial grass cover. We also found that exotic grass cover had a negative effect on overall ant abundance and richness, but not functional groups or individual species. Soil C:N ratio had a positive effect on the subdominant Camponotini, and leaf litter cover had a positive effect on the abundance of cryptic species. Partial Mantel tests revealed an effect of both environmental and grazing measures on ant assemblage composition, but constrained ordination showed that leaf litter cover, grass biomass, and native and exotic perennial grass cover had stronger correlations with ant community structure than grazing. Our study shows that both environmental variation and grazing play a role in driving ant community structure, but that key environmental variables such as grass biomass and leaf litter cover are particularly important in temperate eucalypt woodlands. Monitoring of ant communities to measure the benefits of changed grazing regimes for biodiversity should consider contemporary grazing pressure as well as the underlying effects of variation in plants and soils. © 2016 The Royal Entomological Society.

Necrophilous insect dynamics at small vertebrate carrion in a temperate eucalypt woodland

- Barton, Philip, Evans, Maldwyn, Pechal, Jennifer, Benbow, M. Eric

  • Authors: Barton, Philip , Evans, Maldwyn , Pechal, Jennifer , Benbow, M. Eric
  • Date: 2017
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Journal of Medical Entomology Vol. 54, no. 4 (2017), p. 964-973
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  • Description: Insects associated with carrion are critical to the decomposition process and nutrient cycling in ecosystems. Yet the communities of insects associated with carrion vary between locations, and detailed case studies are necessary for identifying differences and similarities among contrasting habitats. In this study, we examined temporal changes in the crawling insect community collected from rabbit carcasses placed in contrasting grassland and tree habitats in southeastern Australia. We collected 18,400 adult insects, including 22 species of fly, 57 species of beetle, and 37 species of ant. We found significant effects of habitat type and time, but not their interaction, on the composition of the entire insect community. Several ant species showed early and rapid colonization and highest abundances during early stages of decay, including Iridomyrmex purpureus (Smith, 1858) under trees, and Iridomyrmex rufoniger (Lowne, 1865) and Rhytidoponera metallica (Smith, 1858) in grassland. We found that most fly species showed highest abundance during active decay, but Chrysomya varipes (Macquart 1851) was more abundant under trees than in grassland during this time. Beetles peaked during active or advanced decay stages, with Saprinus and Omorgus the most abundant genera. Our study demonstrates that strong replication of contrasting environmental treatments can reveal new information on habitat preferences of important carrion insect species. The numerical dominance of ants early in decomposition has implications for insect community structure via potential competitive interactions with flies, and should be more rigorously examined in future carrion studies. © The Authors 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America.

Insect biodiversity meets ecosystem function : differential effects of habitat and insects on carrion decomposition

- Barton, Philip, Evans, Maldwyn

  • Authors: Barton, Philip , Evans, Maldwyn
  • Date: 2017
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Ecological Entomology Vol. 42, no. 3 (2017), p. 364-374
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  • Description: 1. Ecological processes are maintained in different environments by different species performing similar functional roles. Yet, little is known about the role of the environment in shaping insect biodiversity associated with a process that is ephemeral and patchy. 2. In this study, the mass loss of carrion in response to contrasting habitat types (grassland or tree) was quantified experimentally, as well as the presence, diversity and composition of insect assemblages. Differences in insect assemblages between these two habitats were also examined. 3. It was found that the presence of insects led to a doubling in mass loss, but that grassland or tree habitat type had no effect on this process. By contrast, habitat type had a significant effect on the composition of generalist ant and beetle assemblages, but not on specialist fly assemblages. Given the colonisation of insects, carrion mass loss was negatively associated with increasing evenness of fly assemblages and increasing ant abundance. Variation in fly assemblage composition was also found to correlate with variation in carrion mass loss. 4. This study highlights the major role of habitat type in shaping the composition of generalist insects at carrion, but the minor role in affecting specialist and highly vagile insects. This complements the authors' findings that insect colonisation of carrion was critical to accelerated mass loss, and that fly assemblages were responsible for variation in this process, regardless of habitat. The present study sheds new light on the contribution of insect biodiversity to decomposition in variable environments, with consequences for carrion food webs and nutrient cycling. © 2017 The Royal Entomological Society

Environmental and spatial drivers of spider diversity at contrasting microhabitats

- Barton, Philip, Evans, Maldwyn, Foster, Claire, Cunningham, Saul, Manning, Adrian

  • Authors: Barton, Philip , Evans, Maldwyn , Foster, Claire , Cunningham, Saul , Manning, Adrian
  • Date: 2017
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Austral Ecology Vol. 42, no. 6 (2017), p. 700-710
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  • Description: The relative importance of environmental and spatial drivers of animal diversity varies across scales, but identifying these scales can be difficult if a sampling design does not match the scale of the target organisms' interaction with their habitat. In this study, we quantify and compare the effects of environmental variation and spatial proximity on ground-dwelling spider assemblages sampled from three distinct microhabitat types (open grassland, logs, trees) that recur across structurally heterogeneous grassy woodlands. We used model selection and multivariate procedures to compare the effects of different environmental attributes and spatial proximity on spider assemblages at each microhabitat type. We found that species richness and assemblage composition differed among microhabitat types. Bare ground cover had a negative effect on spider richness under trees, but a positive effect on spider richness in open grassland. Turnover in spider assemblages from open grassland was correlated with environmental distance, but not geographic distance. By contrast, turnover in spiders at logs and trees was correlated with geographic distance, but not environmental distance. Our study suggests that spider assemblages from widespread and connected open grassland habitat were more affected by environmental than spatial gradients, whereas spiders at log and tree habitats were more affected by spatial distance among these discrete but recurring microhabitats. Deliberate selection and sampling of small-scale habitat features can provide robust information about the drivers of arthropod diversity and turnover in landscapes. © 2017 Ecological Society of Australia

Carrion decomposition

- Barton, Philip, Bump, Joseph

Temperature dynamics in different body regions of decomposing vertebrate remains

- Barton, Philip, Dawson, Blake, Barton, Andrew, Joshua, Sergio, Wallman, James

  • 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.

Necrobiome framework for bridging decomposition ecology of autotrophically and heterotrophically derived organic matter

- Benbow, M., Barton, Philip, Ulyshen, Michael, Beasley, James, DeVault, Travis

  • Authors: Benbow, M. , Barton, Philip , Ulyshen, Michael , Beasley, James , DeVault, Travis
  • Date: 2019
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Ecological Monographs Vol. 89, no. 1 (2019), p.
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  • Description: Decomposition contributes to global ecosystem function by contributing to nutrient recycling, energy flow, and limiting biomass accumulation. The decomposer organisms influencing this process form diverse, complex, and highly dynamic communities that often specialize on different plant or animal resources. Despite performing the same net role, there is a need to conceptually synthesize information on the structure and function of decomposer communities across the spectrum of dead plant and animal resources. A lack of synthesis has limited cross-disciplinary learning and research in important areas of ecosystem and community ecology. Here we expound on the “necrobiome” concept and develop a framework describing the decomposer communities and their interactions associated with plant and animal resource types within multiple ecosystems. We outline the biotic structure and ecological functions of the necrobiome, along with how the necrobiome fits into a broader landscape and ecosystem context. The expanded necrobiome model provides a set of perspectives on decomposer communities across resource types, and conceptually unifies plant and animal decomposer communities into the same framework, while acknowledging key differences in processes and mechanisms. This framework is intended to raise awareness among researchers, and advance the construction of explicit, mechanistic hypotheses that further our understanding of decomposer community contributions to biodiversity, the structure and function of ecosystems, global nutrient recycling and energy flow. © 2018 by the Ecological Society of America

How bioregional history could shape the future of agriculture

- Brown, Julian, Barton, Philip, Cunningham, Saul

  • Authors: Brown, Julian , Barton, Philip , Cunningham, Saul
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Advances in Ecological Research p. 149-189
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  • Description: Biodiversity conservation and agriculture are becoming intimately intertwined. Wildlife-friendly agriculture is promoted as a way to conserve biodiversity, connect nature reserves, facilitate climate-driven range shifts and enhance ecosystem services to agriculture. Yet some approaches that increase native biodiversity in agricultural landscapes, such as tropical agroforestry, may support a suite of species that is distinct from nearby remnant habitat. Wildlife-friendly farming, therefore, does not necessarily facilitate native species persistence through landscape conversion to agriculture or facilitate the movement of local species among nature reserves. We argue the historical composition of native species in agricultural landscapes can be maintained by enhancing ecological similarity between production land uses and natural ecosystems. Some agricultural systems already support native species from, and share some ecological attributes with, natural grasslands, wetlands and forests. However, we suggest there are benefits to be gained by focusing on the finer details of similarities in structure, floristic composition (e.g. crop species) and disturbance regimes occurring across natural and modified habitat types. A key advancement of this approach is that the composition of agricultural diversity and its spatio-temporal dynamics are selected and managed according to the spatial and temporal habitat requirements of the wildlife species naturally inhabiting the local area. We argue that ensuring ecological similarity between agricultural systems and the ecosystems they replaced or lie between will strengthen the capacity of agricultural landscapes to maintain historical species pools and provide spatial and temporal connectivity between nature reserves and analogous future climatic zones. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd

The predatory impacts of invasive European wasps on flies are facilitated by carcasses with open wounds

- Cairncross, Rhys, Barton, Philip, Bonat, Stefanie, Crowther, Matthew, Dickman, Christopher, Vandersteen, James, Newsome, Thomas

  • 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.

Convergence of social strategies in carrion breeding insects

- Charabidze, Damien, Trumbo, Stephen, Grzywacz, Andrze, Costa, James, Barton, Philip

  • Authors: Charabidze, Damien , Trumbo, Stephen , Grzywacz, Andrze , Costa, James , Barton, Philip
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Journal article , Review
  • Relation: BioScience Vol. 71, no. 10 (2021), p. 1028-1037
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  • Description: Carrion is a highly ephemeral and nutrient rich resource, characterized by extreme biotic and abiotic stressors. We hypothesized that specific constraints of the carrion ecosystem, and especially its nutrient richness, ephemerality, and competition with microbes, have promoted the evolution of social behaviors in necrophagous insects. We show that group living is prevalent among early succession carrion breeding insects, suggesting that this trait has emerged as an adaptation to facilitate survival in the highly competitive environment of fresh carrion. We then highlight how developmental niche construction allows larvae to compete with microbes, efficiently feed on fresh cadavers, and rapidly reach maturity. We observed that larval societies and parental care are two different strategies responding to similar competitive and environmental constraints. We conclude that intra and interspecific competition on carrion are mitigated by social behavior. © 2021 The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. **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**

Contrasting insect activity and decomposition of pigs and humans in an Australian environment : a preliminary study

- Dawson, Blake, Barton, Philip, Wallman, James

  • Authors: Dawson, Blake , Barton, Philip , Wallman, James
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Forensic Science International Vol. 316, no. (2020), p.
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  • Description: Non-human vertebrate animals, primarily domestic pigs, have been widely used in forensic science research as analogues for humans due to ethical and logistical constraints. Yet the suitability of pigs to mimic human decomposition and entomological patterns remains largely untested, and explicit comparative research in this area is lacking. We compared the decomposition rates and insect communities found at pig and human remains during summer and winter at the Australian Facility for Taphonomic Experimental Research (AFTER). Pigs decomposed faster than humans, with pigs entering active decay earlier in both summer and winter, and humans undergoing desiccation rather than skeletonisation. There was also a delay in the colonisation of humans by both flies and beetles. Species richness of these necrophagous taxa was between two and five times higher during the first two weeks of decomposition on pigs compared to humans during both summer and winter. Insect species composition was also significantly different between pigs and humans in each season. We interpret our findings to mean that the difference between humans and pigs, such as their mass, diet, medical history, or their microbiomes, might be causing different decomposition processes and altered timing or production of chemical cues for insect colonisation. Although preliminary, our results suggest that pigs might not be accurate substitutes for humans in particular fields of taphonomy and forensic entomology. Our findings also have broader implications for the reliability of forensic studies using pigs as models for humans, and highlight the need to recognise intrinsic differences between animal models and humans. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.
  • Description: This work was supported in part by the Australian Research Council ( LE150100015 ), as well as by a SMAH Small Project Grant ( University of Wollongong ).

Is resource change a useful predictor of carrion insect succession on pigs and humans?

- Dawson, Blake, Wallman, James, Evans, Maldwyn, Barton, Philip

  • Authors: Dawson, Blake , Wallman, James , Evans, Maldwyn , Barton, Philip
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Journal of Medical Entomology Vol. 58, no. 6 (2021), p. 2228-2235
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  • Description: Carrion is a dynamic and nutrient-rich resource that attracts numerous insect species that undergo succession due to the rapid change in the carrion resource. Despite this process being well-understood, few studies have examined resource change as a driver of carrion insect succession, and instead have focused on the effects of time per se, or on coarse, qualitative measures such as decay stage. Here we report on three field succession experiments using pig carcasses and human cadavers encompassing two winters and one summer. We quantified the effects of resource change (measured as total body score, TBS), carrion type, initial carrion mass, ambient temperature, and season on insect species richness and community composition. We found that all variables had an effect on different taxonomic or trophic components of the insect community composition, with the exception of initial carrion mass which had no effect. We found significant positive effects of TBS on beetle species richness and composition, while fly species richness was not significantly affected by TBS, but was by ambient temperature. TBS had a significant positive effect on all trophic groups, while ambient temperature also had a significant positive effect on the necrophages and predator/parasitoids. Our study indicates that resource change, as indicated by TBS, is an important driver of carrion insect species turnover and succession on carrion, and that TBS can provide information about insect ecological patterns on carrion that other temporal measures of change cannot.