List of Titles

Fine-scale drivers of beetle diversity are affected by vegetation context and agricultural history

- Ross, Catherine, Barton, Philip, McIntyre, Sue, Cunningham, Saul, Manning, Adrian

Authors: Ross, Catherine , Barton, Philip , McIntyre, Sue , Cunningham, Saul , Manning, Adrian
Date: 2017
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Austral Ecology Vol. 42, no. 7 (2017), p. 831-843
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Description: Environmental gradients have been shown to affect animal diversity, but knowledge of fine-scale drivers of insect diversity is, in many cases, poorly developed. We investigated the drivers of beetle diversity and composition at different microhabitats, and how this may be mediated by past agricultural activities. The study was undertaken in temperate eucalypt grassy woodland near Canberra, south-eastern Australia, with a 200-year history of pastoral land use. We sampled beetles using pitfall traps at three microhabitats (open grassland, logs and under trees). We analysed the effects of soil properties, vegetation structure, and plant composition on beetle composition, and compared beetle responses among the microhabitats. We found that microhabitat was a strong determinant of the way beetle communities responded to their environment. Soil nutrients (C, N and P) were the strongest drivers of beetle species richness, abundance and composition at open and log microhabitat, however vegetation structure (tree basal area) was more important for beetle richness, abundance and biomass under trees. We also found significant differences in beetle composition among distinct ground-layer plant communities at log and tree microhabitat. We show that prior agricultural land use, particularly fertilization, has altered soil and plant communities, and that these effects continue to flow through the system affecting beetle assemblages. These findings have implications for future management of microhabitat structures in temperate grassy woodlands with a history of agricultural use. © 2017 Ecological Society of Australia

Does wing morphology affect recolonization of restored farmland by ground-dwelling beetles?

- Gibb, Heloise, Retter, Bryony, Cunningham, Saul, Barton, Philip

Authors: Gibb, Heloise , Retter, Bryony , Cunningham, Saul , Barton, Philip
Date: 2017
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Restoration Ecology Vol. 25, no. 2 (2017), p. 234-242
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Description: Revegetation of previously cleared land is widely used to increase habitat area and connectivity of remnant vegetation for biodiversity conservation. Whether new habitat attracts or supports fauna depends on the dispersal traits of those fauna as well as the structure and composition of the surrounding landscape. Here, we examined wing morphology as a key dispersal trait for beetles in a revegetated landscape and asked, first, how it was related to phylogeny (family), trophic position, and body size. Second, we asked if wing morphology of recolonizing (or persisting) beetles varied with habitat characteristics at multiple scales, from microhabitat to landscape context. Third, we examined how common winged and wingless species responded to habitat at multiple scales. We measured the wing morphology of ground-dwelling beetles from a restoration chronosequence, including paddocks, “young” revegetation (8–11 years old), “old” revegetation (14–19 years old), and fenced remnant vegetation. We found that body size and family membership were significant predictors of winglessness, with wingless species of carabids and curculionids being larger than their winged counterparts. We found no difference in the number of sites occupied by winged and wingless species, and no relationship between the wing morphology traits represented in different locations and habitat characteristics or landscape context. Furthermore, the most abundant species of both winged and wingless ground-dwelling beetles had relatively little affinity to any habitat successional stage. Thus, despite intrinsic differences in wing morphology among species of ground-dwelling beetle, we found no evidence that flight-related dispersal limitations influenced recolonization (or persistence) in this landscape. © 2016 Society for Ecological Restoration

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Two roles for ecological surrogacy : indicator surrogates and management surrogates

- Hunter, Malcolm, Westgate, Martin, Barton, Philip, Calhoun, Aram, Pierson, Jennifer

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**

Source, distribution and emerging threat of micro- and nanoplastics to marine organism and human health : socio-economic impact and management strategies

- Mofijur, M., Ahmed, Shams, Ashrafur Rahman, S., Arafat Siddiki, Sk, Islam, A., Shahabuddin, M., Ong, Hwai, Mahlia, Teuku, Djavanroodi, Faramarz, Show, Pau

Authors: Mofijur, M. , Ahmed, Shams , Ashrafur Rahman, S. , Arafat Siddiki, Sk , Islam, A. , Shahabuddin, M. , Ong, Hwai , Mahlia, Teuku , Djavanroodi, Faramarz , Show, Pau
Date: 2021
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Environmental Research Vol. 195, no. (2021), p.
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Description: The nature of micro- and nanoplastics and their harmful consequences has drawn significant attention in recent years in the context of environmental protection. Therefore, this paper aims to provide an overview of the existing literature related to this evolving subject, focusing on the documented human health and marine environment impacts of micro- and nanoplastics and including a discussion of the economic challenges and strategies to mitigate this waste problem. The study highlights the micro- and nanoplastics distribution across various trophic levels of the food web, and in different organs in infected animals which is possible due to their reduced size and their lightweight, multi-coloured and abundant features. Consequently, micro- and nanoplastics pose significant risks to marine organisms and human health in the form of cytotoxicity, acute reactions, and undesirable immune responses. They affect several sectors including aquaculture, agriculture, fisheries, transportation, industrial sectors, power generation, tourism, and local authorities causing considerable economic losses. This can be minimised by identifying key sources of environmental plastic contamination and educating the public, thus reducing the transfer of micro- and nanoplastics into the environment. Furthermore, the exploitation of the potential of microorganisms, particularly those from marine origins that can degrade plastics, could offer an enhanced and environmentally sound approach to mitigate micro- and nanoplastics pollution. © 2021 Elsevier Inc.

Applications of Computed Tomography (CT) in environmental soil and plant sciences

- Zhang, Huan, He, Hailong, Gao, Yanjun, Mady, Ahmed, Filipović, Vilim, Dyck, Miles, Lv, Jialong, Liu, Yang

Authors: Zhang, Huan , He, Hailong , Gao, Yanjun , Mady, Ahmed , Filipović, Vilim , Dyck, Miles , Lv, Jialong , Liu, Yang
Date: 2023
Type: Text , Journal article , Review
Relation: Soil and Tillage Research Vol. 226, no. (2023), p.
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Description: Computed tomography (CT) in combination with advanced image processing can be used to non-invasively and non-destructively visualize complex interiors of living and non-living media in 2 and 3-dimensional space. In addition to medical applications, CT has also been widely used in soil and plant science for visual and quantitative descriptions of physical, chemical, and biological properties and processes. The technique has been used successfully on numerous applications. However, with a rapidly evolving CT technologies and expanding applications, a renewed review is desirable. Only a few attempts have been made to collate and review examples of CT applications involving the integrated field of soil and plant research in recent years. Therefore, the objectives of this work were to: (1) briefly introduce the basic principles of CT and image processing; (2) identify the research status and hot spots of CT using bibliometric analysis based on Web of Science literature over the past three decades; (3) provide an overall review of CT applications in soil science for measuring soil properties (e.g., porous soil structure, soil components, soil biology, heat transfer, water flow, and solute transport); and (4) give an overview of applications of CT in plant science to detect morphological structures, plant material properties, and root-soil interaction. Moreover, the limitations of CT and image processing are discussed and future perspectives are given. © 2022 Elsevier B.V.

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Conservation conundrums and the challenges of managing unexplained declines of multiple species

- Lindenmayer, David, Wood, Jeff, MacGregor, Christopher, Foster, Claire, Barton, Philip

Authors: Lindenmayer, David , Wood, Jeff , MacGregor, Christopher , Foster, Claire , Barton, Philip
Date: 2018
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Biological Conservation Vol. 221, no. (2018), p. 279-292
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Description: The conventional approach to conserving threatened biota is to identify drivers of decline, instigate actions to mitigate threatening processes, and monitor interventions to test their effectiveness and ensure target species recover. In Australia, predation by introduced predators is a threatening process for many native mammals. Here we report the results of a 15 year monitoring study in an iconic Australian reserve, Booderee National Park, where exotic Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) populations have been controlled through an intensive poison baiting program since 2003. Unexpectedly, we documented the collapse of native mammal fauna during this period, including fully arboreal species that should be largely unaffected by fox predation – such as the nationally Vulnerable Greater Glider (Petauroides volans) and Common Ringtail Possum (Pseudocheirus peregrinus). We used path analysis to explore potential causes of these unexpected declines. We found no compelling evidence to support hypotheses that competition with increasing native species, native predator release, or increases in native herbivores underpinned mammal declines. Beyond the path analysis, data from other studies completed both inside Booderee National Park and outside (where intensive fox baiting does not occur yet depleted fauna species remain), allowed us to rule out several drivers of change. The temporal declines we documented for arboreal marsupials were not anticipated nor explained by any clear mechanism. We propose the use of experimentally-guided reintroductions and translocations to: (1) restore empty niches such as the currently vacant apex mammal predator niche, (2) reconstruct the now depleted arboreal marsupial guild, and (3) further test key hypotheses associated with mammal decline. We also suggest that given the potential for perverse outcomes following large-scale management interventions (even those where there is high confidence of success), wildlife managers should consider maintaining reference areas (where there is no management intervention). Finally, as the declines we documented were unexpected and rapid, there is a clear need to develop more sensitive early warning signals to alert conservation managers to impending problems, allowing them to alter management regimes before major declines occur. © 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**

Beetle’s responses to edges in fragmented landscapes are driven by adjacent farmland use, season and cross-habitat movement

- Ng, Katherine, Barton, Philip, Macfadyen, Sarina, Lindenmayer, David, Driscoll, Don

Authors: Ng, Katherine , Barton, Philip , Macfadyen, Sarina , Lindenmayer, David , Driscoll, Don
Date: 2018
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Landscape Ecology Vol. 33, no. 1 (2018), p. 109-125
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Description: Context: Farming practices influence the degree of contrast between adjoining habitats, with consequences for biodiversity and species movement. Little is known, however, on insect community responses to different kinds of edges over time, and the extent of cross-habitat movement in agricultural landscapes. Objective: To determine temporal changes in beetle responses to different farmland-woodland edges, and document cross-habitat movement. Methods: We examined species richness, abundance, and movement across edges between remnant woodlands and four farmland uses (plantings, fallow, annual crops, woody debris applied over crops post-harvest) in southeastern Australia. We used directional pitfall traps to infer movement, and sampled at edges, and 20 and 200 m on both sides of edges, during spring and summer. Results: Detritivore and predator abundance varied between seasons across the edge between woodlands and all farmlands, but seasonal differences were weaker for fallow-woodland and woody debris-woodland edges. Detritivores moved from farmlands towards woodlands, but not across fallow-woodlands and woody debris-woodlands edges during summer. During summer, predators showed short-range movement towards edges from all farmlands except plantings, and towards woody debris from woodlands. Edges showed temporally stable predator richness and higher herbivore richness than adjoining habitats. Conclusions: Farmland use and season interactively affect beetle abundance across farmland-woodland edges. Woody debris can reduce seasonal fluctuations in beetle edge responses and increase permeability for cross-habitat movement, while plantings provide habitat during summer. Edges provide important resources for beetles in adjoining habitats, however, seasonal movement of predators specifically into edges may affect prey assemblages—a link requiring further study. © 2017, Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Beetle ecological indicators – A comparison of cost vs reward to understand functional changes in response to restoration actions

- Evans, Maldwyn, Cunningham, Saul, Gibb, Heloise, Manning, Adrian, Barton, Philip

Authors: Evans, Maldwyn , Cunningham, Saul , Gibb, Heloise , Manning, Adrian , Barton, Philip
Date: 2019
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Ecological Indicators Vol. 104, no. (2019), p. 209-218
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Description: Ecosystem restoration can play a vital role in conserving biodiversity, but its effectiveness can be difficult to assess for hyperdiverse biota such as insects. Species traits of insects can be used to understand their functional responses to restoration, but their use often requires considerable effort, and few studies have examined what additional insight can be gained from this approach. We used a spatially and temporally controlled restoration experiment to examine beetle species, grouped by flight ability, family membership and feeding guild, as indicators of ecosystem functional change. We tested for the effects of reduced vertebrate grazing on beetle assemblages sampled from two different microhabitats (next to log and in open ground)one year prior and two years after a vertebrate grazing treatment was applied. We compared the responses of the different beetle functional groupings, and then related these to the effort involved in employing these indicators. We found that beetle species traits gave several functional insights into their responses to reduced grazing, including responses to changes in vegetation structure and biomass. Species richness indicators and abundance indicators of beetle functional groups showed similar responses in many cases, whereas biomass indicators gave additional insights related to the extra biomass of vegetation and detritus resulting from the reduction in grazing. We found that most results were revealed by using family groups as indicators for functional change. This is because the traits that often define beetle families, such as size, flight ability and feeding guilds each have distinctive functional roles, allowing a link from family to function, and supporting the idea that phylogeny is often a useful shortcut to species ecology. We conclude that in our study system, the least-cost approach to identifying functional responses of beetles to reduced vertebrate grazing, and possibly other restoration actions, is to use abundance indicators of the most common family groups. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd

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Geochemical characteristics and structural setting of lithium–caesium–tantalum pegmatites of the Dorchap Dyke Swarm, northeast Victoria, Australia

- Hines, Benjamin, Turnbull, D., Ashworth, Luisa, McKnight, Stafford

Authors: Hines, Benjamin , Turnbull, D. , Ashworth, Luisa , McKnight, Stafford
Date: 2023
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Australian Journal of Earth Sciences Vol. 70, no. 6 (2023), p. 763-800
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Description: The Dorchap Dyke Swarm hosts the first recorded occurrence of lithium–caesium–tantalum (LCT) pegmatites in Victoria, Australia. Syn-orogenic emplacement of pegmatite dykes occurred along a northwest-trending shear system during the Benambran Orogeny. Pegmatites are derived from fractionated melt associated with the Mount Wills Granite, which is an S-type, peraluminous granite originating from supracrustal melting of Ordovician sedimentary sequences. A distinct, eastward-oriented fractionation trend across the Dorchap Dyke Swarm has highlighted a 20 × 8 km highly fractionated zone in the northeastern Dorchap Range, which includes spodumene- and petalite-bearing pegmatites. A distinct pattern of elemental enrichment (P > Cs > Be > Nb

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Evaluating the effectiveness of overstory cover as a surrogate for bird community diversity and population trends

- Pierson, Jennifer, Mortelliti, Alessio, Barton, Philip, Lane, Peter, Lindenmayer, David

Authors: Pierson, Jennifer , Mortelliti, Alessio , Barton, Philip , Lane, Peter , Lindenmayer, David
Date: 2016
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Ecological Indicators Vol. 61, no. (2016), p. 790-798
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Description: Landscape features are often used as surrogates for biodiversity. While landscape features may perform well as surrogates for coarse metrics of biodiversity such as species richness, their value for monitoring population trends in individual species is virtually unexplored. We compared the performance of a proposed habitat surrogate for birds, percentage cover of vegetation overstory, for two distinct aspects of bird assemblages: community diversity (i.e. species richness) and population trends. We used four different long-term studies of open woodland habitats to test the consistency of the relationship between overstory percentage cover and bird species richness across a large spatial extent (>1000 km) in Australia. We then identified twelve bird species with long-term time-series data to test the relationship between change in overstory cover and populations trends. We found percentage cover performed consistently as a surrogate for species richness in three of the four sites. However, there was no clear pattern in the performance of change in percentage cover as a surrogate for population trends. Four bird species exhibited a significant relationship with change in percentage overstory cover in one study, but this was not found across multiple studies. These results demonstrate a lack of consistency in the relationship between change in overstory cover and population trends among bird species, both within and between geographic regions. Our study demonstrates that biodiversity surrogates representing community-level metrics may be consistent across regions, but provide only limited information about individual species population trends. Understanding the limitations of the information provided by a biodiversity surrogate can inform the appropriate context for its application. Crown Copyright © 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Global environmental changes impact soil hydraulic functions through biophysical feedbacks

- Robinson, David, Hopmans, Jan, Filipovic, Vilim, van der Ploeg, Martine, Lebron, Inma, Jones, Scott, Reinsch, Sabine, Jarvis, Nick, Tuller, Markus

Authors: Robinson, David , Hopmans, Jan , Filipovic, Vilim , van der Ploeg, Martine , Lebron, Inma , Jones, Scott , Reinsch, Sabine , Jarvis, Nick , Tuller, Markus
Date: 2019
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Global Change Biology Vol. 25, no. 6 (2019), p. 1895-1904
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Description: Although only representing 0.05% of global freshwater, or 0.001% of all global water, soil water supports all terrestrial biological life. Soil moisture behaviour in most models is constrained by hydraulic parameters that do not change. Here we argue that biological feedbacks from plants, macro-fauna and the microbiome influence soil structure, and thus the soil hydraulic parameters and the soil water content signals we observe. Incorporating biological feedbacks into soil hydrological models is therefore important for understanding environmental change and its impacts on ecosystems. We anticipate that environmental change will accelerate and modify soil hydraulic function. Increasingly, we understand the vital role that soil moisture exerts on the carbon cycle and other environmental threats such as heatwaves, droughts and floods, wildfires, regional precipitation patterns, disease regulation and infrastructure stability, in addition to agricultural production. Biological feedbacks may result in changes to soil hydraulic function that could be irreversible, resulting in alternative stable states (ASS) of soil moisture. To explore this, we need models that consider all the major feedbacks between soil properties and soil-plant-faunal-microbial-atmospheric processes, which is something we currently do not have. Therefore, a new direction is required to incorporate a dynamic description of soil structure and hydraulic property evolution into soil-plant-atmosphere, or land surface, models that consider feedbacks from land use and climate drivers of change, so as to better model ecosystem dynamics.

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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**

Effects of ecological restoration on soil microbial diversity in a temperate grassy woodland

- Hamonts, Kelly, Bissett, Andrew, Macdonald, Ben, Barton, Philip, Manning, Adrian, Young, Andrew

Authors: Hamonts, Kelly , Bissett, Andrew , Macdonald, Ben , Barton, Philip , Manning, Adrian , Young, Andrew
Date: 2017
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Applied Soil Ecology Vol. 117-118, no. (2017), p. 117-128
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Description: Soil microbial communities are often overlooked in the context of ecological restoration. Given their central role in a broad range of ecosystem processes, however, understanding their response to restoration activities is critical to predicting restoration trajectories. In this study, we quantified the response of soil bacterial and fungal communities to restoration treatments, variation in microhabitat elements and vegetation in a critically endangered Australian box-gum grassy woodland ecosystem. Restoration treatments included the addition of coarse woody debris (CWD) and reduced grazing pressure. Four years after applying restoration treatments, we found no significant effect of CWD addition on soil microbial diversity, while reduced grazing significantly affected composition of the fungal, but not the bacterial, communities. Both bacterial and fungal communities responded to microhabitat element (open ground vs. old logs and trees), overlying vegetation and soil edaphic properties, and strong aboveground-belowground linkages were observed. Plant alpha diversity was positively correlated to soil bacterial, but not fungal, alpha diversity and plant community composition was a good predictor of both soil bacterial and fungal beta diversity. Co-occurrence network analysis identified numerous complex, non-linear associations between soil bacteria, fungi, edaphic properties and overlying plants. Soil microbes affected by restoration treatments included fungal saprotrophs and Actinobacteria, likely involved in litter breakdown, as well as bacteria likely involved in soil N cycling. Although the directions of the observed plant-microbe relationships remain unclear, we demonstrated the possibility of inducing changes to soil microbial communities to enhance restoration outcomes in box-gum grassy woodland ecosystems. © 2017 Elsevier B.V.

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Herbivory and fire interact to affect forest understory habitat, but not its use by small vertebrates

- Foster, Claire, Barton, Philip, Sato, C. F., Wood, J. T., Macgregor, C. I., Lindenmayer, David

Authors: Foster, Claire , Barton, Philip , Sato, C. F. , Wood, J. T. , Macgregor, C. I. , Lindenmayer, David
Date: 2016
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Animal Conservation Vol. 19, no. 1 (2016), p. 15-25
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Description: Herbivory and fire are two disturbances that often co-occur, but studies of their interactive effects are rare outside of grassland ecosystems. We experimentally tested the interactive effects of prescribed fire and macropod herbivory on forest understory vegetation and its vertebrate fauna. Fire and herbivory interacted synergistically to affect forest understory vegetation, with palatable plants showing poor post-fire recovery in unfenced sites compared with herbivore exclusion sites. Despite this strong interactive effect on vegetation, small vertebrates responded to the individual, and not the interactive effects of disturbance. The native insectivorous mammal Antechinus stuartii was more frequently encountered on large herbivore exclusion sites, as was the introduced European rabbit. In contrast, the small skink Lampropholis delicata was more common on sites with high densities of large herbivores. Skinks, snakes and European rabbits were also more active on burnt than unburnt sites. Our results suggest that it may be necessary to manage the macropod herbivore population after fire to prevent the decline of palatable plants, and maintain the dense habitat required by some small mammals. However, as the invasive rabbit was most active in macropod-free sites after fire, any management must include control of both types of herbivores. A mix of understory densities may also need to be maintained to ensure the persistence of species preferring more open habitats. Our study demonstrates that interactive effects of disturbance on vegetation communities may not lead to predictable effects on animals, and highlights the importance of considering both multiple stressors, and multiple species, in the management of disturbance regimes. © 2016 The Zoological Society of London.

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Tests of predictions associated with temporal changes in Australian bird populations

- Lindenmayer, David, Lane, Peter, Westgate, Martin, Scheele, Ben, Barton, Philip

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**

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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

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Current status of and future opportunities for digital agriculture in Australia

- Hansen, Birgita, Leonard, E., Mitchell, M. C., Easton, J., Shariati, N., Mortlock, M. Y., Schaefer, M., Lamb, D. W.

Authors: Hansen, Birgita , Leonard, E. , Mitchell, M. C. , Easton, J. , Shariati, N. , Mortlock, M. Y. , Schaefer, M. , Lamb, D. W.
Date: 2022
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Crop and pasture science Vol. 74, no. 6 (2022), p. 524-537
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Description: In Australia, digital agriculture is considered immature and its adoption ad hoc, despite a relatively advanced technology innovation sector. In this review, we focus on the technical, governance and social factors of digital adoption that have created a disconnect between technology development and the end user community (farmers and their advisors). Using examples that reflect both successes and barriers in Australian agriculture, we first explore the current enabling technologies and processes, and then we highlight some of the key socio-technical factors that explain why digital agriculture is immature and ad hoc. Pronounced issues include fragmentation of the innovation system (and digital tools), and a lack of enabling legislation and policy to support technology deployment. To overcome such issues and increase adoption, clear value propositions for change are necessary. These value propositions are influenced by the perceptions and aspirations of individuals, the delivery of digitally-enabled processes and the supporting legislative, policy and educational structures, better use/conversion of data generated through technology applications to knowledge for supporting decision making, and the suitability of the technology. Agronomists and early adopter farmers will play a significant role in closing the technology-end user gap, and will need support and training from technology service providers, government bodies and peer-networks. Ultimately, practice change will only be achieved through mutual understanding, ownership and trust. This will occur when farmers and their advisors are an integral part of the entire digital innovation system.

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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**

Evidence for the likely extinction of an endemic south Australian springtail, 'Temeritas regalis' (Symphypleona: Sminthuridae)

- Greenslade, Penelope

Authors: Greenslade, Penelope
Date: 2019
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: South Australian naturalist Vol. 93, no. 2 (2019), p. 103-110
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Description: 'Temeritas regalis' (Womersley, 1939) was formerly common in the Mt Lofty Ranges extending from as far north as Alligator Gorge/Mt Remarkable/Wirrabara in the Southern Flinders to Myponga, 60 km south of Adelaide. The species is a South Australian endemic and belongs to a pantropical wide genus. It was collected several times in the 1930's and fourteen times in the 1970's but it has not been seen since 1978. In spite of collecting efforts from its typical habitat in the Mt Lofty Ranges and Southern Flinders Ranges and at Mt Bold on 21 occasions in the last 20 years, no further specimens have been found. It appears that populations have shrunk in size or may have disappeared altogether since the 1980s due to a number of factors mainly: climate change, drought, habitat alteration and/or expansion of invasive plants, invertebrates and 'Phytophthora'. Consequently, it is suggested that the apparent population decrease and possible local extinctions are real and, as a result, this species complies with the IUCN criteria A1 and B, and should be listed as endangered under the South Australian legislation.

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Henry Watts (1828-1889) : 'The pioneer of freshwater phycology in Victoria'

- Wallis, Robert, Mondon, Julie

Authors: Wallis, Robert , Mondon, Julie
Date: 2021
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Victorian Naturalist Vol. 138, no. 3 (2021), p. 93-96
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Description: Henry Watts was a microscopist, botanist, marine biologist and a manufacturer of perfumes made from distilling flowers. Before this latter occupation, he was a bootmaker. The first record we have of Watts was his setting up a bootmaking shop in Warrnambool in 1858 and, in the same year, giving a lecture to the Warrnambool Mechanics Institute on 'The Microscope'.

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