Related Papers
Our capacity to tell an Australian ecological story
2014 •
Ben Sparrow
Chapter 7 – Heathlands
Greg Guerin
The Science of the total environment
Biodiversity responds to increasing climatic extremes in a biome-specific manner
2018 •
Luke Einoder
An unprecedented rate of global environmental change is predicted for the next century. The response to this change by ecosystems around the world is highly uncertain. To address this uncertainty, it is critical to understand the potential drivers and mechanisms of change in order to develop more reliable predictions. Australia's Long Term Ecological Research Network (LTERN) has brought together some of the longest running (10-60years) continuous environmental monitoring programs in the southern hemisphere. Here, we compare climatic variables recorded at five LTERN plot network sites during their period of operation and place them into the context of long-term climatic trends. Then, using our unique Australian long-term datasets (total 117 survey years across four biomes), we synthesize results from a series of case studies to test two hypotheses: 1) extreme weather events for each plot network have increased over the last decade, and; 2) trends in biodiversity will be associate...
Science of the Total Environment
The Australian SuperSite Network: A continental, long-term terrestrial ecosystem observatory
2016 •
Jean-Marc Hero
Ecosystem monitoring networks aim to collect data on physical, chemical and biological systems and their interactions that shape the biosphere. Here we introduce the Australian SuperSite Network that, along with complementary facilities of Australia's Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN), delivers field infrastructure and diverse, ecosystem-related datasets for use by researchers, educators and policy makers. The SuperSite Network uses infrastructure replicated across research sites in different biomes, to allow comparisons across ecosystems and improve scalability of findings to regional, continental and global scales. This conforms with the approaches of other ecosystem monitoring networks such as Critical Zone Observatories, the U.S. National Ecological Observatory Network; Analysis and Experimentation on Ecosystems, Europe; Chinese Ecosystem Research Network; International Long Term Ecological Research network and the United States Long Term Ecological Research Network. The Australian SuperSite Network currently involves 10 SuperSites across a diverse range of biomes, including tropical rainforest, grassland and savanna; wet and dry sclerophyll forest and woodland; and semi-arid grassland,woodland and savanna. The focus of the SuperSite Network is on using vegetation, faunal and biophysical monitoring to develop a process-based understanding of ecosystem function and change in Australian biomes; and to link this with data streams provided by the series of flux towers across the network. The Australian SuperSite Network is also intended to support a range of auxiliary researchers who contribute to the growing body of knowledge within and across the SuperSite Network, public outreach and education to promote environmental awareness and the role of ecosystem monitoring in the management of Australian environments.
Forest Ecology and Management
A critical review of the science underpinning fire management in the high altitude ecosystems of south-eastern Australia
2013 •
Shaun C Cunningham, Maria Taranto
Organisms Diversity & Evolution
Moving with the times: baseline data to gauge future shifts in vegetation and invertebrate altitudinal assemblages due to environmental change
2003 •
Jayne Balmer
A long-term monitoring program has been established in Tasmania, Australia, as a Satellite Project for the International Biodiversity Observation Year (IBOY). This program aims to monitor distributional change in vegetation and fauna assemblages along an altitudinal gradient (70–1300 m) in response to climate change and other environmental events. Baseline data collected over a two-year period will be available for comparison with data collected in future decades.The vegetation varies with altitude and fire history. The rate of change in vegetation is not continuous along the altitudinal gradient, but is most rapid above 700 m and below the treeline at 1000–1100 m. Most vascular plant species reach the limit of their distribution within this zone.Despite their preliminary nature, the invertebrate data also display altitudinal and seasonal patterns. The treeline and the 700–1000 m zone again appear to be notable in terms of invertebrate distribution. While the composition of ground-based taxa may be closely related to the floristic composition of the vegetation (or its environmental drivers), the airborne invertebrate fauna appears to be more closely related to structural characteristics such as height and density. Of all taxa, the Coleoptera appear to be the best potential indicators across most altitudes and times.Although the current data provide a wealth of inventory and distributional information over altitude, their greatest potential value lies in long-term comparative information. Future sampling should focus not only on changes at and above the treeline, but also on the zone below this where many species are at their altitudinal limits and may be particularly sensitive to climate change.
Does Shelter Site Selection Aid Persistence of a Threatened Alpine Lizard? Assessing Liopholis guthega Populations a Decade after Severe Fire in Southeastern Australia
Kylie Robert
Species’ tolerance of and response to fire varies. Environments that experience frequent fires will contain fire-tolerant fauna, whereas fauna that occur in environments that burn infrequently may lack strategies to cope with fire. In 2003, intense summer wildfires in southeastern Australia’s alpine region burned more than 1.3 million ha. The Guthega Skink, Liopholis guthega, is an endangered lizard that is restricted to two geographically isolated alpine locations affected by these fires: Kosciuszko National Park in New South Wales, and the Bogong High Plains in Victoria. We investigated the long-term effects of fire on L. guthega populations through surveys of burned and unburned habitat on the Bogong High Plains. We found L. guthega selected specific microhabitats that are restricted on the Bogong High Plains. Their selection of less-vegetated microhabitats suggests that they may favor an early successional environment. We found retreat site selection differed between sites; at burned sites L. guthega burrowed preferentially under rocks, and at unburned sites comparatively more burrows were positioned at the base of shrubs. Our results suggest that in this species’ Victorian range they may be more tolerant to fire than previously thought, likely because of the protection afforded by their burrows. However, our surveys of L. guthega populations from past records also suggest potential local extinctions. To determine the immediate and longer-term effects of intense fires on threatened species, it is important to have prefire data on species and prompt postfire assessments to obtain results applicable to management.
Current genetic isolation and fragmentation contrasts with historical connectivity in an alpine lizard (Cyclodomorphus praealtus) threatened by climate change
2009 •
Tessa Koumoundouros
Assessing levels of genetic diversity, connectivity and historical demography for threatened species provides important information for conservation management. We used a combination of the mitochondrial ND4 gene and seven microsatellite markers to examine both historical and recent population genetic structure and demography of the threatened alpine she-oak skink, Cyclodomorphus praealtus . This species is restricted to the “sky islands” of the Australian alpine region. Based on mtDNA, the New South Wales and Victorian regions are reciprocally monophyletic and highly divergent, with among population variation of 0.9 and net sequence divergence of 4.28%, which suggests that they should be considered separate Evolutionary Significant Units for management purposes. The mtDNA data also indicate historical connectivity between the three Victorian populations. However, a model-based clustering analysis of microsatellite genotypes identified strong population structure in Victoria, with t...
Post-fire Recovery of Carbon and Nitrogen in Sub-alpine Soils of South-eastern Australia
2019 •
Tina Bell
The forests of south-eastern Australia, having evolved in one of the most fire-prone environments in the world, are characterized by many adaptations to recovery following burning. Thus forest ecosystems are characterized by rapid regenerative capacity, from either seed or re-sprouting, and mechanisms to recover nutrients volatilized, including an abundance of N<sub>2</sub> fixing plants in natural assemblages. Soil physical, chemical and biological properties are directly altered during fire due to heating and oxidation of soil organic matter, and after fire due to changes in heat, light and moisture inputs. In natural ecosystems, carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) lost from soil due to fires are recovered through photosynthesis and biological N<sub>2</sub> fixation (BNF) by regenerating vegetation and soil microbes. This study investigated post-fire recovery of soil C and N in four structurally different sub-alpine plant communities (grassland, heathland, Snowgum ...
From traps to snapshots: Examining the ecology of feral predators and native small mammals in southeastern Australia through case studies of two faunal sampling methods
2019 •
Katherine Karson
