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| | Welcome
As National Biodiversity Month comes to a close, we have some very positive conservation news to celebrate. After many months of being housed at ARI’s aquarium, freshwater galaxiid fish, mussels and crayfish that were rescued after the 2019/2020 bushfires, have been successfully returned to the wild. Tarmo Raadik and James Shelley made the trek to return animals to their homes, now that the habitat has recovered sufficiently to support their recovery (picture at left shows them about to release some of the animals). Dan Stoessel and his aquarium team were key in ensuring those returned were in excellent condition (see more on Dan in a media release below).
In August it was National Science Week and DELWP held its annual Science Symposium (online this year) to share the work the department and agency partners are involved in. A feature was presentations from members of the DELWP Science Reference Panel and 37 short ‘lightning’ talks, with many ARI staff taking part. All talks are available for viewing via YouTube.
Our projects featured in this issue include new videos that give an immersive perspective to our fieldwork, the key factors to maximise effective fox control and the release of a synthesis report on several years of environmental watering research. We hope you find these interesting.
Regards
Dr Kim W Lowe
Research Director
Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research
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| | Walk with our scientists via virtual reality
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a field scientist? We are now sharing our fieldwork with a 360º perspective in our short, virtual reality films. Explore some of the areas we visit and the field techniques we use including electrofishing, reptile surveys, turtle trapping, bird monitoring and arboreal mammal spotlighting.
Find more about this project on our website
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| | Best-practice fox control
An investigation into characteristics of successful fox baiting programs has found that the spatial scale, bait layout, bait density and timing of baiting, were all influential factors. In general, effective programs covered an area of greater than 30,000 ha, used a network of bait stations throughout and replaced baits at least fortnightly.
Find more about this project on our website
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| | VEFMAP - report capturing four year's findings out now
This large, long-term program investigates how to maximise the benefits of environmental water on fish and vegetation. Stage 6 involved numerous collaborations with researchers and waterway managers to demonstrate ecological outcomes of this water, support improved water management and reporting, and fill knowledge gaps.
Find more about this project on our website
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| | Staff profiles now on our website
Would you like to know more about the expertise of our staff? We have updated our staff page to include a brief overview of the research areas and experience of technical and science staff, as well as members of the Science Leadership Team. Links to projects and publications are included.
We hope this helps to demonstrate the considerable range of skills and backgrounds of our staff, which enables ARI to produce high quality applied ecological research.
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| | Victoria Nature festival: Sept 28 - Oct 11
ARI has played a lead role in the coordination and delivery of the inaugural Victoria Nature Festival 2020. Proudly supported by our Cultural Ambassadors, the festival is a collaborative event bringing the best virtual content and ‘Live online’ events from our VicEnvironments Forum partners to one place. This year, the festival is completely virtual and provides Victorians with the opportunity to connect with and explore nature safely from home. ARI has also contributed our amazing ‘Walking with scientists VR 360’ series, and the ‘Hot Houses Cool Art’ project in collaboration with DELWP Port Phillip staff.
See the Victoria Nature Festival website to find out more and explore the festival.
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| | Recent fact sheets (link to PDF) and media release
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| | Recent journal articles (link to abstract) and reports (link to PDF) include:
Collins, L., McCarthy, G., Mellor, A., Newell, G. and Smith, L. (2020) Training data requirements for fire severity mapping using Landsat imagery and random forest. Remote Sensing of Environment 245: article 111839
Garrard, G.E., Kusmanoff, A.M., Faulkner R., Samarasekara, C.L., Gordon A., Johnstone, A., Peterson, I.R., Torabi, N., Wang, Y. and Bekessy S.A. (2020) Understanding Australia’s national feral cat control effort. Wildlife Research (online early)
Huaman, J.L., Pacioni, C., Forsyth, D.M., Pople, A., Hampton, J.O., Carvalho, T.G. and Helbig, K.J. (2020) Serosurveillance and molecular investigation of wild deer in Australia reveals seroprevalence of Pestivirus infection. Viruses 12(7): 752
Kohout, M., Coupar, P., and Elliott, M. (2020) Battling an "aggressive pioneer" after fire: Phytolacca octandra (Inkweed). Australasian Plant Conservation 29(1): 7-8
Koster, W.M., Amtstaetter, F., Dawson, D., Coleman, R.A. and Hale, R. (2020) Environmental influences on the juvenile migration of the threatened amphidromous Australian grayling (Prototroctes maraena). Marine and Freshwater Research (online early)
Menkhorst, P., Fitzsimons, J., Loyn, R. and Woinarski, J. (2020) Assessing the strength of evidence for records of Night Parrots at Kalamurina Wildlife Sanctuary (South Australia) and Diamantina National Park (Queensland), 2016–2018. Emu-Austral Ornithology 120(2): 173-177
Muir, A., Bluff, L., Moloney, P., Amos, N. and Thomson, J. (2020) Hairpin Banksia: a widespread plant threatened with decline by frequent fires. Australasian Plant Conservation 29(1): 9-11
Penman, T.D., Collins, L., Duff, T.D., Price, O.F., and Cary, G.J. (2020) Scientific evidence regarding effectiveness of prescribed burning. Pp 99-111 in: Leavesley, A., Wouters, M. and Thornton, R. (eds). Prescribed Burning in Australasia: The science, prectice and politics of burning the bush. Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council Ltd, Melbourne
Ramsey, D.S.L. (2020) The impacts of the 2019–20 Bushfires on Eastern Grey Kangaroos in the North East and Gippsland kangaroo harvest zones. Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research Technical Report Series No. 312. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Heidelberg
Raymond, S.M.C. and Todd, C.R. (2020) Assessing risks to threatened crayfish populations from sex-based harvesting and differential encounter rates: a new indicator for reproductive state. Ecological Indicators 118: article 106661
Rogers, D.I., Scroggie, M.P. and Hassell, C.J. (2020) Review of long-term shorebird monitoring in north Western Australia. Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research Technical Report No. 313. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Heidelberg
Stoessel, D., Raadik,T., Nicol, M., Fairbrother, P. and Campbell-Beschorner, R. (2020) Captive breeding of two rare non-migratory galaxiids (Teleostei: Galaxiidae) for species conservation. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 132(1): 42–48
Stoessel, D.J., van Rooyan, A., Beheregaray, L.B., Weeks, A.R., Raymond, S.M.C., van Wyk, B., Haddy, J. and Lieschke, J. (2020) Population genetic structure of estuary perch (Percalates colonorum Gunther) in south-eastern Australia. Marine and Freshwater Research (online early)
Tonkin, Z., Jones, C., Clunie, P., Vivian, L., Amtstaetter, F., Jones, M., Koster, W., Mole, B., O’Connor, J., Brooks, J., Caffrey, L. and Lyon, J. (2020) Victorian Environmental Flows Monitoring and Assessment Program. Stage 6 synthesis report 2016-2020. Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research Technical Report Series No. 316. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Heidelberg
Tonkin, Z., Kitchingman, A., Fanson, B., Lyon, J., Ayres, R., Sharley, J., Koster, W.M., O'Mahony, J., Hackett, G., Reich, P. and Hale, R. (2020) Quantifying links between instream woody habitat and freshwater fish species in south‐eastern Australia to inform waterway restoration. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 30(7): 1385-1396
Tonkin, Z., Yen, J., Lyon, J., Kitchingman, A., Koehn, J.D., Koster, W.M., Lieschke, J., Raymond, S., Sharley, J., Stuart, I. and Todd, C. (2021) Linking flow attributes to recruitment to inform water management for an Australian freshwater fish with an equilibrium life-history strategy. Science of the Total Environment 752: article 141863
Vivian, L.M., Greet, J. and Jones, C.S. (2020) Responses of grasses to experimental submergence in summer: implications for the management of unseasonal flows in regulated rivers. Aquatic Ecology (online early)
Watson, G., French, K. and Collins, L. (2020) Timber harvest and frequent prescribed burning interact to affect the demography of Eucalypt species. Forest Ecology and Management 475: article 118463
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| | ARI Legacy Seminar Series (online only)
Our online 2020 Seminar Series continues to focus on celebrating ARI’s 50 years of Science that Matters, with some of our most experienced researchers reflecting on ARI’s achievements. Coming up are John Koehn with an aquatic perspective (19th Oct), and Fern Hames looking at the shifting role of people in ecological equations (9th Nov).
To receive ARI seminar series email alerts, including webinar (live online viewing) details and follow-up summaries, use the ‘Subscribe’ button on our website, or email us at research.ari@delwp.vic.gov.au
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| | Sign up to our eNews
If you know someone who may like to receive the ARI eNews, forward this email on using the 'Share this' option at the top. If this has been forwarded on to you there is an option to sign-up below, or use the ‘Subscribe’ button on our website, or email research.ari@delwp.vic.gov.au to be added to the ARI eNews mailing list.
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| © The State of Victoria Department of Environment, Land, Water & Planning 2020
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