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| | Welcome
Our last ARI eNews saw us farewelling Dr Kim Lowe as ARI’s Director, after nine years of exceptional research leadership. It is with great humility, resolve and enthusiasm that I can announce my appointment as ARI’s new director. I think I am the eighth Director in ARI’s 51 years; the second woman. I am hugely proud of ARI and the work we do to make a difference. We will continue to build ARI’s capacity to deliver robust, contemporary research in ecology, the environment and in people-nature dimensions. Our reputation will continue to grow as the ‘go to’ place for partnerships and advice in these areas, and ARI will be increasingly recognised as a brilliant place to work.
Our ARI eNews gives terrific visibility to the work we do, and provides links to some of our most recent research and publications. In this issue we feature two projects that were part of the Victorian Government’s Bushfire Biodiversity Response and Recovery program – surveys of gliders, owls and bees after the devastating 2019/20 bushfires. We also highlight some of our research supporting river restoration by returning wood to rivers.
Enjoy this issue as we share the latest news on how we are delivering ‘science that matters’.
Regards
Fern Hames
Research Director
Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research
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| | Bushfire response 2020 – gliders and owls
The 2019/20 bushfires resulted in a significant loss of essential forest habitats. ARI undertook surveys to assess the impact of the fires on two forest species – gliders and owls. Although the number of sites with gliders declined, it was encouraging to find them at more than half of burned sites where they had been found previously.
Find more about this project on our website.
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| | Bushfire response 2020 – native bees
To assess the impact of the 2019/20 bushfires on native bees, ARI undertook surveys in burnt and unburnt areas after the fires. Impacts on bee’s food and nesting sites likely contributed to fewer species being caught in burnt areas. These surveys provide an important baseline to monitor the long-term recovery of bees after fires.
Find more about this project on our website.
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| | Getting wood back into rivers
Woody habitat plays a vital role in river ecosystems, but a lot of wood has been removed from rivers in the past to increase passage for boats and reduce flood impacts. ARI is involved with a number of projects getting wood back into rivers and undertaking surveys to demonstrate the importance of wood for healthy rivers.
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| | New on our website: Gone Growling
Many people are surprised to discover that our neighbourhoods still provide important habitat for many threatened species. One of these species, the Growling Grass Frog, was once widespread but is now endangered in Victoria. ARI is undertaking surveys to help understand if actions to protect the species are successful.
You can help! We’re calling on all Melbournians to help our researchers by recording frog calls in their local waterways
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| | ARI quarterly research updates
They feature information on recent Macquarie Perch translocations, how water management has benefitted Murray Cod and how environmental conditions can influence fish responses to river discharge.
Interested in receiving these directly? All are welcome to sign up!
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| | Fact sheets (link to PDF) and media releases
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| | Recent journal articles (link to abstract) and reports (link to PDF) include:
Barrow J.S., Yen J.D.L., Koehn J.D., Zampatti, B., Thiem J. D., Tonkin, Z., Strawbridge, A. and Morrongiello, J.R. (2021) Lifetime movement history is associated with variable growth of a potamodromous freshwater fish. Journal of Animal Ecology (online early)Clemens, R.S., Rogers, D.I., Minton, C.D.T., Rogers, K.G, Hansen, B. D, Choy, C-Y, and Fuller, R.A. (2021) Favourable inland wetland conditions increase apparent survival of migratory shorebirds in Australia. Emu Austral Ornithology (online early)
Huaman, J.L., Pacioni, C., Sarker, S., Doyle, M., Forsyth, D.M., Pople, A., Hampton, J.O., Carvalho, T.G. and Helbig, K.J. (2021) Molecular epidemiology and characterization of Picobirnavirus in wild deer and cattle in Australia: evidence of genogroup I and II in upper respiratory tract. Viruses 13(8): 1492
Lyon, J.P., Bird, T., Tonkin, Z., Raymond, S., Sharley, J. and Hale, R. (2021) Does life history mediate discharge as a driver of multi-decadal changes in populations of freshwater fish? Ecological Applications e02430
O'Dwer, J.E., Murphy, N., Tonkin, Z., Lyon, J., Koster, W., Dawson, D., Amstataetter, F. and Harrisson, K.A. (2021) An investigation of genetic connectivity shines a light on the relative roles of isolation by distance and oceanic currents in three diadromous fish species. Marine and Freshwater Research (online early)
Regan. T.J., Bruce, M. Batpurev, K., Farmilo, B., Scroggie, M., Geary W. and Cadenhead N. (2021) Melbourne Strategic Assessment. Population viability analysis models for threatened plants and animals. Version 1.0. Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research Technical Report Series No. 327. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Heidelberg, Victoria.
Sinclair, S. J., Avirmed, O., White, M.D., Batpurev, K., Griffioen, P.A., Liu, C., Jambal, S. Sime, H., and Olson, K.A. (2021) Rangeland condition assessment in the Gobi Desert: a quantitative approach that places stakeholder evaluations front and centre. Ecological Economics 181: 106891
van Eeden, L.M., Hames, F., Faulkner, R., Geschke, A., Squires, Z.E., and McLeod, E.M. (2021) Putting the cat before the wildlife: Exploring cat owners' beliefs about cat containment as predictors of owner behaviour. Conservation Science and Practice e502
van Eeden, L.M., Bogezi, C., Leng, D., Marzluff, J. M., Wirsing, A.J. and Rabotyagov, S., (2021) Public willingness-to-pay for gray wolf conservation that could support a rancher-led wolf-livestock coexistance programme. Biological Conservation 260: 109226
Yen, J.D.L., Thomson, J., Lyon, J., Koster, W., Kitchingman, A., Raymond, S., Stamation, K. and Tonkin, Z. (2021) Underlying trends confound estimates of fish population responses to river discharge. Freshwater Biology 9: 1799-1812
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| | ARI Seminars Series (online)
Our next seminar features two emerging researchers who are exploring the role of genetics in conservation ecology. We will be hearing from James Shelley (ARI) about the development of environmental DNA (eDNA) tools and James O’Dwyer (La Trobe University and ARI) about his work incorporating family structures into population genetics to help inform key aspects of life history. The seminar will be on Monday 25 October: register at Eventbrite.
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| | Sign up to our eNews
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| © The State of Victoria Department of Environment, Land, Water & Planning 2021
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