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| | Welcome
We’ve had a busy few months sharing our research outcomes and impact. Our scientists have presented at several conferences including the Ecological Society of Australia (e.g. on fire and eucalypts, native vegetation and land cover data; as well as an expert elicitation workshop run by ARI's Steve Sinclair (left)), and the Australian Society of Fish Biology (e.g. on fish population models, fish genetics). Last week we had many staff presenting at Fish Passage 2018: International Conference on Riverine Connectivity on topics such as fishways, barriers benefiting biodiversity, and species-specific studies. Leading up to this conference ARI has hosted several of the international visitors – a great opportunity for knowledge exchange, particularly via our seminar series. Our featured projects this issue include an overview of nest box programs in Victoria (a Biodiversity On-Ground Action project), a study into interactions between deer and livestock and how that may impact the spread of disease, and a program that is providing ‘report cards’ on the status of native fish populations. We hope you find these interesting.
Regards
Dr Kim Lowe
Research Director
Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research
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| | How many nest boxes are there in Victoria?
We asked for information from those involved in nest box programs to understand more about the number and distribution of nest boxes in Victoria, what animals were using them, and whether monitoring data was being collected. Eighty-one individuals and groups replied – how many boxes did that add up to?
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| | What do deer-livestock interactions mean for disease?
Wild deer can pose a biosecurity risk as they potentially carry diseases that may spread to livestock. ARI is monitoring agriculture-forest edges to determine deer numbers and how they interact with livestock. This will inform risk assessments of disease spread, and approaches for responding to potential epidemics.
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| | Native fish report cards
To provide more accessible information on the current status of native fish in priority rivers, ‘report cards’ are now available on selected recreational and threatened non-recreational species. These are brief overviews of fish surveys and key indicators of the health of a fishery and its recreational fishing potential.
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| | PhD Research – Josh Barrow (University of Melbourne) ARI supervisor: John Koehn
Moving matters: including movement history in fish growth models
Josh’s research is focussing on how fish growth is influenced by the environmental conditions in the places they live, over their lifetime. Fish scientists have already been learning about how a fish's environment influences its growth, by analysing the relationships between fish growth (depicted in the annual growth rings in fish ear bones, or otoliths) and the conditions at the site where a fish was caught. For highly mobile fish however, this method is rather limited. This is because conditions at the location of capture may differ from the conditions actually experienced by that fish throughout its life (e.g. if a fish moved between rivers). Current models must therefore be adapted to include movement history. Josh (pictured left) is studying Golden Perch otoliths collected by collaborators from across the Murray-Darling Basin. Each otolith is sectioned to count growth rings and analyse its microchemistry, to recreate individual movement and growth histories for each fish. Growth will then be correlated with environmental variables from locations specific to each fish, based on their movement histories. This research examines an important gap in our understanding of what drives growth of highly mobile fish across large river systems.
Josh’s study is being supervised by John Morrongiello, Jian Yen (University of Melbourne) and John Koehn (ARI), and builds on his previous research on fish growth and climate change:
Also see ARI's Fishers fishing for fish ear bones project for similar research, which is involving recreational fishers collecting Golden Perch and Murray Cod otoliths to help understand fish movements in response to environmental flows.
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| | ARI Terrestrial Ecology Quarterly Updates We are pleased to launch a new edition of the Terrestrial Quarterly Update, which provides summaries of recent project activities including how our science influences change, knowledge transfer presentations and key publications. This edition features native vegetation extent time series, a new book on amphibian conservation and decline, and software designed to assess the effects of infectious disease on fauna population viability. If you are interested in receiving this terrestrial research update (released every three months) please let us know at research.ari@delwp.vic.gov.au
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| | Recent brochure and fact sheets (link to PDF)
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Recent journal articles and book chapter (link to abstract) include:
Byrant, D., Sinclair, S., Geary, W., Bruce, M. and Millen, C. (2018) The occurrence of the Southern Brown Bandicoot Isoodon obesulus obesulus and its habitat on Chinaman Island, Western Port, Victoria. Victorian Naturalist 135(5): 128-139 Collins, L., Bradstock, R., Ximenes, F., Horsey, B., Sawyer, R. and Penman, T. (2018) Aboveground forest carbon shows different responses to fire frequency in harvested and unharvested forests. Ecological Applications (online early) Doody, J.S., McHenry, C.R., Durkin, L., Brown, M., Simms, A., Coleman, L., Phizacklea, C., Jones, H., Phizacklea, O. and Clulow, S. (2018) Deep communal nesting by Yellow-spotted Monitors in a desert ecosystem: indirect evidence for a response to extreme dry conditions. Herpetologica (online early) Griffiths, S.R., Lumsden, L.F., Bender, R., Irvine, R., Godinho, L.N., Visintin, C., Eastick, D.L., Robert, K.A. and Lentini, P.E. (2018) Long-term monitoring suggests bat boxes may alter local bat community structure. Australian Mammalogy (online early) Ramsey, D.S.L., Forsyth., D.M, Wright, E., McKay, M. and Westbrooke, I. (2018) Using propensity scores for causal inference in ecology: options, considerations, and a case study. Methods in Ecology and Evolution (online early)
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ARI Seminar Series
Our 2018 Seminar Series has now concluded, with recent presentations on genetic health of Golden Perch, the Riparian Intervention Monitoring Program, Lord Howe Island bryophytes, environmental justice, counting carp (left) and flying-foxes. Our 2019 seminar program is currently being developed – we look forward to bringing you more interesting topics in the new year.
To receive ARI seminar series email alerts, including webinar (live online viewing) details and follow-up summaries, email us at research.ari@delwp.vic.gov.au
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| © The State of Victoria Department of Environment, Land, Water & Planning 2018
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