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Many people across the state are working to support biodiversity. DELWP funds several programs to support this activity, including Biodiversity On-Ground Action (BOA) projects. ARI is involved in many of these, several of which are collaborations across DELWP, Parks Victoria, CMAs, various agencies and community groups. ARI recently hosted a state-wide forum (pictured left) to hear, share and learn from some of the stories of these efforts. Presentations included ARI’s alpine Sphagnum bog mapping (see below for more detail) and the use of nest boxes in Victoria. Other ARI-led projects in this program include determining salinity tolerance in Murray Hardyhead and estimating the density of Greater Gliders. Projects that are part of the BOA program will be wrapping up over the next month – we look forward to sharing more information on their findings.
As well as bog mapping, the projects featured in this issue of ARI eNews include monitoring environmental watering in wetlands, and the results and learnings of a translocation trial involving River Blackfish.
Regards
Dr Kim Lowe
Research Director
Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research
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| | Alpine Sphagnum bogs - map and manage
ARI has progressively mapped alpine Sphagnum bogs across their 10,000 square km range in the high country for over ten years. The last bogs to be mapped were recently visited, and are now incorporated into a new GIS layer. This has proved an invaluable management tool, including enabling protection during fire suppression activities.
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| | Wetland response to environmental water - WetMAP
The Wetland Assessment and Monitoring Program (WetMAP) is measuring the response of vegetation, water birds, fish and frogs to natural water regimes that are supplemented by environmental water. WetMAP will help priortise wetlands for watering and identify the water regime needed to support biodiversity.
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| | River Blackfish translocation trial
The River Blackfish, a popular angling species, has declined in south-east Australia, including in the Tarwin River. West Gippsland CMA, landholders and community members have undertaken river restoration, in part to encourage recolonisation of this species. ARI and WGCMA also trialed fish translocations to aid population recovery.
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| | PhD Research – Melissa Hatty (Monash University) ARI supervisor - Dr Kim Lowe How do we encourage Victorians to connect with, and act for, nature?
DELWP's biodiversity plan ('Protecting Victoria's Environment - Biodiversity 2037') has the long-term vision that Victoria’s biodiversity is healthy, valued and actively cared for. One aspect of this is to ensure that Victorians value nature and work together to protect biodiversity. Melissa’s study will improve our understanding of the relationship between connecting people with nature and increasing support for biodiversity. Melissa will look at how to encourage more Victorians to spend time connecting with the natural environment (e.g. visiting national parks), and whether this leads to more active participation in protecting nature (e.g. taking part in revegetation activities, or advocacy).
As part of her study, Melissa completed a seven-week placement with DELWP/ARI to understand current research and strategic priorities, and the history and context of the biodiversity plan. Melissa’s research is being supervised by Kim Lowe (ARI Research Director), Associate Professor Liam Smith, Professor Felix Mavondo, and Dr Denise Goodwin (Monash Uni). This project is a Behaviour Change Graduate Research Industry Partnership (GRIP), a collaboration between BehaviourWorks Australia and DELWP.
melissa.hatty@monash.edu kim.lowe@delwp.vic.gov.au
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| | Recent video (link to YouTube), fact sheets and poster (link to PDF)
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Recent journal articles (link to abstract) and reports (link to PDF) include:
Avirmed, O., White, M.D., Batpurev, K., Griffioen, P.A., Liu, C., Jambal, S., Sime H, Olson, K. and Sinclair, S.J. (2018) Rangeland condition metrics for the Gobi Desert, derived from stakeholder evaluations. Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research Technical Report No. 289. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Heidelberg, Victoria Brannelly, L.A., Clemann, N., Skerratt, L.F., Webb, R.J., Berger, L. and Scheele, B.C. (2018) Investigating community disease dynamics can lead to more effective conservation efforts. Animal Conservation 21(2): 108-9 Clemann, N., Stranks, T., Carland, R., Melville, J., Op Den Brouw, B. and Robertson, P. (2018) The death adder Acanthophis antarcticus (Shaw & Nodder, 1802) in Victoria: historical records and contemporary uncertainty. Memoirs of Museum Victoria 77: 29-40
Forsyth, D.M., Perry, M., Moloney, P., McKay, M., Gormley, A.M., Warburton, B., Sweetapple, P. and Dewhurst, R. (2018) Calibrating brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) occupancy and abundance index estimates from leg-hold traps, wax tags and chew cards in the Department of Conservation's Biodiversity and Monitoring Reporting System. New Zealand Journal of Ecology 42(2): (online early) Holz, P.H., Lumsden, L.F., Druce, J., Legione, A.R., Vaz, P., Devlin J.M. and Hufschmid, J. (2018) Virus survey in populations of two subspecies of bent-winged bats (Miniopterus orianae bassanii and oceanensis) in south-eastern Australia reveals a high prevalence of diverse herpesviruses. PLoS One 13(5): e0197625 Jones, M.J. and O'Connor, J.P. (2017) Monitoring the performance of fishways and fish passage works. Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research Technical Report Series No. 257. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Heidelberg, Victoria
Moloney, P.D., Ramsey, D.S.L. and Scroggie, M.P. (2017) A state-wide aerial survey of kangaroos in Victoria. Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research Technical Report Series No. 286. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Heidelberg, Victoria
O'Connor, J., Stuart, I. and Campbell-Beschorner, R. (2017) Guidelines for fish passage at small structures. Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research Technical Report Series No. 276. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Heidelberg, Victoria
O'Connor, J., Stuart, I. and Jones, M. (2017) Guidelines for the design, approval and construction of fishways. Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research Technical Report Series No. 274. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Heidelberg, Victoria
Sinclair, S.J. and Kohout, M. (2018) Assessment of fringing vegetation for the index of estuary condition. Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research Technical Report Series No. 290. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Heidelberg, Victoria Stares, M.G., Collins, L., Law, B. and Frence, K. (2018) Long-term effect of prescribed burning regimes and logging on coarse woody debris in south-eastern Australia. Forests 9(5): 242
White, M., Cheal, D., Carr, G. W., Adair, R., Blood, K. and Meagher, D. (2018) Advisory list of environmental weeds in Victoria. Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research Technical Report Series No. 287. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Heidelberg, Victoria
Zamin, T.J., Jolly, A., Sinclair, S., Morgan, J.W. and Moore, J.L. (2018) Enhancing plant diversity in a novel grassland using seed addition. Journal of Applied Ecology 55(1):215–224
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ARI Seminar Series
Over the last few months, our 2018 Seminar Series has included presentations on how animals sleep in the sea and air, a framework for Aboriginal water allocation, and designing better behaviour change programs. Coming up (2nd July) are three ARI presenters: Lindy Lumsden on artificial hollows for Leadbeater’s Possum (see photo at left), and Justin O’Connor and Frank Amtstaetter on guidelines for and benefits of fishways. Plus there are three more on 30th July. If you can’t make it to Heidelberg, register for the webinar to watch online.
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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