Ecosystem Restoration & Intervention Ecology Research Group in Perth, Western Australia | Non-profit organisation

Ecosystem Restoration & Intervention Ecology Research Group

Locality: Perth, Western Australia

Address: School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Stirling Highway 6009 Perth, WA, Australia

Website: http://www.erie-research.org

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• Non-profit organisation
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• Environmental conservation organisation

24.01.2022 Back in 2011, I had a delightful evening helping the then PhD student, Jo Burgar with her fieldwork trapping microbats in the Jarrah forest. These little guys stole my heart and I'm so happy when I hear the chirps of the White-striped Freetail bat during summer in Perth. - Bec Campbell

23.01.2022 Todd and his colleagues have just published a new paper in the International Journal of Wildland Fire (https://www.publish.csiro.au/wf/WF19195). This paper investigated the seed germination variation across 12 populations of the Tall Kangaroo Paw (Anigozanthos flavidus) and its response to various fire cues and dry after-ripening. Clear differences exist in seeds from all populations with the degree of dormancy playing a major role in germination expression and viability maintenance.

23.01.2022 Richard continues the conversation about the Cadillac of Woods; Brazilian Rosewood in his latest blog https://www.the-nature-of-music.com//the-cadillac-of-wood/

23.01.2022 In Richards latest blog, he delves into the confusing world of nomenclature, taxonomy and what happens when names change. https://www.the-nature-of-music.com//quenda-zanda-jacaran/

21.01.2022 Check out the highlight report for the School of Biological Sciences! It's a great way to see the awesome work happening at SBS and in the ERIE lab - like the UWA-CAUL Noongar Water Knowledge Project lead by Cristina Ramalho with Indigenous researchers Gail and Shazz! https://drive.google.com//1yoqgzyMx-WNowUz9rZdwjFqIb-uwJg5

19.01.2022 Fluctuations in population abundances are often correlated through time across multiple locations, a phenomenon known as spatial synchrony. Spatial synchrony can exhibit complex spatial structures, termed ‘geographies of synchrony’, that can reveal mechanisms underlying population fluctuations. A new study used the 37 years of data collected by Richard and Lauren on the serpentine grassland community at Jasper Ridge, Californiia to examine micro-scale synchrony and geographie...s of synchrony, over distances up to 30 m. The study found that species' populations exhibited a geography of synchrony even over such short distances. Often, well-synchronized populations were geographically separate, a spatial structure that was shaped mainly by gopher disturbance and dispersal limitation, and to a lesser extent by relationships with other plant species. Precipitation was a significant driver of site- and community-wide temporal dynamics. Gopher disturbance appeared to drive synchrony on 2- to 6-year timescales, and there were coherent fluctuations among pairs of focal plant taxa. Micro-geographies of synchrony are an intriguing phenomenon that may also help us better understand community dynamics. Publication details: Walter, J.A., Hallett, L.M., Sheppard, L.W., Anderson, T.L., Zhao, L., Hobbs, R.J., Suding, K.N. and Reuman, D.C. 2020. Micro-scale geography of synchrony in a serpentine plant community. Journal of Ecology. DOI: 10.1111/1365-2745.13503

18.01.2022 Remember the post a few weeks back about parasite conservation?? Well just in case you are still unconvinced about saving these little guys, Mel gives Cosmos Magazine the low down on why parasite conservation is important https://cosmosmagazine.com//cosmos-qa-why-we-need-to-care/

18.01.2022 Bryony has been busy analysing images taken by Droney during her field trip to Faure Island last year. She's using the images to look at the productivity of the plants growing on the boodie (aka burrowing bettong) warrens compared to the plants growing on undisturbed sites.

16.01.2022 An amazing opportunity has come through the ERIE lab for a suitable volunteer! Please note, this is for people currently in Western Australia only. All enquiries, please contact Christina Lipka on [email protected]

16.01.2022 This is a Shark Bay Bandicoot and it's one of the first to be released on Dirk Hartog Island in Shark Bay as part of the Dirk Hartog Island National Park Ecological Restoration Project fauna reconstruction (Return to 1616) managed by DBCA. Apart from hoping to establish a new population of this highly threatened mammal I love these photos because we’re hoping that the digging activities of bandicoots can help restore ecosystem function on the island. This is the part of the... greater goal of Return to 1616: returning DHI to a similar state to how it might have been in 1616 when Dirk Hartog himself landed there. We already know that bandicoots can be important ‘ecosystem engineers’ and after having potentially been absent from DHI for hundreds of years, having them suddenly back on the island and doing their ‘thing’ was really exciting to see. - Saul See more

15.01.2022 Pencil in these dates! ERIE PhD scholars completion seminars are coming up soon: Harry Moore - 9th April 3pm Stanley Mastrantonis - 14th May 3pm Zoom details to follow

15.01.2022 Across Australia, the areas burnt during the 2019/2020 fire season are still struggling to recover. But for species who rely entirely on a host plant, like the Banksia montana mealybug or the Banksia brownii plant louse - the threat of coextinction is very real Read on in the 'Urgent invertebrate species' to find out more about these and other species facing a difficult recovery journey. https://theconversation.com/click-through-the-tragic-storie

14.01.2022 There's such beauty in the forest at this time of the year. I just love granite outcrops as they capture the extremes of the south-western Australia climate. Lush and waterlogged in spring and full of life and parched and bone dry at the end of summer with pretty much nothing alive. - Mike Craig

14.01.2022 This is the South Coast of WA. It's breathtakingly beautiful with white beach sands and stunning scenery. Vanessa took a little break from her PhD to go fishing with the family and while they didn't catch anything, a little rock crab dropped by to say G'day. #lifeoutsidephd #cutecrab

14.01.2022 Congratulations to Stanley for submitting his PhD thesis 'Modelling and software for conserving mobile species in multiple-use landscapes' for examination in December. Stan will be working one day a week with Michael Renton's Lab, so we won't be losing him from UWA Here is a pic of us celebrating the Stan's success and the end of 2020 for ERIE

12.01.2022 Harry Moore's new PhD paper is out in Landscape Ecology What makes a perfect patch of northern quoll habitat? Read the paper! 'A rocky heart in a spinifex sea: occurrence of an endangered marsupial predator is multiscale dependent in naturally fragmented landscapes'

12.01.2022 ERIE adjunct Melinda Moir and her colleagues have just published two new papers in a special issue of Biological Conservation. Articles from the special issue can be downloaded for free for a limited time here https://www.sciencedirect.com//b/special-issue/100TWQNNV2K. Both papers concern the conservation of parasites, with the first a global plan, and the second a specific outline of how threat assessment criteria based on the IUCN red list should be altered to better suit parasite assessments. Pia Scanlon, Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, WA,

11.01.2022 What do guitars and single malt whiskey have in common? Read Richard's latest blog to find out. https://www.the-nature-of-music.com//mighty-oaks-whisky-a/

10.01.2022 Changes to our ecosystems has meant many species are increasingly being exposed to new and novel resources. But what does this mean for individuals, populations, species, and communities? How are they impacted and what potential management complications associated with novel resource use by threatened species can we foresee? Asking the tricky questions and inviting discussion in the newest ERIE paper: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com//10.1/fee.2255 Threatened Species Recovery Hub Clean Air and Urban Landscapes Hub UWA School of Biological Sciences

09.01.2022 Emilia has a new paper that is exploring the livelihood options for an isolated pastoral tribe in Northern Namibia that has been hit hard by drought for the past decade. Due to reoccurring droughts, pastoralists have lost their main livelihood (pastoralism) and fallen into extreme poverty. Though they have perceived and experienced the impacts of climate change and variability, they lack scientific knowledge of climate change, and have no access to climate change information.... Pastoralists have indicated their adaptation needs, particularly the provision of water supply to grow food. This is an open avenue to explore nature-based approaches to address the impacts of climate change, while still addressing the need of the pastoralists. The study has opened up opportunities for pastoralists and researchers to work together to meet the needs of the pastoralists. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article

08.01.2022 There was no better way to celebrate Richard's retirement than having a pint at Little Creatures with the ERIE lab! Thank you to Cupcakes on Coolamine for our amazingly delicious cupcakes made with Richard in mind

07.01.2022 As part of her thesis, Gab is interested in evaluating the role of woylies in restoring degraded landscapes in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia. She's chosen sites where digging mammals such as woylies, quenda, numbats and echidnas are still present, making artificial diggings to mimic foraging pits. During Spring last year, Gab scattered Acacia, native pea and Sandalwood seeds to see foraging pits affect their germination. Looking good so far ;p

07.01.2022 Not all ecology is done in the field. There's lots happening with big data and modeling. Alcoa and DBCA are creating supplementary water points in the jarrah forest to aid in conservation efforts for the red tailed black cockatoos. They would like to know the ideal locations to establish these water points. Stan and his team have developed a heuristic machine learning algorithm to locate the optimal location for establishing 'x' amount of water points. The models determines t...his based on the spatial configuration of the cockatoo nests sites as well as vegetation conditions which were derived from the Sentinel-2 satellite. The algorithm chooses a random point in the landscape, and then searches for the location that will maximise the potential of a water point placement. The green circle is the represents algorithm searching, while the the green triangle means that that location is probably a good place to add a water point. See more

07.01.2022 Bridget, Rachel and Richard have just published a new paper in Austral Ecology. Want to know what insect pollinators are in the ERIE plots at Ridgefield, and if they are influenced by the plot treatments of herbicide and nitrogen addition? Read on! https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/aec.12949

07.01.2022 Digging mammals, like wombats and bandicoots, have important effects on ecosystems by redistributing soils during burrow construction or foraging activities. This research by Bryony and her colleagues, found that digging mammals have been extensively translocated in Australia, primarily to reduce their risk of extinction. Importantly, it was found that whilst previously uncommon, there has been a substantial increase in the number of translocations conducted with the purpose of restoring the ecosystem processes that digging mammals provide. The full article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/mam.12208 UWA School of Biological Sciences

07.01.2022 Applications are now open for the Dahl Fellowship to undertake a project related to the conservation, education and research of Eucalypts. Head to the Eucalypt Australia page for more information.

06.01.2022 Soil water repellency is a major constraint to plant establishment, restricting water infiltration and moisture retention in the seed zone, resulting in poor germination and seedling emergence. Enhancing microsite conditions to promote seedling emergence is essential to restoration projects. This study provides a proof of concept that the early-stage recruitment of two woodland species (Banksia menziesii and Lambertia inermis) in water repellent soils can be enhanced using seed pellets containing a surfactant. Would you like to know more? Read on: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com//2688-8319.120

03.01.2022 A new paper in Restoration Ecology by Lauren Hallett and Richard Hobbs explores the application of systems thinking and archetypes to improving decisions around intervening in ecosystems. Observing organisations through a systems lens suggests that certain types of situation can be found repeatedly in business organisations these systems archetypes provide templates for understanding how problems arise and provide pathways towards solving and preventing these problems. In this paper, Lauren and Richard examine whether the archetypes developed for business organisations can be applied in a conservation and restoration context. Publication details: Hallett, L.M. & Hobbs, R.J. 2020. Thinking systemically about ecological interventions: what do system archetypes teach us? Restoration Ecology 28: 1017-1025 doi: 10.1111/rec.13220

01.01.2022 Gabrielle (virtually) attended the ESA conference last month, where she presented a poster about the ecosystem roles and conservation status of bioturbator mammals (think quenda, moles, anteaters). Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 situation, Gab wasn't able to skip Perth winter and jump right into Salt Lake City summer but even in a totally opposite time zone, it was a great experience!