Establishment and development of a seabird colony : long-term trends in phenology, breeding success, recruitment, breeding density and demography

Few studies document long-term colony-level metrics from colony establishment to maturity (equilibrium) and few test predictions of general models of colony development. We describe long-term trends in a colony of Australasian Gannets (Morus serrator) which has been monitored from an early stage in its development. The colony at Pope’s Eye, within Port Phillip Bay, Victoria, Australia was established in 1984 on an artificial structure and the first nest count (25 nests) was conducted in the same year. The colony was then studied for 15 of 19 years between 1988 and 2006–2007. During the study, 2,516 eggs were recorded, resulting in 1,694 chicks hatching (67 % of eggs), of which 1,310 (77 % of those hatched) fledged. At least 184 (14 %) of fledged offspring returned to Pope’s Eye as breeding adults. Since establishment, the number and density of nests increased (number of nests increased 8.8 % annually), with density increasing at varying rates in different areas of the colony. Early recruitment involved birds from a nearby colony, but within 5 years post establishment the first natal recruits were breeding at Pope’s Eye and thereafter natal recruitment was the main source of new breeding adults (totalling 81.4 % of all recruits). Age of recruitment varied throughout the study, though not systematically, and there was no difference between the sexes. The pattern of rapid initial growth is typical of patterns reported for other seabird colonies. However, as the colony (and birds within it) aged, there was no increase in breeding success and egg laying did not become earlier, as was expected from general models of colony development.

Ensuring implementation success : how should coach injury prevention education be improved if we want coaches to deliver safety programmes during training sessions?

Coaches play a major role in encouraging and ensuring that participants of their teams adopt appropriate safety practices. However, the extent to which the coaches undertake this role will depend upon their attitudes about injury prevention, their perceptions of what the other coaches usually do and their own beliefs about how much control they have in delivering such programmes. Fifty-one junior netball coaches were surveyed about incorporating the teaching of correct (safe) landing technique during their delivery of training sessions to junior players. Overall, >94% of coaches had strongly positive attitudes towards teaching correct landing technique and >80% had strongly positive perceptions of their own control over delivering such programmes. Coaches’ ratings of social norms relating to what others think about teaching safe landing were more positive (>94%) than those relating to what others actually do (63–74%). In conclusion, the junior coaches were generally receptive towards delivering safe landing training programmes in the training sessions they led. Future coach education could include role modelling by prominent coaches so that more community-level coaches are aware that this is a behaviour that many coaches can, and do, engage in.

Influencing student retention and success : a qualitative assessment of library use by distance education students from low socio-economic backgrounds

Poster presentation

I would’ve been so overwhelmed...: the importance of TAFE in supporting success for low SES students in HE

The Federal Government Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program includes a renewed push to redress the persistent under-representation of students from low socio-economic status backgrounds in higher education in Australia. The discipline of Social Work at Deakin University has been successful in attracting a wide range of students into the Bachelor program and is committed to giving students the best chance of success. This paper presents findings from qualitative research aimed at building two-way bridges between The Gordon (formerly The Gordon Institute of TAFE) and Deakin University to widen access and to support and retain students. The research presented here illuminates the experiences of students who commenced university following studies at TAFE, as well as the multiple, complex and intersecting factors impacting on this particular cohort’s educational opportunity. Our findings suggest that the TAFE pathway functions as an equity mechanism in our particular study site. Further, findings regarding students’ support needs underpin our argument that universities must do more to meet their responsibilities towards students.

Critical factors to the success of alliances in Australia

Governments in Australia face the challenge of meeting the growing demand for new infrastructure, which can be delivered more quickly in an increasingly complex environment. Alliance Contracting has been introduced to overcome some of the challenges by, aligning the incentives of the partners, clearly defining their rights and responsibilities, and providing the means for resolving disputes when they arise. The purpose of this research was to explore the critical success factors of Alliance Contracting in order to understand the roles of the various terms and conditions and how they fit together to create a relationship-based contract. A qualitative technique of semi-structured in-depth interviews was used to gather primary data in response to the research questions. The research aimed to develop an in-depth understanding of Alliance Contracting. The results show that the key contributor to the success or failure of Alliances is whether all the partners benefit equitably from the venture. Analysis of the data indicates that, in general, trusting attitudes/behaviour is perceived to be the most important critical success factor for Alliance Contracting in the broader construction industry. The second most popular critical success factor was shared and aligned goals. The third issue was the evidence of open behaviour, and the final issue was the presence of shared knowledge. The implication of this research is that there are several key factors that were necessary preconditions for successful Alliances.

“People’s law” and restorative justice: the success of circle sentencing in New South Wales

Informal sentencing procedures in remote Indigenous communities of Australia have been occurring for some time, but it was in the late 1990s that formalization of the practice began in urban areas with the advent of Indigenous sentencing and circle courts. These circle courts emerged primarily to address the over-representation and incarceration of Indigenous people in the criminal justice system. The first Indigenous urban court was assembled in Port Adelaide, South Australia in June 1999 and was named the Nunga Court. Courts emerging since in other states are based on the Nunga Court model, although they have been adapted to suit local conditions. The practice of circle sentencing was introduced in New South Wales (NSW) in Nowra in February 2002.

Polyandry in a marine turtle : females make the best of a bad job

The female perspective on reproductive strategies remains one of the most active areas of debate in biology. Even though a single mating is often sufficient to satisfy the fertilization needs of most females and the act of further mating incurs costs, multiple paternity within broods or clutches is a common observation in nature. Direct or indirect advantage to females is the most popular explanation. However, the ubiquity of this explanation is being challenged by an increasing number of cases for which benefits are not evident. For the first time, we test possible fitness correlates of multiple paternity in a marine turtle, an organism that has long attracted attention in this area of research. Contrary to the wide-spread assumption that multiple mating by female marine turtles confers fitness benefits, none were apparent. In this study, the environment played a far stronger role in determining the success of clutches than whether paternity had been single or multiple. A more likely explanation for observations of multiply sired clutches in marine turtles is that these are successful outcomes of male coercion, where females have conceded to superfluous matings as a compromise. Thus, multiple matings by female marine turtles may be a form of damage control as females attempt to make the best of a bad job in response to male harassment.

Population biology of swift (Apus apus) ectoparasites in relation to host reproductive success

1We censused ectoparasite populations of adult and nestling swifts over the course of the host's breeding season. Nearly all of the birds were infested with chewing lice and two-thirds of the nests were infested with louse flies. Feather mites were observed but not quantified.2Lice and louse flies both showed aggregated distributions among hosts. Louse eggs, hatched lice and adult louse flies had negative binomial distributions, whereas the aggregated distribution of louse fly pupae was not adequately described by negative binomial or Poisson models.3Transmission of lice from parents to offspring was documented. A comparison of the age structure of lice on parents and offspring indicated that most transmission was by nymphal lice.4Host reproductive success and survival appeared to be independent of the number of lice or louse flies. Neither parasite correlated with the number, body mass, or date of fledging of young birds, nor with the overwinter survival of adults. We caution, however, that experimental manipulations of parasite load are required for a definitive test of the impact of ectoparasites on evolutionary fitness components.