Bushfire responsive design : reconciling biodiversity conservation and bushfire safety with daily life

30 minute invited presentation on design-led bushfire risk mitigatition stategies for reconciling the two (otherwise) opposing managment goals of bushfire safety and biodiversity conservation. Targeted at the S E Queensland national audience participants.

Multi-action recognition via stochastic modelling of optical flow and gradients

In this paper we propose a novel approach to multi-action recognition that performs joint segmentation and classification. This approach models each action using a Gaussian mixture using robust low-dimensional action features. Segmentation is achieved by performing classification on overlapping temporal windows, which are then merged to produce the final result. This approach is considerably less complicated than previous methods which use dynamic programming or computationally expensive hidden Markov models (HMMs). Initial experiments on a stitched version of the KTH dataset show that the proposed approach achieves an accuracy of 78.3%, outperforming a recent HMM-based approach which obtained 71.2%.

Cost-effective biodiversity restoration with uncertain growth in forest habitat quality

This paper develops a dynamic model for cost-effective selection of sites for restoring biodiversity when habitat quality develops over time and is uncertain. A safety-first decision criterion is used for ensuring a minimum level of habitats, and this is formulated in a chance-constrained programming framework. The theoretical results show; (i) inclusion of quality growth reduces overall cost for achieving a future biodiversity target from relatively early establishment of habitats, but (ii) consideration of uncertainty in growth increases total cost and delays establishment, and (iii) cost-effective trading of habitat requires exchange rate between sites that varies over time. An empirical application to the red listed umbrella species - white-backed woodpecker - shows that the total cost of achieving habitat targets specified in the Swedish recovery plan is doubled if the target is to be achieved with high reliability, and that equilibrating price on a habitat trading market differs considerably between different quality growth combinations. © 2013 Elsevier GmbH.

The Why, What, and How of Global Biodiversity Indicators Beyond the 2010 Target

The 2010 biodiversity target agreed by signatories to the Convention on Biological Diversity directed the attention of conservation professionals toward the development of indicators with which to measure changes in biological diversity at the global scale. We considered why global biodiversity indicators are needed, what characteristics successful global indicators have, and how existing indicators perform. Because monitoring could absorb a large proportion of funds available for conservation, we believe indicators should be linked explicitly to monitoring objectives and decisions about which monitoring schemes deserve funding should be informed by predictions of the value of such schemes to decision making. We suggest that raising awareness among the public and policy makers, auditing management actions, and informing policy choices are the most important global monitoring objectives. Using four well-developed indicators of biological diversity (extent of forests, coverage of protected areas, Living Planet Index, Red List Index) as examples, we analyzed the characteristics needed for indicators to meet these objectives. We recommend that conservation professionals improve on existing indicators by eliminating spatial biases in data availability, fill gaps in information about ecosystems other than forests, and improve understanding of the way indicators respond to policy changes. Monitoring is not an end in itself, and we believe it is vital that the ultimate objectives of global monitoring of biological diversity inform development of new indicators. ©2010 Society for Conservation Biology.

Acoustic sensing: Roles and applications in monitoring avian biodiversity

This thesis examined the use of acoustic sensors for monitoring avian biodiversity. Acoustic sensors have the potential to significantly increase the spatial and temporal scale of ecological observations, however acoustic recordings of the environment can be opaque and complex. This thesis developed methods for analysing large volumes of acoustic data to maximise the detection of bird species, and compared the results of acoustic sensor biodiversity surveys with traditional bird survey techniques.

Australia's Biodiversity Conservation Strategy 2010-2020 Submission to the National Biodiversity Strategy Review Taskforce

This submission focuses on “Priority for Change 3: Knowledge for all” and “Priority for Change 5: Involving Indigenous Australians”. Our particular interest lies with ensuring that Indigenous knowledge holders are engaged with in a manner that recognises their prior rights over their own knowledge and intellectual property. As the Preamble of the recently endorsed United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states, we need to; “Recognis[e] that respect for Indigenous Knowledge, cultures and traditional practises contributes to sustainable and equitable development and proper management of the environment”.

Submission on the Hawke Interim Review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth)

There are currently no regulatory mechanisms, laws or policies that specifically provide rights to Indigenous peoples over their Indigenous knowledge and intellectual property. We strongly recommend that the commonwealth take the lead to ensure that national sui generis laws are developed (perhaps to operate initially in areas of Cth jurisdiction, such as IPAs and national parks). The development of such laws should be in tandem with practical guidelines to assist their implementation. A comprehensive, nationally consistent scheme for access to genetic resources, which offers meaningful protection of traditional knowledge and substantive benefit-sharing with Indigenous communities, has to be developed. There are already a range of reports/resources that urge these same reforms and that we direct the Enquiry to again; these include the Voumard Report (2000) – especially Fourmile’s Appendix 10 – “Indigenous Interests”, and Terri Jankes “Our Culture, Our Future (1998).

Priority threat management of invasive animals to protect biodiversity under climate change

Climate change is a major threat to global biodiversity, and its impacts can act synergistically to heighten the severity of other threats. Most research on projecting species range shifts under climate change has not been translated to informing priority management strategies on the ground. We develop a prioritization framework to assess strategies for managing threats to biodiversity under climate change and apply it to the management of invasive animal species across one-sixth of the Australian continent, the Lake Eyre Basin. We collected information from key stakeholders and experts on the impacts of invasive animals on 148 of the region's most threatened species and 11 potential strategies. Assisted by models of current distributions of threatened species and their projected distributions, experts estimated the cost, feasibility, and potential benefits of each strategy for improving the persistence of threatened species with and without climate change. We discover that the relative cost-effectiveness of invasive animal control strategies is robust to climate change, with the management of feral pigs being the highest priority for conserving threatened species overall. Complementary sets of strategies to protect as many threatened species as possible under limited budgets change when climate change is considered, with additional strategies required to avoid impending extinctions from the region. Overall, we find that the ranking of strategies by cost-effectiveness was relatively unaffected by including climate change into decision-making, even though the benefits of the strategies were lower. Future climate conditions and impacts on range shifts become most important to consider when designing comprehensive management plans for the control of invasive animals under limited budgets to maximize the number of threatened species that can be protected.

Generalizing the use of geographical weights in biodiversity modelling

Aim Determining how ecological processes vary across space is a major focus in ecology. Current methods that investigate such effects remain constrained by important limiting assumptions. Here we provide an extension to geographically weighted regression in which local regression and spatial weighting are used in combination. This method can be used to investigate non-stationarity and spatial-scale effects using any regression technique that can accommodate uneven weighting of observations, including machine learning. Innovation We extend the use of spatial weights to generalized linear models and boosted regression trees by using simulated data for which the results are known, and compare these local approaches with existing alternatives such as geographically weighted regression (GWR). The spatial weighting procedure (1) explained up to 80% deviance in simulated species richness, (2) optimized the normal distribution of model residuals when applied to generalized linear models versus GWR, and (3) detected nonlinear relationships and interactions between response variables and their predictors when applied to boosted regression trees. Predictor ranking changed with spatial scale, highlighting the scales at which different species–environment relationships need to be considered. Main conclusions GWR is useful for investigating spatially varying species–environment relationships. However, the use of local weights implemented in alternative modelling techniques can help detect nonlinear relationships and high-order interactions that were previously unassessed. Therefore, this method not only informs us how location and scale influence our perception of patterns and processes, it also offers a way to deal with different ecological interpretations that can emerge as different areas of spatial influence are considered during model fitting.

Vertical structure and horizontal gradients of aerosol extinction coefficients over coastal India inferred from airborne lidar measurements during the Integrated Campaign for Aerosol, Gases and Radiation Budget (ICARB) field campaign

Quantitative estimates of the vertical structure and the spatial gradients of aerosol extinction coefficients have been made from airborne lidar measurements across the coastline into offshore oceanic regions along the east and west coasts of India. The vertical structure revealed the presence of strong, elevated aerosol layers in the altitude region of similar to 2-4 km, well above the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL). Horizontal gradients also showed a vertical structure, being sharp with the e(-1) scaling distance (D-0H) as small as similar to 150 km in the well-mixed regions mostly under the influence of local source effects. Above the ABL, where local effects are subdued, the gradients were much shallower (similar to 600-800 km); nevertheless, they were steep compared to the value of similar to 1500-2500 km reported for columnar AOD during winter. The gradients of these elevated layers were steeper over the east coast of India than over the west coast. Near-simultaneous radio sonde (Vaisala, Inc., Finland) ascents made over the northern Bay of Bengal showed the presence of convectively unstable regions, first from surface to similar to 750-1000 m and the other extending from 1750 to 3000 m separated by a stable region in between. These can act as a conduit for the advection of aerosols and favor the transport of continental aerosols in the higher levels (> 2 km) into the oceans without entering the marine boundary layer below. Large spatial gradient in aerosol optical and hence radiative impacts between the coastal landmass and the adjacent oceans within a short distance of < 300 km (even at an altitude of 3 km) during summer and the premonsoon is of significance to the regional climate.

Auxiliary coils for generating magnetic field gradients for a Faraday magnetometer

A set of coils has been designed and constructed for generating magnetic field gradients for a Faraday magnetometer. We have obtained a gradient of magnitude -1 1 kOe m-' (8.75 x lo5 A m-') in an air gap of 42 mm for a current of 12 A passing through the coils.

Biodiversity of Australian smut fungi.

There are about 250 species of smut fungi known from Australia of which 95 are endemic. Fourteen of these endemic species were first collected in the period culminating with the publication of Daniel McAlpine's revision of Australian smut fungi in 1910. Of the 68 species treated by McAlpine, 10 were considered to be endemic to Australia at that time. Only 23 of the species treated by McAlpine have names that are currently accepted . During the following eighty years until 1990, a further 31 endemic species were collected and just 11 of these were named and described in that period. Since 1990, 50 further species of endemic smut fungi have been collected and named in Australia . There are 115 species that are restricted to either Australia or to Australia and the neighbouring countries of Indonesia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines . These 115 endemic species occur in 24 genera, namely Anthracoidea (1 species), Bauerago (1), Cintractia (3), Dermatosorus (1), Entyloma (3), Farysporium (1), Fulvisporium (1), Heterotolyposporium (1), Lundquistia (1), Macalpinomyces (4), Microbotryum (2), Moreaua (20), Pseudotracya (1), Restiosporium (5), Sporisorium (26), Thecaphora (2), Tilletia (12), Tolyposporella (1), Tranzscheliella (1), Urocystis (2), Ustanciosporium (1), Ustilago (22), Websdanea (1) and Yelsemia (2). About a half of these local and regional endemic species occur on grasses and a quarter on sedges . The northern tropical savannah region of Australia offers most promise for the discovery of new endemic species . The agricultural, quarantine and environmental significance to Australia of some introduced species is discussed.

The limit to wheat water-use efficiency in eastern Australia. I. Gradients in the radiation environment and atmospheric demand

In the wheatbelt of eastern Australia, rainfall shifts from winter dominated in the south (South Australia, Victoria) to summer dominated in the north (northern New South Wales, southern Queensland). The seasonality of rainfall, together with frost risk, drives the choice of cultivar and sowing date, resulting in a flowering time between October in the south and August in the north. In eastern Australia, crops are therefore exposed to contrasting climatic conditions during the critical period around flowering, which may affect yield potential, and the efficiency in the use of water (WUE) and radiation (RUE). In this work we analysed empirical and simulated data, to identify key climatic drivers of potential water- and radiation-use efficiency, derive a simple climatic index of environmental potentiality, and provide an example of how a simple climatic index could be used to quantify the spatial and temporal variability in resource-use efficiency and potential yield in eastern Australia. Around anthesis, from Horsham to Emerald, median vapour pressure deficit (VPD) increased from 0.92 to 1.28 kPa, average temperature increased from 12.9 to 15.2°C, and the fraction of diffuse radiation (FDR) decreased from 0.61 to 0.41. These spatial gradients in climatic drivers accounted for significant gradients in modelled efficiencies: median transpiration WUE (WUEB/T) increased southwards at a rate of 2.6% per degree latitude and median RUE increased southwards at a rate of 1.1% per degree latitude. Modelled and empirical data confirmed previously established relationships between WUEB/T and VPD, and between RUE and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and FDR. Our analysis also revealed a non-causal inverse relationship between VPD and radiation-use efficiency, and a previously unnoticed causal positive relationship between FDR and water-use efficiency. Grain yield (range 1-7 t/ha) measured in field experiments across South Australia, New South Wales, and Queensland (n = 55) was unrelated to the photothermal quotient (Pq = PAR/T) around anthesis, but was significantly associated (r2 = 0.41, P < 0.0001) with newly developed climatic index: a normalised photothermal quotient (NPq = Pq . FDR/VPD). This highlights the importance of diffuse radiation and vapour pressure deficit as sources of variation in yield in eastern Australia. Specific experiments designed to uncouple VPD and FDR and more mechanistic crop models might be required to further disentangle the relationships between efficiencies and climate drivers.

What drives plant biodiversity in the clay floodplain grasslands of NSW?

An assessment of the relative influences of management and environment on the composition of floodplain grasslands of north-western New South Wales was made using a regional vegetation survey sampling a range of land tenures (e. g. private property, travelling stock routes and nature reserves). A total of 364 taxa belonging to 55 different plant families was recorded. Partitioning of variance with redundancy analysis determined that environmental variables accounted for a greater proportion (61.3%) of the explained variance in species composition than disturbance-related variables (37.6%). Soil type (and fertility), sampling time and rainfall had a strong influence on species composition and there were also east-west variations in composition across the region. Of the disturbance-related variables, cultivation, stocking rate and flooding frequency were all influential. Total, native, forb, shrub and subshrub richness were positively correlated with increasing time since cultivation. Flood frequency was positively correlated with graminoid species richness and was negatively correlated with total and forb species richness. Site species richness was also influenced by environmental variables (e. g. soil type and rainfall). Despite the resilience of these grasslands, some forms of severe disturbance (e. g. several years of cultivation) can result in removal of some dominant perennial grasses (e. g. Astrebla spp.) and an increase in disturbance specialists. A simple heuristic transitional model is proposed that has conceptual thresholds for plant biodiversity status. This knowledge representation may be used to assist in the management of these grasslands by defining four broad levels of community richness and the drivers that change this status.