Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Bryophyte Species Composition Over Moisture Gradients In The Windmill Islands, East Antarctica: Development Of A Baseline For Monitoring Climate Change Impacts, J Wasley, S A. Robinson, J D. Turnbull, D H. King, W Wanek, M Popp

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Extreme environmental conditions prevail on the Antarctic continent and limit plant diversity to cryptogamic communities, dominated by bryophytes and lichens. Even small abiotic shifts, associated with climate change, are likely to have pronounced impacts on these communities that currently exist at their physiological limit of survival. Changes to moisture availability, due to precipitation shifts or alterations to permanent snow reserves, will most likely cause greatest impact. In order to establish a baseline for determining the effect of climate change on continental Antarctic terrestrial communities and to better understand bryophyte species distributions in relation to moisture in a floristically important Antarctic …

A Simple Post-Hoc Method To Add Spatial Context To Predictive Species Distribution Models, Michael B. Ashcroft, Kristine O. French, Laurie A. Chisholm

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Methods to incorporate spatial context into species distribution models (SDMs) are underutilised, with predictions usually based only on environmental space and ignoring geographic space. The goals of this study were to demonstrate a relatively simple post-hoc method to include spatial context in SDMs and to quantify the improvement over purely niche-based models. The method involved producing a standard niche-based model using established techniques, such as Maxent, and then calculating the neighbourhood average of the model output in geographic space. In effect, we tested whether the spatially averaged model output was better at predicting species distributions than the raw model output. …

Are Competitive Effects Of Native Species On An Invader Mediated By Water Availability?, Tanya J. Mason, Kristine French, Ken Russell

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Question: Climate change processes could influence the dynamics of biotic interactions such as plant competition, especially in response to disturbance phenomena such as invasional processes. Are competitive effects of native species on an invadermediated bywater availability?

Location: Glasshouse facility, New SouthWales, Australia.

Methods: We constructed competitive hierarchies for a representative suite of species from coastal dune communities that have been invaded by the Asteraceae shrub, bitou (Chrysanthemoides monilifera subsp. rotundata). We used a comparative phytometer approach, where the invader species was grown with or without a suite of native species in glasshouse trials. This was used to construct competition hierarchies …

Larval Tolerance To Salinity In Three Species Of Australian Anuran: An Indication Of Saline Specialisation In Litoria Aurea, Brian D. Kearney, Phillip G. Byrne, Richard D. Reina

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Recent anthropogenic influences on freshwater habitats are forcing anuran populations to rapidly adapt to high magnitude changes in environmental conditions or face local extinction. We examined the effects of ecologically relevant elevated salinity levels on larval growth, metamorphosis and survival of three species of Australian anuran; the spotted marsh frog (Limnodynastes tasmaniensis), the painted burrowing frog (Neobatrachus sudelli) and the green and golden bell frog (Litoria aurea), in order to better understand the responses of these animals to environmental change. Elevated salinity (16% seawater) negatively impacted on the survival of L. tasmaniensis (35% survival) …

Competition Strength Of Two Significant Invasive Species In Coastal Dunes, K French

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

To investigate the effect of increased nutrient availability on competition amongst invasive and native plants, I measured changes in above and below ground biomass of Chrysanthemoides monilifera spp. rotundata (bitou bush) and Asparagus aethiopicus (asparagus fern) competing with two native species, Banksia integrifolia and Ficinia nodosa, under highand low-nutrient regimes. Bitou bush, as a primary invader, was competitive under all conditions lowering the growth of native species in both high and low nutrients. Asparagus fern as a secondary invader, did not influence growth of native species but responded, like bitou bush, to high nutrients. Native species were generally negatively …

The Use Of Representative Species As Surrogates For Wetland Inundation, Kerrylee Rogers, Timothy J. Ralph, Neil Saintilan

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

The complex task of determining the inundation requirements of large floodplain wetlands is often simplified through the use of representative, umbrella or flagship species. This subset of species is targeted based on the assumption that their collective inundation requirements serve as a surrogate for the broader suite of species found within the wetland. We tested the application of representative species commonly used in wetland and water management planning in the Murray-Darling Basin. In a review of the water requirements of 155 plants and animals, we collated information on preferred inundation timing, duration, depth, rate of rise and fall, and inter-flood …