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IALE-OZ
NEWSLETTER
ISSUE
1.2 June
2000
EDITORIAL
Once
again, thankyou to everyone that contributed to this issue. It
was nice to get a diverse range of responses. We encourage those
members who haven’t contributed to think about doing so in upcoming
issues. This issue contains exciting information about the IALE
World Congress in 2003 and a Regional Landscape Conference in
2002. The next issue will be published in September, so start
thinking about any contributions you can make.
Send
all contributions to:
Gary Luck g.luck@cowan.edu.au
Diane Pearson dpearson@gis.ntu.edu.au
Amy Hahs a.has@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au
TOP
FROM
THE PRESIDENT
IALE-Oz
at ESA2000
Unfortunately, the landscape ecology symposium I put forward as
part of ESA2000 did not get up. Hence, we do not have a focus
at ESA2000, as we had originally planned. At this stage, I will
look for other ideas from members for a potential activity for
IALE-Oz this year. I feel that we need something in the eastern
states to establish a presence there, and I welcome ideas on how
to achieve this. Are there any meetings coming up that we could
tag onto? Of course, we can still meet at ESA2000, but without
some formal focus we would be unlikely to attract new members.
We should also be considering what to aim for in 2001. The idea
canvassed at the meeting in Fremantle was to aim for a stand-alone
meeting in 2001, 2 years out from the World Congress. Again, I’ll
welcome suggestions.
The
Journal, Landscape Ecology
I know that those of you who joined up and also subscribed to
Landscape Ecology have been having problems in receiving the journal.
I hope that these have been resolved by now. These problems are
part of a larger question for IALE concerning the future connection
with the publishers, Kluwer. Kluwer took over the smaller publishing
house SPB who originally published the journal, and the Executive
have not been altogether happy with the way Kluwer has been handling
things. It is nevertheless a good journal, and has improved its
breadth of content recently, reflecting changed editorial arrangements.
There is currently a proposal from Kluwer to increase the price
of the journal next year. The Executive of IALE needs to decide
on future options for the journal, which may include leaving Kluwer
and publishing our own journal elsewhere (we have already had
offers from several publishers). Some of these issues will be
raised for your comment in the IALE Bulletin later this year,
but I wanted to let you know what’s going on, and also to seek
any feedback you may have.
In
the meantime, I will be visiting the editor of Landscape Ecology,
David Mladdenoff, while I am in the US in June. I will be discussing
these issues with him then.
Richard
Hobbs
TOP
REGIONAL
LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY CONFERENCE
The Brisbane
Organising Committee of IALE 2003 would like to congratulate Darwin
on their successful bid for the IALE 2003 Congress. To support
Darwin in the build up to the Congress, we are proposing a regional
landscape ecology conference to be held in Brisbane in February
2002. The conference would provide a regional forum for the advancement
of landscape ecology in the Asia-Pacific region (Australia, New
Zealand, SE Asia, Pacific Islands, with international guest speaker).
It would allow exchanges and communications between regional landscape
ecologists and resource-conservation managers, and help advance
the science and action of landscape ecology in the region prior
to IALE 2003.
We would
appreciate your feedback on the concept and welcome any ideas
or suggestions for the Asia Pacific Landscape Ecology Conference
in Brisbane, Feb 2002. Contact: Clive McAlpine at c.mcalpine@mailbox.uq.edu.au
Clive
McAlpine
TOP
LANDSCAPE
ECOLOGY IN THE NETHERLANDS
I
have recently had the pleasure of spending a week at the Department
of Landscape Ecology, Wageningen, The Netherlands, while on study
leave from Australia, and thought that a brief comment on this
department and its activities may be of interest to IALE-OZ members.
The first thing that strikes a visitor is the building in which
the department is newly located. It's a specially commissioned
design, planned to be both environment-friendly and people-friendly.
Three blocks of offices, three storeys high, are joined by glass-roofed
courtyards housing internal gardens, water features, open spaces
and sitting areas. The walls of the buildings are predominantly
of glass, and all offices look out onto the green courtyard area
(and also open onto a balcony there). Timber is used extensively
for doors, windows, stairs, railings etc to create a warm and
natural feeling. Overall, a very attractive place to work.
The Department
of Landscape Ecology, headed by Prof. Paul Opdam, is one of six
departments that have been grouped into a newly-formed organisation
called 'Alterra. Green World Research'. This large research organisation
(approx. 500 people) obtains most of its research funding from
contracts with Dutch government departments. It also has associations
with the Wageningen University. The Dep. of Landscape Ecology
has the equivalent of 45 full time staff, organised in research
teams that include: Biodiversity and habitat fragmentation, Multifunctional
agricultural landscapes, Nature and landscape in Europe, and Spatial
modelling. Research is carried out to meet the needs of many clients,
including provincial and national conservation agencies, the national
ministry for transport, and the European community.
This group
has made a major contribution to landscape ecology, both in Europe
and worldwide. Many people will be familiar with previously
published research on issues such as: the responses of woodland
birds to forest fragmentation, the effects of road traffic on
breeding bird populations, the development of metapopulation models
for badgers and nuthatches, the spatial dynamics of red squirrels
and bank voles in small woods, and the use of linear landscape
elements by bats.
Current
research continues to have an emphasis on understanding spatial
patterns of populations (especially of 'threatened' or 'indicator'
species), particularly through the use of metapopulation models
to predict the viability of present or potential habitat configurations.
Some current activities include:
- development
and use of an expert system called LARCH (Landscape Ecological
Rules for the Allocation of Habitat) to assess the viability
of current habitat networks. A recent application has assessed
the viability of nature reserves for 10 countries in Europe;
- use
of population models and GIS to visually display the types of
habitat configurations required for landscape connectivity for
selected species such as butterflies, badgers, newts and passerine
birds;
- developing
ways to enhance 'green veins' (ditches, field margins, roadsides,
banks etc) to maintain biodiversity of plants and animals within
intensively managed agricultural land;
- field
studies of the population dynamics and movements of marshland
birds to obtain data for conservation management and to calibrate
metapopulation models;
- interaction
with transport agencies in the development and implementation
of a variety of 'ecoducts' to assist movements of animals across
road barriers (ranging from badger tunnels to broad vegetated
overpasses for deer and other large mammals);
- development
of 'ecologically-scaled landscape indices' that can be used
to assess a landscape configuration from the perspective of
different animal species.
One aspect
of the achievements of this research group that I admire is their
capacity to develop new conceptual knowledge and approaches, while
also carrying out applied research directed toward solving real-world
conservation issues. Balancing these dual roles is not easy, but
(in my view) is an essential element of landscape ecology.
Andrew
Bennett
School of Ecology and Environment
Deakin University
TOP
FROM
THE ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES UNIT, CHARLES STURT UNIVERSITY, BATHURST,
NSW
Johannes
Bauer, John Beard, Chris Bloomfield, Steven Cox, Marcus Croft,
Andrew Fisher, Col Freeman, Al Gibbs, David Goldney, Jon Graftdyk,
Alexander Herr, Louise Hucks, Brian Stone, David M. Watson
The purpose
of this contribution is to show the scope, development and future
directions of research by personnel from the Environmental Studies,
Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, New South Wales. While our
work is varied we have a strong, shared commitment to the underlying
philosophy which has developed from research conducted over more
than 20 years.
With his
colleagues, in particular Sylvia Cardale, Brian Stone and Johannes
Bauer, David Goldney developed significant research into woodland
status and conservation values within the Central Western Region
of New South Wales. Through the Remnant Woodland Ecology Program
(funded by LWRRDC, 1995-1999) and in collaboration with personnel
from the University of Sydney – Orange Agricultural College, David
and colleagues from the Environmental Studies Unit, Bathurst,
pursued the following realisations:
- That
private landholders will play a pivotal role in the conservation
of remnant woodlands, because most remnants are located on land
privately owned and used for agriculture.
- That
New South Wales’ Central Western Region, being Australia’s oldest
inland agricultural area, can provide important data about the
consequences of current agricultural practices for biodiversity
in this and other regions.
- That
it is vital to conduct research at both local and landscape
scales.
The aim
of our work now, collectively, is to conduct fundamental research
into aspects of the ecology of the Bathurst landscape and the
dynamic interactions between these aspects. We are also endeavouring
to take the next step and use our ecological research to provide
the means of restoring remnant woodlands and to create “synthetic”,
but ecologically functional woodlands on agricultural land, in
an effort to remediate the degrading processes within our landscape.
Andrew
Fisher is involved in a study collaboratively with the NSW Field
Ornithologists Club modelling the dynamics of woodland bird populations
across the Bathurst landscape. Andrew, David M. Watson and David
Goldney are involved in a bird-banding study, begun by David in
1974, which provides information about the long-term population
dynamics of birds in woodland remnants. Andrew has a collaborative
project with Alex Drew and David Freudenberger from CSIRO and
Sue Briggs from NPWS, examining the population dynamics of birds
in linear remnants such as roadside corridors. He has collaborative
projects with David Goldney and Col Freeman (CSU) modelling vertebrate
distributions under a range of landscape scenarios and examining
species’ response to habitat fragmentation. He is interested in
integrating nature conservation and production agriculture, particularly
the management of remnant woodlands (David Goldney, Marcus Croft
– CSU) and the restoration of riparian woodlands (David Goldney,
Chris Bloomfield, Al Gibbs and Louise Hucks – CSU).
Brian
Stone came to CSU through his involvement with the Remnant Woodland
Ecology Program. Since that project is now complete, he is undertaking
doctoral studies. Brian’s PhD (supervised by David Goldney and
David Green) seeks to answer questions relating to scale hierarchies
and the emergent properties of complex systems in an effort to
determine if it is appropriate to integrate models of vertebrate
distributions and abundances across a range of spatial scales.
Apart from his own field research, Brian collaborates with Birds
Australia and with Andrew Fisher on the nocturnal bird component
of his research. He also uses past studies of David Goldney’s
and others on small mammals in fragmented woodlands.
David
M. Watson joined the Environmental Studies Unit this year. He
is an ornithologist whose research spans the disciplines of community
ecology, biogeography and conservation biology. During his post-graduate
studies for his PhD, Dave worked extensively in the forests of
Mesoamerica, focusing here on the consequences of long-term (~8,000
years) habitat fragmentation. At present Dave is planning a large-scale
mistletoe removal experiment. This will be the first of its kind
in the world and aims to quantify the importance of mistletoe
in Eucalyptus woodlands. Dave is an acknowledged expert on mistletoe
ecology and is currently completing an invited paper for the Annual
Review of Ecology and Systematics on mistletoes as keystone resources
in forests and woodlands of the world. His project will build
on work by David Goldney (birds and small mammals) and Andrew
Fisher (birds) in woodland remnants in the Central West and work
on woodland birds that he is currently conducting. It will require
close collaboration with Greening Australia, community organisations
such as Landcare and individual landholders.
Steven
Cox is undertaking doctoral studies (funded by Omya Minerals)
looking at the population viability of Koalas in a fragmented
agricultural landscape, which is also used for mining limestone.
This work will assist the mining company with management and restoration
decisions. It builds on work by David Goldney and others who have
worked on koalas in this landscape.
The Cadia
Freshwater Research Project (funded by Newcrest Mining Corp.)
is conducting research into environmental flows, aquatic biota
and riparian woodland dynamics within a land use system undergoing
major impacts from gold mining. This research will provide Newcrest
Mining with valuable means of managing the hydrology of its mine
site and restoring the riparian woodlands to an ecologically functional
state. The broader project is coordinated by John Beard, who leads
the research into physico-chemical parameters, with Al Gibbs and
David Goldney as team leaders. Part of this study involves research
into the ecology of riparian woodlands dominated by Casuarina
cunninghamiana. Chris Bloomfield is nearing completion of her
PhD and this will provide important baseline ecological data on
the functioning of this species in disturbed landscapes. Taking
up new work on C. cunninghamiana is Jon Graftdyk, who began his
PhD on the restoration of these communities in January 2000. The
eventual aim of the Cadia project is to develop an environmental
flow protocol and hydrological model to mitigate the impacts of
a dam, constructed at the mine site, on the downstream biota.
This is the primary responsibility of Alexander Herr (“Herry”),
the post-doctoral fellow working on the project. Apart from his
primary responsibility to the Cadia project, Alexander is working
on bat population dynamics in fragmented woodlands. He is establishing
close links with the Jenolan Caves Trust, agencies and other individuals
and expanding the bat reference call library in an effort to fill
some gaps in our understanding of the bat fauna of the Central
West.
The Macquarie
River Restoration Project (funded by NHT) involves close collaboration
and co-operation between Macquarie Rivercare Inc. (a local Landcare
group), David Goldney, Chris Bloomfield, Jon Graftdyk and Louise
Hucks. This project involves David as team leader. The purpose
of the work is to create eight permanent demonstration sites for
landholder groups to show the optimal strategies for regeneration
and restoration of selected riparian species. Chris Bloomfield
is the principal researcher into riparian Eucalyptus viminalis
ecology and the reproductive ecology of willows (Salix spp.).
She will undertake the communication of research results to local
landholders and farmer groups and co-ordinate the riparian mapping
project, which will involve all other members of the team and
collaboration with CSU’s Spatial Analysis Unit. Jon Graftdyk’s
research into the restoration of C. cunninghamiana communities
on the Macquarie River will form part of this project. Another
PhD student, Louise Hucks beginning in July 2000, will research
the regeneration and restoration of native grasses and understorey
species within the riparian zone of the Campbells River, south
of Bathurst. Others involved in the project will be Al Gibbs and
Andrew Fisher.
Our immediate
future extends beyond individual, current interests to include
a co-operative project, coordinated by Alexander Herr, involving
all of our researchers and collaboration with CSU’s Spatial Analysis
Unit. This work seeks to document permanent research sites and
past and current research data in a comprehensive GIS database.
To this we will add data from new studies of the ecology and distributional
relationships of flora, vertebrates and selected invertebrate
species with the Bathurst landscape. It will enable us to identify
knowledge gaps for future research and to develop predictive landscape
models involving scenarios of land use and management that can
be utilised by land managers in their decision making.
The expected
outcome is a coherent current picture of the ecology and conservation
values of the Bathurst landscape. This work will combine and underpin
our shared vision which is to undertake fundamental ecological
research at landscape scale, applied landscape restoration and
to communicate ecologically sustainable land use practices within
the wider community, in a manner that is both accessible and relevant
to local needs.
Chris
Bloomfield
TOP
DOES
SIZE MATTER?
Human
activities have historically involved clearing of vegetation and
the conversion of natural areas into cultural, mostly agricultural,
landscapes; with inevitable changes to the existing biotic regimes
such as habitat quantity and quality, seed and animal dispersal,
predation, and the flow of genetic material; and to existing abiotic
regimes such as microclimate, albedo, wind speed, moisture levels
and soil conditions. The loss of natural vegetation typically
results in an array of fragmented remnants at the landscape scale,
and to the extinction of existing species.
Since
the mid 1980’s the field of Landscape Ecology has developed simultaneously
and synergistically with concurrent advances in other fields to
provide a framework for understanding the effects of fragmentation
of the landscape. Insights from hierarchy theory, percolation
theory, metapopulation dynamics, island biogeography, non-linear
mathematics, fractal geometry, and allometry; and advances in
computer technology and spatial statistics, have combined with
an increasing ecological concern and imperative, to produce not
only more research and information relating to the effects of
landscape fragmentation on species, but also fundamentally new
and fruitful methods of conceptualising and manipulating this
information.
Landscape
Ecology, which initially promoted the explicit definition of space
in ecological research and provided a lexicon for the description
of spatial attributes in landscapes, has created a framework for
the investigation of the critical issue of scale in ecology. Landscape
fragmentation is shown to be a scale-dependant construct.
This
concern with scale has produced a paradigm shift within landscape
ecology which implies that an anthropocentric definition of scale
is insufficient to understand events in ecological systems, and
introduced the concept of a “species-defined landscape” scale
(With, 1999). Landscapes are no longer just “large areas” covering
perhaps 1000’s of kilometres. For any given map, there will be
as many landscapes as there are species, and each landscape will
uniquely reflect the perception of one species.
The implication
of this is that any area will provide a fragmented landscape for
some species, but not for others, depending upon the perception
of the species. To study the effects of landscape fragmentation
on species, maps of what we recognise as landscapes will need
to be reclassified using a resolution based upon species-defined
landscape scales.
Will it
become confusing if we continue to use the term landscape to imply
a fixed scale of inquiry (i.e. large or regional), rather than
a species specific (or process specific) definition which defines
the grain and extent of inquiry?
Reference:
With, K.A. (1999). Is landscape connectivity necessary and sufficient
for wildlife management. In Forest fragmentation: wildlife and
management implications, eds. J.A. Rochelle, L.A. Lehmann & J.
Wisniewski. Brill. Boston.
Col Freeman
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