IALE-OZ
NEWSLETTER
ISSUE
2.3 October
2001
EDITORIAL
Hello,
and welcome to the third edition of the IALE-Oz Newsletter for
2001. This edition contains a report from the recent Ecological
Society of Australia Conference, a "Landholders for the Environment"
web address and a PhD Outline from Jonathan Rhodes who is working
to develop a decision making tool for Koala conservation. This
issue also includes the first announcement for the IALE World
Congress to be held in Darwin during July 2003, and a notice for
the Second International Symposium on Landscape Futures.
If you have any comments or feedback regarding the newsletter,
please contact either:
Amy Hahs a.has@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au
or
Diane Pearson dpearson@gis.ntu.edu.au
Happy Reading.
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REPORT
ON THE ESA MEETING IN WOLLONGONG
The
Ecological Society of Australia's 2001 Conference was recently
held at the University of Wollongong on the New South Wales coast.
The conference attracted approximately 250 participants, with
minimal cancellations due to the Ansett situation.
Landscape ecology presentations were well represented and showcased
the range and depth of landscape research currently underway in
Australia. Research topics ranged from micro-habitat scale requirements
of sympatric lizards all the was up to monitoring savanna health
at a regional scale. The conference was also a good opportunity
to catch up on other areas of ecological research being undertaken
around Australia.
The
meeting was very well run, with all of the symposia running to
schedule. This was greatly aided by the ban on using personal
laptops for oral presentations, and by the large volunteer base,
which allowed a minimum of one technical person to be present
in every theatre for every session.
One
interesting departure from normal conference proceedings was a
new format for the poster session. This session was sponsored
by the City of Wollongong, and was held one afternoon in conjunction
with the conference dinner. Conference attendees were provided
with two blank drink cards. A "meaningful exchange" with a poster
presenter was awarded with one stamp on a blank card. Once five
unique stamps were collected, the card could be redeemed at the
bar for a free drink. A third card, that had already been stamped,
was also provided to kick start the session. Reactions to this
poster format were mixed, although poster presenters certainly
received plenty of attention and few people objected to the free
drinks! A second innovation is that posters will be displayed
on the ESA website http://life.csu.edu.au/esa/
for the next six months. These changes were implemented in an
effort to elevate the perceived status of posters at the ESA conferences,
and encourage more poster presentations in the future.
The
overall impression left of the ESA 2001 Conference is one of friendly
hospitality and efficient organisation. In light of the upcoming
2003 IALE World Congress (see announcement pg. 4), the ESA Conference
certainly provided food for thought.
Amy
Hahs
School of Botany, University of Melbourne
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WEBSITE:
LANDHOLDERS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
An Australian
based website http://landholders.tripod.com
was recently brought to the editor's attention by John Ludwig.
The site is created and maintained by "Landholders for the Environment"
and presents landholder attitudes to sustainable production, sustainable
conservation and defending Landholder's rights. The site also
contains a page presenting the "Landholders for the Environment"
interpretation of the scientific literature for a range of current
environmental issues, including land clearing and global climate
change.
The website
provides an insight into an alternative view of the land and its
management, and could be a potential discussion point for IALE-Oz
members and other ecologists. One question which might be raised
is: Are the landholders working with the same initial dataset
as the scientists, and if so, why are the two groups reaching
different conclusions? Are the discrepancies due to biases within
the respective groups when it comes to interpreting the data,
or is it more a case of scientists failing to communicate research
findings effectively and place their research within a broad enough
context? Both scenarios challenge us and represent opportunities
to strengthen our research and its implementation.
Ed.
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PhD
OUTLINE : COMBINING STOCHASTIC POPULATION MODELS AND LANDSCAPE
ECOLOGY IN DEVELOPING DECISION MAKING TOOLS FOR KOALA (Phascolarctos
cinereus) CONSERVATION
Since
European settlement, the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) has suffered
significant reductions in its range over much of eastern Australia,
largely due to the effects of habitat destruction, habitat fragmentation
and growing urbanisation (Melzer et al. 2000). In order to develop
successful conservation strategies for the koala it is necessary
to understand the impact of these landscape and land-use changes
on their populations. However, to date, koala conservation initiatives
have tended to be based largely on koala habitat models (e.g.
Lunney et al. 1998) and there has been little attempt to model
the response of koala populations to landscape change.
The aim
of this thesis is to develop and parameterise predictive, spatially
explicit koala population models (sensu Pulliam and Dunning 1995)
and incorporate these into a decision making process for ranking
koala conservation strategies. Stochastic koala population models
will be combined with existing habitat and landscape modelling
techniques in a Geographical Information System. Although, stochastic
population models can be unreliable in determining absolute risks
of extinction (Ludwig 1999) they have been found to perform much
better when used in a qualitative sense (McCarthy et al. in press).
Thus, model outputs will be utilised for ranking various management
strategies within a decision theoretical process (e.g. Possingham
et al. in press). The relative impact of different landscape changes
and management scenarios will be assessed in terms of koala population
viability and economic cost. The innovation from this thesis will
be a new objective method for evaluating koala conservation options,
which will complement current approaches.
Models
will initially be developed for the coastal koala populations
found at Port Stephens, New South Wales. These models will be
parameterised using existing data from this site and other similar
locations. Further model development and validation based upon
data collected from a range of other study sites, such as Walgett,
New South Wales, Ballarat, Victoria and Noosa, Queensland will
also be possible.
This
PhD is supported by an Australian Research Council Strategic Partnerships
with Industry, Research and Training Scheme scholarship (ARC SPIRT)
in collaboration with the University of Queensland, the Australian
Koala Foundation and the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife
Service.
References
Ludwig,
D. 1999. Is it meaningful to estimate a probability of extinction?
Ecology 80:298-310.
Lunney, D., S. Phillips, J. Callaghan, and D. Coburn. 1998. Determining
the distribution of Koala habitat across a shire as a basis for
conservation: a case study from Port Stephens, New South Wales.
Pacific Conservation Biology 4:186-196.
McCarthy, M. A., S. J. Andelman, and H. P. Possingham. in press.
Reliability of Relative Predictions in Population Viability Analysis.
Ecology.
Melzer, A., F. Carrick, P. Menkhorst, D. Lunney, and B. S. John.
2000. Overview, critical assessment, and conservation implications
of koala distribution and abundance. Conservation Biology
14:619-628.
Possingham, H. P., D. B. Lindenmayer, and G. Tuck. in press. Decision
Theory Thinking for Population Viability Analysis. in S. R. Beissinger
and D. R. McCullough, editors. 'Population Viability Analysis'.
University of Chicago Press, Chicago, USA.
Pulliam, H. R., and J. B. Dunning. 1995. Spatially Explicit Population
Models. Ecological Applications 5:2.
Jonathan
Rhodes
Department of Geographical Sciences and Planning, University of
Queensland
UPCOMING
EVENTS
First Announcement
and Call for Symposia IALE World Congress 2003
Crossing
frontiers - Landscape ecology down under:
Building bridges between cultures, disciplines and approaches
13-17 July 2003 Darwin, Northern Territory Australia
The IALE
World Congress will be held in Darwin in July 2003. This promises
to be a memorable event and a landmark in IALE history, since
it will be the first time the world congress has been held in
the southern hemisphere, and the first time it has been in the
tropics.
The theme
of the conference reflects the dual goals of the congress, which
are to highlight the frontiers of the science of landscape ecology
and to develop the integrative nature of the science. We aim to
bring together participants from the range of disciplines included
under the landscape ecology umbrella, candidly discuss the synergies
and differences between different approaches, and explore the
possibilities for increased communication and understanding between
different cultures.
The venue
is ideal for this purpose. Australia has developed its own, very
pragmatic form of landscape ecology, taking the best from both
the European and North American traditions, and is also increasingly
trying to mesh traditional indigenous knowledge with more recent
scientific approaches.
Darwin
has a tropical climate, which in July is pleasantly warm and dry.
The congress venues and program will allow for maximising interaction
and participation, both within the formal sessions and in the
social activities. In addition, a range of field trip options
will be offered, ranging from one-day trips in the Darwin area
to more adventurous trips to other parts of Australia and beyond.
We will
aim to have a varied and representative scientific program, and
to this end are seeking expressions of interest from people interested
in organising symposia during the congress. Symposia may either
be half-day or full day, and topics can relate to particular subject
areas or particular geographic regions. All should relate in some
way to the dual themes of frontiers in landscape ecology and of
building bridges. Symposium organisers will be responsible for
the development of their symposium, including selecting and inviting
participants and arranging any publication that may arise. We
are aiming for a standard presentation format, with all talks
(except invited plenaries) allocated 20 minute timeslots.
Expressions
of interest should be directed to me in the first instance (preferably
by email). This should include a symposium title, and a list of
potential speakers (this need not be finalised at this stage).
The Scientific Program Committee will then consider all proposals,
and further details of timing, content etc will be provided thereafter.
More details
on the congress will be available shortly - watch out for developments!
Richard
Hobbs, for the Program Committee
rhobbs@essun1.murdoch.edu.au
2nd
International Symposium on Landscape Futures
Landscape
Futures II: Social and Institutional Dimensions
4 - 6 December 2001
At the
University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia
Hosted by: Institute
for Rural Futures, University of New England
Major Sponsor: The Murray-Darling Basin Commission
SYMPOSIUM
AIMS
There
is increasing recognition that the planning and management of
natural resources at broad landscape scales requires greater emphasis
on the social and institutional issues than has occurred on the
past. The Symposium aims to afford those involved in the planning
and management of natural resources the opportunity to gain a
deeper and more comprehensive understanding of these issues.
THEMES
AND PROGRAM
The
Symposium is structured around three themes:
- the
politics and sociology of resource management at the landscape
scale,
- the
design of institutions for resource management and planning
at the landscape scale, and
- advances
in spatial and analysis techniques to support resource management
and planning at the landscape scale.
The Symposium
program includes morning plenary and closing plenary sessions,
workshops on special interest topics and some parallel sessions
for paper presentation.
Keynote
speakers will include leading international scholars and Australian
speakers with first-hand knowledge of current policy developments
in institutional aspects of resource management.
CONTACTS
| Registration
Enquiries: |
Program
and Technical Enquiries: |
UNE
Conference Company,
University of New England,
Armidale NSW 2351 Australia
Phone: +61 (0) 2 6773 2154
Fax: +61 (0) 2 6773 3766
E-mail: confco@metz.une.edu.au |
Ian
Reeve
Phone: +61 (0) 2 6773 5145
Fax: +61 (0) 2 6773 3245
E-mail:
ireeve@metz.une.edu.au
|
To learn
more about the conference or to register, please visit:
http://www.ruralfutures.une.edu.au/lsfutures2/confhome.htm
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