Biodiversity Conservation

Isobel Bender u6673141 – 550 words

It is an unfortunate conundrum, that while biodiversity (diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems) is declining at a rate faster than any other time in human history, sites of high conservation value can also be ideal areas for urban and agricultural development. In turn, habitat modification continues to be a major driver in biodiversity decline.

This is the conundrum facing the Delma impar or the Striped Legless Lizard (SLL). The SLL is dependent on the critically endangered vegetation community of the Natural Temperature Grassland, 99% of which has been lost or altered since European settlement due its suitability as agricultural land. In August, I volunteered to help the ACT Parks and Conservation Service (PCS) in a conservation strategy that aims to address this conundrum and protect the SLL – the strategy of biodiversity offsets.

Biodiversity offsets – have your cake and eat it too?

Biodiversity offsets in Australia are designed to compensate for adverse impacts to protected matters like the SLL, which is listed as vulnerable under the Commonwealth Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). In the ACT, several urban development sites negatively impacted the SLL and the developers were required to protect several areas with known populations of SLL (offset sites). PCS are required to manage these areas to ensure there is no further loss of habitat for the SLL.

In turn, the establishment of the offset sites are trying to marry the two contradictory pursuits – the need for development and the need for conservation – to ensure ‘no net loss’ of the SLL.

Tiles – home away from home

Part of the offset management strategy is to monitor the populations of SLL. This is where I came in. Over a couple of days, I worked out my muscles by carrying around 3kg roof tiles to set up monitoring plots. Within a monitoring plot, we placed 8 tiles in a square, with the tiles facing North and the darker side facing up to ensure heat conduction. The tiles are to create an artificial habitat to attract the SLL. Then in September through to December, the tiles are checked to record:

• the percentage of tiles occupied by SLL and
• the average number of SLL per plot.

This data is used to help detect any drivers of change in the population of SLL, anticipate any future changes and to inform management actions.

Closed loop or monitoring to death?

Biodiversity offsets is a controversial conservation strategy, where it is perhaps counterintuitive – there can be ‘no net loss’ in biodiversity while development detrimental to its continuance is approved. Yet this critique aside, while volunteering I found out the SLL population has continued to decline across the offset sites despite protection, management, and monitoring. This is also despite ACT Parks and Conservation identifying the driver of this population decline for two consecutive years as too intense grazing pressure within the offset sites.

This makes apparent that a conservation strategy alone is not enough to conserve biodiversity, and largely relies on an effective monitoring strategy.

Effective monitoring is meant to be like a closed loop – where monitoring data like population decline is linked to a particular driver of change and in turn, informs the effectiveness of a management action. This may trigger a change in management action, the results of which are monitored, and the loop continues. Unfortunately, monitoring strategies are rarely implemented in a way to ensure conservation success. Hopefully, PCS will make efforts to close this loop and adjust current management strategies to halt further decline of the SLL.

Note: The locations of the offset sites for SLL have not been referenced in this blog. The SLL is a threatened species and ACT Parks and Conservation service do not want to broadcast where the SLL are to minimise the risk of people checking the tiles by themselves and disturbing the areas. The monitoring method used is carefully thought out to minimise risks to SLL and other reptiles and has the required animal research ethics approval.

References

Convention of Biological Diversity 1992 (CBD)

Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) 2022. ‘Delma impar — Striped Legless Lizard, Striped Snake-lizard.’ Available at: http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=1649 (Accessed 25.09.2022).

Dixon, K.; Cary, G.; Worboys, G.; Banks, S.; Gibbons, P. 2019. Features associated with effective biodiversity monitoring and evaluation. Biological Conservation. Vol. 238. pp: 108221

Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate (EPSDD) 2015. ‘Striped Legless Lizard Delma Impar: Action Plan.’ Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate, Canberra.

Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate (EPSDD) 2020. ‘Environmental Offsets Ecological Monitoring Program Report 2018–19.’ Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate, Canberra.

Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate (EPSDD) 2021. ‘Environmental Offsets Ecological Monitoring Program Report 2019–20.’ Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate, Canberra.

Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate (EPSDD) 2022. ‘Offsets register.’ Available at: https://www.planning.act.gov.au/tools-resources/plans-registers/registers/offsets-register (Accessed 25.09.2022).

Gibbons, P.; Lindenmayer, D. 2012. ‘Biodiversity monitoring in Australia.’ CSIRO Publishing. Collingwood, Victoria. 

Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) 2019. ‘Summary for policymakers of the global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.’ IPBES secretariat. Bonn, Germany.

Maron, M.; Ives, C.; Kujala, H. 2016. Taming a wicked problem: resolving controversies in Biodiversity Offsetting. BioScience. Vol. 66. pp: 489-498.

Miller, K.; Trezise, J.; Kraus, S.; et al 2015. The development of the Australian environmental offsets policy: from theory to practice. Environmental Conservation. Vol. 42. No.4. pp: 306-314.

Maddy Saunders – U7114895

Setting

Citizen Scientists, you and I, are the future of data processing. Recently I spent a few hours being part of a team of superheros tasked with scrolling through picture after picture of koalas, birds and everything in between. Intrigued? Let me tell you how to get involved!

Your Mission, should you choose to accept…

DigiVol is a citizen science website which brings together a global community of volunteers who work to analyse and identify information from data samples, records or photographs. Citizen Scientists have been critical in processing an abundance of information which has gone on to populate and inform policy and research. DigiVol publishes a range of expeditions for public participation, I chose to participate in Koala surveying for the NSW Department of Environment and Heritage.

This project involved identifying mammals from photographs taken by camera traps to help develop a robust portfolio of species in Kosciuszko national park. Photos would be sorted into categories of either: koalas, wombats, bird, other mammal, other animal or human/artefact. This analysis helped understand the size of koala populations in this environment and to help identify threats to koalas in the same environment.

The Superpower you have been given!

Citizen Science allows data and research to be more accessible and more abundant. You get early access to research results for public projects. I found it so interesting to see just how many kangaroos were being caught on the cameras from the photos I was identifying. Even more so, how few koalas were showing up!

One of the friendly Kangaroos we got to ‘virtually’ meet!

Recently citizen science has also been used to revive historical samples and data records to further inform research. We are able to contribute to decades of research past by providing resources which previous teams may not have had the funding or time to allocate! 

Most importantly, DigiVol provides a platform for like-minded people to pick up and share new skills as a community. Citizen science projects have been loved by school-aged children with an interest in the field and retirees with a passion for this work.

No quest is without its challenges.

Camera traps are designed to blend into the surroundings and as such, the quality of images is not prioritised. Images can sometimes be unfocused, the wildlife may be out of site, or there may be some blockage in the way. However, DigiVol has your back. DigiVol provides a series of photos which capture the animals’ movements and different angles to assist in identification. There are also reference images in each sorting category to help appropriately match images. 

Author’s Reflection

Data and information are becoming more rapidly accessible as time moves forward. We have been given an incredible opportunity to access and contribute to significant scientific research GLOBALLY! It is incredibly fulfilling and exciting to be involved in such endeavours! David Attenborough once said:

“It’s surely our responsibility to do everything within our power to create a planet that provides a home not just for us, but for all life on Earth.”

So next time you have a spare 10 minutes, log onto DIgiVol, lend a helping hand to scientific research that’s making a difference! 

u6697837

Australia has the worst mammal extinction rate in the world and one significant driver of this is introduced species such as foxes and cats. In Australia, foxes and cats combined kill more than 1.4 billion mammals per year. Wandiyali-Environa Wildlife Sanctuary, located just south-west of Queanbeyan, is taking important steps to conserve and restore these mammals to their sanctuary.

Wandiyali is working in collaboration with Australia’s Safe Haven Network to protect naturally occurring native mammals as well as translocated mammals, such as the Eastern Quoll (Dasyurus viverrinus) and the Eastern Bettong (Bettongia gaimardi). This is achieved by placing these mammals in fenced enclosures capable of excluding cats and foxes.

Wandiyali’s pest proof fence has a bracketed floppy top to prevent pests scaling the fence and an expanded base held down by the vegetative ground cover to stop pests from digging under (Figure 1). This fence can keep out a large range of exotic species as well as keep in the protected native species.

However, this is one powerful animal which cannot be kept either in or out. Wombats!

How can wombats be managed in a conservation area?

For fence owners all over Australia, wombats have long been a threat. At Wandiyali, holes dug by wombats create gaps in the fence that allow unwanted species entrance to the Safe Haven and protected animals to escape. Additionally, the damage to the fence by wombats requires costly maintenance. However, it is important that wombats are not excluded from the wildlife sanctuary as they play an important role in the ecosystem by increasing nutrient cycling, facilitating water absorption, and softening soil so seedlings can be established.

This why the staff at Wandiyali are choosing to work with these animals, rather than against them. They are achieving this by building wombat gates. When the wombats inevitably dig their way through the pest proof fence the rangers and conservationists leave these holes and monitor wombat movements through the fence. Wombats like to follow the same paths when moving between their burrows and feeding areas. Once the staff are certain that a spot is favoured by the wombats a wombat gate is put in place (Figure 2). This is to ensure that a gate is being put in place where the wombats are most likely to use it.

These gates are heavy vertically swinging gates that exploit the strength of the wombats. The gate is designed so that wombats can easily travel in and out, but prevents unwanted animals from doing so. Wombat gates are proven to be largely successful in providing passage for wombats as well as other native species such as echidnas, while restricting passage for browsing macropods and pests such as foxes.

Wombat gates do not exclude wombats from the landscape and providing a cost-effective solution to pest fence maintenance, which is critical in eliminating unwanted exotic species from wildlife sanctuaries.

This management strategy requires time and patience but the lessons to be learned is, it’s sometimes easier and more beneficial to work with natures habits rather than against them.

Words: 506

U7515137

On the 20^th of September, I partook in a volunteer work experience project run by the ACT government programme ‘Waterwatch’. The project focuses on water quality in the streams and rivers of the ACT and NSW catchment area. In my role as a volunteer, I was tasked with analyzing and identifying the different water bug species in the sample of water which was taken from the site.

Water bug photographed by Waterwatch ACT

Who are Waterwatch?

The aim of the project, as defined by Waterwatch themselves, is to ‘engage the community’, ‘raise awareness in schools’ and use the data collected to ‘inform policy’ in the catchment (https://www.act.waterwatch.org.au/about-us ).  They engage with schools in the catchment and offer out volunteer positions to the public. There is little prior knowledge required to help out as the water watch team provide a water identification chart (https://www.act.waterwatch.org.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/1447137/water-bug-detective-guide.pdf) and all the essential equipment.

The results

The results of the data collected during the survey is used to compile a report of scores for each site. The report has years of data from since the Waterwatch programme first came about. This data is extremely important from a biodiversity conservation standpoint as the type of water bug present and the proportion of each species directly correlates to river health. Some species are tolerant to pollution however, others like the mayfly, caddisfly and stonefly, are extremely intolerant so it is these species we were particularly looking out for when we carried out our survey. Pollution, particularly anthropogenic pollution heavily impacts the chemistry of the water making it inhospitable to many water bug species resulting in a large issue of habitat loss and changing species diversity.

Why do we care?

The Murrumbidgee River catchment where Waterwatch is based, is an extremely valuable ecosystem and the ACT government has many plans in place to maintain its status as a key habitat including using the man-made lakes and ponds of Canberra and surrounding areas as a method to trap nutrients and encourage plants to thrive. In fact, the ACT government manages and maintains 116 ponds and wetlands in urban areas which also act as an important factor in community lifestyle and leisure. (https://www.environment.act.gov.au/act-nrm/biodiversity/rivers-and-wetlands). Therefore, resources like Water watch’s report are hugely valuable. Another important issue of biodiversity conservation that Waterwatch addresses in conservation on private land. On a ‘continental scale’ it is acknowledge that traditional protected areas are not enough to achieve the level of biodiversity needed. 70% of Australia is in ‘private hands’ and most of the continents endangered ecosystems occur within this bracket of l owned land (https://parksjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/parks_15_2.pdf#page=21), hence the necessity to include this land in protection schemes. The first of the three sites we visited during our survey was a piece of privately owned land in New South Wales. It is a very important thing that sites like this one are included in the survey because it allows the ACT government to have a complete overview of river health in the catchment without gaps and allows monitoring and mitigation to be adapted to protect as many habitats as possible.

Murrumbrigee river (Bidgee, CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)

Ryan Adams – u7123730

Koala! Koala! Koala!

Have I got your attention? Those three words are perhaps the most effective means of conjuring up Australia in the minds of those who listen. One of our most iconic (and marketable) animal assets, the Koala is a treasured species. However, in some parts of the nation, the koala is at risk of an early retirement.

Our native bear isn’t doing so hot. In NSW the population has declined 26% over the last two decades. The bears up north aren’t faring better. QLD once had the largest population of Koalas on the planet, however by 2010 populations had declined between 40-68%. Why isn’t a mystery: habitat degradation and fragmentation, worse droughts, more bushfires. The fact nearly half has chlamydia is certainly not helping. There is currently a very real risk our New South Welsh Koalas may become extinct by 2050.

How Can I Help?

Good question. We can’t all go around planting eucalypt forests, or spending millions on habitat buyback, or curing chlamydia. Don’t fret however, there is a way. Indeed the last few years have shown us we can do a lot from the comfort of our own homes.

It’s called DigiVol. DigiVol, accessible here, is a citizen science program run between the Australian Museum and the Atlas of Living Australia. How it works varies between projects, however much of the work consists of aiding with digitisation of text or in the case the identification of animals.

The project I partook in was part of the Koala Camera Surveys run by the NSW Government Department of Planning and Environment at the sites in Kosciuszko National Park. I was simply given an image taken from a wildlife camera, which I then had to identify from a preselected range of options. Easy stuff. 

As part of the Governments current Koala Strategy, work such as this will hopefully be used to identify the best way to monitor Koala populations.

Citizen science approaches like these are a fantastic way to approach wildlife cameras. These are a cheap and efficient tool for monitoring, too effective in fact. A problem is the sheer volume of data they create. However in leveraging a wide network of keen volunteers, this data can be processed far more efficiently.

And it is certainly a wide network. The project I completed had nearly 30 other volunteers. It’s the type of work I recommend doing in the background while you watch Netflix or make dinner. Don’t worry about messing up an ID as well, there is a verification process.

So Did I Save The Koalas?

Only time will tell. Things like these obviously have a smaller impact, but are a great way to get involved in your spare time. So get back in bed, fire up DigiVol, and save the Planet!

By Jingai Bai (u7542689) Word Count: 499 words

On 6^th September 2022, a group of students from ANU participated in the manual removal of Verbascum thapsus in Ginninderry Conservation Corridor (Figure 1), located on the ACT – NSW border, managed by the Ginninderry Conservation Trust, under the guidance of Weed Management Plan – Conservation Corridor.

Figure 1: Picturesque views of the Ginninderry Conservation Corridor. (Image Credit: Jingai Bai)

The reason why it is unwanted and unloved

Spreading over the hillside is Verbascum thapsus (Figure 2), an invasive plant native to Europe, North Africa, and Asia, introduced to Australia as a garden plant and listed in the Tasmanian and Victorian seedling catalogues in 1845 and 1855 respectively.

Figure 2: Distribution of Verbascum thapsus in the Ginninderry Conservation Corridor in 2021. (Image Credit: Ginninderry Conservation Trust)

It has a green furry lotus appearance (Figure 3), and dual identity as an invasive plant and a weed. The relationship between invasive plants and weeds is that invasive plants are often weeds because they grow in abundance and their negative characteristics exceed positive ones, but weeds are not always invasive.

Figure 3: The appearance of Verbascum thapsus and its large rosette. (Image Credit: Jingai Bai)

It grows very fast, and each individual can produce between 100,000 and 175,000 seeds that can survive over several hundred years, making the existing population challenging to eradicate. Verbascum thapsus has many characteristics of weeds, such as high reproductive potential, abundant seed production, seeds remain active for a long time, rapid population establishment, and invasiveness outside of its native range. V. thapsus was born with traits that make it an unloved and unwanted weed.

Threats to biodiversity

If not controlled, its large rosette (Figure 3) can shade out, out-compete native vegetation, threaten the diversity of native plants, and influence the degraded indigenous territory’s regeneration. In alpine regions, it will also threaten the degradation of native plant communities and interfere with natural succession processes.

The Ginninderry Conservation Corridor covers the Box-Gum Grassy Woodland, Natural Temperate Grassland, and Pink-tailed Worm Lizard habitat. Under the EPBC Act, Box-Gum Grassy Woodland and Natural Temperate Grassland are listed as critically endangered ecological community, and the Pink-tailed Worm Lizard is listed as vulnerable species. Due to the corridor’s high biological value and distinctiveness, the establishment of V. thapsus inevitably threaten the community structure and biodiversity by displacing native species.

Our action is at the early rosette stage when taproots are shallow, and the seeds have not yet formed. So we need to eradicate the taproots completely to ensure the effectiveness of the removal (Figure 4). However, as our action was in the late stages of control, the prevent and eradicate phases were missed, and this invasive species was already abundantly established and widespread. Thus long-term management and monitoring are necessary.

Figure 4: Our victory – Verbascum thapsus thoroughly removed from the roots. (Image Credit: Jingai Bai)

ANU students are always on the move

In addition to weed removal (Figure 5), ANU students contributed significantly to the ACT koala survey, animal monitoring, and shrub planting through various work experiences.

We are a group of young generations committed to biodiversity conservation and are always on the road to practical action for biodiversity conservation. We recognise, respect, and protect biodiversity’s cultural and environmental values.

May our efforts make a difference in biodiversity’s recovery, and we look forward to more participants joining our group.

Figure 5: A group of ENVS3039 students were using garden tools to remove weeds manually. (Image Credit: Bridie Noble)

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Bridie Noble, Riverbank Restoration and Education Officer, for answering our questions and providing working photos.

Elise Chua u7132703

Clearing of native vegetation has been an ongoing driver of biodiversity loss in Australia since European invasion. In Australia, over 19% of land is in protected areas, but almost a third of our bioregions have less than 10% of their area protected. Temperate grasslands are favoured for agricultural use, and are therefore inadequately represented in formal protected area networks. Bush Heritage Australia purchases properties to conserve in these underrepresented landscapes, and safeguards them with conservation covenants.

Scottsdale Reserve is one such property, formerly cleared for farming. Prior to clearing, this area would have contained the now Critically Endangered yellow-box gum grassy woodland and natural temperate grassland. One of the main projects undertaken at Scottsdale is the restoration of these vegetation communities.

Replanting at Scottsdale

Over a day, we planted 338 trees, shrubs and graminoids along Applebox Creek, that were key species of yellow-box gum grassy woodland. But ensuring long-term persistence of revegetated sites is just as important as putting plants into the ground. Each shrub and tree planting was accompanied by a mycorrhizal fungi tablet to help with nutrient uptake and plant growth. We also added coarse woody debris in-between plantings, to encourage habitation by birds, reptiles and Antechinus. Most of the graminoids we planted were along the bank of the creek, where there was evidence of gully erosion and suspended sediment in the water. Revegetation can stabilise the bank and remediate sodic soils, reducing the risk of erosion in the future.

Monitoring

The story doesn’t stop there, as replanting native woodlands that had evolved under specific pressures for thousands of years is not a short-term venture. Bush Heritage Australia monitors the survival and health of replanted stands, to identify patterns in successful and unsuccessful plantings, and adapt their strategies accordingly. Long-term monitoring will reveal whether the fungi tablet helps growth and survival of the trees and shrubs, which can help inform revegetation efforts at other sites.

Bush Heritage Australia monitors for other features of a healthy ecosystem, like richness and abundance of reptiles and birds. Local eradication of invasive species can have rapid effects, such as increases in bird diversity and native seeding with removal of African lovegrass. But the full effects of woodland revegetation won’t be seen for at least a decade. This highlights how important the monitoring at Scottsdale is, for future ecologists evaluating the stand we planted!

A fixed state of degradation

Phil Palmer from Bush Heritage Australia spoke to us about disturbed ecosystems being in a ‘fixed state of degradation’, where the level of disturbance is so high that natural regeneration is unlikely to occur. Yellow-box gum grassy woodland would have a hard time establishing on pastures covered by weeds, perennial exotics and with only a few isolated trees. But the work done by Bush Heritage Australia and volunteers can help to break this fixed state. A woodland can’t be built in a day, but the foundations for one can.

Many thanks to Phil Palmer and Bush Heritage Australia for this experience.

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