Current Research Projects
ARC Linkage Project: The restoration of fragmented Brigalow landscapes for conservation: evaluating alternative futures in a changing climate
The aim of this ARC Linkage project is to develop landscape planning and management strategies and spatial decision-support tools for the restoration of nationally listed Brigalow (
Acacia harpophylla) ecosystems, and their dependent vertebrate fauna, many of which are also endangered.
A spatially-explicit and dynamic landscape approach will address key questions limiting our understanding of the impact on human-induced landscape change, feral predators and climate change on the distribution and viability of Brigalow fauna populations.
Key questions
1. Are there critical thresholds in the amount of remnant (mature/ structurally intact vegetation) Brigalow habitat and how do these vary between taxa?
2. What are the habitat values of Brigalow regrowth (previously cleared and regenerating vegetation)?
3. What is the importance of the spatial configuration of remnant and regrowth habitats?
4. What are the impacts of foxes and feral cats on Brigalow fauna, and how do these impacts vary in space and time? and
5. What are the likely consequences of climate change for Brigalow fauna, and can landscape restoration help mitigate some of these consequences?
Objectives
1. Develop a conceptual framework and a priori predictions which explicitly incorporates spatial and temporal scale of species-environment and predator-prey relationships;
2. Capture existing expert knowledge of species-habitat relationships as a basis for building a first-phase spatial decision-support system;
3. Develop and test predictive models of the relationship between the quality, amount and spatial configuration of remnant and regrowth habitat and the distribution of birds, ground-dwelling mammals and reptiles;
4. Identify interactions between the amount and spatial configuration of remnant and regrowth vegetation and impacts of introduced predators on native birds, mammals and reptiles;
5. Quantify the likely impacts of climate change and climate variability on species distribution patterns and population viability; and
6. Integrate and synthesise the outcomes of objectives 1-5 into spatial decision support tools and planning guidelines for prioritising investment in the management and restoration of fragmented Brigalow ecosystems and their dependent wildlife populations.
Study area
This research project includes data collected from a wide range of areas in the Brigalow Belt South Bioregion. A total of
135 study sites are distributed throughout four main study areas, located near the southern Queensland towns of Meandarra, Chinchilla and Dalby and the New South Wales town of Moree.
Methods
Surveys have been conducted to quantify the diversity and abundance of bird and reptile species and to describe the structure and floristic composition of each of the
135 study sites. Research will also be conducted at a subset of these sites to quantify the diversity of insectivorous bats (Microchiropterans) in these brigalow communities.
Study sites are located in brigalow communities of varying size, shape, isolation from a range of landscapes that vary according to the amount of vegetation. While many study sites are located in brigalow remnants (not previously cleared), a number of study sites are also located in brigalow regrowth vegetation of varying ages.
