Abstracts available here - Society for Conservation Biology

25th International Congress for Conservation Biology • Auckland, New Zealand • 5-9 December 2011
while minimising costs. This presentation will focus on the SCP methods
employed in the latter step. This step was accomplished in a series of open
stakeholder workshops, with the aid of a custom-designed MPA planning
tool in ArcGIS, facilitating rapid transparent evaluation of alternate MPA
scenarios against agreed performance metrics. The custom planning tool
sacrifices automated optimisation capability (as in applications such as
MARXAN) in favour of a user-driven boundary adjustment process that
circumvents the need for stakeholder agreement regarding appropriate
objectives and protection targets, and acceptable costs. MARXAN was
used retrospectively to demonstrate the extent to which the user-driven
process identified an optimal spatial solution. The resulting MPA boundary
scenario is described; this scenario is the basis for the current New Zealand
position within CCAMLR.
2011-12-09 16:58 Introduced species and ecosystem restructuring on
a sub-Antarctic World Heritage Island
Shaw, J.D.*, Australian Antarctic Division; Terauds, A., Australian
Antarctic Division; Bergstrom, D.M., Australian Antarctic Division;
Possingham, H.P., Spatial Ecology Lab, University Queensland;
Introduced species have altered biodiversity and transformed the landscape
of sub-Antarctic islands which all have high conservation status. The
landscape of World Heritage Macquarie Island has been transformed by
mammals, introduced by humans over 150 years ago. Fluctuations in cats
and rabbits populations have occurred over the last 30 years due to trophic
interactions, management control programs and eradication initiatives.
This has resulted in ecosystem restructuring of the island terrestrial
environment. We examine the distribution and abundance of alien plants
on Macquarie Island over the last 30 years in response to these mammalian
fluctuations. Despite all established alien plants having a similar residence
time, the change in distributions and abundances over time varied between
species. The alien grass Poa annua has greatly expanded and increased in
abundance, and now in many areas the species dominates. We contrast the
invasion and management of Macquarie Island with those of other sub-
Antarctic islands. We examine how these novel ecosystems have arisen
and discuss the impacts on terrestrial biodiversity and examine direction
forward for island conservation.
2011-12-08 12:00 Fishers, Conservation and Marine Parks
Shaw, Sylvie*, The University of Queensland;
The economic and ecological future for commercial fisheries in Queensland
is under a cloud. The threat stems from cheap overseas imports, rising fuel
costs and the increasing use of regulations, including marine protected
areas (MPAs), to ensure the long-term viability of the industry. At stake are
jobs and the cultural coastal heritage built over generations including the
fishers’ long-term and heartfelt relationship with the sea, the resource and
contribution to the community. This paper reviews the impact of fisheries
decline in Queensland garnered through interviews with fishers and fishing
families about the industry’s future. It also reviews the impact of marine
parks designed to protect the biodiversity of the marine environment.
Fishers are supportive of the need for MPAs and the conservation measures
designed to protect fish and other marine species, however, they raise a
number of concerns associated with the MPA implementation process.
Prime amongst these is their perception that their long-term expertise,
experience and local knowledge of the sea and fish behaviour have been
overlooked in management processes. The paper highlights the fishers’
viewpoints, reviews structural adjustment schemes associated with fisheries
change, and proposes ways to better involve the fishers in MPA planning,
monitoring and evaluation.
2011-12-09 16:42 Return of the fauna: Brown Treecreeper
reintroduction in eucalypt woodland
Sheean, V.*, Australian National University; Lindenmayer, D.,
Australian National University; Manning, A., Australian National
University; Doerr, V., CSIRO Ecosystem Services; Doerr, E., CSIRO
Ecosystem Services;
Species reintroductions are increasingly important tools to redress
population declines and improve biodiversity by establishing self-sustaining
populations, particularly when natural recolonisation is unlikely. We
reintroduced 43 Brown Treecreepers, Climacteris picumnus, within
seven social groups into two eucalypt grassy woodland nature reserves
in Canberra, Australia. The Brown Treecreeper is one of many groundforaging
woodland birds that are rapidly disappearing, chiefly in small
degraded remnants. We released individuals within an experimental
framework, which allowed for assessment of the reintroduction process and
also the effectiveness of restoration efforts through analysis of micro-scale
and territory-scale habitat use. Brown Treecreeper individuals were radiotracked
for three months. We examined patterns of behaviour and substrate
use across the environment, which showed lower than expected use of the
ground layer for foraging activities. We also investigated the search patterns
of released individuals, whether areas settled preferentially contained key
habitat attributes, and whether environments containing these key habitat
attributes led to higher survival and reproductive rates. The movement
patterns and habitat attributes of chosen environments varied depending
upon the social group and had mixed influences on survival. The results
of this project provide a unique insight into the condition of an ecosystem
through the eyes of a model woodland bird.
2011-12-09 11:45 Discovering variable DNA markers for plants: does
next generation sequencing hold the key?
Shepherd, LD*, Massey University; Atherton, RA, Massey
University; Cox, SJ, Massey University; de Lange PJ, Department of
Conservation; Lockhart, P, Massey University;
Finding sufficient variable genetic markers to address questions in molecular
ecology and evolution can be a challenge. Plants often exhibit extremely
low levels of genetic variation, both within and between species. Nextgeneration
sequencing technology has improved our ability to obtain large
quantities of DNA sequence data quickly and cheaply and potentially offers
advantages over traditional marker discovery methods. We are investigating
the pre-European domestication by Maori of three endemic New Zealand
plant species. Domestication is a process often accompanied by a significant
loss of genetic diversity, a feature shared with many endangered species. We
compared chloroplast SNP discovery through Illumina GAII sequencing
with traditional sequencing methods. The results varied with considerable
variation detected in one species through traditional sequencing. In
contrast, in another species, which exhibited extremely low levels of genetic
diversity, sufficient variable markers were only found through whole and
partial chloroplast genome sequencing. We suggest performing preliminary
pilot studies using universal chloroplast primers before investing in nextgeneration
sequencing. Screening the SNPs for these species has revealed
their domestication histories, including the number of times and locations
where each species was brought into cultivation.
2011-12-08 18:30 Integration of Habitat and Metapopulation Models
to Investigate the Potential Impacts of Climate Change on Triunia
robusta (Proteaceae)
Shimizu, Y*, The University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia; Accad,
A, Queensland Herbarium, Department of Environment and Resource
Management, Queensland, Australia; Warrick, R, The University
of the Sunshine Coast, Australia; Burnett, S, The University of the
Sunshine Coast, Australia; Powell, M, The University of the Sunshine
Coast, Australia; Shapcott, A, The University of the Sunshine Coast,
Australia;
Climate change is already affecting plant distributions, and the species
predicted to be the most vulnerable are the ones that have small, isolated
populations and low genetic diversity. Many studies have modelled the
potential impact of climate change on plant distributions, however, the
majority are based on geographical and a-biotic factors and often ignore the
potential effects on species population demographics. This research focuses
on investigating the potential long-term viability and extinction risk of
the endangered rainforest shrub Triunia robusta under projected climate
change scenarios through an integration of habitat and metapopulation
models. Triunia robusta is endemic to the Southeast Queensland, Australia,
and its habitat is restricted to small subtropical rainforest fragments. Triunia
robusta populations previously surveyed in 2000 were re-surveyed to obtain
population growth measurements and new plant population surveys were
conducted at recently discovered populations to obtain demographic
structure data. Additional field studies were undertaken to identify potential
seed dispersers and to quantify local dispersal behaviour and distances as
well as obtaining estimates of seed predation. Flower production and seed
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