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25th International Congress for Conservation Biology • Auckland, New Zealand • 5-9 December 2011 We conducted experimental burns with Aboriginal landowners in a tropical savanna in northern Australia to examine whether a native, fire-sensitive conifer, Callitris intratropica, imposes a negative fire feedback, thereby contributing to the persistence of conspecifics and other woody plants. We measured probability of burning, fire intensity, canopy openness, and fuel availability along transects (55-75 m) spanning entire C. intratropica stands and extending into the surrounding savanna matrix and found these variables decreased with increasing proximity to C. intratropica. The numbers of trees and large shrubs, including fire-sensitive, obligate-seeding species, increased nearer to C. intratropica. However, flammability, canopy openness, and composition in fire-damaged C. intratropica stands were similar to open savanna, despite the persistence of C. intratropica adults. We argue that C. intratropica stands impose a negative feedback on fire occurrence and intensity, but once this feedback breaks down, the habitat switches to fire-adapted vegetation. This is the first reported example of alternative stable state dynamics maintaining fire heterogeneity and habitat complexity in savannas. 2011-12-06 12:15 Maintaining Marine Population Connectivity in Multi-Species Conservation Treml, EA*, University of Queensland; Riginos, C, University of Queensland; Possingham, H, University of Queensland; Population connectivity is critical for metapopulation persistence and the ability to cope with climate change. However, identifying the important drivers and the resultant patterns in connectivity poses one of the greatest challenges in marine ecology and conservation. Marine population connectivity describes the likelihood that an individual of a population can disperse some distance from its natal habitat patch to settle in available downstream habitat. We explore the complex interaction between the dynamic seascape and species’ life history characteristics to (1) quantify the influence of key biological parameters on potential connectivity, and (2) identify the spatiotemporal patterns emerging from these interactions. We describe an ecological and spatially-explicit biophysical modelling approach that effectively quantifies the population connectivity for a species from demographically relevant to evolutionarily significant scales. We shed new light on the contradictory literature regarding the important life history parameters which drive patterns in connectivity. Finally, we show how network analysis can efficiently identify multi-species dispersal corridors and barriers and discover emergent bioregions suitable for marine conservation planning. 2011-12-06 12:00 How can regulating livestock and wildlife herbivory help conservation? Treydte, A.C.*, University of Hohenheim; African savanna vegetation has been shaped by livestock and wildlife herbivory over time. Mammalian herbivore species composition, density, and duration affect plant biodiversity, structure and nutrient contents. Selectively excluding herbivores can be a useful tool for restoring vegetation and understanding grazing impact processes over time. This study analyses different management strategies (enclosures vs free grazing) on vegetation and soils over a period of up to 40 years. Further, the combined effect of herbivory and tree cover on understorey vegetation was addressed for rangeland systems at three study sites in Ethiopia, South Africa, and Kenya. Plots and transects were established to assess herbaceous and woody vegetation species composition, structure and nutrient quality under varying herbivore pressure. Grass biomass was higher in enclosures compared to outside, however, did not differ during the wet season. Grass species composition differed inside and outside of enclosures, with slightly higher diversity in enclosures, and was additionally affected by tree presence. Older age of enclosures did not pronounce differences in understorey vegetation, which highlights the importance of rotational grazing practices. Herbivore feeding preferences were strongly related to grass nutrient contents and woody cover. Hence, enclosures represent important management tools to restore herbaceous quantity and quality, in combination with the presence of tall trees. 2011-12-07 14:00 Conservation of a threatened pest: the Regent Parrot (Polytelis anthopeplus) in almond orchards in Victoria, Australia Triplett, SA*, Charles Sturt University; Luck, GA, Charles Sturt University; Spooner, PG, Charles Sturt University; Is it possible to promote the conservation of a threatened native species, perceived as an agricultural pest, if it’s valued for the provision of an ecosystem service?? The rapid expansion of the almond industry in southeastern Australia has created a plentiful food supply for the threatened Regent Parrot (Polytelis anthopeplus). The Regent Parrot is recognized as a pest to the almond industry because it damages crops. We compared independent assessments of Regent Parrot activity and damage in almond orchards with estimates from almond industry representatives. We also examined the contribution of the Regent Parrot and other bird species to the ecosystem service of waste removal, whereby almonds not suitable for human consumption are removed from the ground, possibly reducing invertebrate, disease and bacteria damage. Exploring trade-offs in the costs and benefits of species activity in agricultural landscapes contributes to achieving an effective balance between production and conservation. 2011-12-06 10:30 Determining Native Fauna Occupancy in Unmined Jarrah Forest in South-western Australia Triska, MT*, University of Western Australia; Craig, MD, University of Western Australia and Murdoch University; Hobbs, RJ, University of Western Australia; Pech, R, Landcare Research; Stokes, V, Alcoa; Hardy, G, Murdoch University; The jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) forest in south-western Australia lies within one of the world’s 20 biodiversity hotspots; however there is limited knowledge about the habitat requirements of much of its native fauna. Additionally, the jarrah forest has been drastically changed by agriculture and mining, which both involve removal of the forest. However, mining companies apply restoration techniques intended to return the forest to a fully-functioning ecosystem. Specifically, Alcoa World Alumina Australia mines and restores ~550 ha annually creating a mosaic of seral and mature forest. Many native fauna species have been documented in restored forest, but their continued use of restored areas ultimately depends on their habitat requirements. If restored areas do not meet these requirements, species may traverse, but not permanently occupy, restored forests. Determining important attributes of unmined forest for occupancy by native fauna is needed to predict their occupancy in restored forest. Detection histories from 20 trapping grids in unmined forest around Alcoa’s Huntly mine, collected over 4 years, were compiled for 15 reptile and 2 mammal species, along with field-collected and GIS-derived habitat covariates. Occupancy models were then used to determine essential covariates for each species and recommend improvements to restoration design that increase recovery rates of critical habitat attributes and, ultimately, occupancy rates by native fauna in restored areas. 2011-12-06 11:45 Prioritising species for monitoring conservation actions: accounting for benefits, costs and uncertainty of management outcomes TULLOCH, AYESHA*, The Ecology Centre, School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia QLD 4072, Australia; Chades, Iadine, CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, EcoSciences Precinct, 41 Boggo Road, Dutton Park, QLD, 4102, Australia; Wilson, Kerrie, The Ecology Centre, School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia QLD 4072, Australia; Possingham, Hugh, The Ecology Centre, School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia QLD 4072, Australia; Defining measureable objectives is crucial for evaluating the success of threatened species management. Quantifying the relative benefits and costs of monitoring and accounting for uncertainties enables managers to select between species and between actions. We develop a method to measure the likelihood of successful monitoring using information on the variability and trends of species responses from 35 time-series datasets. We then develop a quantitative method for determining the ‘surrogacy’ value of species, which can be used to weight the benefit of monitoring. For a case study of invasive predator management in Western Australia, we incorporate data on the benefits and costs of monitoring to determine the value of monitoring a species or set of species depending on different objectives and available 170
25th International Congress for Conservation Biology • Auckland, New Zealand • 5-9 December 2011 budget. We find that the species selected under a maximal coverage objective are not the species that are currently targeted for monitoring. If costs, dependencies and uncertainties in response are not incorporated into the planning process, decisions will be more costly or less efficient, and uninformative or suboptimal species might be monitored. By explicitly stating objectives and exploring uncertainty before monitoring takes place, it is easier to adaptively manage and monitor populations, and account for and audit investment decisions. Our framework will enhance the utility and transparency of monitoring programmes in the future. 2011-12-06 12:15 Utilizing Australia’s wet tropics rainforests and ecotourism to educate tourists about major threats to rainforests, such as climate change Turton, SM*, School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, James Cook University, Cairns, Australia; The Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Area (WTQWHA) was proclaimed in 1988 after a prolonged battle between the logging industry and conservationists. Since the proclamation, sustainable ecotourism has become the dominant industry utilizing these internationally recognized tropical rainforests with an estimated net value of AU$1B pa to the regional economy. While the WTQWHA are not threatened by many of the direct and insidious forces being inflicted on tropical forests in other parts of the developing world, they are not immune to threats such as climate change and invasive species. Due to past land use change, the WTQWHA comprises of many small forest remnants on the coastal plain and Atherton Tableland, interspersed with large blocks of contiguous forest on the less accessible mountainous areas. In recent times, there has been a strong effort applied to restore landscape connectivity between remaining forest remnants through use of wildlife corridors and riparian restoration along degraded waterways. My talk will present a framework demonstrating how to combine world class rainforest science from the WTQWHA with ecotourism to provide a platform to educate Australian and international tourists about the major threats to tropical forests around the world. 2011-12-08 13:15 Rethinking barriers and bridges to AM: risk, uncertainty, and indeterminism. Tyre, A.*, University of Nebraska; Michaels, S., University of Nebraska; Adaptive Management doesn’t provide what people need in all circumstances. Why? One reason is the failure to acknowledge that there are social origins of indeterminism with different consequences than natural sources of indeterminism. Consequently, we introduce the idea of social indeterminism as a form of not knowing what will happen that arises from the unpredictability of human interactions. We argue that Adaptive Management is most suited for situations where social indeterminism is low. We develop a matrix of natural and social indeterminism for explaining where Adaptive Management is most useful, and where it is most likely to be dissatisfying. We go on to discuss strategies that may be applicable when social indeterminism is high. 2011-12-07 17:45 How does salmon aquaculture affect marine fish biodiversity and ecosystem structure? Uglem, Ingebrigt*, Norwegian Institite for Nature Research; Dempster, Tim, Department of Zoology, University of Melbourne; Bjorn, Paal-Arne, NOFIMA; Sanchez-Jerez, Pablo, Department of Marine Sciences and Applied Biology, University of Alicante; Fernandez-Jover, Damian, Department of Marine Sciences and Applied Biology, University of Alicante; Coastal ecosystems are the most productive and exploited of marine ecosystems. Of the various agents of anthropogenic change to coastal ecosystems, sea cage fish farming is among the most pervasive and is known to alter biodiversity and ecological processes in many ways. Our studies show that while salmon farms cover a limited area, they are highly attractive to a range of wild fish species, which aggregate in their immediate vicinity in large numbers. The constant supply of lost feed from cages is the primary mechanism for aggregation of wild fish. Wild fish aggregating at farms modify their diets, condition, fat-content and tissue fatty-acid distributions. Changed diets might affect the reproductive potential of wild fish, as well as palatability, due to use of vegetable oils in the feed. Levels of various pollutants also differ among farm attracted and non-attracted fish and movements of attracted fish may be a potential pathway of pathogen transfer. Finally, farms may affect natural migration patterns of wild fish and also change the susceptibility of some species to fishing. In sum, our results demonstrate that salmon farms may be regarded as “artificial” hotspots of biodiversity, which also could constitute ecological traps for some species. These findings have a range of implications both for the society and for conservation. 2011-12-08 18:30 Taxonomic and systematic revision of species of the genera Gobio and Romanogobio in the light of frequent hybridization Urbankova, S*, Institute of Vertebrate Biology, v.v.i., Czech Republic ; Mendel, J, Institute of Vertebrate Biology, v.v.i., Czech Republic ; Vasileva, E, Zoological Museum, Russia; Nowak, M, University of Agriculture in Krakow, Poland; Stefanov, T, National Museum of Natural History, Bulgaria; Sanda, R, National Museum, Czech Republic; Kosco, J, University of Presov, Slovakia; Halacka, K, Institute of Vertebrate Biology, v.v.i., Czech Republic The presented paper deals with the taxonomy, phylogeography, hybridization and current distribution areas of 20 species of gudgeons of the genera Gobio and Romanogobio in the Eurasian context. The level of endangerment resulting from sympatric occurrence, the end area and frequency of hybridization events is evaluated. A comprehensive revision of three newly discovered taxa was finished and their species status identified. The species of gudgeons, not analyzed so far, were added into the pilot phylogenetic study with a view to determination of their systematic relations within both the genera. For the purpose of biodiversity inventory of the Czech Republic the originality and quantity of the taxa with newly proposed species status was evaluated. From the point of view of conservation a new identification method, S7indel diagnostics, was formulated and its contribution in the Eurasian context was evaluated. Against the background of genotypization an attempt was made to develop a morphologic key of some species of the two genera both for the professional and general public. From the point of view of museum conservation, a type series of newly revised species from the territories of the Slovak and Czech Republics including barcodes and detailed vouchers was assembled. The study was carried out within the framework of the research project no. 206/09/P608 supported by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic. 2011-12-07 15:45 Performance of terrestrial vertebrate taxa as indicator groups for the identification of priority sites for conservation Urquiza-Haas, T. *, The National Commission for Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity ; Koleff, P. , The National Commission for Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity ; Conservation planning is inevitable based on the use of surrogates. We determined whether a system of land areas for conservation designed for one terrestrial ver¬tebrate taxon can be appropriate for the rest of the vertebrate taxa.. Conservation area systems were generated for each taxon of vertebrates (amphibians, rep¬tiles, birds and mammals) with Marxan. The system of conservation areas identified for the group of am¬phibians had a smaller area (477 planning units of 256 km2) than the other groups, while the system identified for birds was three times larger. Systems designed for amphibians and reptiles were able to represent a higher proportion of species from other groups (80% and 86% respectively), while the sys¬tem designed for birds was to the least effective for the species of the other taxa (i.e. it represented the lowest number of species over a larger area). It was estimated that the priority sites for amphibians and birds are, on average, able to represent, within an area equal in size, 80.1% and 60.9% of the species of other groups, respectively. By contrast, bird spe¬cies were represented almost entirely (97.8%) by the systems designed for other taxa. The results indicate that, while no conservation area system designed for a single taxon is entirely appropriate for the other groups, the reptiles and amphibians are the most effective surrogates, since they achieve the representation of a very high proportion of species of the other groups. 171
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Page 171: 25th International Congress for Con
Page 189 and 190: Index Benini, Rubens 42 Beniston, M
Page 191 and 192: Index DeWan, Amielle 14 Dianne Brun
Page 193 and 194: Index Hilborn, Ray 27 Hill, CM 176
Page 195 and 196: Index Loutit, R. 116 Louwe Kooijman
Page 197 and 198: Index Ottewell, K 81 Overton, J 61,
Page 199 and 200: Index Sequeira, Ana 151 Serebryakov
Page 201 and 202: Index Winandy, L 181 Winner, J. 112
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