Biologue Issue 30,
October 2005
Contents
- Director’s Report
- Launch: ABRS New Releases Launch
- Whitley Award
- Participatory Programme
- Call for 2005/2006 Grant applications
- Research scholarships—call for 2005 applications
- ABRS bursaries for student travel—call for 2005 applications
- Articles from Grantees
- Identifying Australian Orchid Genera
- Centipedes of Australia
- Identifying Australian Diptera: On-The-Fly
- Australia’s Sea Anemones
- Sorting out the confusion: Phylogenetics of large genera and the lessons from Syzygium (Myrtaceae)
- Studies on Australian Rhamnaceae
- Cercosporoid fungi—their impact on Australian native plants
- Publications
- News
- List of Grants 2004/2005
- Working with ABRS
Director’s report
Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS) has made great progress this year on a number of fronts, including publication of some excellent new products; increased data and improvements in our online databases; and 56 research grants distributed for 2005/06, having a total value of $1.529 million.
Together with colleagues from CHAH, CHAFC, National Oceans Office and the leading systematic societies, ABRS has been working hard to raise awareness about Australia’s declining capacity to deliver taxonomic information and services. There are not enough new taxonomists being trained to replace the aging workforce in herbaria, museums, universities and other scientific institutions, and we face a major skills shortage in the future. By increasing training and employment opportunities in taxonomy now, Australia will require a relatively small investment to secure valuable future research capacity in an area of increasing economic and environmental importance.
In 2005, five volumes of Flora of Australia (Vols 18, 22, 25, 45, 46) are being prepared for Flora of Australia Online. Prior to loading these files to the database, new names published since the relevant Flora of Australia treatments are added to the data. In addition, more links to taxon names are being added to the dataset to enhance navigation. Family and generic names for taxa not yet published in Flora of Australia were also added to Flora of Australia Online, providing name information with short notes and a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (APNI).
Antarctic Marine Protists, published in February 2005, describes more than 550 species and is a valuable resource for marine biologists. Also newly published is the Fungi of Australia: Hygrophoraceae, the fifth volume of that series.
Substantial progress has been made on the Australian Faunal Directory (AFD). We are pleased to report that close to 60% of Australia’s described species are now listed. Databasing of around 3 000 further species is currently underway. A number of small contracts are being set up this year for databasing of lower Crustacea, several moth and fly families, and a beetle group. An expanded and updated database of Araneae is being compiled under an ABRS grant.
Major groups still requiring work are flatworms (trematodes and free-living forms), lower Crustacea (Cladocera, Ostracoda), and some further groups of Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Diptera and Hymenoptera. Funding is an obstacle; finding specialists available to do the work for some groups is also a problem.
We are redeveloping the Australian Faunal Directory to increase its capability to capture and store taxonomic information, and eventually the Platypus system will be decommissioned. The upgraded AFD will provide a simplified browser interface for data entry and integrate better with other Department of the Environment and Heritage systems. The upgrade will be developed in parallel with the ongoing operation of the current system and in continual consultation with various fauna experts and users of the current AFD.
ABRS Advisory Committee
The ABRS Advisory Committee comprises a Chairperson, six members selected for their technical expertise in taxonomy/systematics, and a further four members with wide-ranging knowledge of stakeholder views.
The Advisory Committee convened in Canberra on 7 September 2005 and was very pleased to confer with the Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment and Heritage, the Hon. Greg Hunt MP. The Parliamentary Secretary told the Committee how much he appreciates their contribution and that of all the taxonomic community.
Unfortunately, two of the Committee’s stakeholder members, Professor Ron Quinn and Dr Caroline Crawford, resigned this year for personal reasons. The terms of five other members will end this December, including two long-serving technical members, Dr Tim Entwisle and Dr Mark Harvey, who will be greatly missed.
The Parliamentary Secretary recently made a number of appointments to fill current and future vacancies:
- Extending their term until December 2006:
- Dr Ian Gould as Chair of the Committee
- Mr Guy Fitzhardinge, managing director of his family’s pastoral company and member of a number of national environmental boards and committees.
- Accepting a second term, until December 2008:
- Mr Peter Bostock, Principal Botanist, Queensland Herbarium, as a technical member.
- New appointments to current and future vacancies to December 2008:
- Emeritus Professor Jack Elix, Visiting Fellow, Research School of Chemistry, Australian National University, as a stakeholder member
- Associate Professor Jennifer Davis, co-founder of the Aquatic Ecosystems Research Group, School of Environmental Science at Murdoch University (WA), as a stakeholder member
- Dr Marco Duretto, Senior Curator, Tasmanian Herbarium, as a technical member
- Professor Chris Austin, Associate Professor, School of Ecology and Environment, Deakin University (Head of School at Charles Darwin University, commencing 2006), as a technical member.
Staff changes
ABRS was very sad to farewell Katy Mallett, who left late last year to seek new challenges and experiences elsewhere in the Department. During her 12 years at ABRS, Katy assisted as volume editor, assistant editor or producer of many volumes of the Flora of Australia series and other projects. These included: grasses in the Flora of Australia series (two volumes published to date); introductory volumes in the Fungi of Australia series; an educational poster series on grasses; and the AusGrass CD ROM. Katy has been an active member of the Australian Systematic Botany Society and Ecological Society of Australia.
Lyn Jessup has joined ABRS this year as our new Assistant Editor. Lyn previously worked at The University of Queensland.
A number of other staff have been employed on contract to undertake special projects.
International activities
The Australian Biodiversity Information Facility (ABIF), the Australian node of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), has entered a second phase of development with the 2005/06 funding granted from the Natural Heritage Trust. This allows the ongoing engagement of the ABIF Project Manager (Steve Shattuck) and a Software Engineer (David Levy). An ABIF Steering Committee and a Technical Committee have been established to assist in design and development.
The ABIF team first developed a vision of what ABIF should be, covering both broad functionality and specific technical details. This plan is constantly being refined to meet newly identified user needs, and to repond to changes occurring in the GBIF biodiversity informatics communities.
A new ABIF web site . Comments and suggestions concerning the site can be sent to webmaster@abif.org.
The Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage, together with Australian and international partners, received funding from GBIF in late 2004 for a project to demonstrate web-based analysis of databased species’ specimen/locality records available via the GBIF network. The resulting Biodiversity Analysis Tool (BAT) will be available to the public following its launch at the GBIF Governing Board meeting in October 2005. BAT uses records of species observations and specimens published through the web by GBIF data providers and, together with a predefined grid, displays maps of species richness, endemism and taxonomic diversity.
Launch
ABRS New Releases Launch
The Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment and Heritage, the Hon. Greg Hunt MP, officiated at a public launch of a number of recent ABRS publications: Native Plants of Christmas Island, Flora of Australia Vol. 44B—Poaceae 3, Fabulous Flatworms: a guide to marine polyclads CD ROM, Key to Australasian Liverwort and Hornwort Genera CD ROM and Native Earthworms of Australia II CD ROM. Mr Hunt told the audience that the Australian Government is committed to good science, to improving knowledge of biodiversity and to sharing this knowledge with the broader Australian and international communities. He complimented ABRS on the quality of its productions and thanked the many contributors from other organisations who work with us to present this information in a variety of forms, ranging from traditional books to innovative CDs and online tools.
Whitley Award
Fabulous Flatworms: a guide to marine polyclads
Congratulations to all involved in the production of the CD ROM Fabulous Flatworms: a guide to marine polyclads that won a Certificate of Commendation in the category ‘CD Identification Guide’ from the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales (RZSNSW) at the recent 2005 Whitley Awards.
This CD enables non-specialists and experts to identify over 400 species of polyclad flatworms (Phylum Platyhelminthes). Fifty-three underwater photographers and scientists contributed to this beautiful product co-published by ABRS and CSIRO Publishing. The authors are Leslie Newman, Curator of the Marine Department at the Auckland Museum, New Zealand, and Lester Cannon, retired Senior Curator of lower invertebrates at the Queensland Museum.
Participatory Programme Grants Scheme
Partnerships in Documenting Australia’s Biodiversity
Call for 2006/2007 Grant Applications
ABRS is now calling for applications for grants that will be provided in the year 2006/2007. The application forms, guidelines and other instructions are available from the ABRS website.
Research Project Grants
Research Project Grants are aimed at developing taxonomic understanding of the Australian biota in areas compatible with the Australian Government’s National Research Priorities. Applications will be accepted for all groups of organisms including algae, fungi, lichens, vascular flora, bryophytes, protists and fauna. Funding will be considered for individual applicants as well as research teams that bring together complementary expertise and/or facilities. Funding can be requested for a maximum of three years.
Where appropriate, requests that include the training of students (at honours and postgraduate levels) and early career researchers (e.g. postdoctoral level) are strongly encouraged. Where complementary expertise exists, joint supervision by academic staff in universities and researchers in museums, herbaria, CSIRO and other institutions where systematics research is undertaken, is also encouraged.
Biodiversity Information Product Grants
In recent years ABRS has expanded its role to deliver taxonomic information in a range of formats. Biodiversity Information Product Grants have been introduced specifically for projects that lead to the development of discrete products such as:
- identification keys, checklists and guides
- web-based products
- databases
- CD ROM products
- other value-added products that facilitate the dissemination of taxonomic information.
Normally, applications for Biodiversity Information Product Grants will be for one or two years, and more rarely for a maximum of three years. Applicants planning to apply for this type of grant are strongly encouraged to contact ABRS staff to discuss the merits and scope of the intended project.
Priority areas for 2006/2007
Projects funded under the Participatory Programme must support the Australian Government’s National Research Priorities, in particular the key area of An Environmentally Sustainable Australia. However, in some cases, projects may also address the goals of two other areas of national research priority, namely Promoting and Maintaining Good Health and Safeguarding Australia. Before completing the application form, applicants are strongly advised to become familiar with information on the National Research Priorities, available at: http://www.dest.gov.au/priorities/
Within the National Research Priorities, the ABRS Advisory Committee has identified the following specific criteria for applications under the ABRS Grants Scheme:
- documentation of Australia’s biological diversity with particular emphasis on lesser-known groups, including micro-organisms
- rigorous taxonomic treatment mainly at species level
- contribution to regional or continental generic or higher-level systematics research
- groups of high conservation value
- groups of economic, health and/or social benefits
- innovative approaches for dealing with complex systematics problems.
Projects submitted for 2006/2007 funding must aim to address one or more of these criteria within the relevant section of the application form, and relate these to the goals of one of the National Research Priorities. Further information regarding the ABRS criteria and National Research Priorities may be obtained from the ABRS Business Manager, phone (02) 6250 9554 or email: abrs@deh.gov.au
Deadline for 2006/2007 applications
10 November 2005
Research Ph.D. Scholarships
Call for 2006 applications
Research
The Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS) awards an annual PhD scholarship to foster research training compatible with ABRS and National Research Priorities. The postgraduate scholarship is awarded to an outstanding student wishing to pursue a higher degree through research into systematics of the Australian flora or fauna.
Entitlements
Stipends are paid at a rate equivalent to that of the Australian Postgraduate Award (Industry) as set by the Australian Research Council (ARC). The rate set for 2005 was $24 650 per annum for three years. The stipend is tax exempt and is subject to indexation annually. An annual research support grant of $2 500 is also provided to assist with research costs. Rates for 2006 had not been set at the time of Biologue’s publication.
Eligibility
ABRS PhD scholarships are open to Australian citizens or to those who have been granted permanent resident status. Candidates should hold a first or upper second class honours degree or equivalent in an appropriate discipline and be strongly motivated to undertake a project in systematic biology. The applicant must be prepared to enrol as a full-time student. Applicants are also encouraged to take up a scholarship in a university other than that in which they undertook their first degree.
How to apply
Application forms can be obtained from the ABRS website: http://www.deh.gov.au/biodiversity/abrs/admin/training
For further information please contact:
ABRS Business Manager
Department of the Environment and Heritage
GPO Box 787
Canberra ACT 2601
Ph: (02) 6250 9554
Fax: (02) 6250 9555
Email: abrs@deh.gov.au
Deadline
3 November 2005
Bursaries
ABRS Bursaries for Student Travel Call for 2006 applications
Each year ABRS offers financial support to postgraduate students in Australian institutions for travel to a national or international conference relevant to both the student’s research programme in systematics or taxonomy, and to the aims and objectives of ABRS. A maximum of $1 000 is available for an international conference and $500 for travel within Australia. In total up to $10 000 is available each year.
Eligibility
- ABRS Bursaries are only open to students currently enrolled in a PhD or Masters degree (including a research component) in the field of systematics or taxonomy at an Australian institution
- the student does not need to have permanent resident status in Australia
- the conference must be relevant to systematics or taxonomy
- the student must provide evidence of registration at the conference and that a poster or oral paper presentation has been submitted to the conference. This information may be provided with the application. Alternatively it must be provided to the ABRS with the final report, if it has not been provided at an earlier date
- the student must demonstrate the potential benefit of the travel to their research, and relevance to the aims and objectives of ABRS
- preference may be given to applicants who receive matching funding from their home institution or other source.
How to apply
Application forms can be obtained from the ABRS website: http://www.deh.gov.au/biodiversity/abrs/admin/training or from:
ABRS Business Manager
Department of the Environment and Heritage
GPO Box 787
Canberra ACT 2601
Ph: (02) 6250 9554
Fax: (02) 6250 9555
Email: abrs@deh.gov.au
Deadline
10 March 2006 or 10 September 2006
Identifying Australian Orchid Genera
Orchids are among the most highly evolved and specialised groups in the Plant Kingdom. Their flowers exhibit a truly amazing array of colours and forms ranging from reduced and basic structures to complex adaptations verging on the bizarre. With estimates ranging as high as 25 000–35 000 species in more than 800 genera, orchids are obviously a significant component of the world’s flora. In Australia we have some 1200–1400 species of orchids in 192 genera, including many groups with unique features and remarkable specialisations.
The diversity of Australian orchids includes the endemic genus Rhizanthella, members of which complete their entire life cycle underground. Other genera have an actively motile labellum system capable of being triggered by the lightest touch and rapidly snapping shut to trap an insect visitor, resetting itself after short periods of time. Numerous orchid species mimic wingless female wasps so accurately that they deceive the male wasps into attempting to mate with the flowers and so assisting pollination (a phenomenon known as pseudocopulation).
Australian native orchids have been the subject of detailed studies by members of the orchid research group at the Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research (CPBR) in Canberra. This research has involved aspects of orchid biology, morphology and conservation. It has resulted in the recognition and formal description of more than 350 new taxa and the erection of some 43 new genera by this research group. Now, with the support of ABRS, much of the information gathered by this group over the last fifteen years will be made available to the public in the form of a computer-based interactive identification key, to be known as the Interactive Key to Australian Orchid Genera.
Traditionally orchid taxonomy has relied heavily on floral morphology: some research groups concentrate solely on aspects of particular organs such as the column. Modern techniques involve a broad-based approach using biological aspects and habitat preferences as well as vegetative and floral morphology. The relatively recent technique of isolating gene sequences from chloroplast and nuclear DNA has provided extra data useful for comparative studies and simplified the formation of detailed phylogenies. Interestingly, many of these studies, including those carried out at the CPBR, highlight the importance of vegetative morphology within various orchid groups and draw attention to the conservative nature of many aspects of floral morphology. Molecular sequence studies such as these, when combined with detailed morphological studies, have resulted in significant and challenging changes in the interpretation of Australian orchid genera. In some cases these changes have proved to be controversial and have not been widely accepted in the botanical community. New concepts derived from this detailed research are adopted in this key, with explanations about the research data and the reasoning behind the changes.
Why orchids?
Orchids are considered the most highly evolved group within the monocotyledons, surviving only with the aid of specific symbiotic fungal relationships and through intricate associations with various groups of insects and birds to achieve pollination. As a group they have a devout following of admirers, amateurs and professionals, who devote themselves to all aspects of orchid taxonomy, evolution, horticulture and conservation. Consider the significance of orchids as horticultural subjects: more than 150 orchid societies are currently listed in Australia and an estimated 100 000 man-made orchid hybrids are registered in various countries throughout the world.
About the key
The Interactive Key to Australian Orchid Genera is a simple computer-based system using Lucid™ software for accurately identifying Australian native orchids to generic rank. Genera have been coded for 144 characters and 628 character states. These attributes mainly cover vegetative and floral features but also include characters for habitat preferences and major geographic regions of distribution. An abbreviated character set (Quickset) of 30 characters and 143 character states is also available as a tool for rapid and efficient identification. This character set was developed following feedback from people who tested early versions of the key; it will be regularly refined. Descriptive notes, colour photographs and/or diagnostic line drawings aid the interpretation of characters and character states.
Linked fact sheets summarise taxonomic, descriptive, biological, ecological and distribution information for each genus. They include a detailed botanical description of the genus; emphasis on significant generic features including a simplified version of the generic characters; nomenclatural and taxonomic notes; synonyms; common names; habitat; biogeographical, biological and ecological information. Detailed distribution maps and an extensive bibliography and reference list are also included. A comprehensive Catalogue of Australian Orchid Names, including synonyms at the species level, provides a cross-reference for the many new changes in nomenclature and taxonomy in Australian orchids.
The key is fully illustrated throughout with representatives of the range of species within each genus. Each genus is complemented by numerous colour photographs chosen to show the range of variation commonly encountered. Detailed line drawings, including enlarged floral parts, are provided for many of the genera. Some annotated scanning electron micrograph images of floral structures are also included.
This interactive key brings together many aspects of the most comprehensive and detailed study yet undertaken on the Australian Orchidaceae. It includes results that sometimes confirm taxonomic thought, and at other times are at odds with traditional views on the generic limitations within the family but which are in line with complementary research into other groups overseas.
The Interactive Key to Australian Orchid Genera does not provide the last word on the subject of the classification of Australian orchid genera but hopefully it will encourage more students to take up studies into these fascinating plants.
The Interactive Key to Australian Orchid Genera is expected to go to press in December 2005.
Centipedes of Australia
Centipedes are one of the most conspicuous, and often startling, components of the soil and litter fauna in Australia, especially in tropical and temperate forests and in deserts. Centipedes are carnivorous and most inject venom into their prey via the mandibles that contain the venom glands. There is an extensive literature on the medical and veterinary importance of centipede envenomation, and part of the reason for the public interest in centipedes is because of their bite potential.
Considering centipedes are probably the oldest extant group of terrestrial arthropods in Australia, and despite their importance as predators in soil and litter ecosystems, they have been largely neglected by taxonomists until fairly recently. A sizeable portion of the Australian centipede fauna was described by German systematists such as Kraepelin, Attems, Haase, Verhoeff and Brölemann prior to 1926, and the type specimens (where known, or still extant) are deposited in European museums. Many of the species were collected during a single event—the Hamburg Natural History Museum expedition to south-western Australia in 1905.
Revival of taxonomic interest began with scolopendrid centipedes which were revised by Lucien Koch of the Western Australian Museum in the 1980s, and Bob Mesibov published a useful guide to Tasmanian centipedes in 1986. Our understanding of centipede phylogeny in general, and the Australian lithobiomorph group in particular, has been greatly enhanced in the last five years or so by Greg Edgecombe of the Australian Museum, who is working on a revision of Australian house centipedes, the scutigeromorphs. Two genera of earth centipedes (geophilomorphs) have been revised by Dick Jones (King’s Lynn, UK). With the exception of the Craterostigmorpha (which contains a morphologically peculiar single species) all the major orders have, to varying degrees, been revised in the last 20 years, or are being revised.
Centipedes of Australia, funded by ABRS, is the first comprehensive key to Australian centipedes. The production of the key was driven in part by demand from ecologist colleagues who were attempting to identify centipede specimens found in pitfall traps at a site that had been subjected to experimental fragmentation. They had recognised that centipedes were potentially useful indicators of ecological disturbance. It is hoped that this key will aid the study of centipede ecology as well as the use of centipedes as bioindicators and in biomonitoring.
Centipedes of Australia includes pictorial keys to the 44 genera and many of the 136 species described to date. These figures suggest a not particularly diverse fauna, but a glance at modern revisions indicates an average increase in new species per genus of almost four-fold. This suggests there are many more undescribed species out there. Centipedes of Australia includes distribution maps for most taxa, with a drag-and-drop magnification facility. There is a virtual head of Scolopendra morsitans that allows users to see a revolving 3D view of the relationship between the major components comprising the head, mouthparts, body segments and legs. Each character is illustrated clearly with colour coding that matches arrows on diagrams to descriptive text, making it easier for users to identify relevant characters and states without having to resort to a glossary. In addition to diagrams in the keys, many species are illustrated with good quality digital images of specimens taken using a stereomicroscope, thus giving the user some impression of what actual specimens would look like.
Centipedes of Australia builds upon, and is electronically linked to, the Australian Faunal Directory, Checklist for Chilopoda compiled by Matthew Colloff and Fiona Spier (February 2003), and funded by ABRS. This is the first comprehensive checklist of Australian centipedes since Chamberlin’s (1920) Myriapoda of the Australian Region.
Centipedes of Australia is available online.
Identifying Australian Diptera: On-The-Fly
Over the past three years Australia’s Dipterists have been busily developing an interactive key to the adults of Australia’s 104 families of Diptera (true flies) using Lucid™ software (Version 2.2). In addition to the key, the identification product, On-The-Fly, will include images of live flies from almost all families, updated summaries of the taxonomy and biology of the families, and an innovative interactive atlas of fly anatomy in Macromedia Flash®.
The project has been a national and international collaboration, with input from Don Colless, Joanna Hamilton, Anne Hastings and David Yeates (CSIRO Entomology), Dan Bickel and David McAlpine (Australian Museum), Greg Daniels and Margaret Schneider (The University of Queensland), Peter Cranston (UC Davis, USA), and Steve Marshall (University of Guelph, Canada). Researchers held a number of intensive two- or three-day workshops during development of the key to address the particular challenges of assembling the data matrices and technical information required.
Until now, CSIRO’s Insects of Australia (1991) provided the only identification guide to all Australian fly families available. It is a technical, paper-based, dichotomous key that has many couplets and is broken up into three different keys. Only experts in fly morphology and anatomy could use this key with any confidence in achieving a correct identification. The authors of this key, Don Colless and David McAlpine, have contributed their expertise to the consortium developing the new interactive guide, which aims to make identification simpler, and provide more information to assist users in making a correct identification.
The Diptera is one of the really megadiverse groups of organisms. There are many tens of thousands of species in Australia, and most of them are undescribed. Building an interactive key in this taxonomic environment is very challenging. Many of the families have hundreds or thousands of species (for example Tipulidae, Mycetophilidae, Phoridae, Tachinidae), and many also include anatomical diversity that spans numerous key character states, and overlaps with other families. In some instances, particularly in the Calyptrate key, we divided families up into 2–4 subgroups that are more easily keyed. The key is composed of four major taxonomic components: Lower Diptera (19 families), Lower Brachycera and Lower Cyclorrhapha (26 families), Acalyptrata (44 families) and Calyptrata (12 families). These keys are linked by a master key to major groups, and a key to wingless flies.
One of the really innovative and exciting aspects of the key project is the interactive anatomical atlas developed by Anne Hastings. It can be viewed separately at http://www.ento.csiro.au/biology/fly/fly.html . The atlas allows users to point and click to learn the names of external anatomical structures of flies. Clicking on the names of structures highlights the structure on the fly image. Users can choose example flies representing each of the four major groups of families in the key, and move between examples, thereby learning how structures are modified between groups.
The atlas has received favourable attention from Science magazine’s Netwatch segment (November 2004, Volume 306, p. 1269), and also recently in Biotechniques’ Webwatch section (June 2005, Volume 38, p. 845). It was chosen to be catalogued in Natural Selection, a searchable catalogue of hand-selected and evaluated, quality Internet resources coordinated by The Natural History Museum in London.
This interactive key to families of Diptera stands alongside those for Coleoptera developed by John Lawrence and colleagues in INTKEY; the key to Australian hymenopteran families developed by Andy Austin and colleagues in Lucid™; and the keys to many Australian heteropteran families in Lucid™ developed by Gerry Cassis and colleagues. With these interactive electronic resources available, Australia is a long way ahead of other countries in providing user-friendly identification guides and information on the really challenging and highly diverse components of the terrestrial fauna. ABRS has played a pivotal and valuable role in promoting and supporting many of these activities.
Australia’s Sea Anemones
While many taxonomists have reached the stage of using molecular techniques to fine-tune taxonomic decisions, we have embarked on a project that is devoted to simple ‘discovery’. We are looking for new species and new records for a group of animals that, very surprisingly, has been neglected throughout the history of Australian marine taxonomic research. Our project aims to develop a complete list of Australian sea anemones (class Anthozoa: order Actiniaria); at present, just 84 species have been documented from Australia and its territories including Antarctica. We expect that almost as many species await discovery.
We are fortunate to have Dr Daphne Fautin of the University of Kansas Natural History Museum, the world sea anemone expert and the ‘only person in the world to be paid to work on anemones full time’, as a member of our team. Dr Fautin has created an online database, ‘Hexacorallians of the World’ (Fautin, 2004) that provides comprehensive information on sea anemones, corals and their allies. This extensive database, listing a world fauna of over 1 000 species for the order Actiniaria, will be particularly valuable in the study of the Australian taxa.
Anemones live in a wide range of habitats, from muddy intertidal seagrass meadows and rocky headlands to cryptic subtidal sites and the deep sea. They are also involved in numerous commensal associations. All these habitats and associations need to be investigated if we are to gain a significant understanding of our Australian anemone fauna. Although the biggest and brightest anemones from reefs and rocky shores are well known, untold others await discovery in Australia’s varied marine environments and extensive shorelines. We have very little understanding of the role that anemones play in our marine ecosystems or about invasive and pest species and their economic significance and impact on the Australian biota.
Our team in the Corals section of the Museum of Tropical Queensland focussed on anemones after preparing a Checklist and Bibliography of Australian Anthozoa for ABRS in 2003. This highlighted the fact that, although an extraordinary amount has been discovered about the hard corals that build our reefs, other groups, especially sea anemones, are disproportionately poorly known. In 2004, we began to address this by preparing a database for the Department of the Environment and Heritage (DEH), recording locality data and identifications of the anemone specimens kept in all the major Australian museums. Also Species Bank treatments were prepared to showcase a number of different species. This gave DEH and ABRS a guide to the distribution patterns and other characteristics of the more accessible species, although all parties knew that this was just ‘the tip of the iceberg’.
The most studied anemones are those that play host to anemone fish (now popularised as ‘Nemo’s anemones’). Dr Fautin’s own study culminated in Anemone Fish and Their Host Anemones, a book she co-authored with Gerry Allen of the Western Australian Museum (1992). Much of the research for this book was conducted on Australian specimens. Another well-known group are the anemones from rocky shorelines and these include Actinia tenebrosa, Oulactis muscosa and Aulactinia veratra. However, even here we are finding small species previously overlooked in favour of some spectacular species, such as Phlyctenanthus australis, which has red tentacles and a column covered with large and noticeable grey-blue vesicles (Carlgren, 1950).
Our project is field- and laboratory-based, with a strong component of museum work. We commenced at North Stradbroke Island, Queensland, during the 13th International Marine Biological Workshop held in February 2005. Here we studied the Moreton Bay anemones and Dr Fautin taught Andrea Crowther (Research Officer on this project) valuable lessons in locating, collecting, researching and preserving anemones. Dr Fautin also delivered a three-day identification workshop for interested scientists with some anemone experience; these participants will become our colleagues in this research.
Our time on North Stradbroke Island gave us a clearer idea of what is involved in fully surveying this remarkable animal group. Work already completed has confirmed that there is a wealth of information waiting to be gathered about Australia’s sea anemones. We have now investigated 30 sites in Queensland. These have revealed new locality records for known species as well as a number of possibly new species. Funds from ABRS allow us to undertake studies with Dr Fautin at each of the major Australian museums and to supplement each museum study with field surveys in the relevant region; recently we visited Sydney, Darwin and Gove.
Laboratory work plays a vital part in this project; in-depth study of the nematocysts and internal structures is essential before species can be identified and new species described. In the laboratory, anemones are kept in aquaria for observation and once this phase is complete they are available for closer anatomical study under a dissecting microscope. Larger specimens are dissected to reveal features such as the nature of the marginal sphincter muscle and the arrangement of mesenteries within the coelenteron of the anemone. For smaller specimens, however, histological study is necessary to examine these features. The final element of a species description includes the distribution and measurement of microscopic nematocysts from different tissues of the specimen.
Anemone researchers worldwide refer to the ‘anemone bible’, a detailed revision by Oscar Carlgren (1949). Although published over fifty years ago it still provides the most recent full interpretation of anemone higher taxonomy. The anemone specialist must relate the features of their specimen back to the quite complex system outlined in Carlgren’s publication, determining first the family and then the genus and species. There are few shortcuts to an identification! On completion, this project will provide a far better understanding of Australian sea anemones and will fill a major gap in our knowledge of this particular group of anthozoans.
References
Carlgren, O. (1949), A survey of the Ptychodactiaria, Corallimorpharia and Actiniaria, Kungliga Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar 1 (1): 1–121.
Carlgren, O. (1950), Corallimorpharia, Actiniaria and Zoantharia from New South Wales and Southern Queensland, Arkiv för Zoologi 1 (10): 131–146.
Fautin, D.G. (2004), Hexacorallians of the World .
Fautin, D.G. & Allen, G.R. (1992), Anemone Fishes and Their Host Sea Anemones: A Guide for Aquarists and Divers, Western Australian Museum, Perth.
Recent work
Fautin, D.G. (2005), Three species of intertidal sea anemones (Anthozoa: Actiniidae) from the tropical Pacific: description of Anthopleura buddemeieri, n. sp., with remarks on Anthopleura asiatica and Gyractis sesere, Pacific Science 59 (3): 379–391.
Sorting out the confusion: Phylogenetics of large genera and the lessons from Syzygium (Myrtaceae)
Even though there are thousands of flowering plant genera (about 12 650 according to Thorne, 1992), relatively few can be considered ‘big’ genera (i.e. with more than 500 species; Frodin, 2004); and fewer than 15 have 1 000 or more species (Mabberley, 1997; Frodin, 2004). Their size, distribution, ecology, or horticultural qualities mean that these large genera are often well-established popular concepts (e.g. Acacia, Dendrobium, Eucalyptus). Systematic botanists see potential to better understand broad patterns of plant evolution within such groups. Paradoxically, big genera are often poorly known taxonomically; given their large size, there have been few recent attempts to monograph such groups.
The genus Syzygium, and closely allied genera Acmena, Acmenosperma and Waterhousea, form a conspicuous and speciose element of the tree flora of Australian rainforests. The group extends from the south-western Pacific region through New Guinea, South-East Asia, India and Africa. Several species are widely cultivated as street trees and ornamentals (e.g. Acmena smithii, Lili Pili; Syzygium luehmanii, riberry). Many species have edible fruits, and both flowers and fruits provide an important resource for rainforest animals.
Taxonomy of the c. 65 Australian Syzygium species was dealt with by Hyland (1983), although beyond Australia the group includes in excess of 1 000 species, and there are significant problems in the delimitation of both species and genera. Taxonomic work has tended to proceed locally, with researchers emphasising locally significant variation as the basis for delimiting higher taxa. As a consequence, there is little overall consistency in the taxonomy of the groups (reviewed by Schmid, 1972; Craven, 2001).
A common theme in the treatment of large genera is the recurrence of morphological character traits among unrelated taxa (homoplasy), which is clearly reflected in the generic taxonomy of Syzygium: it has long been associated with Eugenia, from which it is only weakly distinguished by macro-morphological data. Anatomical and molecular evidence now suggests these two groups are in fact quite distantly related.
In light of new material, Craven (2001) argued that none of Hyland’s (1983) genera, Acmena, Acmenosperma, Syzygium and Waterhousea, could be unambiguously circumscribed using conventional morphological characters, and proposed an inclusive concept for Syzygium as a reasonable solution. Morphology alone is unlikely to resolve the higher level taxonomy of the groups to the satisfaction of all.
Molecular data (e.g. DNA sequences) can provide an independent source of characters with which to assess phylogeny. A major advantage of DNA sequencing, relative to morphological data, is the ease with which a large number of informative characters can be generated. In this sense, a molecular approach suggests potential for a ‘rapid’ assessment of phylogenetic relationships, based upon a carefully selected taxon sample, thereby providing a predictive framework for more detailed studies.
A phylogenetic hypothesis for the Syzygium group was developed using DNA sequences from three plastid regions, and the internal (ITS) and external transcribed spacers (ETS) of nuclear ribosomal DNA (rDNA) for a total of 95 taxa (including outgroups). This aimed to resolve deep internal branches relevant to generic/infrageneric relationships, rather than relationships between species.
The phylogenetic tree obtained identifies six major lineages, which are supported by both the plastid and rDNA data but are generally inconsistent with previous morphology-based higher-level taxonomic schemes for the Syzygium group.
The key findings are:
- Syzygium s.str. is para- or polyphyletic: species referable to Syzygium in the sense of Hyland (1983) are found in five of the six main lineages.
- Acmena is para- or polyphyletic: most Acmena species are resolved within a well-supported group that includes the New Caledonian-centred genus Piliocalyx. Syzygium glenum [Acmena in the sense of Hyland (1983)] is placed in a group that includes the endemic Australian genus Waterhousea.
- Acmenosperma is resolved amongst species that are conventionally referred to Syzygium s.str.
- Cleistocalyx, a group of about 30 species, is polyphyletic.
- Several small genera including the Fijian Acicalyptus and Pareugenia, the New Caledonian Cupheanthus, and Jambosa are not supported, at least at the level of genus.
Phylogeny is an hypothesis that cannot be proven, but is supported when other such hypotheses, drawn from multiple sources of evidence, consistently suggest a common set of relationships. Conversely, a phylogenetic hypothesis can be used to test the strength of characters as indicators of evolutionary relatedness. In this context, the lack of support from the molecular phylogeny for conventional morphological data suggests homoplasy and/or misinterpretation of the variation within the latter data source. For example, seed morphology has been considered ‘a good character’ at a high level within the Syzygium group (the ‘Acmena’ and ‘Syzygium’ sub-alliances of Briggs and Johnson, 1979), but using this for division is not supported by the molecular phylogenetic data. However, analysis of seed morphology suggests the intercotyledonary intrusive material, definitive of the Acmena sub-alliance, is in fact homologous with the seed-coat (‘testa’) of the Syzygium sub-alliance, providing support for relationship at a deeper level than previously suspected. A character that has been proven to have little value as a higher-level phylogenetic marker is the fusion of calyx lobes (calycine calyptra); it solely defines Cleistocalyx and appears to have multiple evolutionary origins.
A classification based predominantly on molecular data has little predictive value to many of its users. Support for novel groups postulated on the basis of molecular data may also be found in morphology—embryo (number of integuments and shape of ovules), floral (placentation, arrangement and orientation of the ovules) and fruit wall. Ultimately, it is hoped that any given Syzygium specimen, from throughout the groups’ extensive distribution, can be placed within a reliable higher-level taxon. This will make possible treatments based upon natural groupings at lower levels in the taxonomic hierarchy; these are essential if we are to understand the evolution of diversity within large groups such as Syzygium. A molecular phylogenetic approach provides a valuable framework for such work to proceed.
References
Briggs, B.G. & Johnson, L.A.S. (1979), Evolution of the Myrtaceae—evidence from inflorescence structure, Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 102 (4): 157–256.
Craven, L. (2001), Unraveling knots or plaiting rope: What are the major taxonomic strands in Syzygium sens. lat. (Myrtaceae) and what should be done with them? In L.G.Saw, L.S.L.Chua & K.C.Khoo (eds), Taxonomy: the cornerstone of biodiversity. Proceedings of the Fourth Flora Malesiana Symposium, pp. 75–85. Forest Research Institute: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Frodin, D.G. (2004), History and concepts of big plant genera, Taxon 53: 753–776.
Hyland, B.P.M. (1983), A revision of Syzygium and allied genera (Myrtaceae) in Australia, Australian Journal of Botany, Supplementary Series 9: 1–164.
Mabberley, D.J. (1997), The Plant Book, second edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Schmid, R. (1972), A resolution of the Eugenia-Syzygium controversy (Myrtaceae), American Journal of Botany 59 (4): 423–436.
Thorne, R.F. (1992), Classification and geography of flowering plants, Botanical Review 58: 225–348.
Studies on Australian Rhamnaceae
During the last four years I have worked on a PhD project with the aim of clarifying the relationships between the genera and species of the tribe Pomaderreae in the family Rhamnaceae, to resolve the limits of the genera and the position of several unusual species.
Rhamnaceae is a cosmopolitan family of approximately 925 species, and is represented by over 200 species in Australia; it is among the 20 largest families of flowering plants on the continent. Most of the species (90% or 180 species) belong to a distinct group that is endemic to Australia, and recognisable by the presence of minute star-shaped hairs on stems, leaves and/or flowers.
This stellate-haired group is classified as the tribe Pomaderreae, and contains Cryptandra (30–35 species), Pomaderris (75–80), Spyridium (c. 35), Stenanthemum (25–30), Trymalium (c. 15), as well as two smaller Western Australian genera, Siegfriedia and Blackallia, with only one and two species respectively. Pomaderris, after which the tribe Pomaderreae is named, is the largest genus and the only one to extend to New Zealand, with eight species mainly on the North Island. In Australia the tribe is distributed throughout the temperate to semi-arid southern regions; some species also occur in the arid centre and the tropical north.
The number of genera has been disputed over the last 150 years, with anything between two and seven genera being accepted in the tribe. For example, the genus Stenanthemum was established in 1858 by Siegfried Reissek, but many botanists, including Ferdinand von Mueller and Joseph Hooker, did not recognise it. Until 1995 species of Stenanthemum were variously attributed to Cryptandra and Spyridium; then Barbara Rye from the Western Australian Herbarium reinstated the genus (Rye, 1995). The uncertainty regarding the limits of the genera also resulted in many species being transferred from one genus to the next. Pomaderris albicans, for instance, was described in 1845, transferred to Trymalium in 1847, then to Cryptandra (in 1883) and Spyridium (in 1904), before finally being accepted in Trymalium today.
I examined 75 representative species of the tribe using molecular and morphological methods and I was able to propose the first detailed phylogeny of the tribe Pomaderreae (for results of the ITS sequence data analysis, see Kellermann et al., in press). This family tree indicated that the tribe is monophyletic, i.e. it contains species that are all derived from a single common ancestor and form a natural group. The seven main genera of Pomaderreae could be confirmed. However, some species are clearly misplaced and need to be transferred to other genera. At least three new genera will be necessary to accommodate some of the atypical species. These will be described in forthcoming publications.
The receipt of an ABRS bursary for student travel enabled me to attend the 7th annual meeting of the Gesellschaft für Biologische Systematic (German Society for Biological Systematics) and to visit several European herbaria. The conference took place in Stuttgart and included contributions from zoologists and botanists from Germany and neighbouring countries. This conference was an excellent occasion to present my work to an international audience and had several positive benefits for my PhD research. My talk, ‘Stellate-haired Rhamnaceae: a molecular phylogeny of the tribe Pomaderreae’ (Kellermann et al., in press), was well received and led to a number of positive comments and questions from other researchers. In particular I was commended for integrating morphology into the talk to clarify the relationships of certain taxa or clades in the molecular phylogeny. It was also a very good opportunity for me to develop my communication and presentation skills.
The topics of other presentations at the conference, such as biogeography or the dating of molecular phylogenies, were also relevant to my research. I established contacts with scientists working on the biogeography of Malesia, the flora of the Southern Hemisphere, and on the family Rhamnaceae.
During my trip overseas I also visited the collections and libraries of the herbaria in London, Munich and Stuttgart. My visit to the herbarium of the Botanische Staatssammlung in Munich was very successful. I was able to examine and re-determine all material of Pomaderreae held by that institution. Furthermore, I discovered nearly 30 type specimens or possible types, mainly from collectors such as Franz W.Sieber, J.A.Ludwig Preiss or Ronald C.Gunn (Kellermann, 2005). In London, at the Natural History Museum and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, I viewed all the Rhamnaceae specimens collected by Robert Brown in Australia during 1801–1805. The material that I studied while in London will eventually be included in a publication expanding on my paper about Robert Brown’s influence on Rhamnaceae systematics (Kellermann, 2004) and will enumerate his collections of the family.
Visiting these institutions benefited my PhD research in that I was able to examine original herbarium collections and could photocopy articles and books in their libraries that are not readily available in Australia. All the information will also be used for the forthcoming Flora of Australia treatment of Rhamnaceae, which I am currently writing with Kevin Thiele, Frank Udovicic and Neville Walsh.
References
Kellermann, J. (2004), Robert Brown’s contribution to Rhamnaceae systematics, Telopea 10: 515–524.
Kellermann, J. (2005), The types of Pomaderreae (Rhamnaceae) at the Botanische Staatssammlung in Munich, Australian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter 121: 5–8.
Rye, B.L. (1995), New and priority taxa in the genera Cryptandra and Stenanthemum (Rhamnaceae) of Western Australia, Nuytsia 10: 225–305.
Recent Work
Kellermann, J., Udovicic, F. & Ladiges, P.Y. (2005), Phylogenetic analysis and generic limits of the tribe Pomaderreae (Rhamnaceae) using internal transcribed spacer DNA sequences, Taxon 54 (3): 619–631.
Ladiges, P.Y., Kellermann, J., Nelson, G., Humphries, C.J. & Udovicic, F. (in press), Historical biogeography of Australian Rhamnaceae, tribe Pomaderreae, Journal of Biogeography.
Cercosporoid fungi—their impact on Australian native plants
Cercosporoid fungi (Cercospora and related genera) are generally foliar pathogens, although they do occasionally affect other plant parts. They cause a variety of symptoms ranging from mild chlorosis to necrotic lesions, leaf distortion and hyperplasia. Of the thousands of cercosporoid species described worldwide, a number are serious pathogens of fruit, vegetable and tree crops. My current project, dealing with these fungi on Australian native plants, has shown there to be many species causing symptoms on our native flora, most of which are new to science. It is likely that there is at least one cercosporoid pathogen for every one of these host species, and the fungi are often host species- or host genus-specific. Australian plants growing in their natural habitats usually co-exist quite harmoniously with these and other foliar pathogens. If conditions favour the pathogen one season, the situation will just as likely reverse the following year—and in any case, no one is counting the annual yield of flowers, seeds or timber! However, the same host plants grown under more intensive conditions can be greatly affected by these fungi, which can seriously reduce yields or spoil the appearance of ornamental plants. Many cercosporoid species are known to have a Mycosphaerella sexual state, and representatives of this genus alone account for numerous foliar diseases of eucalypts, some of which significantly reduce yields of plantation-grown trees, both in Australia and overseas. Other species have no known sexual state, and the following examples deal with two such cercosporoid fungi which are impacting on the commercial production of their native Australian tree hosts.
Phyllode blight of Acacia crassicarpa was first reported in the 1990s in natural stands of A. crassicarpa in northern Queensland, and in plantations on Melville Island grown expressly for the provision of seed to South-East Asian countries (Yuan, 1996; Old et al., 1997). The disease was seen at the time as potentially damaging to plantation-grown A. crassicarpa planned for timber production in these countries, and in fact later became a very serious problem in Indonesia where climatic conditions clearly favoured disease development. The pathogen, Passalora perplexa Beilharz, Pascoe, M.J. Wingf. & Crous (Beilharz et al., 2004) has proved to be particularly unusual, producing two distinct anamorphs (asexual states) concurrently from the same stroma, one growing within the stroma and the other from its surface cells (Fig. 2). Only one other example of synanamorphy has been previously reported for a cercosporoid fungus (see Alcorn, 1992).
Macadamia trees grown in northern New South Wales and Queensland have suffered significant crop losses over many years as a result of infection by another cercosporoid pathogen, Pseudocercospora macadamiae Beilharz, Mayers & Pascoe (Beilharz, Mayers & Pascoe, 2003). Husk spot, as the name suggests, affects the fibrous husk, which surrounds the creamy white edible nut. Susceptible cultivars drop their infected crop prematurely, but because healthy nuts are being dropped at the same time the harvest from the ground is inevitably mixed. Furthermore, healthy and diseased nuts cannot be separated once they are de-husked, a process carried out by the harvester, and the diseased nuts are of inferior quality. Crop losses can be as high as 40%. The disease does not appear in Hawaii, where there is a large macadamia industry, so it is likely that this pathogen, along with P. perplexa (above) is native to Australia. The usual strategy for dealing with such diseases is the breeding of resistant varieties.
A message that can be taken from these examples is that when conditions swing to favour the pathogen more than the host, even minor diseases that are in harmony with their hosts in nature can become major problems. Monoculture, for example, can result in rapid disease spread, and the elevated humidity of glasshouses or irrigated crops may tip the balance in favour of the pathogen, providing suitable conditions for spore germination, penetration of the host tissue and rapid symptom development. As increasing numbers of our native plants are utilised by the nursery trade, in timber plantations and as commercial sources of bush tucker, we will inevitably need to deal with unexpected disease problems. The cercosporoid group of fungi, widespread and often host-specific, can be expected to be among the emerging significant pathogens. Knowledge of what is already out there in the bush is an important aspect of being able to deal with these pathogens when the time comes.
References
Alcorn, J.L. (1992), Parapithomyces clitoriae sp. nov. (Fungi: Hyphomycetes) and its Pseudocercospora synanamorph, Australian Systematic Botany 5: 711–715.
Beilharz, V., Mayers, P.E. & Pascoe, I.G. (2003), Pseudocercospora macadamiae sp. nov., the cause of husk spot of macadamia, Australasian Plant Pathology 32: 279–282.
Beilharz, V.C., Pascoe, I.G., Wingfield, M.J., Tjahjono, B. & Crous, P.W. (2004), Passalora perplexa, an important pleoanamorphic leaf blight pathogen of Acacia crassicarpa in Australia and Indonesia, Studies in Mycology 50: 471–479.
Old, K.M., Hood, I.A. & Yuan, Z–Q. (1997), Diseases of tropical acacias in northern Queensland. In K.M.Old, S.S.Lee & J.K.Sharma (eds) Diseases of Tropical Acacias. Proceedings of an international workshop, Subanjeriji (South Sumatra), 28 April–3 May 1996, pp. 1–22. Centre for International Forestry Research special publications, Jakarta.
Yuan, Z–Q. (1996), Fungi and associated tree diseases in Melville Island, Northern Territory, Australia, Australian Systematic Botany 9: 337–360.
Publications
Published in 2004/2005
Flora of Australia
Flora of Australia Volume 44B Poaceae 3
The second in a projected set of four volumes by ABRS on the grasses of Australia, Volume 44B of the Flora of Australia documents five subfamilies of the grass family Poaceae, comprising 55 genera and 468 species.
The largest subfamily in the volume, the Chloridoideae, is largely tropical, and includes the important endemic genera Triodia (Spinifex, symbolic of central Australia) and Astrebla (the Mitchell Grasses), the large genera Eragrostis (Lovegrasses) and Sporobolus (Ratstail Grasses) and the Windmill Grasses (Chloris and relatives).
The Arundinoideae include the aquatic Arundo and Phragmites (Reeds), and the endemic Amphipogon (Greybeard Grasses). The Danthonioideae incorporate the temperate Wallaby Grasses. Most of the representatives of the other two subfamilies are found predominantly in the drier areas of Australia: the Aristidoideae, comprising the large genus Aristida (Kerosene Grasses, Three-awns); and the largely endemic Micrairoideae, which includes Eriachne (Wanderrie Grasses), and the unique Micraira, which are resurrection plants (returning to life from complete air-dryness) and the only grasses whose leaves grow in spirals on the stem.
There are 83 plates of line drawings and 64 colour photographs, illustrating nearly every genus, to help readers appreciate the beauty and variety of Australian grasses.
Fungi of Australia
Hygrophoraceae
The family Hygrophoraceae (Agaricales) includes some of the most beautiful examples of gilled fungi. Many species are brilliantly coloured, and their shapes are exquisitely symmetrical. For this reason, species are frequently noticed in the field, and some have been depicted in early published accounts of fungi.
The pileus and stipe can be slimy or dry, colours can be dull to brilliant, and the shape of the caps can vary from acutely conical to funnel-shaped. Most terrestrial habitats support one or more species of Hygrophoraceae, their abundance and diversity increasing with the availability of moisture. Suitable habitats include all types of forest and woodland, as well as grassland, heath, swamps and sand-dunes.
This authoritative account, richly illustrated with colour photographs and line drawings, documents 92 species and infra-specific taxa of the four Australian genera, Hygrophorus, Camarophyllopsis, Humidicutis and Hygrocybe. Those areas studied most intensively lie to the east and south of the Great Dividing Range in southern Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria as well as Tasmania. A comprehensive introduction to the family is followed by identification keys to genera and species and detailed descriptions of each taxon.
ABRS Identification Series
Key to Australasian Liverwort and Hornwort Genera
This interactive CD ROM is the first comprehensive guide to all 181 genera of liverworts and hornworts known from Australia and New Zealand. Incorporating the latest web-integrated Lucid™ Player, the Key to Australasian Liverwort & Hornwort Genera provides:
- an easy to set up and use interface, with diagnostic characters for each genus
- ninety characters to aid accurate identification
- comprehensive fact-sheets, including generic descriptions, up-to-date checklists of species in Australia and New Zealand, along with details of habitat and distribution
- more than 1000 photographs and drawings
- a comprehensive glossary of technical terms accessible by hyperlinks
- an Introduction that provides an overview of liverwort and hornwort biology, evolution, taxonomy and biogeography in the Australasian region
- advice on how to collect and examine specimens.
This key will be an invaluable tool not only for amateur and professional bryologists, but also for biology students and their teachers, conservation and land managers, environmental consultants and, indeed, anyone interested in the diversity and beauty of the natural world.
Fabulous Flatworms: a guide to marine polyclads
Fabulous Flatworms aims to increase the awareness and understanding of an important group of intriguing marine animals, the polyclad flatworms. Polyclads, which are almost exclusively marine, are simple, free-living flatworms belonging to Phylum Platyhelminthes, otherwise known for the notorious parasitic tapeworms and flukes. Polyclads include some of the most flamboyant and colourful animals of the sea. As thin as a leaf and usually oval in shape, these animals may first catch your attention by their spectacular and obvious colour patterns. But do not confuse them with the equally vibrant and better known nudibranch molluscs!
At the core of Fabulous Flatworms is an innovative identification tool to some 400 species based on the highly distinctive patterns and colours of these extraordinary animals. Many are from the Indo-Pacific region, but other species from elsewhere in the world are also included. This resource also brings together information on the biology of flatworms, including eating habits, mimicry and penis-fencing, as well as practical information regarding polyclad flatworms as pests, and methods of collection and preservation. Superbly illustrated with contributions from over 50 photographers, Fabulous Flatworms aims to promote further discussion, study and discovery. It has been created for everyone who is fascinated by marine life.
Electronic books
Native Earthworms of Australia II (Megascolecidae, Acanthodrilinae)
Earthworms contribute significantly to sustainability of our natural environment, and Australia has some remarkable forms. This review of the acanthodriline fauna completes the revision of Australia’s known earthworms of the family Megascolecidae. A previous publication on the subfamily Megascolecinae by Barrie Jamieson, similarly made available on CD ROM, was followed by a Supplement to that CD ROM. We are now fortunate to have a review of Australia’s acanthodriline earthworms (Megascolecidae), again presented in electronic form, and this time authored by Geoff Dyne and Barrie Jamieson. Here Australian representatives of the following genera are reviewed and new species and subspecies described:
- Diplotrema Spencer, 1900
- Kayarmacia Jamieson, 1997
- Microscolex Rosa, 1887
- Neodiplotrema Dyne, 1997
- Rhododrilus Beddard, 1889
- Torresiella Dyne, 1997.
Keys to genera and species are given and 178 illustrations are included.
Catalogue of Tunicata in Australian Waters
In this Catalogue of Tunicata in Australian Waters, which is also incorporated into the online Australian Faunal Directory, Dr Kott has updated her 1998 catalogue of Tunicata in Australian waters, published in the ABRS publication, Zoological Catalogue of Australia, Volume 34.
Currently Australia’s Tunicate fauna includes 755 described species in 108 genera. Of these, 707 species in 83 genera are in the Class Ascidiacea, the group that has been the focus of extensive research by the author Dr Patricia Kott.
Free online
Species Plantarum—Flora of the World
Part 11—Saururaceae
Saururaceae is a family with four genera and six species found in Asia and North America. Although small, it has been the subject of numerous studies, being an interesting ‘primitive’ angiosperm group and closely related to Piperaceae.
Published by ABRS for the Species Plantarum Steering Committee of the International Organisation for Plant Information (IOPI).
B5 · softcover · viii + 12 pages
Flora of Australia Supplementary Series
Native Plants of Christmas Island
This beautiful book describes 118 of the more common native plants on Christmas Island. Flowering and fruiting times are given. Each species is illustrated in colour, often with more detailed inserts of flowers or fruit. In addition a separate photograph of the leaf of the plant is included. Common plant names are given and the derivation of the species name is included where known.
The book is divided into sections dealing with trees, shrubs, vines, herbs/grasses/sedges, ferns, orchids and lilies. It also has a fascinating section with photographs of some of the drift seeds that wash up on the island’s shores.
217 mm × 150 mm · softcover · 152 pages
Other Publications
Antarctic Marine Protists
Protists are microscopic algae and protozoa, formerly thought of as single-celled plants and animals. Planktonic protists constitute the base of marine food webs and play a key role in the exchange of carbon dioxide between the atmosphere and the ocean.
This book is a comprehensive guide to the protists living in the surface waters and sea-ice south of the Antarctic Polar Front. More than 550 species are described and superbly illustrated with over 1300 light and electron micrographs and drawings. A bibliography of more than 1100 entries and a thorough glossary will make Antarctic Marine Protists an indispensible resource for marine biologists.
B5 · hardcover · viii + 563 pages
Forthcoming Publications
Flora of Australia
Flora of Australia Volume 51 Mosses 1
Other Publications
Castiarina, Australia’s richest jewel beetle genus
News
The Australian Plant Census (‘Consensus Census’)
History
Australia has had four national censuses of vascular flora: those of Mueller in 1882 and 1889, the Flora Australiensis of Bentham in 1863–1878, and the Census of Australian Vascular Plants coordinated by Hnatiuk in 1990.
The best known regional and State censuses are those produced by the State and Territory Herbaria. These lists work well for their designed purpose, but problems arise when the information is applied to cover composite areas and censuses overlap. A survey by a national conservation organisation in 2003 discovered that managers were trying to reconcile 12 different census lists for vascular flora, all of which overlapped and differed in taxonomic concepts, and were only being updated randomly.
To address this impediment to conservation, land management and indeed, taxonomic research, a number of organisations and individuals held discussions during 2003/2005 to devise a project to deliver a single, continually updatable, authoritative, fully synonymic census of Australia’s vascular flora. The Australian Plant Census was launched in April 2005, and the initial phase will run for two years.
Organisational structure
The Australian Plant Census (APC) (informally, the ‘Consensus Census’) is a cooperative Council of Heads of Australian Herbaria (CHAH) initiative, funded in part by the Natural Heritage Trust, through the Commonwealth Department of the Environment and Heritage (DEH), with two years of funding (beyond this a mechanism will be developed to maintain the APC as a core CHAH project).
As Project Coordinator, I will liaise with a Working Group (one member from each State/Territory herbarium) and experts in various groups of plants, to generate a synonymic census of Australian plants. It is my responsibility to ensure that the project stays on track for completion of the ‘first pass’ in two years, to coordinate the preparation of lists, and to circulate them to the Working Group and CHAH for their agreement. I will also arrange, through consultation, resolution of any disagreements on what should become the consensus view, organise publicity, and get agreed names on to the web via the Australian Plant Name Index (APNI) as quickly as possible.
The CHAH Working Group presently consists of the following representatives: Robyn Barker (AD), Alex Buchanan (HO), Dale Dixon (DNA), Ailsa Holland (BRI), Brendan Lepschi (CANB), Terry Macfarlane (PERTH), Neville Walsh (MEL) and Peter Wilson (NSW). Their task is to check the synonymic lists that are generated by the Project Coordinator, refer them where appropriate to their colleagues, and report any matters of concern back to the Project Coordinator. They also have the task of building support for the process in their own jurisdictions and being the local points of contact for what we hope will be many offers of assistance.
Substantial in-kind support is also being received from ABRS through Annette Wilson (editor, Flora of Australia vascular flora volumes), and within CANB the APNI team (Brendan Lepschi, Kirsten Cowley and Anthony Whalen) are also working hard on various aspects of data entry. Jim Croft and Greg Whitbread are managing and developing the esoteric IT details to deliver the APC as part of APNI.
All herbaria will adopt this list as an ‘agreed national working list’ for the Australian flora. All entries on the list will have the agreement of CHAH, but the list will be advisory only—some jurisdictions may choose to adopt a different State view of the flora for their own purposes. It is expected that the APC will also be adopted by most conservation and land management groups as the working ‘official’ list of Australia’s vascular flora.
Progress to date
One of the conditions of the contract to produce the APC was that the taxa listed on the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC) as Extinct, Endangered or Vulnerable would be dealt with first. DEH has also embarked on a consultative process to bring Commonwealth, State and Territory Rare & Threatened Lists into harmony, and has asked that the APC be involved in the more nomenclaturally challenging parts of this process.
The Project Coordinator and Working Group have now prepared synonymic lists for all of the (over 1200) EPBC taxa, and these have already been loaded to APNI.
A lively and cooperative meeting of the Project Coordinator, Working Group, some CHAH representatives, ABRS and the APNI team took place in Canberra on 1–2 June 2005, to review initial progress and lay down operating procedures for the project from now on.
The next stage of the project will involve working through the national flora family by family. Initial target groups are the families of Flora of Australia volume 3 (Hamamelidales to Casuarinales), Proteaceae, and Haloragaceae. Others will be nominated on a rolling basis.
It would be helpful if experts in particular plant groups were to cooperate locally with the Working Group to check draft lists and provide commentary that will improve them. We would be delighted if those with working lists of names and synonyms for any group were prepared to make them available to the APC as starting points for our compilations. Anyone with a list that they are prepared to offer should contact their local Working Group member to discuss it. All contributions to the project will be acknowledged.
The APC will only include names (formal or informal), which have been published in some form. It will not be a forum for delivery of novelties. However, it is envisaged that some kind of parallel ‘Precursor paper’ series may be developed to facilitate publication of very short notes, new combinations etc.
Outputs
The APC will be delivered, incrementally, as a separate view of APNI, and will be an integral part of that database. In effect, it will gradually subsume the existing What’s Its Name? (WIN), although that will be maintained as an alternative (tabular) view of the data.
Details of the APC view are still evolving, but at the Working Group meeting it was agreed:
- the ‘core’ view will be a standard Accepted Name/Indented Synonyms format, that most are familiar with from monographs and Floras
- the ‘full view’ will contain additional fields, initially: Comments, Common Names and State/Territory level geographic distribution
- a ‘printable view’ will also be available, where all names and synonyms will be arranged alphabetically, with synonyms cross referenced (x = y) to their accepted name. This will be useful for those who wish to print large sections and still be able to find all names easily
- a Chooser screen will be available so that users can customise their reports to a large degree (e.g. synonyms shown/not shown, comments shown/not shown, cross references shown/not shown, etc.)
- reports will have all names and synonyms hyperlinked back to the current bibliographic view of APNI, so that comments etc can be checked against references. This will also provide a source document facility—all names in the APC will be linked to at least one reference in Bibliographic APNI
- there will be some sort of guide on the Home Page detailing which groups have already been treated for the APC. The default for groups still in waiting will be the existing WIN.
Further information about the Australian Plant Census is provided on the CHAH website. There a continually updated commentary will be provided on progress, and major players/contributors acknowledged.
Synonymy
The Working Group agrees that the success of the APC project will largely be judged on the extent to which we deliver complete synonymies. It will attempt to deliver a list containing all kinds of synonyms: formal (latinised) names published under the ICBN; formal (latinised) names existing in the literature but not formally published (manuscript names in current use); misapplied names in at least major works on the Australian flora; basionyms even if foreign; and informal phrase names. ‘Foreign’ synonyms will not normally be included, except on a case-by-case basis for some key groups (e.g. weeds).
For informal (phrase) names it was agreed that these would all be included if coined and published before the end of 2005, in the format in which they had originally appeared. Only major orthographic variants of phrase names will be listed. If a phrase name is required for interim listing (e.g. in case of conservation) and no latinised published name is available, then a phrase name will be coined in the CHAH/HISCOM style described by Bill Barker in the Australian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter 122: 11–12 (2005). It was resolved that after 31 December 2005, the only new phrase names to be accepted into the APC will be those constructed in the CHAH/HISCOM style. All others will be ignored.
Conclusion
This is an ambitious and exciting new initiative, which will deliver a very powerful working tool for all plant taxonomists. It will also help taxonomy to reclaim its place as the discipline underpinning all biological science. I hope all Australian taxonomists will maintain the enthusiasm that has been displayed so far, to the conclusion of ‘the first pass’ through the flora over the next two years, and provide a sound foundation for a living document into the future.
Development of the Australian Biodiversity Information Facility
The Australian Biodiversity Information Facility (ABIF) aims to provide a ‘One-Stop-Shop’ for Australian biodiversity data. It will be a data portal or gateway for real-time access to a wide range of biodiversity information held and maintained by individuals and institutions throughout Australia, including Australia’s biological collections, government departments and agencies. ABIF will not hold data centrally but will access it through a distributed network of individual databases, integrating these disparate data sources into a single ‘virtual’ system.
The development of ABIF is being assisted by a Steering Committee and a Technical Committee that each include representatives from institutions that are key data providers and ABIF stakeholders.
ABIF will provide both data access and analytical tools. Data will be drawn from a wide range of sources including biological specimens (both vouchered specimens and observations), taxonomic catalogues, literature and image databases, molecular biology sources and ecological studies. Tools will assist with the analysis and visualisation of this information. These include mapping tools to show the occurrence or distribution of species and statistical tools to assist with interpreting search results. All information provided through ABIF will be made freely available using international standards for data representation and interchange. Funding for the development of ABIF has been provided by the Natural Heritage Trust.
ABIF is part of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), an independent international organisation with the aim of making the world’s primary biodiversity data freely and universally available via the Internet. GBIF currently focusses on data about species and individual specimens representing those species, although links are also made to ecological and genetic data.
Who uses ABIF?
ABIF users represent a broad cross-section of both the national and international communities. These include:
- biological collections (museums & herbaria)
- land managers (for example, government conservation departments)
- research scientists (in both the public and private sectors)
- environmental consultants and agencies
- educational institutions
- the general public (such as naturalist groups and interested individuals).
These users will find ABIF an essential tool for locating relevant information that is scattered across numerous independent sources. ABIF will save time and increase the return of high quality and relevant information, providing an invaluable resource that is available to all interested users.
The benefits of ABIF
ABIF will provide numerous benefits to the Australian and international communities. These include:
- integrating Australian biodiversity data
- sharing analytical tools
- improving communication in biodiversity management
- providing reliable data for related science applications, such as the biotechnology industry, agriculture and biosecurity
- identifying gaps in existing biodiversity knowledge
- providing taxonomic identification keys and tools
- improving response to national research priorities
- encouraging a collaborative environment among organisations holding biodiversity information
- focussing information flow between GBIF and Australian data providers and data users.
These benefits stretch across broad sections of the Australian community, from the general public to scientific researchers and local and national government departments.
Information and services to be provided by ABIF
ABIF provides access to a wide range of information sources. The most significant of these will include:
- ABIF Web Site
This central component of ABIF provides extensive information regarding ABIF (and its parent, GBIF), including its information sources and services. It acts as a document repository for ABIF and its partners - Basic Specimen and Observation Data
This key area accesses biological specimens (and observations of specimens) held in the world’s biological collections (museums and herbaria) that relate to Australian species - Taxon Names
This area provides access to the names of known Australian species, giving their correct spelling, current status and classification - Taxon Details
A wealth of information is associated with taxa at all taxonomic ranks - Images
‘A picture is worth a thousand words’, and this area provides access to a rich array of pictures.
In addition to the above information sources, ABIF will provide a range of tools for reporting and analysing data. These will include:
- Interactive Specimen Mapping
These tools provide interactive maps showing the occurrence or distribution of species - Biodiversity Assessment Tool
Several options display maps and reports on distribution of specimens using Australian and other international data sets - Classification Explorer
This tool allows the user to visualise and navigate a taxonomic classification - Taxon Information System
A range of taxon-based information is presented in a single, integrated framework - Biological Image Library
This portal locates biodiversity images.
These information sources and analysis tools combine to provide a rich environment for exploring Australia’s diverse and unique flora and fauna.
ABIF is being developed over the next 18 months by Dr Steve Shattuck (ABIF Project Manager) and David Levy (ABIF Software Engineer) with the assistance of ABRS staff, and in partnership with the many institutions holding biodiversity information on the Australian fauna and flora, nationally and internationally.
From Fauna
ABRS’ fauna biodiversity products scheduled for completion over the next year are an interesting and varied set, indicative of the range of collaborative activities in which ABRS fauna staff are now involved.
Australian Faunal Directory (AFD)
The primary focus of the Fauna Subprogramme is to make available online a checklist of Australia’s fauna. Checklists for some groups include very detailed nomenclatural and type data as well as distributional and ecological data whereas for other groups little more than lists of names and primary literature are provided. New to the AFD are Sipuncula, Echiura, Kamptozoa, cestodes and earthworms; revisions include the Tunicata, Isopoda and Reptilia. Over the coming year, checklists for further Crustacea, Lepidoptera, Coleoptera and Diptera groups will be commissioned. Feedback and advice relating to the AFD are welcomed from our users.
Biodiversity products
The fish catalogues are nearing completion—three volumes are to be printed, documenting Australia’s vast fish fauna. Preparation has been a daunting task for compilers and editor, there being over 4400 species.
Several invertebrate books are being prepared for publication by ABRS. One of these is a beautifully illustrated compendium of Australian jewel beetles of the genus Castiarina, written by Dr Shelley Barker, an associate of the South Australian Museum, Adelaide, and illustrated superbly with images of all 481 species—prepared by several of Australia’s skilled entomological illustrators. This book documents a group of beetles in which all Western Australian species are protected, and one Tasmanian species is listed as endangered, so it will be a valuable guide for Customs, natural resource managers and collectors.
We are also working on a very different kind of book, an Atlas of Culicoides Wings. Culicoides are sandflies, those nasty biting midges, some of which carry viruses that affect humans and livestock. The book, written by Dr Alan Dyce (associate of CSIRO Entomology, Canberra) and Glenn Bellis (NAQS—Northern Australia Quarantine Service), will feature species from Australia and its near neighbours, so its client market includes quarantine and health workers.
ABRS staff are involved in a number of other projects including the interactive key to Diptera families, On-the-Fly; the checklist of perching birds, Passeriformes; development of a frog call identification kit; and a book on Australian echinoderms.
ABRS Advisory Committee Report on 2005 Participatory Grants Programme
Fifty-two ‘fauna’ and 26 ‘flora’ new applications were received by ABRS for consideration in the 2005 funding round, of which 28 were funded at least in part. The quality of applications and attention to detail continues to improve but the Research Subcommittee still has to deal with a number of substandard applications. To assist future applicants, and to provide some background to the decisions made at the April 2005 meeting of the Committee, the following information is provided on technical breaches and other major reasons for applications being unsuccessful. Note that in the latter category, some applications did not meet the criteria sufficiently to warrant funding while others were considered worthy projects but were not competitive when compared to those awarded grants.
Technical breaches
The following are breaches of the Guidelines that may make an application ineligible for consideration:
- Principal Investigator ineligible
- relevance of project to National Research Priorities and ABRS objectives not articulated
- page limit exceeded or information not provided in required format
- lack of information about in-kind support by host institution
- applications not submitted in two documents as requested: i.e. the guidelines stipulate an application in one document (including CVs) and a summary in a separate document.
Unsuccessful applications (met guidelines but not competitive)
Due to limited funding and our commitment to fund only high-quality relevant projects, not all applications that meet the technical guidelines are successful. Some of the reasons for an application being considered less competitive are:
- molecular phylogeny projects usually competitive only when including component that contributes directly to the documentation of Australia’s biota
- project should more strongly support the National Research Priorities and ABRS objectives
- project is outside the scope of ABRS or makes only a marginal contribution to its objectives
- there is insufficient demonstration of necessary expertise and/or experience
- cost to benefit ratio is too great, or the project is poorly budgeted.
Other general comments
Other reasons for applications being less favourably regarded include:
- missed opportunities for building in postgraduate opportunities
- principal investigators not including appropriate time component for themselves
- requesting significant resources for travel and fieldwork without considering (or explaining) other options for obtaining material (e.g. sourcing material from colleagues and existing collections)
- molecular component not well articulated with taxonomic component, and few applicants included pilot data to show that primers work and genes appropriate
- few attempts to seek matching funds or in-kind support from other projects or organisations
- sometimes no indication of where collected material would be lodged.
Reduced funding
Very seldom is an application funded in full. Reduced grants are necessary due to the demand for funding and the desire to support as many high quality projects as possible. Some items may be cut from a budget because they are unacceptable under the ABRS guidelines. In this year’s round, such cuts included the following:
- backfilling of Investigator’s salary
- on-costs above those specified in the guidelines.
Please note that grant applications must follow these ABRS application instructions and guidelines.
List of Grants 2005/2006
New Grants 2005/2006
Algae
Dr Gustaaf Hallegraeff
Phytoplankton flora of Tasmanian coastal waters
University of Tasmania, TAS
$20 000
Dr John Huisman
Name That Seaweed—A multimedia approach to the identification of marine plants
Murdoch University, WA
$35 000
Dr Brett Neilan
A taxonomic assessment of cyanobiont diversity in Gunnera and cycad species in Australia, their co-evolution and their potential use as biofertilisers
University of New South Wales, NSW
$15 000
Fauna
Dr Belinda Alvarez de Glasby
Taxonomic revision of the order Halichondrida (Porifera: Demospongiae) of northern Australia and phylogenetic implications for sponge classification
Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, NT
$55 000
Dr Andrew Austin
Systematics of the Australian spider-hunting wasps (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Pompilidae)
University of Adelaide, SA
$37 000
Dr Shelley Barker
Monograph of Castiarina (Insecta: Coleoptera: Buprestidae)
South Australian Museum, SA
$4 500
Dr Maria Byrne
Species composition and phylogeny of Australia’s beche-de-mer species in the genera Stichopus and Actinophyga (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea)
University of Sydney, NSW
$29 000
Dr Gerasimos Cassis
Systematics, biogeography and host associations of the lacebugs of Australia (Insecta: Heteroptera: Tingidae)
Australian Museum, NSW
$40 000
Dr Robert Chesser
Systematics and co-evolution of Australian phabine pigeons (Aves: Columbiformes: Columbidae) and their wing and body lice (Insecta: Phthiraptera: Ischnocera)
CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, ACT
$28 000
Dr Kerrie Davies
Systematics of new nematode species from endemic Australian Ficus
University of Adelaide,