Australia's biodiversity

Newsletter on biological diversity conservation actions

Biolinks No. 9
Biodiversity Unit
Department of the Environment, Sport and Territories - June 1995
ISSN 1073 4434

Biodiversity Conservation Program launched

Commonwealth Environment Minister, Senator John Faulkner, officially launched the Biodiversity Conservation Program on World Environment Day in Canberra. Funded by the Federal Government, the Biodiversity Conservation Program is worth nearly $17m over four years, $13m of which will be used to help implement the National Strategy for the Conservation of Australia's Biological Diversity.

Senator Faulkner said the Biodiversity Conservation Program will complement a wide range of existing programs and activities that contribute to the conservation of biodiversity such as Landcare, Save the Bush, One Billion Trees, National Wilderness Inventory and the Endangered Species Program.

The $13m component of the Program will provide a coordinated approach to biodiversity conservation. Its major elements include:

The biodiversity monitoring program will establish a comprehensive catalogue of monitoring activities and make progress towards a network of monitoring sites across different land management regimes. Assistance will also be provided for enhanced community monitoring activities.

Other initiatives that will promote conservation of Australia's biodiversity include: rapid assessment of significant biodiversity; decision-support tools for better management; collaborative projects with relevant interests; establishment of an electronically based national biodiversity information service called BIOLINK AUSTRALIA, and enhancing community involvement and understanding.

In addition to these domestic initiatives, Australia has significant international interests and obligations arising from the Convention on Biological Diversity. Funding is earmarked to provide Australia's contribution to the Convention budget, including additional assistance to the Convention Secretariat to advance work of high priority for Australia, and to contribute to the implementation of the 1995-1997 work program.

Also included in the Biodiversity Conservation Program is $3.9m over four years for programs that will identify and assist in conserving Australia's wilderness and wild rivers.

How stream diversity is used to monitor the health of our rivers

Karen Markwort

WHAT has bug collecting got to do with drought, toxic algal blooms, fish kills and general degradation of our waterways? Small aquatic animals, macroinvertebrates, can, by their presence or absence, provide water managers with very useful information about the health of rivers and streams.

The Cooperative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology (CRCFE), based in Canberra, is developing a predictive model that will provide water managers with an index of the aquatic animals that they could expect to find in sites ranging from pristine to highly polluted.

Invertebrates such as mayfly nymphs and caddisfly larvae are very sensitive to pollution and are not found in highly impacted sites. Fly larvae and worms, on the other hand, are quite tolerant of pollution and can even be found downstream of sewage treatment plants.

The predictive model compares the aquatic animals collected at pristine (or as near as possible) reference sites and those collected from moderately and highly polluted test sites.

It is a tool that can be used to predict what aquatic animals will occur in the test sites based on those which occur in reference sites with similar habitat features.

Sampling for invertebrates was conducted in a standardised manner at 50 reference sites and 10 test sites. Aquatic animals were identified to family level and then grouped according to the habitat in which they were found.

The reference sites covered the range of expected habitat types such as upland or lowland streams, landuse (native forested, pine, rural and urban catchments) and regions of specific concern such as Canberra's water catchment. Physical and chemical measurements such as stream width, depth, temperature and conductivity were recorded as well as observations such as the presence of water odours or oils, pollution and nearby erosion.

Five reference sites were randomly excluded from the model building and included with the test sites. As anticipated, the known impacted sites had less than the predicted number of different kinds of animals. The randomly selected reference sites, however, had an equivalent variety of animals, thus demonstrating the effectiveness of the model.

Dr Richard Norris, project leader for the CRCFE, said there were several advantages in using biological techniques to monitor water quality: it's fast and can be conducted by almost anyone without expensive technical equipment, community groups such as Waterwatch and Streamwatch are using these techniques for instance, and it provides us with a better understanding of what has been happening in a stream over a longer period whether the water quality is deteriorating or improving. Chemical analysis can only indicate what is happening in the stream at the time of sampling. In addition, this model will enable data to be collected from all over Australia and interpreted in a standardised manner.

Karen Markwort is the Communications Manager for the CRCFE

Apology

In Biolinks No.8 two photos were used without proper acknowledgement. One depicted the oral birth of a frog, Rheobatrachus silu (page 11) and should have been attributed to Associate Professor Michael J. Tyler, Department of Zoology, University of Adelaide. The other depicted fire management (page 12) and should have been attributed to Noel Preece of Ecoz-Ecology Australia.

Managing our marine resources

WHEN the 1982 United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea finally came into force last November, as one of 123 ratifying nations Australia laid official claim to its continental shelf an area of seafloor almost twice the size of the mainland.

The area includes the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), which stretches 200 nautical miles (375kms) from shore and was proclaimed three months earlier.

At a conference coinciding with the Law of the Sea Convention's ratification, Australia's Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, Senator Peter Cook, touched on the significance of the moment:

'It's hard to imagine another situation where the sheer scale of opportunity presented by this 'once only' declaration of a 14 million square kilometre territory will come Australia's way again ever."

However, with the enormous opportunity to explore and exploit the living and non-living natural resources comes an equally weighty responsibility to manage and conserve them.

The State of the Marine Environment Report for Australia (SOMER), released in February, highlights the need for a balance of use versus conservation of marine resources. To this end, according to SOMER, it is of paramount importance that the present dearth of detailed knowledge of the marine environment is addressed.

The report, to which 140 researchers contributed, says marine scientists are concerned about the lack of understanding on how ecosystems function.

The EEZ's proclamation means Australia has an international obligation to manage its fisheries wisely. Paradoxically, overfishing is a real problem in a country with the world's third-largest fishing zone yet ranked just fifty-third in terms of overall catch size. The Australian marine environment has a low biological productivity due to limited nutrient run-off from the land's ancient, leached soils and the absence of major upwellings.

Dr Gary Davis, a marine biologist with the United States National Biological Survey who recently visited Australia, says fisheries the world over are collapsing because of a 'frontier' approach. 'By that I mean that, like forestry and mining, we use up one resource and then move on to the next,' he says. 'In California we swept through a succession of target species and fishing grounds to sustain overall landings. Now we are at the end of the line.'

Dr Davis emphasises that Australia's proclamation of its EEZ should not be viewed in terms of pushing back the frontier.

Also, 'local government environmental managers are highly critical of the lack of information on local marine environments and the lack of simple, descriptive maps and inventories'.

In a recent editorial, Newscientist magazine points out that the scant knowledge gleaned so far points to troubled times ahead. Overfishing, pollution and coastal habitat destruction are harming biodiversity. In a plea for marine scientists to be brave and shout their concerns, Newscientist asks 'Where is the Paul Ehrlich of the oceans, the David Bellamy for fish?'

Mining is no way to fish

A recent review of 100 Australian fisheries found that the level of exploitation was known for only 48. Of these, 26 were fully exploited and 12 were over-exploited.

Like elsewhere in the world, harvesting continues largely untrammelled by knowledge of what is actually left.

The EEZ's proclamation means Australia has an international obligation to manage its fisheries wisely. Paradoxically, overfishing is a real problem in a country with the world's third-largest fishing zone yet ranked just fifty-third in terms of overall catch size. The Australian marine environment has a low biological productivity due to limited nutrient run-off from the land's ancient, leached soils and the absence of major upwellings.

Dr Davis emphasises that Australia's proclamation of its EEZ should not be viewed in terms of pushing back the frontier.'It is already too late for 30,000 fishermen in Newfoundland (Canada), where the haddock and cod fisheries have collapsed totally,' he warns.

Some Australian fisheries, like the New South Wales gemfish fishery, have also collapsed. Southern bluefin tuna have suffered such serious declines over three decades that the adult biomass is now below levels considered to be sustainable. Commercial fishing of orange roughy began in 1982. Catches climbed exponentially, reaching 41,000 tons in 1990. However, the fish takes up to 25 years to reach maturity and can live to 100. Current estimates of an annual sustainable yield are no more than 3000 tons, and the fishery appears doomed.

The bycatch issue

Of the various methods of fishing, trawling is regarded as the most dubious environmentally. For example, 70 per cent of the Great Barrier Reef lagoon is raked by trawl nets at least once a year. The effects on benthic (bottom-dwelling) communities is still unknown, although a long-term CSIRO study north of Cooktown will soon start yielding relevant data. Initial indications are that the benthos is considerably richer in non-trawled areas.

Moreover, the so-called bycatch can comprise up to 85 per cent of the total trawled catch. About four fifths of fish die and are cast overboard, further upsetting natural food chains by causing a proliferation of scavenger birds, fish and crabs.

Researchers have shown that prawn trawlers in the Gulf of Carpentaria net about 4000 turtles a year. About 250 drown. Overseas, particularly in American waters, trawlers must fit 'turtle excluder devices' which allow turtles and larger marine animals to escape from the trawl nets. But according to SOMER, Australia has lagged in developing selective fishing gear.

Bill Izard, who operates his trawler out of Cairns, has developed his own 'turtle excluder device'. Having trialled several designs, made at his cost, he says he has reduced his bycatch by up to 50 per cent. However, Mr Izard is unusual among trawlermen, as is indicated by his being the only full-time business which supplies live prawns to farms. 'I love fishing, but I hate killing things,' explains Mr Izard.

Keeping a little in reserve

Managing fisheries has traditionally depended on measures such as size limits, catch quotas, gear restrictions, limited numbers of boats or fishermen, restricted fishing seasons and temporary closures.

But according to Dr Davis, the American experience has shown that all these management options combined have failed to prevent depletion of many fish species. 'We need a paradigm shift,' says Dr Davis. 'What we are seeing in Australia and similar places is people trying to fine tune an outdated system of practical measures.' He anoints marine 'no-take' reserves as possible the only long-term answer for sustainable fisheries management.

The principal fisheries manager (habitat) with NSW Fisheries, Dr Dave Pollard, agrees. Dr Pollard points to ongoing research in a South African marine reserve (Tsitsikamma National Park), which indicates that reserves offer two major benefits to inshore fisheries; firstly as a recruitment source of eggs and larvae and secondly by the movement of surplus adults into adjacent areas. 'If we compare fishing to finance, then marine refugia can help ensure that we siphon off the interest rather than draining capital.'

Dr Pollard adds, 'Such refuge areas would also be available for a wide variety of relatively non-consumptive recreational, educational, scientific and aesthetic uses. Existing conflicts between resource production and these passive uses would be greatly reduced.'

Dr Pollard alludes to the implementation of the Solitary Islands Marine Reserve, offshore from Coffs Harbour, as indicative of initial community and fishing industry opposition giving way to support as the benefits of the park became apparent. Only small sensitive zones within the reserve are excluded to fishing. Today the reserve, as well as protecting base stocks of rock lobster and other fish species, has become a tourist and diving attraction in its own right.

Reserving judgement until further proof

Despite researchers' efforts to date, proving irrefutably that reserves offer tangible benefits to fisheries is exceedingly difficult. Many are still awaiting confirmation of a watershed monitoring program conducted inside and outside coral reef reserves in the Phillipines. The study, published in 1988, concluded that 'protective management for ten years was responsible for maintaining high fish yields from the non-reserve'.

Dr Neil Andrew from Sydney's Fisheries Research Institute, recently emphasised that the evidence to date is 'equivocal, possibly because it is expensive and difficult to get, but equivocal nonetheless'.

On the other hand, marine biologist Dr Bill Ballantine from the University of Auckland states that 'in detail the scientific evidence is about as good as the meagre tests would allow, and, in basic theory, is virtually self-evident'.

Marine research involves inherent difficulties. Unlike on land, research sites cannot be fenced off and currents carry in sediments, nutrients and pollutants. Ecosystem interactions are thus hard to determine, which renders the consequences of overfishing very unpredictable.

For example, fundamental changes in food chains referred to as 'ecosystem flips' have occurred overseas. In Australia, devastating outbreaks of coral-eating starfish have been blamed on the overfishing of their natural predators, though this remains in the realm of speculation.

Determining ecologically sustainable yields at present relies much on overall catch data. If more or less the same every year, the yield is assumed to be sustainable. But too often, as with the aforementioned orange roughy, scientific ignorance about population dynamics means even apparently stable levels can suddenly drop sharply.

The implications for management are predominantly a need to err on the side of caution. For example, protection of fragile environments may require a substantial buffer zone. Or estimates of limits on boat numbers need to take into account that fishing techniques improve at a 'technological creep' of up to 8 per cent per boat annually.

Neither, it seems, can managers herald the advent of fish farming as a potential saviour for wild stocks. Aquaculture is an important step sideways rather than forwards in terms of fisheries management. As Dr Davis puts it, 'We're hunter gatherers of the oceans at present, so what management should be about is not farming cattle but saving the bison.'

Countries which practise aquaculture on a large scale, such as Ecuador, Thailand, China, the Phillipines and Norway, have been beset with environmental problems as a result. Salmon from Norway's 1000 farms have escaped and bred with wild stock, diluting genetic variability (each of the 400 Norwegian rivers containing wild salmon has a genetically unique population) and hence harming the wild stocks' ability to adapt to a changing environment.

In tropical nations, prawn farming has shown spectacular boom-bust cycles, with disastrous consequences for the coastal environment. Large-scale prawn farming (as opposed to Australia's relatively tiny, upmarket industry) has resulted in wholesale destruction of mangroves, which are important as breeding grounds for fish and indeed for the wild prawns themselves. Farm effluent, made up of algal blooms, fertiliser, fish feed, prawn excrement, antibiotics and other chemicals, has killed entire bays. And for every ton of prawns produced, farmers use five tons of fishmeal, which is still derived from wild stocks.

Global obligations

The newly proclaimed expansion of Australia's marine domain to one of the world's largest signifies a national windfall and an international responsibility. Coming up with a wise, integrated pro-active marine resource management strategy has become a matter of considerable urgency.

Meanwhile it has become manifest that the reactive approach to what goes on in the oceans has been inadequate. As Dr Davis puts it, 'We can't continue to mine our marine environment, or keep dumping waste into it. Marine resources are supposed to be renewable.' Managers need to come up with ecologically sustainable yields, inventories, improved harvesting techniques and appropriate protection measures. As sound management is based on solid research, marine science deserves all the support it can get, and more.

John van Tiggelen is a part-time science writer for Ocean Rescue 2000, the Federal Government's national marine sustainable use and conservation program

CSIRO world first: from fungal genes to blue jeans

IN a world-first, CSIRO researchers have cloned genes from a livestock fungus which could mean millions of dollars to the textile, livestock feed, ethanol, detergent and waste management industries.

The genes produce enzymes, called cellulases, which break down fibre. Cellulases can be used by the blue jeans industry instead of stones to produce a softer, less damaged 'stone-washed' product.

CSIRO Researcher, Dr Jim Aylward, says this is just one application amongst a myriad of other possibilities.

'One of the most exciting uses could be in cost-effective ethanol production,' he said. 'If we can insert these genes into the yeast which produces ethanol we could lower the cost of production significantly.'

'This means we could use renewable resources such as wood to produce fuel rather than coal and oil.'

A team of CSIRO researchers developed and patented the two new genes from a fungus (Neocallimastix patriciarium) which normally lives in the rumen front stomach of livestock such as sheep and cattle.

'This is a great opportunity for Australian industry to take the lead in this sort of technological development,' Dr Aylward said.

For further information contact:

Dr Jim Aylward and Dr Gang Ping Xue, CSIRO Division of Tropical Crops and Pastures

Phone 07 377 0401

Shoring up our offshore parks

In Australia, the push for Marine Protected Areas is well advanced politically, at least on a Federal level. The country boasts in excess of 400 marine reserves, more than any other nation.

Scientifically, however, selection of marine reserves has proved somewhat haphazard and unrepresentative of the range of marine ecosystems present. National-State co-ordination and co-operation has been lacking. For example, under present laws, States do the selecting, and the limits of marine reserves can simply and illogically be based on State water boundaries rather than conservation value of what lies underneath the surface.

Also, marine protected areas should do more than harbour threatened habitats or species. A national system needs to conserve biological diversity and resources, for the sake of environmental integrity as well as the fishing and tourism industries which depend on it.

At present, the area protected in the tropics is ten times greater than that in the south. While Australia's tropics are home to 1900 species, only 240 of them are found nowhere else. (Although effects of aquaculture, industry, clearfelling and raw sewage on south-east Asia's seas mean that Australia is a stronghold for many reef species.) In contrast, while the south harbours less species more than 500or 85 per centare endemic.

In order to achieve a representative system of protected areas, the Department of Environment, Sport and Territories is funding national classification of marine bioregions in conjunction with the Australian Nature Conservation Authority and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, under the banner of Ocean Rescue 2000.

Thanks to a Chilean-born marine biologist, New South Wales is the first to have developed such a classification. After three year diving up and down the state coast, Ernesto Ortiz, from the Habitat Management Unit of New South Wales Fisheries, has come up a three-level biophysical classification of coastal ecosystems.

The first level defines meso-scale ecosystems (bioregions), providing a broad strategic environmental framework necessary for management of coastal resources. The second level defines local scale ecosystems (biounits) with recognisable natural boundaries suitable for marine protected area declaration. The third level defines small-scale ecosystems (biosites), and allows specific management.

No one yet knows what proportion of sea should be set aside in marine protected areas, what size these should be, and where they should be placed. Mr Ortiz's bioregionalisation is but an initial step in the search for answers to these questions.

Biodiversity of australian native bees: Status, value and threats

Allan Spessa

No matter how one chooses to measure diversity, Australian native bees form a remarkably assorted group.

There are currently over 1652 described species of native bees in Australia many remain undescribed. Native bees are not only diverse in number, they also display a wide array of different morphologies, nesting habitats, floral relationships and social behaviours, although almost all are solitary bees. Native bees are found in all terrestrial habitats of Australian, ranging from the deserts to the Alps. By far the greatest number of native bee species occur in the xeric to slightly mesic temperate habitats.

Bees evolved from a primitive group of wasps called the specids. The evolution of the first bee species probably took place during the Cretaceous period when rudimentary species of angiosperms or flowering plants first appeared. The oldest known fossil bee, which was preserved in a lump of amber, is approximately 80 million years old.

Australia has the most distinctive continental bee fauna in the world. Over three-quarters of the genera and nearly half of the named species belongs to the family, Colletidae. Colletid bees are the most primitive of bee families and most probably have a Gondwanan origin. Primitive traits of the colletids include comparatively short tongues and that females generally live solitary lives with little or no cooperation from female conspecifics. Figure 1 shows an adult female colletid of the species, Amphylaeus morosus.

Australia is the only continent where most bees are dependent on a single family of plants (Myrtaceae). Myrtaceae genera include Eucalyptus, of which there are over 700 endemic species, Angophora 12 species, Leptospermum (tea-trees), and Melaleuca (paperbarks) and Callistemon (bottlebrushes). The extensive radiation of the Colletidea is probably correlated with the speciose nature of Myrtaceae, also of Gondwanan origin.

Not only is Australia very rich in the Colletidae, it nearly or completely lacks several groups that otherwise occur more or less worldwide. The Apidae includes most of the highly social bees (single queen plus a sterile caste of female workers). There are four subfamilies of Apidae around the world the Apinae, Bombinae, Euglossinae and the Meliponinae. Only the Meliponinae, however, occurs naturally in Australia. The Australian Meliponinae contains the Trigona spp., also known as stingless or sugar bag bees. Aborigines traditionally harvested Trigona nests for the very sweet honey.

The only representatives of the nonindigenous subfamilies of Apidae in Australia are the honeybee Apis mellifera and the bumblebee Bombus terrestris. Honeybees were introduced to Australia from Europe in the early 1800s for honey and wax production and later, for crop pollination services. Since their introduction honeybees have provided significant economic benefits to Australia. Unfortunately, feral honeybees have now become both abundant and widespread in Australia. An established population of Bombus terrestris was recently discovered in Tasmania. Not much else is known about this bee species in Australia, except that it is an effective 'buzz' pollinator of tomatoes and related crops in glasshouses overseas.

Environmental value of native bees

In ecological terms, bees and angiosperms have frequently formed mutualistic partnerships. Bees are dependent on nectar and pollen as their prime sources of carbohydrates and proteins. Similarly, angiosperms rely on bees, in varying degrees, to provide a pollination service.

One of the most common invertebrate visitors of Australian Myrtaceae are colletid bees, and some colletid species can often be seen as a shimmering cloud around eucalypt flowers. Observations have shown that the colletid Leiproctus spp. are the most frequent visitors of Acacia flowers, among several other bee species. Furthermore, these native bees are less destructive to Acacia flowers (which usually occur in small heads or spikes) than the various beetle species that also visit Acacia.

Native bees also frequent native legumes. However, in order to access the nectar, the native bees have to first 'manipulate' the flower's complex stamen structures. It is often the case, therefore, that certain species of native legumes and native bee form close associations. For example, Tricholletes spp. (F. Colletidae) has been shown to be the primary pollinator of three species of native legume that have very similar floral structures.

Other native bee families contain species with much broader ranges of host plants. Examples include Exonuera bicolor (F. Anthrophoridae) and Trigona carbonaria (F. Meliponinae). Each species is thought to help pollinate more than a few different plant genera. Trigona carbonaria may also yield significant economic benefits as it has been demonstrated to be a better pollinator of Macadamia flowers in orchards (Figure 2) than that 'multi-purpose' pollinator, the honeybee.

Threat to conservation of native bees

Like many other native fauna, native bees are threatened by habitat modification and the introduction of nonendemic species. Two principal threats to the conservation of native bees are land clearing and the introduction of the honeybee.

Although there have been incidental observations of populations of the metallic-green carpenter bees, Lestis spp., becoming extinct within the Fleurieu Peninsula of South Australia as urban development has increased in that area; no studies have systematically examined how land clearing affects native bees. Analysis is also difficult because the biology of only a dozen or so native bees species has been studied in any depth and we have very incomplete inventories of which animal species pollinates which plant species within various habitats.

Feral honeybees are thought to be a problem because they have the potential to compete with native bees for available floral resources, although further assessments of the nature and extent of this competition are needed. Feral honeybees often nest in tree hollows. As such, they can potentially displace native vertebrates like possums, galahs and cockatoos from these hollows. Previous studies suggest that honeybees may not be as efficient as native pollinators of certain species of native angiosperm, for example, by not contacting the flower's stigma or not buzzing the anthers to collect pollen This may result in reduced seed set in these plants.

Feral honeybees remain a contentious issue among scientists and land-managers on the one side, and beekeepers on the other. Beekeepers still have access to many conserved areas and it is thought that their hives are a major source of feral honeybee colonies. To help resolve the issue of whether honeybees negatively impact on native bees, there is a need for baseline studies of how floral resource levels change in a habitat, and how these changes affect the population dynamics of native bees within that habitat. Such studies would be both extremely complex and labour-intensive. Further research is also needed into methods for controlling feral honeybees in conserved areas.

Allan Spessa is a PhD student in botany and zoology at the Australian National University

Fungus as big as a whale

Scientists from the USA and Canada have suggested that some fungi should be considered among the world's largest and oldest organisms.

DNA tests have enabled them to determine that one individual fungus (called 'clone one') of the species Armillaria bulbosa occupies an area of 15 hectares. Measuring the density of fungus in the soil and its growth rate the scientists estimated that the organism weighed 100 tonnes (comparable to an adult blue whale) and was over 1,500 years old.

However, work on a Australian member of the same family called Armillaria luteobubalina showed that a single fungus may become fragmented into a number of separate components. So more work might be required to show that clone one has not become separated into a number of clones, but it is still a very big, very old fungus.

Derived from article in GEO Australia Vol 16 No 5

NatureSearch: a community response to conservation

Jean Tilly

South-east Queensland is home to some of the world's most diverse and spectacular wildlife:

This tiny 18,000 square kilometre area is also home to an extra 1000 people a week. Another million people are expected to settle there by the year 2000.

Wildlife conservation efforts face considerable challenges in such situations. The community needs to establish the status and the sustainability of the wildlife of the area quickly if we are to succeed in conserving our precious bio-diversity. To do that we need a great deal of expertise, good base line data and people willing to help with the task.

The Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage created the NatureSearch programme in 1992 in a unique attempt to understand the distribution and the status of the plants and animals of the south-east corner of the state. The goals of the programme are simple: to create a wildlife database that can be accessed simply and easily by planners at all levels of government, local, state and federal; and to create a system of data collection that will have the accuracy and the authority to ensure its acceptability and which involves the community in all stages of the programme.

It has long been understood that there is a huge reservoir of wildlife knowledge within the community: local naturalists that understand their 'neck of the woods' better than anyone; individuals who know exactly 'what is where'; naturalists that have been collecting records for a long period of time and often doing nothing more with them but 'filing' them in the kitchen drawer! This information should be accessed if we are to develop effective management systems and conservation plans.

There is plenty of good news on the wildlife front. There are species that appear to be adapting quickly to their new found situation. The Eastern Whipbird is occurring more and more often in our parks and well planted gardens. Is the species responding to a lack of habitat elsewhere or is it adapting to our incursion? Is it good news or is it bad? The Striped Honeyeater is apparently increasing in numbers. Is it? Or is it responding to negative factors elsewhere? NatureSearch can act as a signpost. It can point the way. Others can then attempt to study a little more of the 'hows' and 'whys' of this change to species habits, for example: Have Lewin's Honeyeaters always utilised gardens?

Although the concept of the NatureSearch programme is very simple, its execution is often complex. Every observation is inspected by NatureSearch staff. The data is then entered onto computer by volunteers, utilising a data entry system specially devised for efficient, easy use. The information is then scrutinised by the NatureSearch vetting committee, a group of academics who have agreed to be involved in the final stage of the validating process (they too are volunteers). The bulk of paper processing is also done by volunteers, in fact the all stages of the programme are driven by the community.

The final phase sees the data delivered to the planning departments of the local authorities throughout the south-east of the state. At last it is 'in the system' and can be incorporated as part of the whole planning process.

During its initial phase the project has collected hundreds of thousands of species observations. The sources of information are many and varied. Volunteers record what they see in their own backyards or at their favourite weekend places. They assist in the collation of pre-existing and historical information. They collect information from other sources: personal diaries, journals, reports, environmental impact studies, and such.

Minimum information required for each observation is date, location (to a one minute latitude/longitude grid cell) and species. NatureSearch also encourages the collection of habitat information, data on species numbers, behaviour and apparent health.

The collection area covers twenty-two shires and cities, each with its own area co-ordinator. The programme has enjoyed a high level of success in the south-east of the State and has recently launched in the north Queensland cities of Townsville and Thuringowa. Townsville City Council invited the programme to their city and have since reinforced their support with practical help, including office space and other necessities of life. This new centre will be established with the help and expertise of both local governments, as well as the academic and the local community.

As the networks are further established local industry and commerce will be encouraged to play a supporting role.

The NatureSearch team is convinced now more that ever before that if we are to manage our disappearing wildlife, if we are serious about conservation, then we must use every tool at our disposal and the knowledge that exists within the community is one of the finest tools we have.

For more information contact:

NatureSearch 2001, PO Box 155,
Brisbane QLD 4002
Phone: 07 227 7836.

Jean Tilley is a Naturesearch coordinator with the Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage

A rare comeback

One of Australia's most endangered animal, Pseudemydura umbrina, or the Western Swamp Tortoise, recently took a step back from the precipice of extinction. In late 1994, the first twelve zoo bred tortoises, part of a recovery program run by the Perth Zoo and the Western Australian Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM) with the support of a number of organisations, were released into two protected habitats on the outskirts of Perth, Ellen Brook and Twin Swamps. This represents and increase in their numbers in the wild by 28 per cent.

Being semi-aquatic, the tortoises require suitable swamps that are filled during winter and spring. As the swamps dry out in summer and autumn, they aestivate under leaf litter or in holes in the ground. Aestivation is a period of dormancy, the opposite to hibernation.

This season's breeding endeavours resulted in 47 eggs with 37 hatchlings surviving. As of May 1995 around 149 tortoises remain at Perth Zoo and around 30 are in the protected nature reserves. However, this improvement does not mean instant success for the recovery plan. CALM has erected vermin proof fencing on the perimeter of these areas to prevent predation by foxes and feral cats and dogs. The ever present threat of fire and reduction of the water table are two more factors to be considered. However, the most important risk factor to the survival of the Western Swamp Tortoise as a species is the necessity to breed from what is a fairly small population. The long-term genetic health of the species needs to be considered.

The release of twelve animals is not only a step away from extinction for the Western Swamp Tortoise but also a message of hope to all captive breeding programs of endangered species around the world.

The browning of Australia

Mary White

Australia is the driest vegetated continent on Earth. How Australia changed from a green, well-water and largely forested land attached to Antarctica to what it is today is the story told in After the Greening (Kangaroo Press). It comprises four sections:

Rifting documents separation of Australia and the evolution of its biota, between 160 and 45 million years ago. In a warm world without polar icecaps, Australia was situated in high latitudes where 'greenhouse' conditions promoted the development of an ancestral 'mixed' flora of flowering plants and conifers. Under exceptional, uniformly wet and warm climatic conditions, broadleaf and sclerophyll elements, and taxa capable of adapting to cool and dry conditions, formed the mixed assemblages unique to Australia. This ancestral mixed Gondwanan vegetation evolved during the Late Cretaceous (80 million years ago) and was widespread through the Palaeocene and Early Eocene (65 to 40 million years ago).

The increasing isolation of Antarctica and the development of the circum-polar current as Australia moved towards its present position caused climate change and a progression towards an ice age. (Through much of geological time the world has been warm, without polar ice. Ice ages interrupt this warm state about every 300 million years. We currently live in an interglacial period in the Pleistocene Ice Age.) As Antarctica progressively cooled, it influenced global climate change as its icecap developed. The uniformly warm and wet climate gave way to more seasonal, cooler and drier climates. With more of the Earth's water locked in ice, less was available for rain.

Drifting northwards as an independent continent with a Gondwanan flora and fauna began 45 million years ago when the last links with Antarctica were broken. Fossil floras from the Lake Eyre region show that the vegetation was in stark contrast to today's desert conditions. Forests comprising taxa now found in the wet tropical rainforest remnants and subtropical drier forest types co-exist with Eucalyptus and Casuarina. Species related to the Illawarra Flame trees were abundant and the Lake Eyre region contained plains of large meandering rivers and presumably a mosaic of forest and woodland ecosystems.

Global climate was deteriorating from a stable greenhouse towards and ice age from 35 million years ago. As the first glaciers appeared on Antarctica, fluctuations from cooler and drier to warmer and wetter became the pattern. Fossil floras record the changing vegetation. A permanent southern ice cap was formed 15 million years ago and Australia's climate and vegetation underwent considerable change on its journey northwards. Natural fire became an increasingly important environmental factor in a drying continent. Selection of taxa for their fire tolerance increased.

As the continent dried, the predominantly broadleaf Gondwanan forests contracted. Forest was replaced by woodland and woodland gave way to shrubland, open grassland and saltbush plains. The sclerophyll elements became the dominant types as more suitable regions became available. The sorting and sifting of the components of the original Gondwanan flora according to their adaptability to changing environments climates established the ecosystems of today. Pockets of little-changed Gondwanan forest survived and remained in those areas where the warm, wet conditions still persisted. (The wet tropical forests of Queensland most closely approximate the ancestral greenhouse forests.)

Some small areas of the continent were probably very arid or even desert before the northern ice cap started to form at about 2.6 million years ago and the world entered the Pleistocene Ice Age. However, the major deserts and extensive arid regions of modern Australian result from the extremely dry and windy glacial stages of the Ice Age.

Drying on a grand scale resulted from those times when much of the world's water was held in ice. During interglacials, ice melted and warmer conditions returned. Rapid climatic swings characterise ice ages and while these meant advance and retreat of ice sheets over much of the Northern Hemisphere, in Australia some major glacial stages meant half as much rain and twice as much wind. Ice and snow affected very little of Australia a small ice cap in the Central Plateau in Tasmania and about 25 square kilometres on Kosciusko.

The dune deserts which today cover 40% of the continent bear witness to the extreme aridity and windiness of glacial stages. During the last glacial maximum 18,000 years ago about 80% of the continent was covered by mobile sand dunes. Isolation of populations in refuge areas at critical times like this led to speciation. The presence of water and microclimates in refuges was crucial to the survival of plants and animals.

Currently, Australia is 40% desert, 35% is arid and a further 10% is marginal and subject to frequent droughts. Only 15% of the continent is reasonably well-watered and more or less sustainably usable. In the deserts and arid lands the refuges with water and favourable microclimates are of the utmost importance for the maintenance of biodiversity. Feral animals threaten the survival of many native species in these areas.

Given the last glacial maximum and the short (14,000 years) period for recovery, the frail and precarious nature of modern ecosystems is understandable. In addition, the prehistoric evolution of the continent and its biota through geological time explains why our soils are mostly nutrient-deficient, the watertable is a natural toxic waste dump, and why the impact of humans on this land of drought, flooding rains and fire has been so devastating. Even Aboriginal occupation of the continent caused much change and many extinctions.

Unbalancing the Biota outlines some of the problems that the 200 year occupation of the continent by Europeans has caused. Imposing Mediterranean-style agriculture and rangeland practices on our time-worn land resulted in alarming environmental degradation.

Mary White is the author of After the Greening the Browning of Australia (Kangaroo Press)

Preliminary announcement: The National Conference on Approaches to Bioregional Planning

30.10.95 - 2.11.95 Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne

The National Conference on Approaches to Bioregional Planning will be an opportunity for people from government, science, community organisations, planners, industry, conservation groups, and strategists from all over Australia to take a fresh perspective on planning for nature conservation issues. It will provide a valuable opportunity to develop a broad appreciation of the benefits of bioregional planning for not only the conservation of biodiversity but also ecologically sustainable development. The conference will also be a forum for demonstrating and examining practical methods for bioregional planning to satisfy the broadest range of interests. Plenary sessions will deal with the bioregional planning process, accessing the right information, the role of consultation, how to build on other regional planning processes, integration with other human needs and managing for biodiversity requirements.

For further information contact:

Australia Convention and Travel Services Pty Ltd (ACTS)
GPO Box 2200, Canberra ACT 2601
Telephone: (06) 257 3299
Facsimile: (06) 257 3256

The Mueller medal

This medal is awarded for work having special reference to Australasia. This year's winner was Professor Michael Archer, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of New South wales, He outlined his work in exploring fossil deposits in Queensland particularly those at Riversleigh (NW Region) and Murgan (SE Region). These two sites have been recently accepted for inclusion into the World Heritage Listing. Discoveries at these sites were so significant that they were being used to help document the diversity of Australia's prehistoric animals. More importantly they were providing evolutionary trends to be used as a tool for the conservation of what remains of this continents distinctive living biota. This had led him to believe that we need to question the size of reserves to maintain the biodiversity species. We were now watching our remaining species sliding slowly into extinction. If Australians were serious about endangered species and biodiversity he believed that we would now need to consider reserves of a minimum size of 300 000km . He then proposed a new strategy in our approach to conservation that would generate better employment and export income as follows:

Overseas visitors were coming to Australia not to see our farming areas but to see out unique biota.

Do we need a national protocol system to conserve biodiversity on roadsides and in adjacent waterways?

Roadsides are the most viewed strips of public land, providing the foreground to our vista of Australia. They provide a lasting impression of the land management practices of a region, reflecting current attitudes on administering public property. Roadsides and adjacent waterways are also significant areas for biological diversity in Australia. Despite current management programs for roadsides, alterations and reduction to roadside vegetation as well as stream sedimentation continues to occur. This will inevitably result in reduced species variety and richness in these important areas. Maintaining biodiversity in the rest of Australia is going to be easier when our treatment of roadsides provides everybody with a consistent message that conserving biodiversity really does matter. Quentin Farmar-Bowers, Principal Research Scientist of the Australian Road Research Board Ltd has been progressing a national process to conserve roadside vegetation. He aims to provide practical management information as well as a mechanism for overcoming institutional, legal and financial barriers. He seeks to provide a framework for organising this delicate inter-community, inter-agency, inter-government and inter-discipline situation. There are a number of things you could do:

Quentin Farmar-Bowers
Principal Research Scientist
Australian Road Research Board
500 Burwood Highway
Vermont South VIC 3133

New publication

Remnant Bushland of South East Queensland in the 1990's: its distribution, loss, ecological consequences, and future prospects

When Europeans first settled in south east Queensland in the 1820s the region supported an almost continuous bushland cover. In less than 200 years it has changed into remnant landscape in which bushland fragments lie within a matrix of cleared land. These patterns of deforestation underlie both regional declines in biodiversity and problems with land and water degradation.

This publication, written by Griffith University wildlife ecologists, Carla Catterall and Mark Kingston, provides information on the problem of our disappearing bushland and highlights potential conservation mechanisms. It will be useful to naturalists, conservationists, ecologists, environmental officers, planners and engineers in state and local government, secondary and tertiary students, and members of community organisations.

The report consists of a folder containing: (1) maps showing the distribution of remnant bushland at the 1:200,000 and 1:400,00 scales, and (2) a book of about 100 pages that provides information on the nature and history of the region, quantitative data on bushland cover and its loss rates, and descriptions of major issues relating to ecological sustainability and conservation planning. The text is written in a manner accessible to non-experts.

Copies are available at certain bookstores, including the Griffith University Bookshop and Billabong Bookshop, or can be ordered by mailing a cheque for $25.00 ($20.00 plus postage) to:

Bushland Book Orders
c/- Carla Catterall
Faculty of Environmental Sciences
Griffith University
Nathan QLD 4111

The importance of refugia in dry areas of Australia

The Biodiversity Unit, Department of Environment, Sport and Territories, has published the fourth paper in the Biodiversity Series, entitled Refugia for Biological Diversity in Arid and Semi-arid Australia. This report has been written by scientists within the CSIRO Division of Wildlife and Ecology. It investigates the significance of refugia to biodiversity in the arid and semi-arid zones of Australia, and examines the management issues confronting them. Colour illustrations of many refugia provide visual appeal in this well-researched reference book.

The study area includes approximately 70% of Australia, and is not only of vital economic importance, but is also significant as a reservoir of biodiversity, much of which (particularly plant and invertebrate diversity) remains to be discovered. Within this vast dry area pockets exist which, because they retain moisture, or because they have been isolated from climatic or human-induced changes, act as refugia or refuges. These refugia contain concentrations of plants and animals, sometimes in unique ecosystems. Many of these organisms are relicts of millennia old faunas and floras and as such are of very great scientific interest.

This report examines the 76 refugia which can be identified in arid and semi-arid Australia from all available literature and describes their known significance for biodiversity conservation, including habitats for endangered species, species of evolutionary importance, and endemic species. Land uses and management issues are also identified. It is noteworthy that in some regions, fewer refugia than expected were found in references, perhaps reflecting a lack of data. An appendix explores a methodology for identifying ecological refugia.

Spider silk: a new wonder material?

An athlete with a torn ligament receives an artificial ligament in a operation that leaves no scar. Several weeks later, the athlete is back on the field with a knee a strong as before.

Such an operation could be routine one day, according to the University of Wyoming molecular biology Professor Randy Lewis, who says the creature that could make this medical miracle possible is the spider.

Spiders produce several different kinds of silk, all used for different purposes. Lewis has singled out the silk the spiders use for the outer framework of their webs, called dragline silk. Gram for gram, Lewis said, dragline silk's tensile strength is greater than that of steel. It's also more elastic than nylon and can absorb more energy before breaking than any other known substance, he said.

Lewis said he has isolated the two proteins that make up dragline silk. The proteins are unique in how they are held together. While most proteins are bonded with chemical links, spider silk proteins have a physical bond, making the silk virtually impervious to water. That means researchers cannot dissolve the silk in a solution to make it easier to study.

Lewis used established genetic procedures to make bacteria absorb the genes responsible for silk production in spiders. The bacteria produce a material that could be spun into fibres with dozens of uses.

Some of the most promising possibilities, he said, involve medical technology. The silk could be used for suture about one-tenth the diameter of current sutures, but with the same strength. Such small stitches could be used to avoid scarring or leakage when used on a blood vessel. The silk also could be sued to make artificial ligaments or tendons, Lewis said, for which there are no effective artificial substitutes now.

BioBrowsing on the Net

Most people have probably heard of the Internet by now, even if they haven't had an opportunity to road test it themselves. Many scientific institutions, government agencies and community groups interested in the conservation of biological diversity have taken advantage of the internet to make information available. If you have access to the Internet, you now also have access to information on biological diversity ranging from species distribution maps, to research reports, to information on international conventions and negotiations. You can even find previous issues of Biolinks on-line! Here are some good starting points for your search for information on biodiversity conservation:

ERIN World Wide Web Server
http://www.erin.gov.au 

The Environmental Resources Information Network is part of the Commonwealth Department of the Environ ment, Sport and Territories. Information about Australia's biodiversity can be found on this web server which contains information on programs in the Environment Portfolio.

CSIRO World Wide Web Server
http://www.csiro.au 

This is the starting point for information on CSIRO and its research programs

CouncilNet
http://peg.pegasus.oz.au/councilnet 

CouncilNet is an Australian electronic communications network for helping local government and communi ties achieve sustainability. It contains information on conservation at the local level.

Linkages
http://www.iisd.ca/linkages 

Linkages is provided by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and includes access to the Earth Negotiations Bulletin and other valuable information on international environment issues including the Convention on Biological Diversity.

BIN 21
http://www.bdt.org.br/bin21/bin21.html  

The Biodiversity Information Network (BIN 21) provides data and information linkages relating to biodiversity and the Convention on Biological Diversity. It is an international network with the home page based in Brazil.

Biodiversity, Taxonomy and Conservation
http://www.csu.edu.au/biodiversity.html 

A compilation of biodiversity information and linkages maintained by the Charles Sturt University.

Biolinks
http://www.erin.gov.au/life/general_info/biolinks/biolinks.html 

This contains the text of previous issues of Biolinks.

Before you download

Some documents are available as PDF files. You will need a PDF reader to view PDF files.
List of PDF readers 

If you are unable to access a publication, please contact us to organise a suitable alternative format.

Key

   Links to another web site
   Opens a pop-up window