From our Director:
Welcome to the August edition of the ARC Training Centre for Forest Value Newsletter
It continues to be a busy year in the Centre for Forest Value.
In this edition, we talk to PhD Candidate Erin Bok, recipient of the Tasmanian Land Conservancy (TLC) Bird Conservation Fund Scholarship. Erin recently presented her research on one of Australia’s most endangered birds at the TLC’s annual Bird Conservation event.
We catch up with PhD Candidate Ellen Gunn who recently visited the Giant Tree nicknamed ‘Centurion’ to see if DNA testing of a small sample of leaves can offer insights into how forest trees can persist through our changing climate.
Last issue we highlighted the release of Restoring the Midlands of Tasmania, a special issue of the Ecological Management and Restoration Journal, which brought together a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional, science-based approach to environmental restoration representing over a decade of research across 1800 hectares of land. In this issue, we recap the field day Growing Trees that Survive, Flourish and Benefit the Farm, Wildlife and the Community which was held in late May. The field day brought together scientists, landowners and the community to discuss the key successes and challenges of restoration in the Tasmanian Midlands.
Finally, we check in with one of our newest PhD Candidates, Alison Hayman, who is undertaking a trial of the capabilities of cameras and drones in detecting deer in forested landscapes. Alison’s project is a collaboration with Hancock Victorian Plantations (HVP) and the University of Sydney.
I hope you enjoy reading about the Centre’s research in this edition of the newsletter and I look forward to bringing you additional updates towards the end of the year.
Professor Julianne O’Reilly-Wapstra, Director ARC Training Centre for Forest Value
Keep up-to-date with Centre outputs and news via our website and follow us on Twitter.
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Speaking on Behalf of the Forty-Spotted Pardalote
As a recipient of the Tasmanian Land Conservancy (TLC) Bird Conservation Fund Scholarship PhD Candidate Erin Bok was recently invited to speak at the TLC’s annual Bird Conservation event about her research on one of Australia’s most endangered birds.
Erin’s project, Forty-spotted pardalote and manna gum: joining the spots to save an Australian endangered bird species, seeks to understand the relationships between the forty-spotted pardalote and manna gum and how this relationship may be impacted under changing climates
The forty-spotted pardalote relies on manna, a sugary exudate produced by manna gum (Eucalyptus viminalis). Manna is a key resource for a range of woodland birds; however, the forty-spotted pardalote is the only species that actively stimulates manna production through its unique farming behaviours.
Given the importance of this key resource it is critical to understand what factors underpin variation in manna quantity and quality, and specifically for the forty-spotted pardalote, how these factors drive not only pardalote behaviour and fitness, but ultimately the community more broadly.
During her talk, Erin discussed how she approached investigating the drivers of manna quality and composition across the different provenances of E. viminalis in Tasmania.
I HAVE BEEN SAMPLING MANNA FROM A SERIES OF COMMON GARDEN TRIALS OF MANNA GUM THAT OCCUR ACROSS A NATURAL ARIDITY GRADIENT. BY DOING THIS I CAN SEE HOW SEED SOURCED FROM DIFFERENT LOCATIONS IS PERFORMING AT SITES WITH DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTAL ATTRIBUTES. THIS THEN ENABLES ME TO DISENTANGLE THE EFFECTS OF ENVIRONMENT AND TREE GENETICS ON MANNA QUALITY.
We know that pardalotes show a preference toward manna with a higher sucrose to raffinose ratio. Once I have collected manna these sugars are analysed, so we can look at how this ratio varies between individual plants, between sites and across seasons.
Erin also recently attended a workshop hosted by the forty-spotted pardalote National Recovery Team.
This workshop provided those with a key interest in the species an opportunity to provide input into the draft forty-spotted pardalote National Recovery Plan before it is released for public comment. This plan sets out the conservation pathway for the coming decade to ensure the future survival of this species.
Understanding Native Forest Resilience through Genetics
It is predicted that some forest tree species are likely to be negatively affected by climate change as unprecedented selective pressures cause an increase in local extinction events.
Recently PhD Candidate Ellen Gunn with co-supervisor Dr Dean Williams, Sustainable Timber Tasmania, took a trip to collect leaf samples for DNA extraction from the Giant Tree nicknamed ‘Centurion’ (Eucalyptus regnans, mountain ash), one of the tallest flowering trees in the world and the tallest tree in the Southern Hemisphere.
Ellen’s PhD project is exploring the genomic basis of climate adaptation and acclimation in the ash eucalypts (Eucalyptus obliqua, E. delegatensis, E. regnans) to inform future native forest management and conservation strategies.
This project is one of six collaborative PhD projects that focus on a range of areas that aim to help improve forest growth, productivity, and forest management now and into the future. Projects are co-funded between UTas and Australia's major forest growers through the Growers Research Advisory Committee, with matching Commonwealth funding, managed by Forest and Wood Products Australia.
With approval to remove a small sample of leaves from Centurion, Ellen plans to extract the DNA from the leaf tissue to compare it to the DNA of other E. regnans samples.
WE WILL BE LOOKING AT CHANGES IN THE DNA SEQUENCE OF THESE TREES AND HOW IT RELATES TO HISTORICAL CLIMATE CONDITIONS. THIS WILL INDICATE TO US WHAT CLIMATE CONDITIONS THE TREES ARE BEST ADAPTED TO. WE ARE ALSO LOOKING AT CHANGES TO GENE EXPRESSION IN RESPONSE TO CLIMATE STRESS EVENTS SUCH AS DROUGHT SO WE CAN BETTER UNDERSTAND HOW NATIVE FORESTS ARE RESPONDING.
the data we collect from investigating these two key responses to local climate conditions will allow us to triage populations that may be at risk due to climate change and inform management options for these populations.
This project will contribute to understanding forest trees adaptation and their vulnerability to future climate stress and provide an evidence-based framework for developing conservation and management strategies such as seed-sourcing. This will promote resilient forest revegetation in the face of climate change, helping to protect this critical species and improving the management of forests globally.
Ecological Restoration Field Day in the Tasmanian Midlands
Early morning on the 26th May saw an 80-strong gathering of community and scientists at Connorville, a large grazing property near Cressy in the Northern Midlands.
The event was a field day on landscape restoration; Growing Trees that Survive, Flourish and Benefit the Farm, Wildlife and the Community.
The day was designed to present the key outcomes from 10 years of collaborative research recently presented in the Special Issue Restoring the Midlands of Tasmania, Volume 22 of the Ecological Management and Restoration Journal. The majority of the papers were written by Centre for Forest Value researchers. The long-term collaborative research was supported by the Centre and previous forestry centres at UTas as well as Greening Australia, Tasmanian Land Conservancy, Bush Heritage Australia, Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania, Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association, NRM North, Ian Potter Foundation and Pennicott Wilderness Journeys.
The field day was organised and run by Restoration Ecologist Dr Neil Davidson, an affiliate with the Centre for Forest Value and Greening Australia, to provide practical reflections on the undertaking of 1,800 hectares of restoration plantings aimed at creating biodiversity corridors that crossed the Midlands and provided shade and shelter for stock and crops in a region more than 70% cleared of its native vegetation.
Dr Davison commented,
IT WAS GREAT TO SEE SUCH A LARGE TURNOUT AND A GOOD CROSS-SECTION OF THE COMMUNITY IN ATTENDANCE - FROM PRIMARY AND HIGH SCHOOL CHILDREN TO FARMERS, PRACTITIONERS, NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AGENCIES AND FUNDING BODIES. THE DAY WENT LIKE CLOCKWORK. THE SCIENCE PRESENTATIONS WERE REALLY WELL FOCUSED AND TACKLED A WIDE RANGE OF THE KEY ECOLOGICAL CONSTRAINTS ON THE SUCCESS OF RESTORATION PROJECTS. TALKS ALSO COVERED THE IMPORTANCE OF BUILDING LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SCIENTISTS, MANAGERS AND LANDHOLDERS AND THE NEED TO MAINTAIN A COMPREHENSIVE EDUCATION PROGRAM.
The day started with a Welcome to Country by David Mangenner Gough, Tasmanian Aboriginal cultural practitioner. This was followed by Dr Davidson who provided an overview of how, why and where to restore, and then a landowner perspective delivered by Roderic O’Connor, owner of the Connorville Estate.
Following this, participants travelled to four sites on the property and were introduced to the techniques and strategies which allowed this project to be successful in a landscape where many restoration projects have failed. This included restoration designed to provide stock shelter as well as wildlife habitat, and the associated cultivation, caging, and fencing techniques.
Guest speakers and topics included UTas Professor Menna Jones, and Conservation Ecologist Dr Glen Bain, Tasmanian Land Conservancy, who discussed connectivity and the creation of steppingstones for wildlife, and the importance of a combination of dense understory and scattered tree cover to improve habitat complexity for, and the biodiversity of, marsupials and bird.
Restoration Ecologist and Centre affiliate Dr Tanya Bailey, together with Dr Davidson spoke on the value of embedding research in restoration. Dr Bailey described the detailed genetics research that sat behind the choice of tree species to grow in the changing climate of the Midlands. Senior Research Officer with the Centre Dr Thomas Baker talked about the effect of trees, both remnants and shelterbelts, on microclimate.
The day also highlighted the importance of educating children and the community, with Nel Smit previously, Education Strategist with Greening Australia) and Dr Louise Wallis (UTas School of Architecture and Design), discussing their experiences and involvement with The Species Hotel project, a joint project between the UTas, Greening Australia and the von Bibra family. The hotels were built by UTas Architecture and Design students, with input from artists, scientists and school students and are designed to represent and recreate some of the spaces that occur naturally, within healthy ecosystems in the Midlands.
During the day, other topics and demonstrations included site preparation, direct seeding, the comparison of fenced and unfenced plantings, the effect of deer, the establishment of grasses, and the effect of nutrition on the success of establishing understorey.
To complement the field day a 24-page booklet was produced and made available to participants. The booklet summarises the key research findings. The booklet Restoration of the Tasmanian Midlands is available for download here [16.4MB PDF].
Cameras on Deer Management in Northeast Victoria
Deer are a serious cost to the forestry industry due to browsing, bark-stripping, and antler rubbing of trees leading to a dramatic reduction in tree growth, reduction in tree form and quality, and tree death.
An exciting project led by PhD Candidate Alison Hayman has commenced with the aim to deliver innovative solutions to the management of problem browsing mammals, particularly deer. Alison aims to field test best practice surveillance, detection, and deterrent technologies to develop new options to decrease damage by deer in forest landscapes.
UTas is working with Hancock Victorian Plantations (HVP) and the University of Sydney to deliver the project which is co-funded by the Commonwealth and Victorian Governments through the National Institute for Forest Products Innovation (NIFPI) Gippsland Centre. Financial support is also being provided by Australia's major forest growers through the Growers Research Advisory Committee managed by Forest and Wood Products Australia.
Alison is working with a robotics engineer to develop robotics-inspired automated detection devices which will then be tested in locations prone to deer browsing. This testing will involve thermal and colour cameras and acoustic capabilities. A pilot trial will test the design and detection capabilities of the devices. The trial will assess how detection varies with other variables such as different pest management options and different boundary types, including native forest edges and mature radiata pine plantation edges. A drone will also be used for reconnaissance testing of sites and to confirm the observations of the cameras.
The pilot trial will run for two months which will enable the testing of equipment, processes, and any necessary refinement of methodologies prior to implementation of the full study. During this time an automatic classification system shall be trained/tested to include sambar deer and other species.
Alison commented,
The trial is designed to answer several questions regarding the capability of the cameras at detecting deer movements within a coupe so that we can get the best placement for monitoring and maximise the effectiveness of our resources. It's also important for us to investigate the effectiveness of drones to understand how they can be best utilised in this setting in conjunction with the on-ground detection devices.
After the pilot trial, the detection program will expand, doubling the number of monitoring sites. The information collected from the deer detection project will be used to inform the next stage of the project on deer deterrents.
Recent research publications highlights
- Brad Potts, Peter Harrison, Tanya Bailey, Meridy Price, Dorothy Steane and René Vaillancourt recently published a paper on Leaf Economic and Hydraulic Traits Signal Disparate Climate Adaptation Patterns in Two Co-Occurring Woodland Eucalypts (Plants) in collaboration with Suzanne Prober, Georg Wiehl, João Costa e Silva and Jane Speijers
- Dr Peter Harrison published a paper on Existing and emerging uses of drones in restoration ecology (Methods in Ecology and Evolution) with co-authors Jake Robinson, Suzanne Mavoa and Martin Breed.
- Vilius Gendvilas, Mark Neyland, Manuel Rocha-Sepúlveda, Mark Hunt, Mario Vega and Julianne O’Reilly-Wapstra published Effects of thinning on the longitudinal and radial variation in wood properties of Eucalyptus nitens (Forestry: An International Journal of Forest Research) in collaboration with Geoffrey M Downes, Andrew Jacobs and Dean Williams.
A list of all Centre publications can be viewed on the CFV website.
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The ARC Training Centre for Forest Value (CFV) works collaboratively with stakeholders to conduct research of excellence to solve forestry, agroforestry, and forest restoration and conservation challenges.
The CFV is funded through granting schemes, industry, environmental and community stakeholders.