conservation | The Conservation Decisions Team

Mar 23

Prioritising the value of information for the management of Moira Grass (Report now available)

We have led a value of information project to help managers of Moira Grass determine which information should be collected as a priority. The team worked very closely with domain experts to design and complete this project. Our findings indicate that management strategies targeting grazing (61% increase in total extent; 46% increase in Moira grass cover; 42% increase in thatch depth) and flood duration and depth are most likely to improve the restoration of Moira grass at the Barmah Forest (See Executive Summary below for more information).

The report:

Nicol, Sam; Stratford, Danial; Joehnk, Klaus; Chades, Iadine. Prioritising the value of information for the management of Moira grass at Barmah forest. Brisbane: CSIRO; 2017. csiro:EP17815. (CSIRO PDF report)

We have learned a lot during this project on the strengths and weaknesses of Value of Information. We will aim to publish these lessons learned in the academic literature.

Executive summary:

Barmah Forest is a Ramsar listed wetland complex in the Murray–Darling Basin of Australia. Barmah Forest supports the largest area of Moira grass (Pseudoraphis spinescens) plains in the Murray-Darling Basin and is amongst the most southerly distribution of the species in Australia.

Feral horse (Barmah, 2016)

The plains are recognised as part of the Ramsar ecological character description of the forest. Reduction in the area of Moira grass plains has been one of the most significant long-term ecological changes within the forest. The causes of decline are uncertain Read more

Mar 22

The Conservation Decisions team selected for ON Prime!

Sam, Josie, Iadine, Nicole and Stephanie will test and strengthen their Conservation Technology idea through ON Prime 2!

We are very excited and can’t wait to start! We can’t say much at this stage, however we will use our social media platforms to share the different stage of our adventure.

Mar 17

eating insects to …

… improve the protein uptake and therefore the health of millions of people globally;

…reduce the land clearing and use of pesticides while obtaining economic profit;

…reduce the carbon dioxide an methane emission

In our new paper:Exploiting a pest insect species Sphenarium purpurascens for human consumption: ecological, social, and economic repercussions published in the first issue of the Journal of Insects as Food and Feed we developed a model of sustainable exploitation for pest insect species and explore the potential benefits to humans in different areas, like health/nutrition, conservation, economy and even climate change!

Please contact me if you would like a copy of the paper!

The picture below is by Rene Cerritos the lead author of this paper.

Bon appétit!

by Rene Cerritos

Jun 2

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Pilbara shows how to save the most species per dollar: report now available!

We are pleased to announce the release of our report on ‘Prioritising threat management for Pilbara species of conservation significance’ (PDF, 10Mo)(The Conversation). This was a very rewarding collaborative project with scientists from CSIRO, QUT, UQ, and WA Dept Parks and Wildlife, with input from 49 experts across land management, policy, industrial, agricultural, indigenous and academic sectors, and was funded by Atlas Iron through the Dept of Environment Pilbara Taskforce.

The work comes at an important time in the Pilbara’s history and we hopeful that it will have a positive impact.

Prioritising species for monitoring conservation actions: Combining cost-effectiveness with complementarity

We have a decision point article that just came out this month! A great opportunity to communicate on how we can use complementarity between species to improve our monitoring efficiency, and of course remain cost-effective. In Tulloch et al (2013), we used network theory and a lot of ecology to find the best way of modelling and solving this problem. In the end, we were very pleased to show that it is possible to increase your monitoring power by selecting the most complementary species and also reducing the cost. A win-win situation that is rarely available in conservation. Read more

May 30

Complex decisions made simple: a primer on stochastic dynamic programming

Do you need to find the best decisions to maximize your chances of protecting a threatened species today but also in the future? Yes? Then you might be interested by our primer on stochastic dynamic programming (SDP). Stochastic Dynamic Programming (SDP) is an essential tool in conservation biology and natural resources management.

Marescot L., Chapron G., Chadès I., Fackler P., Duchamp C., Marboutin E. & Gimenez O. (2013). Complex decisions made simple: a primer on stochastic dynamic programming. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 4, 872-884.

Extinction risk in cloud forest fragments under climate change and habitat loss

This week Rocio Ponce presents her last paper published in Div & Dist. Well done! This research quantifies how climate and land use change, as major threats to biodiversity affect species persistence in Mexican cloud forests. Read more

Jan 29

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Summer readings on Adaptive Management by Cindy Hauser (University of Melbourne)

This week Cindy Hauser writes about our adaptive management reading workshop. This workshop was supported by iadine‘s Julius Award research grant. Cindy shares with us the papers she enjoyed reading (found the original post here). Read more

Oct 30

Novel method to predict habitat preference of a mammal species community on and along roads - Illustration with a Western Canadian highway

Identifying optimal road crossing locations for mammal species

Schuster R, Römer H, Germain RR. (2013) PeerJ 1:e189 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.189

In this paper we used a multi-scale approach to independently identify preferred road approach (up to 1km) and highway crossing areas, for a multi-species mammal community. This combined strategy could help improve road mitigation efforts, by prioritizing traditionally used areas of high potential for crossing and combine these with areas of preference for approaching the road. Read more