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News Mail

05 September 2013


QUEENSLAND research capabilities are under the international spotlight, with scientists DNA barcoding all 870 species of plants found in south-east Queensland rainforests.

Science and Innovation Minister Ian Walker said the ground breaking work will build a global reference database, while assisting to protect rare species and map our state's biodiversity. Read more
 

 

 

Tropical Ecosystem Hub research in the Wet Tropics rainforests will greatly assist the management of the unique outstanding values of this World Heritage listed area in Far North Queensland. Getting research findings to key researcher users in a synthesized and clearly applicable form is critical to realizing the assistance. The Wet Tropics Management Authority (WTMA) is on the front foot to ensure that this occurs.

The Tropical Ecosystems Hub provided funds for WTMA to assist with communication of research to the Queensland Government with the aim of maximising policy and management uptake.

NERP funded studies into the dynamics of habitat loss and fragmentation, climate change and altered fire regimes are highlighting some of the serious challenges facing the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area over the coming decades.

WTMA identified five projects from the Tropical Ecosystems Hub program to extend to senior staff from Queensland government agencies and Government Owned Corporations that have policy, planning and operational responsibilities for formulating and implementing decisions relating to the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. These are:

  • 'Rainforest Biodiversity', which maps present and future biodiversity patterns and drivers in Wet Tropics rainforests under a range of climate change scenarios.
  • ‘Identifying Rainforest Refugia and Hotspots of Plant Genetic Diversity’, which investigates the distribution of plant and fungal taxonomic richness, endemism, and genetic diversity across the Wet Tropics bioregion.
  • ‘Monitoring of Key Vertebrate Species’, which monitors the abundance and distribution of cassowaries and spectacled flying foxes in north Queensland.
  • ‘Fire and Rainforests’, which increases understanding of the rainforest and fire dynamic, its impact on key species, and informs fire management in the Wet Tropics region.
  • ‘Harnessing Natural Regeneration for Cost-effective Rainforest Restoration’, which measures the rate and pattern of vegetation development in replanted sites and re-growth sites to determine most appropriate restoration method for any scenario.

WTMA is bringing together Queensland Government officials from Brisbane and Cairns to learn about the research outcomes from these NERP projects, identify the management implications, and discuss how the new knowledge can be translated into practice.

Activities currently proposed include a government workshop in Cairns in May and a public seminar at the Boggo Road Ecosciences Precinct in Brisbane later in the year.

The ultimate aim of the project is to encourage high-level government support for managing current and emerging threats to the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, as informed by NERP research. A key output will be a report that will be used by WTMA to brief Queensland Government Ministers later in the year.

Contact Project Coordinator, Kerryn O’Conor (kerryn.oconor@wtma.qld.gov.au) for more information.

 

 
 

An Outlook Consensus workshop was organised and convened by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) in Townsville on 14–16 October 2013 supported by ‘Contestable Funds’ from the Tropical Ecosystems Hub. The objective of the workshop was to secure an independent set of expert judgments about condition, trends and risks in the Great Barrier Reef Region that could be used to inform GBRMPA’s preparation of the 2014 Great Barrier Reef Outlook Report.

The workshop involved eliciting information and consensus from 31 subject experts selected by GBRMPA. The workshop was convened and moderated an external facilitator with extensive experience in the conduct of similar elicitation exercises.

The three-day workshop process involved anonymous voting on the condition, trends and risks relating to the Great Barrier Reef Region. The voting procedures were conducted using a pre-set decision structure derived from the Great Barrier Reef Outlook Report 2009, and within a specified set of assumptions and guidance.

The workshop outcomes confirm the extent and breadth of opinion held in the scientific community about a number of issues in the Region. A key outcome is confirmation that the condition of a substantial number of habitats and species in the Region is considered to be substantially degraded compared to their expected condition if there had been no human influence on the ecosystem.

Human influence and hence impacts are continuing, and are considered to be resulting in a broad trend of continuing but variable declines in biodiversity and ecosystem health in the region. The trend of current decline is evidenced by the much larger number of both biodiversity and ecosystem health condition components considered to be deteriorating compared to the number that are improving. This relates to the dominant current risks: impacts of climate change, human activities and development in the coastal areas and rivers discharging to the region, and the direct extraction of resources, including fishing. The findings provide a strong basis for the development of a robust 2014 Outlook Report.

The full report has been submitted to Government and can be accessed at http://elibrary.gbrmpa.gov.au/jspui/bitstream/11017/2858/1/Expert%20Workshop%20Report%20-%20GBR%20Outlook%202014_Web060614.pdf.

For more information, contact Dr Fergus Molloy from GBRMPA at fergus.molloy@gbrmpa.gov.au.

 

 

 

Goldcoast.com.au

08 October 2013


THE discovery of another species of rare frogs forced changes to the design of a Gold Coast light rail bridge, it can be revealed.

The green-thighed frog is the second rare amphibian found on the tram route after a colony of tusked frogs were discovered in Surfers Paradise and had to be relocated to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. Read more

 

 

 

News.com.au

26 June 2013


Migaloo, the world-famous white humpback whale, has reportedly been spotted on the annual mass whale migration to the Great Barrier Reef.

The 14m-long albino male, previously the only documented white humpback whale on the planet, is a star feature of the 12,000km journey. Read more

 

 

 

Coral trout (Plectropomus spp.) are iconic coral reef fishes that occur throughout the Indo-Pacific, and are important species for recreational and commercial fisheries, including those within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

Larval coral trout settle out of the plankton onto the reef during a critical life phase known as “recruitment” Successful recruitment requires specific conditions of food and shelter, with some places on the reef preferred to others. On the Keppel Is group such “hotspots” have been found in back reef, lagoon and reef slope habitats and typically have a mix of live coral patches dispersed among coral and sand.

But what does this mean for reef management? Are hotspots important when considering zoning and sustainability?  Drs David Williamson and Colin Wen of JCU have just released a policy brief which provides detail on their work on hotspots within Project 8.2 and discusses the importance of such areas for management of the GBR.

For further information contact: david.williamson@jcu.edu.au

Project: 8.2 Do no-take marine reserves contribute to biodiversity and fishery sustainability? Assessing the effects of management zoning on inshore reefs of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park

 

 

 

CO2 Science

07 August 2013


In a paper published earlier this year in Nature Climate Change, Wiedenmann et al. (2013) note that mass coral bleaching "has been identified as the most severe threat to coral reef survival on a global scale," citing Hughes et al. (2003); but they indicate that regionally "nutrient enrichment of reef waters is often associated with a significant loss of coral cover and diversity," citing the work of Fabricius (2005). In addition, and citing Wooldridge (2009), they also state that more recently, "increased dissolved inorganic nitrogen concentrations have been linked to a reduction of the temperature threshold of coral bleaching." Read more
 

 

 

The Newsport Daily

17 January 2014


Scientists have gained new insight into the damage done to coral in The Southern Great Barrier Reef by river run-off caused by intense weather events like the 2011 floods.

Core samples obtained from corals around the Keppel Islands reveals the way flood plumes from Queensland's Fitzroy River catchment have impacted reefs as far as 50km from the mouth of the river. Read More

 

 

 

Sky News

25 October 2013


A decision on a controversial dredging project near the Great Barrier Reef may be delayed again.

The federal government expects to make a call on the project before the end of the year, but won't say whether it will meet the previous Labor government's November 9 deadline. Read More

 

 

 

9 News

27 November 2013


With concerns that humans are turning into couch potatoes, it seems our fishy friends may be in the same boat.

A study has found large reef fish are becoming more lethargic as oceans warm up. Read more

 

 

 

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