Temporal trends in reptile occurrence among temperate old-growth, regrowth and replanted woodlands.

Reptiles are an important part of the vertebrate fauna in the temperate woodlands of south-eastern Australia. However, compared to birds and mammals, the long-term occurrence of reptiles across woodland growth types-old growth, regrowth, and replantings-remains poorly understood. Here, using 18-years of data gathered at 218 sites across 1.

Improved management of farm dams increases vegetation cover, water quality, and macroinvertebrate biodiversity.

In many farming landscapes, aquatic features, such as wetlands, creeks, and dams, provide water for stock and irrigation, while also acting as habitat for a range of plants and animals. Indeed, some species threatened by land-use change may otherwise be considerably rarer-or even suffer extinction-in the absence of these habitats. Therefore, a critical issue for the maintenance of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes is the extent to which the management of aquatic systems can promote the integration of agricultural production and biodiversity conservation.

Density of invasive western honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies in fragmented woodlands indicates potential for large impacts on native species.

Feral Apis mellifera colonies are widespread globally and cause ecological impacts as pollinators and competitors for food and nesting opportunities. The magnitude of impact depends on their population density, but knowledge of this density is poor. We document feral A.

Increased livestock weight gain from improved water quality in farm dams: A cost-benefit analysis.

Access to water is a critical aspect of livestock production, although the relationship between livestock weight gain and water quality remains poorly understood. Previous work has shown that water quality of poorly managed farm dams can be improved by fencing and constructing hardened watering points to limit stock access to the dam, and revegetation to filter contaminant inflow. Here we use cattle weight gain data from three North American studies to develop a cost-benefit analysis for the renovation of farm dams to improve water quality and, in turn, promote cattle weight gain on farms in south-eastern Australia.

Avian functional responses to landscape recovery.

Restoring native vegetation in agricultural landscapes can reverse biodiversity declines via species gains. Depending on whether the traits of colonizers are complementary or redundant to the assemblage, species gains can increase the efficiency or stability of ecological functions, yet detecting these processes is not straightforward. We propose a new conceptual model to identify potential changes to complementarity and redundancy in response to landscape change via relative changes in taxonomic and functional richness.

Weather effects on birds of different size are mediated by long-term climate and vegetation type in endangered temperate woodlands.

Species occurrence is influenced by a range of factors including habitat attributes, climate, weather, and human landscape modification. These drivers are likely to interact, but their effects are frequently quantified independently. Here, we report the results of a 13-year study of temperate woodland birds in south-eastern Australia to quantify how different-sized birds respond to the interacting effects of: (a) short-term weather (rainfall and temperature in the 12 months preceding our surveys), (b) long-term climate (average rainfall and maximum and minimum temperatures over the period 1970-2014), and (c) broad structural forms of vegetation (old-growth woodland, regrowth woodland, and restoration plantings).

Temporal trends in mammal responses to fire reveals the complex effects of fire regime attributes.

Fire is a major ecological process in many ecosystems worldwide. We sought to identify which attributes of fire regimes affect temporal change in the presence and abundance of Australian native mammals. Our detailed study was underpinned by time series data on 11 mammal species at 97 long-term sites in southeastern Australia between 2003 and 2013.

Geographical variation in body size and sexual size dimorphism in an Australian lizard, Boulenger's Skink (Morethia boulengeri).

Ecogeographical rules help explain spatial and temporal patterns in intraspecific body size. However, many of these rules, when applied to ectothermic organisms such as reptiles, are controversial and require further investigation. To explore factors that influence body size in reptiles, we performed a heuristic study to examine body size variation in an Australian lizard, Boulenger's Skink Morethia boulengeri from agricultural landscapes in southern New South Wales, south-eastern Australia.

The value of countryside elements in the conservation of a threatened arboreal marsupial Petaurus norfolcensis in agricultural landscapes of south-eastern Australia--the disproportional value of scattered trees.

Human activities, particularly agriculture, have transformed much of the world's terrestrial environment. Within these anthropogenic landscapes, a variety of relictual and semi-natural habitats exist, which we term countryside elements. The habitat value of countryside elements (hereafter termed 'elements') is increasingly recognised.

Multi-scale associations between vegetation cover and woodland bird communities across a large agricultural region.

Improving biodiversity conservation in fragmented agricultural landscapes has become an important global issue. Vegetation at the patch and landscape-scale is important for species occupancy and diversity, yet few previous studies have explored multi-scale associations between vegetation and community assemblages. Here, we investigated how patch and landscape-scale vegetation cover structure woodland bird communities.

Cross-sectional and temporal relationships between bird occupancy and vegetation cover at multiple spatial scales.

Scale is a key concept in ecology, but the statistically based quantification of scale effects has often proved difficult. This is exemplified by the challenges of quantifying relationships between biodiversity and vegetation cover at different spatial scales to guide restoration and conservation efforts in agricultural environments. We used data from 2002 to 2010 on 184 sites (viz.

Not all kinds of revegetation are created equal: revegetation type influences bird assemblages in threatened Australian woodland ecosystems.

The value for biodiversity of large intact areas of native vegetation is well established. The biodiversity value of regrowth vegetation is also increasingly recognised worldwide. However, there can be different kinds of revegetation that have different origins.

Testing hypotheses associated with bird responses to wildfire.

Disturbance is a key ecological process influencing the distribution and abundance of many elements of the earth's biota. Predicting the response of biota to disturbance is therefore important, but it nevertheless remains difficult to make accurate forecasts of response. We tested predictions from disturbance-related theories and concepts in 10 vegetation types at Booderee National Park (southeastern Australia) using a retrospective study of bird responses to fire history (over 35 years) on 110 sites and a prospective study following a single wildfire event in 2003 at 59 of these sites.

The combined effects of remnant vegetation and tree planting on farmland birds.

Biodiversity conservation on agricultural land is a major issue worldwide. We estimated separate and joint effects of remnant native woodland vegetation and recent tree plantings on birds on farms (approximately 500-1000 ha) in the heavily cleared wheat and sheep belt of southern Australia. Much of the variation (>70%) in bird responses was explained by 3 factors: remnant native-vegetation attributes (native grassland, scattered paddock trees, patches of remnant native woodland); presence or absence of planted native trees; and the size and shape of tree plantings.

Reptile and arboreal marsupial response to replanted vegetation in agricultural landscapes.

We report reptile and arboreal marsupial responses to vegetation planting and remnant native vegetation in agricultural landscapes in southeastern Australia. We used a hierarchical survey to select 23 landscapes that varied in the amounts of remnant native vegetation and planted native vegetation. We selected two farms within each landscape.