Australian cities can help conserve the country’s endangered animals and plants say CEED scientists. New research reveals that Australian cities still retain a remarkable number of threatened species. All Australian cities and towns contain species that are officially listed as threatened. Sydney has the most, at 126 species, Kalgoorlie-Boulder in Western Australia has the most […]
A new pathway for saving Arctic and Antarctic biodiversity from climate change has been proposed by CEED scientists: the world should tackle immediate threats like pollution, over-fishing and invasive species in both the northern and southern polar regions to boost their ability to withstand climate change. Climate change remains the greatest threat to the Arctic […]
CEED scientists have called for a greater international collaborative effort to save the world’s migratory birds, many of which are at risk of extinction due to loss of habitat along their flight paths. More than 90% of the world’s migratory birds are inadequately protected due to poorly coordinated conservation around the world. The research found […]
A new study says that more than 17,000 marine species worldwide remain largely unprotected. The authors (including several CEED researchers) looked at the ranges of some 17,348 species of marine life, including whales, sharks rays and fish, and found that 97.4% have less than 10% of their range represented in marine protected areas. http://ceed.edu.au/ceed-news/ceed-media-releases/322- major-shortfalls-identified-in-marine-conservation.html
CEED member Roberto Salguero-Gómez manages a plant database called COMPADRE that brings together the life histories of over a thousand plant species. In a sense, it’s a window on the ‘tree of life’ (see the story in this issue). Now Salguero-Gómez and colleagues have demonstrated the value of this window by using COMPADRE to explain […]
As a firm believer of the potential of big data for conservation biology, last year I co-organised a workshop at the UQ node of CEED together with Alienor Chauvenet (UQ), Jose Lahoz- Monfort (UMelb) and Michael Bode (UMelb) on “Big Data hits Conservation Biology”. Over 30 researchers from the University of Queensland, the University of […]
Two global demographic databases Demography is simply the study of how the population of a species grows or shrinks over time. Obtaining high quality demographic information about a species is fundamental to conservation science. If a population declines too far it ultimately leads to its extinction (consider the Tasmanian tiger). If it expands too much, […]
Every two years the ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions brings its people together in one place to share new ideas, reflect on what’s been happening and plan for the future. In December, CEED’s 2015 conference was held in Canberra at the Australian National University. As always it generated a wealth of ideas, catalysed […]
What is CEED? Go to our website and you’ll read it’s a ‘partnership’ and a ‘world-leading research centre’ (for solving environmental management problems and for evaluating the outcomes of environmental actions). Of course, that’s true but it says little about the people that make up CEED. At its heart, CEED is a network of people […]
How ecosystem services can better inform environmental decisions Key messages ecosystem services is a timely and relevant concept in the science policy interface most research on ecosystem services does not cover all elements of the decision-making process future assessments need to better articulate objectives, identify performance measures and consider the alternative actions Ecosystem services are […]
Connecting a fragmented landscape with human wellbeing Key messages natural landscapes are being fragmented in Australia and around the world not only does this impact biodiversity, it also disrupts the provision of ecosystem services we propose a new framework that examines the supply, demand and flow of ecosystem services as a means of assessing the […]
Accounting for the interactions between management actions Key messages threatened species face multiple threats that need managing effective management requires a consideration of how management actions for different threats might act together considering management interactions when choosing conservation priorities is not common Threatened plants and animals often face multiple threats, each of which require different […]
The consequences of inconsistently classifying woodland birds (and other terms) Key messages woodland birds are inconsistently classified this inconsistency has a significant impact on research involving woodland birds inconsistencies in other areas of conservation science are likely having similar impact Woodland birds are bird species which depend on native woodlands. They are sometimes called woodland-dependent […]
Small patches of native vegetation are critically important to biodiversity conservation and need greater protection from clearing according to a new analysis undertaken by Ayesha Tulloch and colleagues. Just because a patch of native vegetation might be small, doesn’t mean we can afford to lose it. The researchers examined historical and current patch-size distributions to […]
Identifying and eliminating threats is just one part of what should be a comprehensive conservation plan. Using threat maps alone doesn’t mean a successful conservation outcome.
Two themes dominate many of the stories in this issue of Decision Point: managing conservation threats and accounting for ecosystem services. While these are quite different topics, underlying both of them in this set of articles is a plea to look at the bigger picture. What is the context of the threat or the ecosystem […]