School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences - Research Publications
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ItemAusTraits, a curated plant trait database for the Australian flora(NATURE PORTFOLIO, 2021-09-30)We introduce the AusTraits database - a compilation of values of plant traits for taxa in the Australian flora (hereafter AusTraits). AusTraits synthesises data on 448 traits across 28,640 taxa from field campaigns, published literature, taxonomic monographs, and individual taxon descriptions. Traits vary in scope from physiological measures of performance (e.g. photosynthetic gas exchange, water-use efficiency) to morphological attributes (e.g. leaf area, seed mass, plant height) which link to aspects of ecological variation. AusTraits contains curated and harmonised individual- and species-level measurements coupled to, where available, contextual information on site properties and experimental conditions. This article provides information on version 3.0.2 of AusTraits which contains data for 997,808 trait-by-taxon combinations. We envision AusTraits as an ongoing collaborative initiative for easily archiving and sharing trait data, which also provides a template for other national or regional initiatives globally to fill persistent gaps in trait knowledge.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableMisinformation, internet honey trading and beekeepers drive a plant invasion(WILEY, 2020-11-17)Biological invasions are a major human induced global change that is threatening global biodiver-sity by homogenizing the world’s fauna and flora. Species spread because humans have movedspecies across geographical boundaries and have changed ecological factors that structure ecosys-tems, such as nitrogen deposition, disturbance, etc. Many biological invasions are caused acciden-tally, as a byproduct of human travel and commerce driven product shipping. However, humansalso have spread many species intentionally because of perceived benefits. Of interest is the role ofthe recent exponential growth in information exchange via internet social media in driving biologi-cal invasions. To date, this has not been examined. Here, we show that for one such invasive spe-cies, goldenrod, social networks spread misleading and incomplete information that is enhancingthe spread of goldenrod invasions into new environments. We show that the notion of goldenrodhoney as a “superfood” with unsupported healing properties is driving a demand that leads bee-keepers to produce goldenrod honey. Social networks provide a forum for such informationexchange and this is leading to further spread of goldenrod in many countries where goldenrod isnot native, such as Poland. However, this informal social information exchange ignores laws thatfocus on preventing the further spread of invasive species and the strong negative effects thatgoldenrod has on native ecosystems, including floral resources that negatively impact honeybeeperformance. Thus, scientifically unsupported information on “superfoods” such as goldenrodhoney that is disseminated through social internet networks has real world consequences such asincreased goldenrod invasions into novel geographical regions which decreases native biodiversity.
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ItemDisentangling chronic regeneration failure in endangered woodland ecosystems(Ecological Society of America, 2019-04-14)Ecological restoration of degraded ecosystems requires the facilitation of natural regeneration by plants, often augmented by large-scale active revegetation. The success of such projects is highly variable. Risk factors may be readily identifiable in a general sense, but it is rarely clear how they play out individually, or in combination. We addressed this problem with a field experiment on the survival of, and browsing damage to, 1275 hand-planted buloke (Allocasuarina luehmannii) seedlings in a nationally endangered, semi-arid woodland community. Buloke seedlings were planted in 17 sites representing four landscape contexts and with three levels of protection from kangaroo and lagomorph browsing. We censused seedlings and measured herbivore activity four times during the first 400 days post-planting, and fitted models of mortality and browse hazard to these data using survival analysis. Increasing lagomorph activity was associated with higher mortality risk, while kangaroo activity was not. Seedling survival was lowest for each treatment within extant buloke woodland, and the highest survival rates for guarded seedlings were in locations favoured by lagomorphs. Damage from browsing was nearly ubiquitous after one year for surviving unguarded seedlings, despite moderate browser activity. On average, unguarded seedlings showed a decline in height, whereas fully guarded seedlings grew 2.3 cm across the survey period. This study demonstrates buloke seedlings should be protected from browsers, even with browsers maintained at moderate to low density, and the location that maximizes survival, and possibly growth rates, is adjacent to dunes. Further work will test this heuristic in an analysis of cost-effective revegetation strategies for this endangered community.
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ItemIndigenous plants promote insect biodiversity in urban greenspaces(WILEY, 2021-06)The contribution of urban greenspaces to support biodiversity and provide benefits for people is increasingly recognized. However, ongoing management practices favor vegetation oversimplification, often limiting greenspaces to lawns and tree canopy rather than multi-layered vegetation that includes under- and midstorey, and the use of nonnative species. These practices hinder the potential of greenspaces to sustain indigenous biodiversity, particularly for taxa like insects that rely on plants for food and habitat. Yet, little is known about which plant species may maximize positive outcomes for taxonomically and functionally diverse insect communities in greenspaces. Additionally, while cities are expected to experience high rates of introductions, quantitative assessments of the relative occupancy of indigenous vs. introduced insect species in greenspace are rare, hindering understanding of how management may promote indigenous biodiversity while limiting the establishment of introduced insects. Using a hierarchically replicated study design across 15 public parks, we recorded occurrence data from 552 insect species on 133 plant species, differing in planting design element (lawn, midstorey, and tree canopy), midstorey growth form (forbs, lilioids, graminoids, and shrubs) and origin (nonnative, native, and indigenous), to assess (1) the relative contributions of indigenous and introduced insect species and (2) which plant species sustained the highest number of indigenous insects. We found that the insect community was overwhelmingly composed of indigenous rather than introduced species. Our findings further highlight the core role of multi-layered vegetation in sustaining high insect biodiversity in urban areas, with indigenous midstorey and canopy representing key elements to maintain rich and functionally diverse indigenous insect communities. Intriguingly, graminoids supported the highest indigenous insect richness across all studied growth forms by plant origin groups. Our work highlights the opportunity presented by indigenous understory and midstorey plants, particularly indigenous graminoids, in our study area to promote indigenous insect biodiversity in urban greenspaces. Our study provides a blueprint and stimulus for architects, engineers, developers, designers, and planners to incorporate into their practice plant species palettes that foster a larger presence of indigenous over regionally native or nonnative plant species, while incorporating a broader mixture of midstorey growth forms.