School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences - Research Publications
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ItemDecision-making of municipal urban forest managers through the lens of governance(ELSEVIER SCI LTD, 2020-02)Awareness of the benefits of urban trees has led many cities to develop ambitious targets to increase tree numbers and canopy cover. Policy instruments that guide the planning of cities recognize the need for new governance arrangements to implement this agenda. Urban forests are greatly influenced by the decisions of municipal managers, but there is currently no clear understanding of how municipal managers find support to implement their decisions via new governance arrangements. To fill this knowledge gap, we collected empirical data through interviews with 23 urban forest municipal managers in 12 local governments in Greater Melbourne and regional Victoria, Australia, and analysed these data using qualitative interpretative methods through a governance lens. The goal of this was to understand the issues and challenges, stakeholders, resources, processes, and rules behind the decision-making of municipal managers. Municipal managers said that urban densification and expansion were making it difficult for them to implement their strategies to increase tree numbers and canopy cover. The coordination of stakeholders was more important for managers to find support to implement their decisions than having a bigger budget. The views of the public or wider community and a municipal government culture of risk aversion were also making it difficult for municipal managers to implement their strategies. Decision-making priorities and processes were not the same across urban centres. Lack of space to grow trees in new developments, excessive tree removal, and public consultation, were ideas more frequently raised in inner urban centres, while urban expansion, increased active use of greenspaces, and lack of data/information about tree assets were concerns for outer and regional centres. Nonetheless, inter-departmental coordination was a common theme shared among all cities. Strengthening coordination processes is an important way for local governments to overcome these barriers and effectively implement their urban forest strategies.
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Item‘The great publication race’ vs ‘abandon paper counting’: Benchmarking ECR publication and co-authorship rates over past 50 years to inform research evaluation(F1000 Research Ltd, 2022)
Background:
Publication and co-authorship rates have been increasing over decades. In response, calls are being made to restrict the number of publications included in research evaluations. Yet there is little evidence to guide publication expectations and inform research evaluation for early career researchers (ECRs). Methods: Here we examine the early career publication and co-authorship records between 1970 and 2019 of >140,000 authors of 2.8 million publications, to identify how publication and co-authorship rates have changed over the last 50 years. This examination is conducted in order to develop benchmarks of median publication rates for sensibly evaluating ECR research productivity, and to explore success in meeting these benchmarks with different co-authorship strategies using regression models. Results: Publication rates of multidisciplinary ECRs publishing in Nature, Science and PNAS have increased by 46% over the last 50 years and that publications rates in a set of disciplinary journals have increased by 105%. Co-authorship rates have increased even more, particularly for the multidisciplinary sample which now has 572% more co-authors per publication. Benchmarks based on median publication rates for all authors increased from one publication per year at the start of a career, to four publications per year after 10 years of publishing, and one first-author publication across all years. The probability of meeting these benchmarks increases when authors publish with different co-authors, and first authorship rates decrease for ECRs with many co-authors per publication. Conclusion: This evidence could be used to inform sensible publishing expectations for ECRs and the institutions they work for, and to inform calls to limit the number of publications produced by researchers and those used in research evaluations. -
ItemThe role of social license in conservation(WILEY, 2018-04)
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ItemBiotic homogenization in an increasingly urbanized temperate grassland ecosystem(WILEY, 2017-05)QUESTION: How does urbanization and associated declines in fire frequency alter the floristic composition of native temperate grasslands? Does it lead to: (1) biotic homogenization, i.e. compositional similarity between remnants increases; (2) biotic differentiation, whereby similarity between remnants declines, or; (3) clustered differentiation, where similarity between remnants remains unchanged, but composition shifts from the historical state? LOCATION: Victoria, Australia. METHODS: Using site‐level surveys, we examined changes in the floristic similarity of 29 urban grasslands from 1992 to 2013 and compared these changes to those of 63 rural grasslands from 1989 to 2014. Community‐level changes in the representation of key functional traits were also examined in urban grasslands, with traits advantaged following disturbance regime change and urban fragmentation predicted to increase in frequency. RESULTS: Our results supported the biotic homogenization hypothesis in urban grasslands. Compositional similarity between grasslands increased principally because of an increase in commonly shared non‐native species, with change in native composition comparatively minor. However, no evidence of biotic homogenization was found in rural grasslands, with no significant change in overall composition identified. The most urbanized sites had the highest number of non‐native species in both the current and historical data sets, yet non‐native composition over the past two decades changed the most in sites on the urban fringe, becoming more similar to sites closer to the urban core. As expected, following declines in fire frequency and increased urbanization, the overall composition of urban grasslands shifted to taller plant species, while native species capable of vegetative reproduction and exotic species with an annual life span increased in frequency. CONCLUSION: Urbanization was an important driver of biodiversity change in the investigated system, with increasing competition intensity in response to disturbance regime change a likely cause of biotic homogenization. Our results demonstrate that non‐native species are a key driver of biotic homogenization, emphasizing the importance of managing non‐native immigration and maintaining historical disturbance processes once native ecosystems become urbanized.
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ItemSentiment Analysis: ready for conservation(WILEY-BLACKWELL, 2016-12)
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ItemNeed for empirical evidence to support use of social license in conservation: reply to Garnett et al.(WILEY, 2018-06)Article impact statement: Understanding the role of social license informs managers and policy makers of community support and acceptance of conservation actions.
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ItemSocial and Ecological Dimensions of Urban Conservation Grasslands and Their Management through Prescribed Burning and Woody Vegetation Removal(MDPI, 2020-04-24)Natural grasslands are threatened globally. In south-eastern Australia, remnants of critically endangered natural grasslands are increasingly being isolated in urban areas. Urbanisation has led to reduced fire frequency and woody plant encroachment in some patches. Grasslands are currently being managed under the assumption that desirable management actions to address these threats (prescribed burning and removing woody vegetation) (1) lead to improved conservation outcomes and (2) are restricted by negative public attitudes. In this study, we tested these two assumptions in the context of native grassland conservation reserves in Melbourne, Australia. Firstly, we investigated differences in species and functional trait composition between patches that had been recently burnt, patches that were unburnt and patches subject to woody vegetation encroachment. We found that the functional traits of species converged in areas subject to woody plant encroachment and areas frequently disturbed by fire. Burning promoted native species, and patches of woody plants supressed the dominant grass, providing a wider range of habitat conditions. Secondly, we surveyed 477 residents living adjacent to these grassland conservation reserves to measure values, beliefs and attitudes and the acceptance of prescribed burning and removing woody vegetation. We found conflict in people’s attitudes to grasslands, with both strongly positive and strongly negative attitudes expressed. The majority of residents found prescribed burning an acceptable management practice (contrary to expectations) and removing trees and shrubs from grasslands to be unacceptable. Both cognitive factors (values and beliefs) and landscape features were important in influencing these opinions. This research provides some guidance for managing urban grassland reserves as a social–ecological system, showing that ecological management, community education and engagement and landscape design features can be integrated to influence social and ecological outcomes.
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ItemNew methods of spatial analysis in urban gardens inform future vegetation surveying(Springer, 2020-03-01)Context: Land use change requires measuring shifting patterns in biodiversity at various spatial scales to inform landscape management. Assessing vegetation change at different scales is challenging in urban ecosystems managed by many individuals. Thus, we do not know much about the structure and function of green spaces that support biodiversity. Objective: We aim to understand how vegetation structure and function indicators in urban community gardens vary with spatial scale, applying new and traditional methods in landscape ecology to inform future research and application. Methods: We performed two methods to assess garden vegetation structure (height) and function (species diversity, cover) at the garden- and garden plot scale. First, we used traditional field sampling to estimate garden vegetation at the garden scale (1 m2 quadrats along transects) and at the plot scale (estimated within entire plot) to measure height, diversity and cover. Second, we used UAV aerial imagery to derive measures of garden and plot vegetation using canopy height models (CHMs). We evaluated differences in CHMs at each scale across the gardens, and compared field and UAV-derived measures. Results: Garden vegetation characteristics vary with spatial scale. Plant species richness and vegetation cover, but not height, related to UAV-derived imagery. Conclusions: New technologies paired with traditional field methods can together inform how vegetation structure and function vary with spatial scale in urban landscapes. Spatial scale is key to accurate and meaningful urban vegetation analyses. New and traditional methods in urban ecology research should develop together to improve and streamline their future application.
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ItemQuantifying Plant Colour and Colour Difference as Perceived by Humans Using Digital Images(PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE, 2013-08-20)Human perception of plant leaf and flower colour can influence species management. Colour and colour contrast may influence the detectability of invasive or rare species during surveys. Quantitative, repeatable measures of plant colour are required for comparison across studies and generalisation across species. We present a standard method for measuring plant leaf and flower colour traits using images taken with digital cameras. We demonstrate the method by quantifying the colour of and colour difference between the flowers of eleven grassland species near Falls Creek, Australia, as part of an invasive species detection experiment. The reliability of the method was tested by measuring the leaf colour of five residential garden shrub species in Ballarat, Australia using five different types of digital camera. Flowers and leaves had overlapping but distinct colour distributions. Calculated colour differences corresponded well with qualitative comparisons. Estimates of proportional cover of yellow flowers identified using colour measurements correlated well with estimates obtained by measuring and counting individual flowers. Digital SLR and mirrorless cameras were superior to phone cameras and point-and-shoot cameras for producing reliable measurements, particularly under variable lighting conditions. The analysis of digital images taken with digital cameras is a practicable method for quantifying plant flower and leaf colour in the field or lab. Quantitative, repeatable measurements allow for comparisons between species and generalisations across species and studies. This allows plant colour to be related to human perception and preferences and, ultimately, species management.