Integrating research and restoration: the establishment of a long-term woodland experiment in south-eastern Australia

Abstract

Long-term studies of ecological restoration, within a designed randomized experimental framework, are uncommon; however, such projects provide hitherto under-utilized opportunities to inform both evidence-based management planning and action, and ecological theory. Baseline data collected prior to the application of treatments allows accurate estimation of changes taking place on the experimental units, and random allocation of treatments ensures that relations between causes and effects can be established. This is critical to effective active adaptive management. In this paper, we outline the establishment phase of a new long-term ecological restoration experiment in south-eastern Australia, that will test ways of improving critically endangered box gum grassy woodlands for biodiversity.In the experimental design, treatments include the addition of 2000 tonnes of coarse woody debris, exclusion of kangaroos and fire. Random variation in biophysical variables occurs at several levels. To facilitate accurate estimation of key main effects, selected high order interactions are partially confounded with 'random' block terms. Response variables include: plants, birds, small mammals, reptiles and invertebrates. Analysis of baseline data across selected response variables confirmed no pre-treatment effects.The experiment provides a strong inferential framework for tracking the effects of restoration treatments on woodland biodiversity over coming years. It also provides a model for other similar experiments that integrate restoration and research. A newly constructed feral animal-proof fence, that will allow reintroduction of locally extinct species, including ecosystem engineers, will provide additional opportunities to research the woodland restoration process. This experiment will become a long-term ecological research site, and an 'outdoor laboratory' for ecological restoration research, and community and student learning. need for conservation decisions to be evidence-based (Sutherland et al. 2004). Evidence-based management is also recognized as a desirable objective by government land management agencies; however, there is often a lack of resources and expertise to undertake the underpinning research. There is a critical need for longterm experiments in ecological restoration to inform conservation decision-making, particularly in highly modified or endangered ecosystem types.An example of a highly modified endangered ecosystem in Australia is temperate woodland, which is one of the vegetation types most profoundly affected by European settlement (Yates and Hobbs 1997; Hobbs and Yates 2000). A range of human-induced disturbances have led to a drastic reduction in the extent and condition of temperate woodland ecosystems. These threatening processes include: direct vegetation clearing, vegetation modification and fragmentation, altered grazing regimes, removal of fallen timber and dead trees (often for firewood), inappropriate re-vegetation activities, physical disturbance (e.g. 'tidying up', cultivation...

Linking bird species traits to vegetation characteristics in a future urban development zone: implications for urban planning

“…We surveyed birds using fixed-radius point counts (Sutherland et al 2004), at each of the two survey points at each site (following Manning et al 2011). We recorded the presence of all bird species seen or heard within a 50 m radius during a 10 min timeframe.…”

“…A site consisted of two adjoining 50 m radii (0.8 ha) circles, with one survey point at the centre of each circle ( Fig. 1b; Manning et al 2011). We determined the number and placement of sites using stratified random sampling, so that sites were spread across the five vegetation classes (Table 1).…”

Approaches to Landscape Scale Inference and Study Design

“…Cox [19] and Mead [20] provide comprehensive accounts of statistical design of experiments, and Johnstone [21] discusses some practical issues in planning and managing experiments in ecology and agricultural research. There are relatively few true experiments in landscape ecology, although some of the fragmentation experiments established over the past 5-30 years are an exception [3,[22][23][24][25]. We established a true experiment in the wet forests of Victoria to answer the question: What is the response of vertebrate biota to different spatial patterns of logging?…”

Reptile bycatch in a pest-exclusion fence established for wildlife reintroductions

“…The 791 ha reserve is part of a large-scale woodland restoration project (Manning et al 2011), around which an 11.5 km-long pestexclusion fence was constructed in 2009. The fence design was based on similar fences in Australia (Moseby & Read 2006).…”

“…Several self-closing gates are placed in the fence perimeter which allows visitors and park maintenance staff to pass (Shorthouse et al 2012). The goal of the pest-exclusion fence is to protect native fauna and flora within the fenced boundaries, to facilitate re-introduction of locally extirpated species, including the Eastern Bettong (Bettongia gaimardi) and the Southern Brown Bandicoot (Isoodon obesulus), and to exclude the introduced fox, domestic cats and dogs, as well as hares and rabbits from the sanctuary (Manning et al 2011;Shorthouse et al 2012). …”