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Fire Ecology and Biodiversity
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Welcome to 

Fire Ecology and

Biodiversity


School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences | Faculty of Science

University of Melbourne

About us

Is the Fire & Fragmentation Project honeymoon period over?

31/5/2017

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Evidence for

Evidence against

Having carefully balanced the evidence, we conclude that the honeymoon period lives on.

Last week the Fire & Fragmentation Project team ventured out to the heathy woodland between Dartmoor and Edenhope to set up their second round of camera traps.  This work is part of Zahlia and Lauren's studies into the effects of fire and fragmentation on mammals.  They are currently going through the photos from their first round of camera trapping, and will compile their favourites soon.  Please stay tuned.

Thanks to Sarah, Lauren and Zahlia for providing all the evidence.
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We have a new Facebook page!

19/5/2017

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We will be posting regularly with information on what’s happening with our group at the Creswick campus, photos taken during fieldwork, volunteering opportunities and more!

If you’re interested in keeping up with some of the daily activities our group gets up to please like and follow our new page.
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Conservation of the threatened brush-tailed phascogale in a degraded landscape

14/5/2017

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Brush-tailed phascogale. © Jerry Alexander
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Degraded woodland in Central Victoria. © Cara Mansfield
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A phascogale being wrangled. © Cara Mansfield
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Cat Nield weighing an animal. © Cara Mansfield
Habitat loss and degradation have contributed significantly to the decline of many species worldwide. To address this loss, we first require a comprehensive understanding of habitat requirements and resource-use patterns of the species under threat.

In our new paper, we aimed to quantify variation in the habitat of a the threatened brush-tailed phascogale (Phascogale tapoatafa tapoatafa), by measuring several physical characteristics of trees and ground cover.  We surveyed phascogales in Central Victoria over a 13-year period from 2000 to 2012, and measured habitat variables characterising tree communities, ground cover and coarse woody debris.

The highest overall animal abundance was at sites characterised by red stringybark, red box, grey box and broad-leaved and narrow-leaved peppermints. At these sites, red stringybark and grey box trees were of small diameter and tended to have small hollows.

Our study has provided new information concerning spatial patterns of phascogale abundance and resource use within a forested area that has been subjected to multiple disturbances. Currently, the composition and age structure of tree communities and ground habitats are a response to severe disturbance due to past mining and harvesting activities.

​Successful conservation of this threatened species could be enhanced through active management of this forest to maintain the ongoing supply of nesting hollows and foraging resources.

Mansfield, C., Arnold, A., Bell, T.L. & York, A. (in press). Habitat characteristics and resource use of a threatened arboreal marsupial in a degraded landscape: the brush-tailed phascogale (Phascogale tapoatafa tapoatafa) in central Victoria, Australia. Wildlife Research. DOI
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Congratulations to Sarah McColl-Gausden on completing an epic fieldwork campaign!

5/5/2017

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Sarah has recently finished the fieldwork component of her Masters project in the Otway Ranges.

She has been measuring the three-dimensional structure of vegetation at the long-term monitoring sites and collecting fuel hazard information. The next step is to explore how the flammability of different forest types changes over time using these data.  

Thanks to all of the amazing volunteers (around 25 of them!) who have helped out in the field over the last eight months.
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Bumper news catch-up #2

1/5/2017

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For the last few months Annalie, Ellen, Julian, Matt and a team of volunteers have been out working in the Otway Ranges, discovering (or re-discovering!) the long-term monitoring sites established there. These field trips have focused on deploying camera traps and measuring vegetation structure across a range of habitat types from wet forest to heathland.

Annalie has just started her PhD studying how variation in the fire regime (e.g. time since fire and fire severity) affects biodiversity in the Otway Ranges. The information collected from these initial excursions will help build on the long-term monitoring data previously collected by the Fire Ecology and Biodiversity Group.  Hopefully this data will allow us to separate the effect of habitat type from the effects of fire diversity.

​Ellen also recently began her Masters project, using the same dataset as Annalie to examine how forest flammability and vegetation structure relate to the occurrence of ground-dwelling mammals.  She will combine the fauna data gathered from the motion-sensitive cameras with measurements of habitat structure, fuel hazard and new flammability modelling.

Many thanks to the amazing volunteers we’ve had so far. We still have a couple of field trips coming up so please contact Annalie if you’re interested in joining us for one of them!
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Where to find us

University of Melbourne
4 Water Street
Creswick
Victoria 3363

Phone +61 (0)3 5321 4300 or email us

Photos contributed by Holly Sitters, Bronwyn Hradsky, and remote cameras.
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