Faculty of Science | University of Melbourne
Fire Ecology and Biodiversity
  • News
  • Our projects
    • Fire & Fragmentation
    • Fire, Landscape Pattern & Biodiversity
    • Ecosystem Resilience of Heathlands
  • People
  • Opportunities
  • Publications
  • Contact

Welcome to 

Fire Ecology and

Biodiversity


School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences | Faculty of Science

University of Melbourne

About us

Four thesis completions and a conference prize!

18/12/2017

0 Comments

 
Hearty congratulations to Andrew, Lauren, Sarah and Zahlia on the completion of their research projects.  

Zahlia's project examined responses of mammal functional diversity to vegetation structure, fire history and landscape context, and Lauren's explored the responses of individual mammal species to spatial pattern across a gradient of scales.  Their theses are the first to arise from the Fire & Fragmentation Project, so their work involved delving into relatively uncharted waters.  They spent a fair chunk of time chasing elusive remnant patches of vegetation, and were among the first of us to discover some of western Victoria's less accommodating roads.  The long days (weeks) they spent staring at wildlife camera images and consulting experts will be enormously helpful to the camera trappers of the future.  We owe them (at least) one!

We also congratulate Andrew Stephens and Sarah on completion of their Masters theses.  Sarah undertook an epic fieldwork campaign involving measurement of three-dimensional vegetation structure and collection of fuel hazard information at Otways sites.  Her thesis is accompanied by a new paper in Forests comparing visual assessment of surface fuel loads with destructively sampled surface fuels.  
​

Andrew used a vascular plant dataset collected in the Otways under the Fire, Landscape Pattern & Biodiversity Project to examine the responses of fire persistence traits to productivity and fire gradients.

Andrew, Lauren, Sarah and Zahlia have successfully wrangled their research questions, data and writing within relatively short periods of time, and we hope they have particularly laid back festive seasons!  Please find their thesis titles here, and get in touch for more information about their work.

The thesis-submission season overlapped the conference (and fieldwork) season to make for an action-packed spring. 

​Holly visited Queenstown, NZ for the SEEM (statistics in ecology and environmental monitoring) conference, and Alan, Annalie, Kate, Sandra and Sarah attended the recent joint conference of the Ecological Society of Australia and the New Zealand Ecological Society in the Hunter Valley. 

​Kate won an award for the presentation she gave on her mountain brushtail possum tracking research.  


Well done Kate on this fantastic achievement!
0 Comments

Congratulations to Kirsten Langmaid on completing her Masters research project!

29/6/2017

2 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Picture
Kirsten worked with Kate in the Central Highlands to investigate the responses of Mountain Bobucks (Trichosurus cunninghami) to fire.  She measured the home range sizes of animals fitted with GPS collars, and examined the response of home range size to fire severity and vegetation diversity.

She found that home ranges were smaller in areas burnt by high-severity fire in 2009 than in long-unburnt areas.  Smaller home ranges reflect high quality habitat, and it's likely that regenerating acacia in burnt areas provides bobucks with an abundant food supply.  Within areas burnt by high-severity fire, there was a positive relationship between home range size and vegetation-type diversity, indicating that riparian vegetation is particularly resource-rich.

These results will help researchers and land mangers better understand the implications of changing fire regimes for bobuck populations.

Well done Kirsten, and thanks to Julio, Kate and Kirsten for the photos!
2 Comments

Fieldwork fun and other spring pursuits

26/11/2015

1 Comment

 
Alarmingly, it’s been two months since our last news item, so we’ve put together a collection of photos to illustrate some of our springtime activities.

Many thanks to Julio and Alan for these photos.
1 Comment

Congratulations to Carolina Galindez Silva on her PhD completion

19/4/2015

8 Comments

 
Please contact Carolina to find out more about her PhD project.
Carolina’s thesis is titled “Fire, resources and behavioural responses of ground-dwelling mammals”, and she investigated how bush rats and swamp wallabies responded to a change in availability and distribution of vegetation resources due to a low-intensity planned fire at Henderson Creek in the Otways. 

She used microsatellite genotyping to study movement of bush rats between slopes and gullies, and GPS technology to study swamp wallabies’ home range, habitat use and movement during the fire event. 

The fire did not adversely affect the two study species, although the responses were variable, reflecting the importance of investigating the effect of planned burns at different spatial and temporal scales.


8 Comments

    Author

    Fire Ecology and Biodiversity at UniMelb

    Archives

    July 2022
    December 2021
    September 2021
    July 2021
    March 2021
    September 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015

    Categories

    All
    Birds
    Camera Trapping
    Conference
    Connectivity
    Ecosystem Function
    Edge Effects
    Elliott Trapping
    Fieldwork
    Fire And Fragmentation
    Flammability
    Fungi
    GPS Tracking
    Heterogeneity
    Invertebrates
    Mammals
    Microbats
    Mount Lofty Ranges
    Plants
    Pollination
    Predators
    Prescribed Fire
    Reptiles
    Teaching
    Thesis
    Time Since Fire
    Vegetation Structure
    Wet Forest
    Wildfire

    RSS Feed

    Links

    Bushfire Behaviour and Management at UniMelb
    Quantitative & Applied Ecology Group at UniMelb
    Integrated Forest Ecosystem Research at UniMelb
Picture

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, students of the Fire Ecology and Biodiversity Group, and remote cameras.
Proudly powered by Weebly