Masters and Honours projects
Please contact us for more information about these and other potential Masters or Honours research projects.
How does fire influence bird diversity in wet forest?
Fire is a major source of disturbance in forest ecosystems, and its frequency and severity are expected to increase under climate change. It is currently the second greatest threat to Australia’s birds after direct habitat clearance, and the implications of changing fire regimes for bird diversity are unclear. The wet forest of Victoria’s Central Highlands supports a rich diversity of birds and is among the most flammable ecosystems worldwide. This project will examine the responses of birds to time since fire and fire severity in wet forest with a view to informing ecologically-sensitive management of wet forest systems.
Contact Dr Holly Sitters
Long-term monitoring of the effects of fire mosaics on biodiversity
Fire regimes are predicted to influence biodiversity by contributing to environmental heterogeneity. The fire ecology and biodiversity group are conducting a long-term research project investigating relationships between fire-mediated environmental heterogeneity and aspects of biodiversity in the Otway Ranges. There are opportunities for students to undertake projects collecting data on mammals, birds or plants to test these relationships.
Contact Dr Matthew Swan
Relationships between fuel and habitat
Forest flammability is strongly related to fuel characteristics. As such fuel characteristics are assessed by land managers across a range of different forest types. Forest components that contribute to fuel are also likely to form habitat for a range of fauna. Measured fuel characteristics may therefore be a useful surrogate for habitat structure. There is an opportunity to investigate relationships between fuel characteristics and aspects of habitat structure that are important for different fauna. This project will be undertaken in the central highlands of Victoria.
Contact Dr Matthew Swan
Can bioacoustic recorders replace traditional bird survey methods?
New technology is revolutionising the collection of ecological data. For example, bioacoustic recorders offer great promise as a means of surveying forest birds, and are likely to be particularly useful for identifying cryptic species that are difficult to detect using traditional survey methods such as point counts. However, little is known about the extent to which bioacoustic recorders offer a reliable and efficient substitute for traditional survey methods. This project will compare bird data derived from traditional survey methods with data derived from bioacoustic recorders in stands of Mountain Ash, which is the tallest flowering plant in the world and supports a diverse bird assemblage.
Contact Dr Holly Sitters
Remote cameras in biodiversity research and monitoring: Does vegetation clearing change the answer?
Remote cameras are increasingly used for detecting animals in research and monitoring projects. In forested ecosystems a common protocol is to attach cameras to a tree or stake 30-50 cm from the ground and point them towards a bait station 1-3m away. Vegetation between the camera and bait is usually cleared to improve the clarity of the images and increase the proportion of correct species identifications. The objective of this project is to test the effect of vegetation clearing on the data collected by remote cameras. Vegetation density will be included as covariate in the analysis.
Contact Dr Julian Di Stefano
Remote cameras in biodiversity research and monitoring: Do bait stations alter animal movement patterns?
Remote cameras are increasingly used for detecting animals in research and monitoring projects. In forested ecosystems a common protocol is to attach cameras to a tree or stake 30-50 cm from the ground and point them towards a bait station 1-3m away. In many situations data from cameras are used to calculate an index of species abundance, which is then correlated with measured characteristics of the site. Such analyses assume that the abundance of a species is linked to site characteristics, but this assumption may be faulty if the bait station attracts individuals from other areas. The objective of this project is to test the degree to which remote camera bait stations alter the movement patterns of fauna. The target species is likely to be a small mammal (e.g. the bush rat, Rattus fuscipes) and field work will involve radio tracking at night.
Contact Dr Julian Di Stefano
Using habitat suitability models to prioritise survey effort for threatened small mammals
The small mammals of the Eastern Otway Ranges have faced heavy declines in the last 30 years. This includes the threatened New Holland Mouse Pseudomys novaehollandiae, White footed Dunnart Sminthopsis leucopus and Swamp Antechinus Antechinus minimus. The fire ecology and biodiversity group are undertaking a project to create habitat suitability models of the small mammal fauna of the Eastern Otways using historical and more recent data. The objective of this project is to validate and improve the modelling process by identifying and surveying areas of high habitat suitability where previous data are lacking. This project will contribute to the conservation of these species within the Otways landscape.
Contact Dr Matthew Swan
How does fire influence bird diversity in wet forest?
Fire is a major source of disturbance in forest ecosystems, and its frequency and severity are expected to increase under climate change. It is currently the second greatest threat to Australia’s birds after direct habitat clearance, and the implications of changing fire regimes for bird diversity are unclear. The wet forest of Victoria’s Central Highlands supports a rich diversity of birds and is among the most flammable ecosystems worldwide. This project will examine the responses of birds to time since fire and fire severity in wet forest with a view to informing ecologically-sensitive management of wet forest systems.
Contact Dr Holly Sitters
Long-term monitoring of the effects of fire mosaics on biodiversity
Fire regimes are predicted to influence biodiversity by contributing to environmental heterogeneity. The fire ecology and biodiversity group are conducting a long-term research project investigating relationships between fire-mediated environmental heterogeneity and aspects of biodiversity in the Otway Ranges. There are opportunities for students to undertake projects collecting data on mammals, birds or plants to test these relationships.
Contact Dr Matthew Swan
Relationships between fuel and habitat
Forest flammability is strongly related to fuel characteristics. As such fuel characteristics are assessed by land managers across a range of different forest types. Forest components that contribute to fuel are also likely to form habitat for a range of fauna. Measured fuel characteristics may therefore be a useful surrogate for habitat structure. There is an opportunity to investigate relationships between fuel characteristics and aspects of habitat structure that are important for different fauna. This project will be undertaken in the central highlands of Victoria.
Contact Dr Matthew Swan
Can bioacoustic recorders replace traditional bird survey methods?
New technology is revolutionising the collection of ecological data. For example, bioacoustic recorders offer great promise as a means of surveying forest birds, and are likely to be particularly useful for identifying cryptic species that are difficult to detect using traditional survey methods such as point counts. However, little is known about the extent to which bioacoustic recorders offer a reliable and efficient substitute for traditional survey methods. This project will compare bird data derived from traditional survey methods with data derived from bioacoustic recorders in stands of Mountain Ash, which is the tallest flowering plant in the world and supports a diverse bird assemblage.
Contact Dr Holly Sitters
Remote cameras in biodiversity research and monitoring: Does vegetation clearing change the answer?
Remote cameras are increasingly used for detecting animals in research and monitoring projects. In forested ecosystems a common protocol is to attach cameras to a tree or stake 30-50 cm from the ground and point them towards a bait station 1-3m away. Vegetation between the camera and bait is usually cleared to improve the clarity of the images and increase the proportion of correct species identifications. The objective of this project is to test the effect of vegetation clearing on the data collected by remote cameras. Vegetation density will be included as covariate in the analysis.
Contact Dr Julian Di Stefano
Remote cameras in biodiversity research and monitoring: Do bait stations alter animal movement patterns?
Remote cameras are increasingly used for detecting animals in research and monitoring projects. In forested ecosystems a common protocol is to attach cameras to a tree or stake 30-50 cm from the ground and point them towards a bait station 1-3m away. In many situations data from cameras are used to calculate an index of species abundance, which is then correlated with measured characteristics of the site. Such analyses assume that the abundance of a species is linked to site characteristics, but this assumption may be faulty if the bait station attracts individuals from other areas. The objective of this project is to test the degree to which remote camera bait stations alter the movement patterns of fauna. The target species is likely to be a small mammal (e.g. the bush rat, Rattus fuscipes) and field work will involve radio tracking at night.
Contact Dr Julian Di Stefano
Using habitat suitability models to prioritise survey effort for threatened small mammals
The small mammals of the Eastern Otway Ranges have faced heavy declines in the last 30 years. This includes the threatened New Holland Mouse Pseudomys novaehollandiae, White footed Dunnart Sminthopsis leucopus and Swamp Antechinus Antechinus minimus. The fire ecology and biodiversity group are undertaking a project to create habitat suitability models of the small mammal fauna of the Eastern Otways using historical and more recent data. The objective of this project is to validate and improve the modelling process by identifying and surveying areas of high habitat suitability where previous data are lacking. This project will contribute to the conservation of these species within the Otways landscape.
Contact Dr Matthew Swan
