Austral Ecology最新文献

{"title":"Weathering the Dry: Behaviour of the Marsupial Glider Petaurus notatus in Inland New South Wales, Australia","authors":"Tess Atkinson,&nbsp;Belinda R. Wright,&nbsp;Mark Krockenberger,&nbsp;George Madani,&nbsp;Robert Frend,&nbsp;Valentina S. A. Mella","doi":"10.1111/aec.70231","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/aec.70231","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Taxonomic revision can introduce uncertainty into conservation assessment by reshaping species boundaries, distributions, and the interpretation of historical data. Here, we integrated ecological and threat-related information for a recently revised mammal species to evaluate its responses to climate extremes and an introduced predator within its updated geographic range. Specifically, we aimed to (1) confirm the presence of <i>Petaurus notatus</i> in the Liverpool Plains, New South Wales, as per proposed revised distribution, (2) investigate if feral predator detection is linked to the suggested decline in detection of these gliders at the study area, and (3) explore the behaviour of gliders at artificial water points in relation to weather. We conducted trapping, spotlighting surveys and collected eDNA samples from water stations to determine species presence. Tissue samples were also collected from a glider carcass found opportunistically. We used remote video monitoring at water stations to quantify detections of feral cats (<i>Felis catus</i>) and assess whether these were associated with changes in glider detections between 2016 and 2023. Finally, we quantified behaviour of gliders accessing the water stations and their drinking behaviour related to temperature and rainfall. No gliders were captured or detected during spotlighting surveys, nor could they be identified through eDNA analysis, but the glider carcass was that of <i>P. notatus</i>. Cat detection did not appear to influence glider detection at artificial water stations. Gliders spent more time drinking per visit when temperatures were high and rainfall was infrequent. This study confirms the presence of <i>P. notatus</i> in the Liverpool Plains and provides one of the first ecological insights for the species in this region, contributing important baseline data to inform its management. It also suggests that <i>P. notatus</i> may be vulnerable to climate change. The strategic placement and monitoring of water supplementation points, a growing tool in wildlife conservation under increasingly arid conditions, could support adaptive management in response to climate pressures.</p>","PeriodicalId":8663,"journal":{"name":"Austral Ecology","volume":"51 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2026-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/aec.70231","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148088451","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"","authors":"","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":8663,"journal":{"name":"Austral Ecology","volume":"51 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2026-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148090265","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"","authors":"","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":8663,"journal":{"name":"Austral Ecology","volume":"51 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2026-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148089876","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effects of Recurrent Fires on the Interactions Between Frugivorous Birds and Plants","authors":"Marco A. Pizo,&nbsp;Ícaro Gabriel S. Gilbert,&nbsp;Tomás A. Carlo,&nbsp;Aarón González-Castro","doi":"10.1111/aec.70239","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/aec.70239","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Anthropogenic fires are increasingly affecting native vegetation worldwide, with consequences not only for species occurrence but also for ecological interactions. We investigated the effects of two fire events, spaced by a 2-year interval, on interactions between frugivorous birds and fleshy-fruited plants. We monitored a Cerrado site—a fire-adapted savanna ecosystem—for 5 years: 2 years before the first fire, 1 year after the first fire and 2 years after the second fire. We tested the effects of recurrent fires on weighted connectance, weighted nestedness, Shannon's index of interaction diversity, and linkage density in frugivore–plant interaction networks. We also examined how bird and plant abundance changed across fire events, and how bird body mass and degree of frugivory, as well as fruit pulp-to-seed mass ratio and lipid content, influenced the frequency of bird–plant interactions. Furthermore, we assessed dissimilarity between interaction networks sampled after each fire relative to pre-fire networks by partitioning it into species turnover and interaction rewiring components. Both fruit and bird abundance declined following fires, which also reduced the total number of possible interactions (connectance) within the community. Fires decreased interaction rates per bird and per plant species, particularly those involving the most well-connected species. Before fires, both functional traits and abundances influenced interaction frequencies, whereas after fires, species abundances became the dominant factor. Dissimilarity between pre- and post-fire periods was driven more by interaction rewiring than by species turnover. We conclude that increased fire frequency alters not only species occurrence and abundances but also the structure of frugivory and seed-dispersal networks with potential consequences for Cerrado recovery and resilience, likely depending on fire frequency and severity.</p>","PeriodicalId":8663,"journal":{"name":"Austral Ecology","volume":"51 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2026-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/aec.70239","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148089886","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Herpetofaunal Diversity and Endemism Hotspots in Australia's Fire-Impacted Subtropical Rainforests Show Fine-Scale Variation Across Metrics and Taxa","authors":"Janne J. Torkkola,&nbsp;Harry B. Hines,&nbsp;Alienor L. M. Chauvenet,&nbsp;Paul M. Oliver","doi":"10.1111/aec.70230","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/aec.70230","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Identifying biodiversity hotspots is a key strategy for prioritising conservation efforts. However, depending on the biodiversity measures or taxonomic groups used, different areas may be prioritised, especially at broader spatial scales. For instance, areas occupied by range-restricted taxa (endemism hotspots) may not necessarily intersect with high species diversity areas (alpha diversity hotspots) and may be overlooked in broader scale analyses dominated by signatures from wide-ranged species. Here we examine how key measures of endemism and alpha diversity overlap within a naturally fragmented and restricted habitat dominated by Short-Range Endemic taxa—Australia's subtropical rainforests. We focus on reptiles and amphibians (the two vertebrate groups with the most endemics) and compare distribution of hotspots derived using three biodiversity measures—Alpha Diversity, Weighted Endemism and Corrected Weighted Endemism. We also test how hotspots overlap with areas recently impacted by fires of unprecedented extent, an emerging threat to this system. Contra global differences in biodiversity patterns across tetrapods, frog and reptile alpha diversity and endemism hotspots in Australian subtropical rainforests intersect with each other and show peaks in upland areas of paleoclimatic stability. However, Corrected Weighted Endemism analyses highlight additional peripheral reptile endemism hotspots outside of Alpha Diversity hotspots, especially in the poorly known ‘vine-thicket’ rainforest habitats of mid-east Queensland. Analyses of the extent of two recent massive fire events show many of these peripheral hotspots of weighted endemism have been impacted, further highlighting areas such as the mid-east Queensland vine-thickets as a priority for targeted survey and conservation assessment. These results emphasise that bushfire, climate change and habitat loss all threaten short-ranged endemic rainforest species, especially those in small habitat patches outside of alpha diversity hotspots and associated protected areas.</p>","PeriodicalId":8663,"journal":{"name":"Austral Ecology","volume":"51 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2026-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/aec.70230","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148076513","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"","authors":"","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":8663,"journal":{"name":"Austral Ecology","volume":"51 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2026-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148076534","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Severe Fire Reduces Flowering in Corymbia maculata: Implications for Avian Flower-Visitors","authors":"Andrew Anoochah Williamson,&nbsp;Rachael H. Nolan,&nbsp;Sally A. Power,&nbsp;Rose L. Harper,&nbsp;Amy-Marie Gilpin","doi":"10.1111/aec.70229","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/aec.70229","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In the Austral summer of 2019/2020, south-east Australia experienced an unprecedented wildfire season. Although much of the Australian flora is adapted to fire, little is known about how fire affects flowering and flower-visiting fauna. Our aim was to investigate the relationship between fire severity and abundance of flowers produced by <i>Corymbia maculata,</i> a dominant canopy tree in forests along the south-east coast of Australia. We also examined whether fire severity and flowering effort impact the abundance and diversity of avian flower-visitors. Three study sites were established in each of three fire severity classes, in three locations (Nowra State Forest, Meroo National Park and Murramarang National Park). Fire severity classes were canopy burn (&gt; 90% canopy scorched or consumed), understory burn (&gt; 10% burnt understory, &lt; 90% canopy scorch) and unburnt. Surveys were conducted every 4 weeks over the flowering season from May to September 2022 and 2023, with no flowering observed in 2023. At each site, a 50 m transect was established and all trees within 1 m of the transect measured (diameter at breast height) and the percentage of the canopy covered in flowers assessed. Avian flower-visitors were recorded during each site visit on five trees for 15 min per tree. We observed that significantly fewer trees flowered at sites with a canopy burn (8% ± SE 5.1, <i>n</i> = 16), compared to understory burn (26.9% ± SE 5.2, <i>n</i> = 63), or unburnt (31.3% ± SE 8.1, <i>n</i> = 78). We also observed that larger trees had a greater probability of producing flowers. While there were differences in abundances of <i>Trichoglossus moluccanus</i> and <i>Caligavis chryops,</i> overall bird diversity did not differ among fire severities. By studying the impact of fire on post-burn flowering success, we can better understand the potential impacts on plant reproduction and the availability of food resources for nectarivores and pollinivorous organisms.</p>","PeriodicalId":8663,"journal":{"name":"Austral Ecology","volume":"51 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2026-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/aec.70229","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148077511","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"","authors":"","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":8663,"journal":{"name":"Austral Ecology","volume":"51 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2026-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148077063","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"","authors":"","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":8663,"journal":{"name":"Austral Ecology","volume":"51 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2026-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148077062","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mangrove Ecosystem Recovery Following Plastic Removal: Evidence From Crab Burrow Dynamics in Southeastern Mauritius","authors":"Nazurally Nadeem,&nbsp;Dishti Dabeedass,&nbsp;Tashika Kalloo,&nbsp;Bipasha Sookun,&nbsp;Bhuvaneshwaree Surroop,&nbsp;Doorgashi Boyjoo,&nbsp;Bibi Alïa Nowrung,&nbsp;Mahindra Chooneea,&nbsp;Vanisha Oogarah-Hanuman,&nbsp;Sunita Facknath","doi":"10.1111/aec.70228","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/aec.70228","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Plastic accumulation in mangrove ecosystems can severely impair sediment structure, faunal activity and ecological function. Field surveys were conducted annually between 2020 and 2024 within the Ferney mangrove forest located on the southeastern coast of Mauritius. Plastic debris was quantified through systematic coastal cleanup surveys, while crab populations were assessed using 50 quadrat sampling units (1 m² each) distributed across the study site. Crab burrows were counted as an indicator of habitat utilisation and population recovery. The total mass of litter removed significantly decreased from 3759 kg in 2020 to 438 kg in 2024, while crab burrow counts significantly increased from a mean of 42.7 to 1751.3 burrows per 50 quadrats, indicating enhanced habitat use and re-establishment of crab populations. Dominant species included <i>Cardisoma carnifex</i>, <i>Paraleptuca chlorophthalmus</i>, <i>Austruca</i> spp. and <i>Scylla serrata</i>, all key contributors to sediment turnover and mangrove ecosystem function. Pearson's correlation indicated a strong negative correlation between the two variables (<i>ρ</i> = −0.93, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.01). Sediment clearing and improved oxygenation likely facilitated recruitment and reoccupation. Photographic records confirmed the reappearance of burrows and herbaceous regrowth in previously obstructed areas. However, the spread of invasive species such as <i>Pongamia pinnata</i> coincided with canopy gaps and altered substrate conditions. While natural mangrove seedling recruitment remained absent, the significant increase in crab activity confirms that plastic removal efforts led to measurable ecological recovery. These findings demonstrate the ecological benefits of sustained plastic removal initiatives and highlight the importance of community-based conservation efforts for restoring mangrove ecosystem functionality. Long-term monitoring, regulation of invasive species and policy-driven cleanup protocols are recommended to sustain ecosystem function and guide future restoration efforts.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":8663,"journal":{"name":"Austral Ecology","volume":"51 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2026-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148077507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}