Large-Scale Landscape Experiments: Lessons

Landscape change and habitat fragmentation are key factors impacting biodiversity worldwide. These processes have many facets, each of which is usually studied in isolation. The Tumut Fragmentation Study has run for over 11 years and yielded extensive data on changes in both plant and animal populations in areas of native forest and pine plantation. The study is unique in the way that many different factors and processes, influencing a wide range of species groups, have been studied in the one large-scale natural experiment. Writing for academic researchers, professionals and graduate students, David Lindenmayer uses the study and other relevant research to provide an overview of the relationships between landscape change, habitat fragmentation and biodiversity conservation. Key lessons are drawn on throughout the book, on the design and implementation of large-scale ecological studies, biodiversity conservation in fragmented landscapes, and the management of plantation landscapes for enhanced nature conservation.

David B. Lindenmayer is Professor of Conservation Science and Ecology in the Fenner School of Environment and Society at The Australian National University, Canberra.

Preface	p. xiii
Acknowledgments	p. xv
The science of understanding landscape change: setting the scene for the Tumut Fragmentation Study	p. 1
A guide to using the book	p. 5
A few caveats	p. 6
The theory: an overview of landscape change and habitat fragmentation	p. 9
The 'species-orientated' to 'patterns-based' continuum	p. 9
Conceptual models of landscape cover	p. 14
Landscape context and landscape heterogeneity	p. 23
Threshold responses to native vegetation cover	p. 25
Patch size relationships	p. 26
Habitat subdivision, habitat isolation and metapopulation dynamics	p. 27
Connectivity	p. 29
Nestedness	p. 31
Edges	p. 33
Summary	p. 36
The field laboratory: the Tumut study area and the vertebrate animals it supports	p. 39
Geology and climate	p. 39
Plantation vegetation cover	p. 40
Native vegetation cover	p. 43
Disturbance	p. 45
Fauna of the Tumut region	p. 45
Birds	p. 47
Mammals	p. 50
Reptiles	p. 57
Frogs	p. 57
Other groups	p. 66
Summary	p. 66
Setting up the study: the design and implementation of the main cross-sectional study at Tumut	p. 67
The experimental design underpinning the cross-sectional study at Tumut	p. 67
Reasons why the Tumut area was selected for study	p. 89
Limitations of the cross-sectional study of landscape context effects	p. 93
Target groups selected for study	p. 93
Summary	p. 94
The core findings: the effects of landscape context on animals and plants	p. 97
Survey methods	p. 97
Arboreal marsupials	p. 98
Small terrestrial mammals	p. 101
Birds	p. 104
Reptiles	p. 109
Frogs	p. 111
Invertebrates	p. 112
Vascular plants	p. 115
Invasive vascular plants	p. 115
Bryophytes	p. 118
Summary of landscape context effects for different groups	p. 120
Patch use: how animals use patches of remnant eucalypt forest surrounded by pine	p. 123
Movement and other changes in patches of different sizes	p. 123
Bird calling behaviour within patches	p. 128
Patch-matrix interrelationships	p. 134
Altered breeding behaviour and dispersal	p. 135
Summary	p. 136
Theory against data: testing ecological theories and concepts	p. 139
Conceptual models of landscape cover	p. 139
Nested subset theory	p. 144
Ecological thresholds in the amounts of native vegetation cover	p. 149
Landscape indices	p. 153
Tests of the peninsula effect	p. 161
Other tests of theory	p. 164
Summary	p. 164
Testing PVA models with real data: melding demographic work with population modelling	p. 167
Population viability analysis (PVA)	p. 167
PVA model testing at Tumut	p. 168
Model testing for arboreal marsupials	p. 169
Model testing for small mammals	p. 177
Model testing for birds	p. 182
Lessons from Tumut	p. 186
Summary	p. 190
Genes in the landscape: integrating genetic and demographic analyses	p. 193
Genetic analyses of Bush Rat populations	p. 194
Genetic analyses of Agile Antechinus populations	p. 201
Genetic analyses of Greater Glider populations	p. 203
Genetic analyses of saproxylic beetle populations	p. 208
Summary	p. 209
Refining and extending the research programme: additional studies at Tumut (and nearby) that build on the Fragmentation Study	p. 211
The Edge Experiment	p. 212
The Nest Predation Study	p. 214
The Nanangroe Natural Experiment	p. 217
Summary	p. 222
Recommendations for plantation managers: implications for biodiversity and conservation in plantations	p. 225
The significance of plantation expansion as a form of landscape change	p. 225
Softwood plantation management and the conservation of remnant native vegetation	p. 226
The lack of indicator species	p. 232
Summary	p. 232
Lessons on running large-scale research studies: some insights from running the Tumut Fragmentation Study and directions for the future	p. 235
The challenges of maintaining a large-scale, multifaceted research project	p. 235
Deficiencies in existing work and future work	p. 238
Some concluding remarks	p. 240
List of collaborators / contributors to the Tumut Fragmentation Experiment	p. 241
Detections of bird species in the Tumut Fragmentation Study classified by four broad classes of sites	p. 245
References	p. 253
Index	p. 283
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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Large-Scale Landscape Experiments: Lessons from Tumut

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

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