In the Oxley Common, one nest box in particular is attracting a lot of attention. Maybe it’s the view, or just the facilities, but nest box UQS005 is in high demand from local avian residents.

These local rosellas seemed interested in the nest box…

…but a prior claim arrived.

An altercation ensued…

…before the Galahs got back to chewing at the nest box.

The Rainbow Lorikeets thought with all that fuss it must be worth a look.

Meanwhile the Common Mynas have set up house in a nearby Eucalyptus, which also contains nests of Rainbow Lorikeets, Scaly-breasted Lorikeets, Sulphur-crested Cockatoos and Magpies.

Thanks to Steve Gray for the great photos and commentary.

Kark Group has recently installed more nesting boxes out at UQ’s Gatton Campus, and began monitoring the critters that have made their homes in our boxes across Brisbane.

See a selection of box residents.

Read more about our project.

Cover photo credit: Steve Gray

We have an article in the October edition of Decision Point discussing the recent CEED workshop Salit led in Canberra in June.

Read it here.

Feb 2015

Tessa Mazor has been awarded her PhD and started a postdoc at CSIRO working on global scale trawling.

Tessa has published 5+ papers from her PhD, well done Tessa, warm congratulations on completing this so elegantly and smoothly!!!

Tessa Mazor, who has recently submitted her PhD in Kark Group, has published along with other experts a paper in Ecological Applications about: Large-scale conservation planning in a multinational marine environment: cost matters

This study aims to provide an approach for including cost when planning large-scale Marine Protected Area (MPA) networks that span multiple countries. In order to include cost in conservation prioritization, we developed surrogates that account for revenue from multiple marine sectors: commercial fishing, noncommercial fishing, and aquaculture. We found that for less than 10% of the Sea’s area, our conservation targets can be achieved while incurring opportunity costs of less than 1%. In marine systems, we reveal that area is a poor cost surrogate and that the most effective surrogates are those that account for multiple sectors or stakeholders. Furthermore, our results indicate that including cost can greatly influence the selection of spatial priorities for marine conservation of threatened species.

Full reference: Mazor T, Giakoumi S, Kark S, Possingham HP (2014) Large-scale conservation planning in a multinational marine environment: cost matters. Ecological Applications 24:1115–1130. dx.doi.org/10.1890/13-1249.1

Our PhD student Tessa, along with Salit, Hugh and research colleagues, have published a paper in PLoS One, titled: The crowded sea: incorporating multiple marine activities in conservation plans can significantly alter spatial priorities.

This paper explores how the inclusion of multiple marine activities can shape conservation plans. We used the entire Mediterranean territorial waters of Israel as a case study to compare four planning scenarios with increasing levels of complexity, where additional zones, threats and activities were added. We found that by including increasing numbers of marine activities and zones in the planning process, greater compromises are required to reach conservation objectives. This case study follows an illustrated framework for adopting a transparent systematic process to balance biodiversity goals and economic considerations within a country’s territorial waters. This work had important findings for Israel which is currently aiming to expand its current network of protected areas.

Full reference: Mazor T, Possingham HP, Edelist D, Brokovich E, Kark S (2014) The Crowded Sea: Incorporating Multiple Marine Activities in Conservation Plans Can Significantly Alter Spatial Priorities. PLoS ONE 9(8): e104489. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0104489.

The first nest boxes are going into the trees for the 2014 breeding season! This project sees Salit Kark, along with research assistant Carla Archibald and Honours students Laura Cox and Emily Dayman, monitoring breeding of cavity nesting birds. To read more about our research on native and invasive species, click here.

Photo credit: Steve Gray.

In photo from left to right: Laura Cox, Salit Kark, Carla Archibald and Emily Dayman during nest box installation in Oxley Creek, Brisbane, August 2014

Salit Kark was profiled recently for her Australian Research Council grant, which looks at interactions that influence the spread of invasive species.

View the flyer.
Read more about this research here.