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Monday, 25 January 2010

The West Australian wheatbelt's York gum woodlands will be used as a model for ecosystems facing the challenges of climate and land-use change world-wide, thanks to research led by The University of Western Australia.

Australian Laureate Fellow Professor Richard Hobbs, of the School of Botany, is using an Australian Research Council Discovery grant of almost $500,000 to lead a study that aims to provide guidance for the management of important plant communities wherever they are on the planet.

Synergistic changes are altering ecosystems and creating new groupings of species, Professor Hobbs said.  "We know little about how these assemblages develop and function, and yet they are likely to become more pervasive and provide a significant conservation and restoration challenge."

Professor Hobbs said many people were unaware of the extent to which our lives were affected by ecosystems, whether by the value of biodiversity, or through forestry, food production, water quality and carbon sequestration.

Co-researchers are Dr Margaret Mayfield of the University of Queensland and Professor Robert Holt of the University of Florida.

"My colleagues in this project are both from the United States," Professor Hobbs said.  "WA is regarded around the world as a significant biodiversity hotspot; a unique and fragile environment that is facing huge challenges."

Widely distributed, the York gum woodlands vary from good condition to degraded.  Those in good condition host flora species including annual indigenous wildflowers and fauna such as small native mammals and marsupials, lizards and birds.  However, with climate and land-use change, the assemblages of species are altering.

Having ascertained which sites they will study, the team will seek historical records and photos where possible of some of the sites to gain insight into their earlier condition.  Then the researchers will move indigenous and non-native species from one region to another and observe their performance over several years in order to develop a model that will help to predict ongoing changes.

Media references

Australian Laureate Fellow Professor Richard Hobbs  (+61 8)  6488 4691
Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 5563  /  (+61 4) 32 637 716

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