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Conservation of the remnant Banksia woodland of the Swan Coastal Plain is the subject of a major research collaboration between The University of Western Australia and Kings Park and Botanic Garden.

Funded by an Australian Research Council Linkage grant of almost $500,000, the project aims to manipulate the genetic diversity of Banksia woodland species, improving their resilience to climate change.

Led by Australian Laureate Fellow Professor Richard Hobbs, of UWA's School of Plant Biology, and Professor Kingsley Dixon and Dr Siegfried Krauss, of Kings Park and Botanic Garden and UWA, the ARC project will significantly advance understanding of the evolutionary processes involved in restoration and is relevant to ecological restoration carried out by communities, governments and industry around the world.

The project will result in improved restoration success, better long-term ecological functioning in restored ecosystems, better investment of resources, and maintenance of Australia's biodiversity in the face of rapid environmental change.

Professor Dixon said that although clearing, exotic competitors, salinity, plant pathogens and fire threatened our natural ecosystems he was optimistic that restoration work would be successful if scientists were able to optimise regenerative success.

In a related project, researchers are studying the ecophysiological adaptations of Banksia woodland species to the stresses of drought and soil compaction in post-minesite restoration.  The three key species - Banksia attenuata, Banksia menziesii and Eucalyptus todtiana (or prickly bark) - will be the subject of tests to determine their ability to recover from water stress under different soil compaction levels.  Tests will also look at the extent and causes of soil compaction, which results in limited root development and water harvesting.

PhD student Stephen Benigno, who is studying at UWA and Kings Park and Botanic Garden, after completing a BSc at The University of Texas, said the project was relevant to global restoration efforts.  While industry in Texas was focussed on oil and gas and natural landscapes contained more pine and oak, and plant responses to stress were species-specific, there were commonalities in ecological restoration wherever it was undertaken.

Media references

Australian Laureate Fellow Professor Richard Hobbs (+61 8)  6488 4691
Professor Kingsley Dixon (+61 8)  9480 3614  /  (+61 4) 17 772 205
Stephen Benigno (+61 4) 30 274 293
Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 5563  /  (+61 4) 32 637 716