New paper in Annals of Forest Science

Coutts, S., Caplat, P., Cousins, K., Ledgard, N. & Buckley, Y.M. (2012). Reproductive ecology of Pinus nigra in an invasive population: individual and population level variation in seed production and timing of seed release. Annals of Forest Science [DOI 10.1007/s13595-012-0184-5]

The full journal article can be found here

Summary provided by Dr. Shaun Coutts

In this paper we describe two aspects of the reproductive ecology of an invasive pine (Pinus nigra) in New Zealand – the distribution of fecundity within a population and the timing of seed release.

By distribution of fecundity we mean how many cones each tree produced each year. Typically, plant populations have right skewed distributions of fecundity. This means that a few individuals produce a lot of cones, while the majority produce very few. We found that P. nigra was no exception, with a right skewed, negative binomial distribution being a good fit to each year’s observed fecundity. The negative binomial distribution is the distribution of cones you would expect to see if every tree had a different ability to produce cones (perhaps due to genetic differences or fine scale environmental heterogeneity). We also found that even though trees varied a lot in their cone production from year to year, it was always the same trees that produced the most cones. This means that a few individuals have far higher lifetime reproduction than the rest of the population.

We also found that P. nigra tended to release more seeds when conditions were windy and dry, a result that has implications for the spread of this particular invasive population. Due to the mountains surrounding our study site (see attached picture), the warm dry winds tend to be far stronger than cool damp ones, and as such the pine trees preferentially release seeds when conditions favour long distance dispersal.

Postdoctoral research fellow positions within the Environmental Decisions Group, UQ

The Environmental Decisions Group (EDG) includes a variety of Australian and International research centres, hubs and teams who all have a focus on Environmental Decisions Science. The Director of EDG is Professor Hugh Possingham, internationally recognised as a leader in the field of conservation biology and decision-making, who is located at the School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, Australia.

In 2011, EDG secured substantial funding through the Australian Research Council Centres of Excellence Program (CEED) and the Australian Governments National Environmental Research Program (NERP).  Two postdoctoral research fellow positions are now available within EDG at The University of Queensland, each being funded by either NERP or CEED.

Postdoctoral Research Fellow – Environmental Decisions – NERP. Information about the position funded by NERP can be found here.

Postdoctoral Research Fellow – Environmental Decisions – CEED. Information about the position funded by CEED can be found here.

Applications for either position closes on 1st Feb 2012.

PhD positions available in Buckley lab

The Buckley lab is currently recruiting potential PhD students to work on projects in plant population ecology, invasive plant management, management and multi-species interactions and effects of multiple decision makers in environmental decision making.

Excellent domestic and international students are welcome to email their cv and an expression of interest to Yvonne Buckley y.buckley@uq.edu.au .

Information about international scholarships available for potential PhD students is listed here

 

International PhD Scholarships in Biology at UQ

The School of Biological Sciences is a large and research intensive unit at the University of Queensland, one of Australia’s most prestigious Universities. The School has broad expertise across the disciplines of ecology and evolution, molecular and quantitative genetics, developmental biology, behaviour, plant and animal physiology, and conservation biology.  Our research programs span all scales of biological organisation, from molecules and cells, to organisms, populations, species and communities, and take advantage of study animal and plant systems in a large variety of habitats (see http://www.biology.uq.edu.au/ for detailed information on our research programs). The School is very pleased to announce a new initiative that has made available a number of PhD scholarships for talented International students who enrol in our PhD program in 2012.

Qualifications

Applicants should possess a Bachelor’s degree with Honours, Master of Science, MPhil or equivalent, and must be accepted into the PhD program at the University of Queensland. The UQ Graduate School website provides further information on the entry requirements for admission to the PhD program (http://www.uq.edu.au/grad-school/our-research-degrees).

Remuneration

Living stipend (scholarship) of $23,728 per annum for 3 years which is tax free, with the possibility of a 6 month extension. International students normally pay international student fees of $29,600 per year, however individuals successful in gaining one of these scholarships will also be granted a full tuition-fee waiver.

The Application Process

Interested students should identify potential supervisors within their research area of interest (http://www.biology.uq.edu.au/academic-staff) and contact them to discuss potential projects. Strong candidates will be invited to apply for entry to the PhD program, and if accepted into the program will be considered for the School of Biological Sciences International Scholarships on a competitive basis.

Enquiries

For further information on the application process please contact the Postgraduate Administration Officer Gail Walter gj.walter@uq.edu.au

Yvonne & collaborators awarded ARC Discovery Projects funding for 2012

Dr Yvonne Buckley and fellow collaborators – Dr Simon Blomberg (University of Queensland), A/Prof Glenda Wardle (University of Sydney),  Prof Johan Ehrlen (University of Stockholm) and Dr Elizabeth Crone (Harvard University) – have successfully been awarded ARC Discovery Projects funding for the project “Population fluctuations: models, mechanisms and management”.

This project will look at how changes in plant populations lead to extinctions and invasions in Australia, and globally, and will determine the drivers of plant population change and provide new tools to enable better population management.

Integrating social and scientific factors in invasive species management

Paul Caplat and Shaun Coutts have written in Environmental Management, about integrating societal expectations and science for conservation, with a focus on invasive species. It was a response to a paper claiming that invasion ecologists never account for society’s views – we say they often do, and why, when they don’t, they don’t.

Over the hump

ECOLOGISTS USE THE POWER OF NETWORK SCIENCE TO CHALLENGE 30 YEAR HUMP THEORY

Written by Yvonne Buckley

For decades, ecologists have toiled to nail down general principles explaining why some habitats have so many more plant and animal species than others. Much of this debate is focused on the idea that the number of species is determined by the productivity of the habitat.

Yvonne Buckley (University of Queensland), Jennifer Firn (Queensland University of Technology), Joslin Moore (ARCUE), Suzanne Prober (CSIRO) and John Morgan (LaTrobe University) are the Australian members of an international team of ecologists that has pooled its resources to re-evaluate the relationship between species numbers and habitat productivity.

Five years ago a core group of ecological researchers in the USA formed the Nutrient Network or “NutNet”, a cooperative research initiative dedicated to investigating biodiversity and ecosystem processes in grasslands around the world.  Their innovative, standardized global sampling of 48 sites on five continents, including five sites across Australia (Photo 1 – Burrawan site, Qld), and has yielded an unprecedented data set.

 

The NutNet’s findings, which represent a significant advance in ecological thought, appear in the Sept. 23, 2011 issue of the journal Science (abstract online).

“Our study shows no clear relationship between productivity and the number of plant species in small study plots,” says lead author, Dr Peter Adler from Utah State University.

“We challenged a prevailing model developed in the early 1970s by British ecologist J. Philip Grime,” says Dr Adler. “He proposed that the number of species rises then declines with increasing productivity.”

Though hotly debated, this “hump-shaped” model has remained a textbook standard for nearly four decades.

 “When I first heard about the Nutrient Network global project I thought we had a real chance to find out if this theory holds right around the world in different ecosystems”, says Dr Buckley. “The idea of doing a globally replicated experiment is very powerful and we have already found out some very exciting ecological principles”. (Photo 2 – Australian researchers in the field)

“This is ecology’s version of the Large Hadron Collider or Human Genome Project, we have to work across multiple sites in multiple different ecosystems from sub-tropical grasslands to Arctic tundra to find answers to the really big questions in ecology”, says Dr Buckley.

 “Our data emphasize the need to consider many factors to explain patterns of diversity – not just productivity alone,” Dr Adler says.

For the ecological community, Dr Adler says, NutNet’s current findings should spur ecologists to focus on other important factors regulating biodiversity, such as evolutionary history, disturbance and resource supply.

 “Our data emphasize the need to consider many factors to explain patterns of diversity – not just productivity alone,” Dr Adler says

“It’s time to remove outdated models from our textbooks and concentrate on more sophisticated approaches,” Dr Adler says. “That will improve our ability to predict the effect of environmental change on biodiversity.”

The full journal article detailing the research is also available online.