Roads in Rainforest: best practice guidelines for planning, design and management

These Guidelines were developed as a framework for understanding the primary ecological issues to be addressed in the planning, design and management of roads in rainforest environments. This manual has been created to assist in reducing the main impacts of roads, which are primarily: • Habitat loss and fragmentation; • Reduction in habitat quality; • Edge effects; • Reduced animal movements, resulting in restricted genetic flows and diminished survival rates in some species; • Population reduction through road kill of wildlife species; • Erosion, sedimentation and pollution; • Impacts on scenic quality; • Disturbance from vehicular noise, headlights and movement; • Facilitation of the spread of exotic pests, • weeds and diseases; and • Direct mortality from road construction activities. Cumulatively, these impacts threaten the biodiversity and integrity of ecosystem processes throughout Queensland’s tropical forests. It is therefore imperative that current and future road infrastructure be designed with consideration of these factors within the context of the natural environment. This document provides a set of principles and supporting guidelines for implementing best practice planning, design and management for ecologically sustainable roads within rainforests throughout Queensland. The intention of these Guidelines is to describe the particular aspects of rainforest environments that are unique and thus require particular consideration when designing and constructing roads in these habitats. Therefore, these Guidelines were specifically developed to: • Inform planners, engineers and managers about the key ecological elements (Principles) to consider when building roads in rainforest environments; • Identify the most important issues to consider when planning, designing and implementing plans for road infrastructure so that the impacts to the primary ecological elements of rainforests are minimised. Each major issue is clarified within its own ‘Guideline’; and • Provide a set of steps and checklists within each Guideline to ensure that the core Principles are maintained throughout the different phases of planning, design and construction

Αξιολόγηση εξωτερικοτήτων εγκαταστάσεων βιοαερίου

Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense tropical race 4 (TR4) is reported for the first time in northern Queensland, the centre of Australia’s commercial banana production. The identity of the pathogen was confirmed by vegetative compatibility group testing, TR4 specific PCR tests and sequencing. Although presently confined to a single property, the disease poses a serious threat to Australia’s banana industry

The “edge effect” phenomenon: deriving population abundance patterns from individual animal movement decisions

Edge effects have been observed in a vast spectrum of animal populations. They occur where two conjoining habitats interact to create ecological phenomena that are not present in either habitat separately. On the individual-level, an edge effect is a change in behavioral tendency on or near the edge. On the population-level, it is a pattern of population abundance near an edge that cannot be explained in terms of either habitat in isolation. That these two levels of description exist suggests there ought to be a mathematical link between them. Here, we make inroads into providing such a link, deriving analytic expressions describing oft-observed population abundance patterns from a model of movement decisions near edges. Depending on the model parameters, we can see positive, negative, or transitional edge effects emerge. Importantly, the distance over which animals make their decisions to move between habitats turns out to be a key factor in quantifying the magnitude of certain observed edge effects

Rapid assessment of environmental monitoring sites: Powerlink Queensland easements\ud

[Extract] Research objectives:\ud As part of Powerlink’s commitment to responsible environmental stewardship, Powerlink proposed a research program that aims to provide environmental benefits in terms of monitoring impacts in 10 regions where Powerlink has established transmission lines. James Cook University undertook to set up monitoring sites in these regions.\ud \ud \ud A short review of potential environmental impacts of powerline easements identified five major effects and provided background to these impacts in Australia and overseas: \ud \ud 1) Habitat loss and alterations to habitat quality;\ud 2) Direct mortality of wildlife;\ud 3) Ingress of alien species including weeds and alien fauna;\ud 4) Fragmentation of habitats;\ud 5) Disturbance, erosion and pollutants

Rapid assessment of environmental monitoring sites: Powerlink Queensland easements

[Extract] Research objectives: As part of Powerlink’s commitment to responsible environmental stewardship, Powerlink proposed a research program that aims to provide environmental benefits in terms of monitoring impacts in 10 regions where Powerlink has established transmission lines. James Cook University undertook to set up monitoring sites in these regions. A short review of potential environmental impacts of powerline easements identified five major effects and provided background to these impacts in Australia and overseas: 1) Habitat loss and alterations to habitat quality; 2) Direct mortality of wildlife; 3) Ingress of alien species including weeds and alien fauna; 4) Fragmentation of habitats; 5) Disturbance, erosion and pollutants

Are less vocal rainforest mammals susceptible to impacts from traffic noise?

Context: Traffic noise is believed to cause road avoidance and other barrier effects in a variety of wildlife species, and to force changes to call pitch or loudness in others; however, this has never been tested in the absence of other road impacts. Noise impacts on species that do not frequently vocalise are also poorly understood. We investigated traffic-noise impacts on the following three rainforest mammals that do not often vocalise: Hypsiprymnodon moschatus, Uromys caudimaculatus and Perameles nasuta. These species have previously been observed to exhibit varying levels of road avoidance.\ud \ud Aims: To determine whether traffic noise affects movement and behaviour of medium-sized, ground-dwelling rainforest mammals in the absence of other road-associated variables and potential impacts. We hypothesised that noise impacts would be greatest for species previously shown to avoid roads. Noise impacts on these less vocal species compared with more vocal species is also discussed.\ud \ud Methods: In north-eastern Queensland, Australia, mammals captured at least 500 m from any road were tracked after fitting with spool-and-line equipment. On noisy nights, traffic noise at levels similar to a busy highway was played continuously throughout the night from a line of 12 speakers mounted on trees. Speakers were silent on quiet nights.\ud \ud Key results: Traffic noise caused no increase in avoidance of the speaker line and was not a barrier to movements across the line. Overall, movement paths on noisy nights appeared similar in pattern (tortuosity) to those of quiet nights. At a finer scale, movements of H. moschatus and P. nasuta became more tortuous later in the track, suggesting a return to normal foraging behaviour and possible habituation to the noise.\ud \ud Conclusions: These three species with varying levels of previously recorded road avoidance, did not respond negatively to traffic noise. There was, however, a suggestion of habituation by H. moschatus and P. nasuta in response to the noise.\ud \ud Implications: The demonstrated lack of response to traffic noise in these less vocal species means that traffic noise is unlikely to cause road avoidance or barrier effects. Instead, lack of response and possible habituation to traffic noise may increase vulnerability to road mortality