External tagging does not affect the feeding behavior of a coral reef fish, Chaetodon vagabundus (Pisces: Chaetodontidae)

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2009. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Environmental Biology of Fishes 86 (2009): 447-450, doi:10.1007/s10641-009-9545-9.Increasingly, the ability to recognize individual fishes is important for studies of population dynamics, ecology, and behavior. Although a variety of methods exist, external tags remain one of the most widely applied because they are both effective and cost efficient. However, a key assumption is that neither the tagging procedure nor the presence of a tag negatively affects the individual. While this has been demonstrated for relatively coarse metrics such as growth and survival, few studies have examined the impact of tags and tagging on more subtle aspects of behavior. We tagged adult vagabond butterflyfish (Chaetodon vagabundus) occupying a 30-ha insular reef in Kimbe Bay, Papua New Guinea, using a commonly-utilized t-bar anchor tag. We quantified and compared feeding behavior (bite rate), which is sensitive to stress, of tagged and untagged individuals over four separate sampling periods spanning four months post-tagging. Bite rates did not differ between tagged and untagged individuals at each sampling period and, combined with additional anecdotal observations of normal pairing behavior and successful reproduction, suggest that tagging did not adversely affect individuals.The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from the Fulbright Program, National Science Foundation and the Australian Research Council

Habitat Composition and Connectivity Predicts Bat Presence and Activity at Foraging Sites in a Large UK Conurbation

Background: Urbanization is characterized by high levels of sealed land-cover, and small, geometrically complex, fragmented land-use patches. The extent and density of urbanized land-use is increasing, with implications for habitat quality, connectivity and city ecology. Little is known about densification thresholds for urban ecosystem function, and the response of mammals, nocturnal and cryptic taxa are poorly studied in this respect. Bats (Chiroptera) are sensitive to changing urban form at a species, guild and community level, so are ideal model organisms for analyses of this nature. Methodology/Principal Findings: We surveyed bats around urban ponds in the West Midlands conurbation, United Kingdom (UK). Sites were stratified between five urban land classes, representing a gradient of built land-cover at the 1 km 2 scale. Models for bat presence and activity were developed using land-cover and land-use data from multiple radii around each pond. Structural connectivity of tree networks was used as an indicator of the functional connectivity between habitats. All species were sensitive to measures of urban density. Some were also sensitive to landscape composition and structural connectivity at different spatial scales. These results represent new findings for an urban area. The activity of Pipistrellus pipistrellus (Schreber 1774) exhibited a non-linear relationship with the area of built land-cover, being much reduced beyond the threshold of,60 % built surface. The presence of tree networks appears to mitigate the negative effects of urbanization for this species

The diversity of insectivorous bat assemblages among habitats within a subtropical urban landscape

We investigated the bat (Microchiroptera) diversity of four major habitat types within a large Australian subtropical city (Brisbane, Australia) to determine whether species richness was affected by habitat changes associated with urbanization, as suggested from studies elsewhere. Forty sites, ten in each habitat type (remnant bushland, parkland, low-density residential and high-density residential) were surveyed using acoustic bat detectors on six non-consecutive occasions. Fourteen bat species were recorded. The species accumulation curve of the entire Brisbane bat assemblage reached a plateau at 14 species. The total numbers of species in bushland, parkland, low-density residential and high-density residential habitats were 14, 13, 14 and 11 species, respectively. Asymptotic estimates of species richness for each habitat were close or equal to these totals. Mean asymptotic estimated species richness differed significantly among habitats, being lowest in high-density residential sites and highest in low-density residential sites. Evenness profiles were similar across habitats, and were not strongly dominated by a few species. Partitioning of diversity components showed that landscape ( ?) diversity was mainly determined by the high species richness of low-density residential and bushland habitats (a diversity), rather than high beta (ߩ diversity among habitats. These findings contradict those of other studies on bat diversity in which species richness was highest within 'natural' areas of the urban landscape and assemblages were dominated by one or two species. This highlights the need for caution in making generalizations based on existing information, which is dominated by studies in temperate regions.Griffith Sciences, Griffith School of EnvironmentNo Full Tex

A comparison of the effectiveness of bat detectors and harp traps for surveying bats in an urban landscape

Obtaining adequate information for informed conservation-management decisions requires effective and costef !cient survey techniques. We compared the effectiveness of bat detectors and harp traps for surveying bat assemblages within an urban landscape in Brisbane, Australia, with respect to number and composition of species. Nine sites within each of three habitat types (remnant bushland, parkland, and low-density residential - a total of 27 sites) were sampled twice each. The bat detectors recorded 3628 calls, from which 13 taxa were identi!ed. The harp traps captured 17 individuals, from which !ve taxa were identi!ed. All species captured by harp trap were also detected by bat detector, with the possible exception of N. bifax. Bat detectors recorded signi!cantly more species per site than were captured by harp traps, both overall and within each of the three habitat types. And although a considerable amount of time and expense was required to identify the recorded echolocation calls to species, bat detectors were also the most cost-ef!cient sampling method. These results collectively show that bat detectors were the most effective and cost-ef!cient method for surveying the bat assemblage in this urban landscape.Griffith Sciences, Griffith School of EnvironmentFull Tex

The structure of a micro-bat community in relation to gradients of environmental variation in a tropical urban area

We investigated patterns of community structure (species composition, foraging activity, and nightly foraging patterns) of bats in relation to gradients of environmental variation in a tropical urban area. A total of 32 sites spread equally across eight habitat types were sampled in the city of Townsville, North Queensland, Australia. Each site was sampled on 3 non-consecutive occasions using automated AnaBat systems. Eleven species were confidently identified while a possible four more were identified only to the genus level. Ordination of environmental variables measured at these sites identified two distinct environmental gradients reflecting the degree of urbanisation and foliage density. With in- creasing urbanisation there was a decline in species richness and total foraging activity. We used regression trees to characterise foraging preferences of each species. This analysis sug- gested that only one species of Mormopterus was able to exploit the resources provided by urbanisation. This species foraged in areas with higher numbers of white streetlights. The remaining species of bats preferred to forage within close proximity to natural vegetation and with low numbers of streetlights. The density of vegetation in long-established suburbs did not substantially reverse the trend for urban areas to have fewer bat species than original habitats

Bushfire Recovery 2020-2022: Priority actions for threatened species in the Cooloola section of Great Sandy National Park, South East Queensland

The bushfires of late 2019 to early 2020 had extensive ecological impacts across Australia. The most fire-impacted threatened species in Queensland were prioritised for recovery efforts through an expert evaluation process led by the Department of Environment and Science (DES), in collaboration with the Australian Government’s ‘Wildlife and Threatened Species Bushfire Recovery Expert Panel’. In March 2020, the Queensland Bushfire Recovery Program was established with assistance from the Australian Government’s Bushfire Recovery for Wildlife and their Habitats initiative, to implement recovery projects across strategic locations, including the Cooloola section of Great Sandy National Park. At Cooloola, eight threatened fauna species were identified as the most fire-impacted: ground parrot Pezoporus wallicus wallicus; southern emu-wren Stipiturus malachurus; wallum froglet Crinia tinnula; wallum sedgefrog Litoria olongburensis; wallum rocketfrog Litoria freycineti; Cooloola sedgefrog Litoria cooloolensis; Oxleyan pygmy perch Nanoperca oxleyana, and the honey blue-eye Pseudomugil mellis. Four plant species were also prioritisedalong with endemic invertebrate taxa that may be fire-impacted.Fire-impacts across the diverse ecosystems of Cooloola were also evaluated to prioritise recovery efforts and ongoing monitoring. Recovery actions were undertaken between May 2020 and October 2022, including: Post-fire assessment—detailed spatial evaluation of fire extent and severity, and the associated ecological impacts, to guide the survey of priority species and on-ground efforts to reduce threats to their recovery. Monitor priority species—field assessment of species’ status by experts using best-practice techniques to set a baseline to track recovery and to compare to pre-fire data, where available. Reduce threats to recovery—actions to reduce the risk to priority species and their habitats from future unplanned fires, invasive weeds and pest animals. Recommendations and guidance—assess the information and insights gained from the previous actions to provide recommendations for reducing threats, ecological monitoring and research. The post-fire assessment measured a total of 14,608 hectares (ha) that burnt across the Cooloola section of Great Sandy National Park (Meiklejohn et al. 2020). A quarter of this area was at a low fire severity level, where fire did not scorch the canopy, but fire-sensitive low shrubs were lost. A similar proportion was burnt at a moderate, high and extreme level of fire severity. At the extreme level, a total of 3,817ha of vegetation was completely consumed. For a given level of fire severity, the ecological impacts can vary across different vegetation types based on their firetolerance. Fire severity was therefore incorporated with the fire-sensitivity of vegetation to spatially quantify the ‘potential ecological impact’ (PEI) (Laidlaw et al. 2022). This revealed high to catastrophic PEI levels for the fire sensitive foredune vegetation, with its recovery of concern (Meiklejohn et al. 2021). The eastern ground parrot was monitored across 32 sites of suitable burnt and unburnt habitat using standardised listening for calls and bio-acoustic recorders with subsequent call analyses. Ground parrots were recorded at 84% of surveyed sites, with their post-fire presence not impacted by the 2019–2020 fires. The post-fire population size in the Cooloola-Noosa North Shore area is consistent with previous estimates from 1989. Recommendations to support and promote ground parrot populations include protecting burnt areas from fire for seven to 10 years and maintaining a planned burn program that sustains a diversity of heath seral stages. Southern emu-wrens were surveyed across 27 sites of suitable habitat. Across both burnt and unburnt sites, the level of detectable occupancy was low, hence interpreting fire-impacts was not possible. Southern emu-wrens have been regularly recorded in a core area that was not burnt during the 2019–2020 fires, and they continued to be sighted during 2020 outside of the formal surveys. For eastern ground parrot and southern emu-wrens it is recommended that monitoring continue as well as ecological research to improve the understanding of their ecology and fire impacts. Reducing the threat of predation from feral cats and foxes and reducing impacts from pigs through appropriate controls is also advised. The Oxleyan pygmy perch, honey blue-eye were surveyed across 23 wetland sites using standardised box traps and electrofishing methods. These species were absent from some sites where they had previously been recorded, although this did not appear to be fire related. Water chemistry variables were measured and except for dissolved oxygen at some sites, all variables were within acceptable ranges. Recommendations to support the priority fish species include monitoring, protection from the impacts of frequent or severe fires and reduce impacts from invasive fish, plants and pigs. Research into how fire, drought, flooding and invasive species impacts these freshwater fish species and their habitats is advised. The wallum sedgefrog, wallum rocketfrog, wallum froglet and the Cooloola sedgefrog were surveyed across a total of 59 sites in 2020 and 33 sites in 2021, which included both burnt and unburnt sites. All four wallum acid frogs were detected at both unburnt and burnt sites, with most present across a spectrum of appropriate habitat types in the landscape, both burnt and unburnt. This indicates that the 2019-2020 fires did not cause a detectable impact. However, with most sites contained no frogs in 2020 >50% of sites recording no frogs in 2021, the recommendations remain applicable. The recommendations include ongoing monitoring of the four acid frog species and protecting habitats from the impacts of pigs, frequent and severe fires, sedimentation or local hydrology changes and water extraction to fight fires. Ecological studies into how fire severity and frequency affect acid frog species is encouraged, as well as understanding the interactions between fire, weeds and cane toads. Of the 15 species initially flagged as priority invertebrate taxa, only two dragonfly species were recorded during postfire surveys and two additional species worthy of ongoing monitoring were recorded. Survey results confirmed that all four species persisted at Cooloola following the 2019–2020 bushfires. The fire impacts on these species were difficult to assess. Ongoing monitoring of the four detected species is recommended, as well as research to improve the understanding of their distribution, abundance and ecological requirements. Control of pigs is advised as this will help protect invertebrates and their habitats. Threatened plant species and species of conservation concern were included in post-fire surveys. Of these, 12 species were confirmed as not being within the fire extent and six species were fire impacted but had a post-fire response such as resprouting, germinating or flowering. A new native species was recorded for Queensland in a burnt area: Trachymene composita var. composita which germinates after fire or disturbance. Protecting threatened plant species and their habitats from high fire frequency and ecosystem-transforming weeds is a priority. An assessment of 52 regional ecosystems identified 40 as fire impacted and of these, nine are fire-sensitive, including one listed as ‘Endangered’, and three as ‘Of concern’ under the Vegetation Management Act 1999. All burnt firesensitive ecosystems experienced at least moderate ecological impacts. Over 1,800ha of fire-sensitive ecosystems were burnt leaving them at risk from biodiversity loss and a transition to a more fire-tolerant ecosystem. For both firesensitive and fire-tolerant ecosystems, the increased risk to their post-fire recovery from invasive animals and firepromoting weeds, makes control of these threats a high priority. It is recommended that the additional ongoing threats of myrtle rust, recreational vehicles on foredunes and the use of fire-retardants in emergency fire response are also addressed to protect the ecosystems of Cooloola. During 2020 and 2021, a range of actions were undertaken to reduce threats to the initial post-fire recovery of priority species and ecosystems. To reduce the risk of subsequent unplanned fires in the short term and to support broader landscape-scale fire management, critical firelines were upgraded and the fire strategy and planned burn program were revised. To reduce the impacts of habitat damage and predation by pigs, feral cats and foxes, these species were targeted for control using suitable techniques and in collaboration with local government. Ecosystem transforming weeds, such as invasive grasses and Singapore daisy, were a priority for control given their colonisation of burnt areas. The pest strategy was revised to accommodate the increased threat from weeds and pest animals including invasive freshwater fish. A range of project lessons are outlined with forward recommendations including applying the National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework for protecting life and property, to the context of protecting wildlife and to sustain ongoing investment to reduce the key threats to the recovery of threatened species, and to mitigate the increasing risk of extinctions due to climate change. To more effectively prioritise and guide conservation and threat management actions, there is an urgent need to improve the availability of high-quality ecological data. To enhance the ability to provide recovery actions for wildlife, especially amidst a broad-scale natural disaster, it is important to build capacity in the relevant specialist ecological and technical skills and maintain relationships with external specialists to expedite assessment of wildlife impacts to implement the most appropriate recovery actions following the next natural disaster. Ongoing investment is necessary to sustain best-practice methodologies and embrace more cost-effective technologies to support ecological monitoring.Full Tex

Determinants of microbat communities in urban forest remnants: a rapid landscape scale assessment

Urbanisation affects fauna in many ways; with some species persisting and going on to dominate urban habitats, while other species decline over time due to habitat disturbance and modification. Microbats comprise a major component of remnant mammalian fauna in urban areas but we have a comparatively poor understanding of how they respond to urbanisation compared to other taxonomic groups. We investigated the impacts of an urban gradient on microbat communities of habitat remnants on the Gold Coast, south-east Queensland, Australia. We conducted acoustic surveys of 34 sites categorised as urban, peri-urban or rural, with an additional five reference sites. A combination of landscape and habitat elements were quantified for each site and their influence on the richness and calling activity of microbats determined. Overall, more microbat species were detected in reference sites followed by peri-urban sites. Rural and urban sites had similar richness, but only 50 % overlap in species recorded. After accounting for sampling effort peri-urban sites were found to have the greatest species richness and calling activity. Three species accounted for 45.4 % of the variation in microbat species detected. Using generalised linear mixed models we found that site area and the extent of urban development in the landscape (i.e. urbanisation index) had the greatest impact on microbat richness and calling activity. Models including logging (clearfelling) and hollow-bearing tree measures were also important. Our results support the use of the urbanisation gradient as a key measure to quantify the impacts of urbanisation on biodiversity. Logging history plays an important role across the landscape as it is a potential driver of other landscape variables such as tree species diversity, stand density and hollow-bearing tree density.Griffith Sciences, Griffith School of EnvironmentNo Full Tex

Obesity and overweight in relation to liver disease mortality in men: 38 year follow-up of the original Whitehall study

Obesity has been implicated in the aetiology of liver disease. However, to date, evidence is largely drawn from cross-sectional studies, where interpretation is hampered by reverse causality, and from studies on clinical populations that have limited generalisability. In this prospective cohort study, data on body mass index (BMI) and covariates were collected at baseline on 18 863 male government employees (aged 40-69 years). Respondents were then followed up for a maximum of 38 years of age. Mortality surveillance gave rise to 13 129 deaths, 122 of which were due to liver disease (57 cancers; 65 non-cancers). In age-adjusted analyses, BMI was positively related to total liver disease mortality (hazards ratio per 1 s.d. increase in BMI; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.36; 1.14, 1.62) in a graded fashion across the weight categories (P-value for trend: 0.01). The magnitude of this association was somewhat stronger for non-cancer liver disease deaths (1.47; 1.16, 1.86) than for cancer liver disease deaths (1.25; 0.96, 1.62). Excluding deaths in the first 10 years of follow-up somewhat strengthened the BMI-non-cancer liver disease association. Adjustment for socioeconomic position, other candidate confounders and mediating factors led to the modest attenuation of these associations. Further investigation in prospective cohort studies with more detailed data on liver disease, for instance using biochemical tests of liver function or hepatic ultrasonography, is warranted