Information for Potential Honours Students

January 2013

School of Zoology Honours course Information This booklet is for prospective Honours candidates and outlines the research interests of our academic staff. Go to the School website for more about our research areas and potential projects: http://www.zoo.utas.edu.au Why study Zoology in Tasmania? Tasmania is one of the world’s great places in which to study zoology. The island’s endemic fauna, a diverse and relatively undisturbed landscape, extensive mountains, forest and freshwaters, the surrounding oceans and proximity to Antarctica all combine to present a very special opportunity for zoological studies. Zoology has been taught in the University of Tasmania for one hundred years. In 1909, Irishman Theodore Flynn (father of the infamous Errol) was appointed to the Ralston Chair in Biology. John Ralston was the son of a wealthy Scottish farmer who settled in Evandale; in his will, he left substantial funds for scientific research, specifically mentioning “the anatomy and development of the marsupial unique of (sic) Tasmania”. Professor Flynn took up this work and laid the foundations for the School’s research on marsupials and conservation that has continued to the present day. Our research today Today, the School teaches about 400 students each year, of whom about 40 are honours or postgraduate students. We publish about 60 scientific papers a year and earn around $2 million in external research funding, which is used to build research teams, buy equipment and run projects. Access to the amazing fauna of Tasmania allows us to address some of the “big questions” in biology today, for example, we are actively undertaking research into the Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease, introduced foxes, implications of climate change for faunal distributions, and the impacts of forestry on native fauna.

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Our research is focussed into four key areas:

• Wildlife Ecology and conservation • Behavioural and Evolutionary Ecology • Freshwater Ecology • Comparative Endocrinology and Physiology

Conservation biology is the major overarching theme that connects all our research groups, and is reflected in our undergraduate teaching. Two professorial staff have recently been recruited in this important research area: Professor Elissa Cameron (most recently from the University of Pretoria) and Professor Chris Johnson (most recently from James Cook University). The School has an extensive network of important research linkages, both within and external to the University. We are members of the University’s Centre for Environment and collaborate with the Cooperative Research Centre for Forestry. Beyond the University we have significant collaborations with the state Department of Primary Industry, Parks ,Water and Environment (DPIPWE), Save the Tasmanian Devil Program, Forestry Tasmania, The Forest Practices Authority and the Inland Fisheries Service: Honours projects often reflect these collaborations. Research facilities The School is housed in the Life Sciences Building on the University’s Hobart campus, though some research students are located elsewhere. We are very well equipped to support both field and laboratory research. We run a small fleet of 4WD vehicles, and have several dedicated research laboratories, including one for endocrinological research; we share a well-equipped molecular biology laboratory with the Schools of Agriculture and Plant Science. Our animal housing facilities include a range of indoor and outdoor pens and enclosures for housing animals. We also have a boat and associated equipment for freshwater and near-shore use. (Since Jan 1, 2010, major diving and boating activities are coordinated by IMAS rather than the School of Zoology).

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HONOURS COURSE

http://www.utas.edu.au/zoology/honours Our Honours program focuses on training high-quality enthusiastic scientists and has been used as a model for the development of several other Honours programs across Australia. Many of our Honours graduates go on to higher degrees, while others find employment in a range of areas, including State and Federal Government agencies, Hydro Tasmania, consultancy companies (e.g. GHD), CSIRO or the Marine Research Laboratories. An Honours degree is also is a prerequisite for higher degree studies. The Honours course is a one-year program in which you carry out a 10-month independent research project, under the supervision of a member of the academic staff. The project is principally examined by thesis, and in many cases the student’s work is later written up as publications in scientific journals. Your eligibility for entry is determined by your academic record and the availability of a suitable project and an appropriate supervisor (see below). You may begin your Honours course in the first week of February or in August. Students from other universities who have completed a BSc (or similar) degree with a major in zoology or a related discipline are eligible to apply for a place in the Honours program. General information for prospective Honours students in Zoology at the University of Tasmania Prospective Honours students MUST contact a potential supervisor in the School of Zoology AND negotiate and agree on a research topic or project as part of the enrolment process. Merely enrolling in Honours in Zoology DOES NOT guarantee you a place in the Honours program. The Honours Co-ordinator cannot approve enrolments in Honours until the prospective student has found a supervisor and mutually agreed project. Making contact Your first point of contact is the Honours Coordinator; Dr Ashley Edwards, phone: 6226 2617 or email: Ashley.Edwards@utas.edu.au

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The web site for the School of Zoology at the University of Tasmania is: http://www.zoo.utas.edu.au. Click on the ‘Courses’ link to find the general information from the University Handbook on Honours courses available in the School (course codes S4E Bachelor of Science with Honours). Honours courses through the School of Zoology are run at the Hobart campus of the University. Note that part-time Honours is no longer available – despite what the web site may say. Clicking on the link labelled ‘See University Handbook Entry’ for the specific Honours course you are interested in will bring up details about the units or subjects relevant for that Honours course. There are also links at the bottom of this page to email addresses of administrators who can help you if you have any queries. Separate addresses are given for local University of Tasmania students, international students, and for enquiries from non-Tasmanian Australian students. For Zoology, click on http://fcms.its.utas.edu.au/scieng/zoo/people.asp to find the list of staff who could act as potential supervisors. Their e-mail addresses and other contact details are given on these pages. Click on the ‘Research’ link to find the areas of research that are active in the School. Once you have checked that you may be eligible to do Honours in Zoology at http://www.utas.edu.au/zoology/honours/honours-eligibility-and-enrolement (see below), please contact the staff members who match your research interests. E-mail communication is often the easiest and cheapest method of contact. In your communication ensure that you provide the following information:

1. An informative subject heading in your email; we suggest you start with “[HONS]” to grab our attention.

2. Your area(s) of interest in research. Please try to be more specific than “zoology”!

3. An indication of whether you think you will be eligible to enrol in Honours in Zoology. (See Eligibility for Honours in the School of Zoology below)

4. Full contact details including postal address, telephone and e-mail contacts that will be current while you communicate and negotiate with potential supervisors about research projects and enrolment details. (Some students neglect to provide contact

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details that work after semester has finished, for example; not a good idea.)

5. Copy your email to the Honours Coordinator (Ashley Edwards) Ashley.Edwards@utas.edu.au.

Eligibility for Honours in the School of Zoology In addition to the basic eligibility requirements for the University1, the School of Zoology requires that a minimum average grade at Credit level2 or equivalent be achieved in a B.Sc. major in Zoology or related, approved disciplines that are relevant to the research topic to be undertaken in Honours. If you have queries about whether your units are ‘related, approved disciplines’, please contact the Honours Co-ordinator with some brief description of the content of these units. As previously mentioned but to reiterate… Prospective students need also to ensure that they have a supervisor in the School of Zoology and that a research topic or project has been agreed. If a supervisor has too many potential students in any given intake, they are obliged to select students on merit. Sometimes alternative supervisors can be found, but these alternative supervisors need to be kept informed of your interest well before the start of Honours. Enrolment and intakes The key requirements for enrolment are that you have found a supervisor and a viable honours project, and that the supervisor is prepared to supervise you, subject to your eligibility. There are two intakes into the Honours courses each year. The first starts on the FIRST MONDAY OF FEBRUARY, and the second starts on FIRST MONDAY OF AUGUST. Discuss which intake suits your intended research topic better with your supervisor. Ensure that you contact and negotiate with potential supervisors well before your intended starting date.

1 (detailed on this link: http://www.studentcentre.utas.edu.au/admissions/ the relevant contacts on subsequent pages if you are still unsure of the enrolment procedure that you should follow.

2 That is, a numerical mark of 60% or greater.

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Once you have found a supervisor, agreed on a research project, and decided on which intake you would like to be in, please e-mail your intention to enrol in Honours to the Secretary of the School of Zoology, Felicity Wilkinson, on Felicity.Wilkinson@utas.edu.au and copy the e-mail to the Honours Co-ordinator. The Honours Co-ordinator for Zoology is currently: Dr Ashley Edwards (Ashley.Edwards@utas.edu.au). We can help you with enquiries specific to the School of Zoology, but the most up-to-date information on enrolment forms and University of Tasmania procedures are to be found in the following places. Information on enrolment procedures for Australian students can be found on: <http://www.futurestudents.utas.edu.au/> For international students, please refer to: <http://www.international.utas.edu.au/> and follow the links relevant to your requirements. It is worth noting that enrolment into the honours program in Zoology has two stages. Initially you will apply online, and once approval is gained from the honours co-ordinator, you will be offered a place. You must accept this place, and then also enrol online in the appropriate honours unit (see below): Bachelor of Science honours in Zoology KZA 407 Biotechnology honours in Zoology KZA 404 Marine Science honours in Zoology KZA 410 Research projects Some supervisors prefer to offer prescribed research projects for each intake, whereas others may list a range of more general topics and are prepared to negotiate a project subject to the mutual interests of both the candidate and the supervisor. Check out the information on the web page and Honours Noticeboard and links listed under Making contact above, and contact prospective supervisors well before your intended starting date. It is vital that you negotiate and discuss your intended research topic with your supervisor prior to enrolling. Please consider and discuss with your potential supervisor what practical skills or qualifications may be needed for your project. For example, you may need to have a current driver’s licence to enable you to do field

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work. Bear in mind that the Honours program is very intense, so there is little spare time during your Honours to pursue such things as specialised diving qualifications, or learning a completely new computer programming language. Again, each project is different, so it is difficult to be prescriptive, but please discuss the issues with your supervisor. Supervisors for research projects Academic staff members of the School of Zoology are usually available to supervise honours projects: sometimes people may be away on sabbatical. Other potential supervisors include researchers associated with the School, some of them have personal entries in this booklet describing their research. From Jan 2010, most marine or Antarctic projects are supervised by staff of the new; Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS). The IMAS Honours Coordinator can be contacted regarding potential projects in those areas. A hard copy booklet describing Honours projects and research areas is also prepared each year. You may ask for a copy to be mailed to you by contacting the Secretary of the School of Zoology, Felicity Wilkinson, Felicity.Wilkinson@utas.edu.au

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SCHOOL PERSONNEL Professors Elissa Cameron MSc (Canterbury NZ); PhD (Massey) - Head of School Chris Johnson B. Nat. Res; PhD (UNE) Susan Jones BSc Hons (Tas), PhD (ANU) GradCertEduc (Tas), FHERDSA

MAIBiol Associate Professors Leon Barmuta BSc Hons (Adel), PhD (Monash) Stewart Nicol, BSc Hons PhD (Tas), Erik Wapstra BSc Hons, PhD (Tas) – Deputy Head of School and

Graduate Research Coordinator Lecturers Chris Burridge BSc Hons, PhD (Tas) – Deputy Graduate Research

Coordinator Scott Carver BSc (NZ); MSc (NZ); PhD (UWA) Ashley Edwards BSc Hons (Macquarie), PhD (Tas) GradCertULT -

Honours Coordinator Regina Magierowski BSc Hons, PhD (Tas) Geoff While BSc Hons, PhD (Tas) Research Professors Peter Davies BSc Hons, PhD (Tas) (Honorary Professor) Peter Frappell BSc Hons (Tas) PhD (Dean of Graduate Studies, UTAS) Senior Research Fellow Menna Jones BSc Hons (UNE), PhD (Tas) Research Fellows Nick Beeton BSc Hons (Adv Maths) (USyd), PhD (Tas) Anke Frank PhD (Science) Uni of Syd Rodrigo Hamede-Ross BSc Hons, PhD (Tas) Anne Watson BSc Hons, PhD (Tas)

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Secretarial Services Felicity Wilkinson Workshop Services and Field Officer Richard Holmes Senior Field Officer Adam Stephens Senior Technical Officer and IT Support Wayne Kelly BSc (NSW), GradDipComp(UTas) Laboratory Services Kate Hamilton Dianne van Harten

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Associate Professor Leon Barmuta http://fcms.its.utas.edu.au/scieng/zoo/pagedetails.asp?lpersonId=222 Tel: 03 6226 2785; Fax: 03 6226 2745; E-mail: Leon.Barmuta@utas.edu.au My research interests are in the general area of community ecology, with an emphasis on experimental studies. I specialise in freshwater systems (although I digress into terrestrial and estuarine topics occasionally) and have five active areas of research which ultimately bear on conservation biology in freshwater systems. These areas are: 1. How habitat complexity influences biological interactions; 2. the use of benthos in assessment and monitoring in freshwaters; 3. the ecology of introduced freshwater organisms; 4. modelling and management of the littoral zones lakes and wetlands; and 5. understanding how measures of ecosystem processes complement community structure metrics in freshwater systems. The research topics on offer for 2012-13 are as follows. Each topic has a number of potential Honours projects or could be developed into one or more Masters or Ph.D. programs. Please note that there is scope for developing your own topics in any of my five research areas outlined above. 1. The ecology of forested headwater streams. Small, headwater

streams make up a very large proportion of the total drainage network of a catchment, but we know little about their ecology. In collaboration with the Forest Practices Authority of Tasmania, the CRC for Forestry and Freshwater Systems Pty Ltd, I have developed a portfolio of projects examining the impacts of forestry on these potentially sensitive systems. These projects range from differences in biodiversity and community structure between logged and un-logged streams through to examining ecosystem processes (energy and nutrient dynamics). In conjunction with the CRC for Forestry we have developed seven instrumented, long-term sites in the Southern Forests of Tasmania which provides a solid basis for a variety of research projects in biodiversity and ecosystem processes.

2. Do introduced plant species pose a problem to freshwater fauna? My group has conducted a number of projects on the effects of introduced willows and aquatic vascular plants (e.g. Canadian

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pondweed) on the community structure of invertebrates. However, more research needs to be done on the impact that this plant material has on feeding preferences, growth rates and life history attributes if we are to understand how these plant materials (both live material and that which becomes detritus) affect the animals which consume them. Research projects within this topic would focus on feeding experiments. Honours projects would start in February for those addressing issues dealing with willow detritus and mid-year for those dealing with aquatic plants.

3. Behavioural and functional responses to habitat complexity. My research group has already documented instances of how habitat shape can change the outcome of predation and dominance in guilds. One of the new challenges is to identify how the shape of the habitat alters the behavioural interactions between individuals and species to bring about these marked changes in community structure. Recent Ph.D. projects have included use fine-scale video techniques in lab experiments to unravel the interactions between two distinctive invertebrate predators and field experiments with artificial plants and other structures to examine the effects on predation by both invertebrates and fish. There is plenty of scope to build on my group’s existing research base to develop highly innovative, exciting projects at both Honours and Ph.D. levels.

4. Measures of ecosystem processes to understand the impacts of river regulation. One current Ph.D. project is comparing regulated and unregulated branches of the Macquarie River system in eastern Tasmania, and has been documenting the differences in coarse detrital and algal dynamics to determine whether process measures are a useful tool to add to the arsenal of attributes used to assess environmental flow requirements. This is an innovative area, since biological environmental flow criteria have usually concentrated mostly on structural aspects of fish populations. Several Honours and Ph.D. project opportunities exist to build on this base, and we are actively collaborating with the Department of Primary Industry and Water on a major research project on environmental flows in three contrasting catchments in Tasmania.

5. Responses of native invertebrates to terrestrial detritus. Detritus drives the food-webs of forested streams, and I am collaborating with

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Dr Luz Boyero of the University of Seville and Professor Richard Pearson of James Cook University on a number of projects contrasting temperate and tropical detritivore assemblages and their feeding responses to different detrital resources. Our recent publications document some surprising results, and I am offering at least one Honours and one M.Sc. or Ph.D.-level project in this area.

6. The ecology of endemic galaxiid fish in lakes. A collaboration between a consultant and former Ph.D. student, Dr Scott Hardie, Hydro Tasmania and the Inland Fisheries Service is currently discovering and documenting the spawning and habitat preferences of some of the endemic fish species of Great Lake and Arthurs Lake. An honours project is available to work up the collected material to examine the feeding ecology of these species.

Some recent publications: Boyero, L* and Pearson, RG* and Dudgeon, D* and Ferreira, V* and Graca, MAS* and Gessner, MO* and Boulton, AJ* and Chauvet, E* and Yule, CM* and Albarino, RJ* and Ramirez, A* and Helson, JE* and Callisto, M* and Arunachalam, M* and Chara, J* and Figueroa, R* and Mathooko, JM* and Goncalves, JF* and Moretti, MS* and Chara-Serna, AM* and Davies, JN* and Encalada, A* and Lamothe, S* and Buria, LM* and Castela, J* and Cornejo, A* and Li, AOY* and M'Erimba, C* and Villanueva, VD* and Zuniga, MD* and Swan, CM* and Barmuta, LA, ‘Global patterns of stream detritivore distribution: implications for biodiversity loss in changing climates’, Global Ecology and Biogeography, 21 (2) pp. 134-141. ISSN 1466-822X (2012) [Refereed Article] Barmuta, L. A., Linke, S. & Turak, E. (2011) Bridging the gap between 'planning' and 'doing' for biodiversity conservation in freshwaters. Freshwater Biology, 56, 180-195. Boyero, L., Pearson, R. G., Gessner, M. O., Barmuta, L. A., Ferreira, V., Graça, M. A. S., Dudgeon, D., Boulton, A. J., Callisto, M., Chauvet, E., Helson, J. E., Bruder, A., Albariño, R. J., Yule, C. M., Arunachalam, M., Davies, J. N., Figueroa, R., Flecker, A. S., Ramírez, A., Death, R. G., Iwata, T., Mathooko, J. M., Mathuriau, C., Gonçalves, J. F., Moretti, M. S., Jinggut, T., Lamothe, S., M’Erimba, C., Ratnarajah, L., Schindler, M. H., Castela, J., Buria, L. M., Cornejo, A., Villanueva, V. D. & West, D. C. (2011) A global experiment suggests climate warming will not accelerate litter decomposition in streams but might reduce carbon sequestration, Ecology Letters, 14, 289-294. Clapcott, J. E. & Barmuta, L. A. (2010) ‘Forest clearance increases metabolism and organic matter processes in small headwater streams’, Journal of the North American Benthological Society, 29, 546-561.

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Clapcott, J. E. & Barmuta, L. A. (2010) ‘Metabolic patch dynamics in small headwater streams: Exploring spatial and temporal variability in benthic processes’, Freshwater Biology, 55, 806-824. Watson, A. & Barmuta, L. A. (2010) ‘Litter retention in Tasmanian headwater streams after clear-fell logging’, Hydrobiologia, 637, 197-206. Ratnarajah, L. & Barmuta, L. A. (2009) ‘The effects of leaf toughness on feeding preference by two Tasmanian shredders’, Hydrobiologia, 636, 173-178. Barmuta, L. A., Watson, A., Clark, A. & Clapcott, J. E. (2009) The importance of headwater streams, Waterlines Report No. 25, National Water Commission, Canberra, ACT. http://www.nwc.gov.au/resources/documents/Waterlines25_Headwaters.pdf Warfe, D. M., Barmuta, L. A. & Wotherspoon, S. (2008) ‘Quantifying habitat structure: surface convolution and living space for species in complex environments’, Oikos, 117, 1764-1773 Hardie, S.A., White, R.W.G., & Barmuta, L.A. (2008) ‘Reproductive biology of the threatened golden galaxias Galaxias auratus Johnston and the influence of lake hydrology (Journal of Fish Biology (2007) 71, (1820-1840))’. Journal of Fish Biology, 72, 785-786. Baker, S.C., Richardson, A.M.M., Barmuta, L.A., (2007) ‘Site effects outweigh riparian influences on ground-dwelling beetles adjacent to first order streams in wet eucalypt forest’, Biodiversity and Conservation, 16, 1999-2014 Stuart-Smith, R.D., Stuart-Smith, J.F., White, R.W.G., Barmuta, L.A., (2007) ‘The impact of an introduced predator on a threatened galaxiid fish is reduced by the availability of complex habitats’, Freshwater Biology 52, 1555-1563 Baker, S.C., Barmuta, L.A., McQuillan, P.B., & Richardson, A.M.M. (2007) ‘Estimating edge effects on ground-dwelling beetles at clearfelled non-riparian stand edges in Tasmanian wet eucalypt forest.’ Forest Ecology and Management, 239, 92-101. Gooderham, J.P.R., Barmuta, L.A., & Davies, P.E. (2007) ‘Upstream heterogeneous zones: small stream systems structured by a lack of competence?’ Journal of the North American Benthological Society, 26, 365-374. Baker, S.C. & Barmuta, L.A. (2006) ‘Evaluating spatial autocorrelation and depletion in pitfall-trap studies of environmental gradients.’ Journal of Insect Conservation, 10, 269-276. Hardie, S.A., Jackson, J.E., Barmuta, L.A., & White, R.W.G. (2006) ‘Status of galaxiid fishes in Tasmania, Australia: Conservation listings, threats and management issues.’ Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 16, 235-250.

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Dr Chris Burridge http://fcms.its.utas.edu.au/scieng/zoo/pagedetails.asp?lpersonId=5232 Tel: 03 6226 7653; Fax: 03 6226 2745; Email: chris.burridge@utas.edu.au My research interests encompass three disciplines. Firstly, I am interested in the reconstruction of phylogenetic relationships based on DNA sequences to address questions of biogeography and earth history, trait evolution, macroecology, and taxonomy. Secondly, I am interested in the use of molecular data (predominantly microsatellites) for the inference of historical and contemporary movement of individuals among populations, and changes in population size (impact of perturbations, past climate changes etc.). I am keen to incorporate earth science and spatial information science (i.e. GIS) into the above disciplines. At the molecular level I have studied the molecular clock hypothesis and mitochondrial genomics. My research is focussed on four topics at present: • Biogeography: assessing the past roles of dispersal, vicariance, and

extinction on contemporary distributions (e.g. Gondwanan vicariance, antitropicality).

• Impact of landscape evolution on the distribution of freshwater-limited taxa (e.g. river piracy).

• Gene flow among populations and the influence of intervening environments (e.g. oceanographic breaks, mountain ranges).

• Factors influencing rates of molecular evolution (e.g. metabolic rate).

I am interested in supervising students in topics relating to the above themes, and also broadly across the Research Areas of the School in collaboration with other academics (Behavioural and Evolutionary Ecology, Comparative Endocrinology and Ecophysiology, Freshwater Ecology, Wildlife Management and Conservation). POTENTIAL PROJECTS Using leeches for monitoring of mammal distributions in Tasmania (Honours, co-supervised by Elissa Cameron): Knowledge of species distributions, and changes in distributions, is central to conservation biology. However, many species of conservation concern are cryptic, and

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difficult to survey, requiring substantial fieldwork effort for limited return. It has been recently demonstrated that leeches retain DNA from the blood of their hosts for long periods of time, and therefore the sampling of leeches can provide a rapid and definitive record of the presence of mammals in a certain location, without requiring the deployment of field equipment. The potential also exists to simultaneously survey genetic variation in the mammal community at a site using leeches. This study will be conducted concurrently with conventional survey methods (hair tubes, camera traps) to assess the relative sensitivity of the leech DNA sampling approach for detecting the presence of mammal species at a site. Mainland connections (Honours): The Tasmanian fauna is comprised of taxa that are endemic to the island, and those that are also shared with mainland Australia. What is the evolutionary history of our endemic taxa? Are these the product of isolation from the mainland following the most recent Pleistocene sea level rise, or do they have a much older history of isolation? Has speciation proceeded between Tasmanian and mainland populations, or among Tasmanian populations? A phylogenetic approach involving the Tasmanian passerine fauna will address these questions. Evolution of galaxiid fishes (Honours): A comprehensive phylogeny for galaxiid fishes now exists, and provides a framework to investigate a wide range of questions regarding their evolution. This study will examine patterns of variation in features such as morphology (e.g. caudal fin shape, number of vertebrae) and life history (presence or absence of marine larval stage) on rates of diversification while controlling for phylogenetic history of lineages. Phylogeography of Tasmanian species (Honours or Postgrad): Through the reconstruction of genetic relationships among populations of species with narrow habitat requirements, we can open a window into the past distribution of these habitats or the conditions that led to the contemporary distributions of species. For example, what do the genetic relationships among ‘sky island’ populations of snow skinks tell us about the distribution of glacial refugia for these taxa? Likewise, what are the genetic relationships among populations of freshwater crayfish, and what do they tell us about the past connections of rivers (paleodrainages)?

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Evolutionary relationships of the enigmatic long-finned pike (Honours): Southern Australia houses several endemic marine nearshore species of unknown derivation. An example is monotypic fish family Dinolestidae, containing the long-finned pike (Dinolestes lewini). This is an aggressive pelagic carnivore, which was previously considered related to the cardinalfishes, requiring a dramatic transition in body form and ecology. However, larval features seem to link Dinolestes with other predatory pelagic species such as tunas. Resolving the phylogenetic placement of this species using molecular techniques will address whether dramatic ecological and morphological transition has occurred, and also provide an insight into the origins Australia’s temperate marine endemism. Evolution of migratory life histories (Honours or Postgrad): Migration, the movement of individuals between distinct areas for the purpose of feeding or reproduction, is observed across a wide range of animal taxa. While much research has focused on documenting the nature of migrations and understanding the physiological and behavioural adaptations involved, much less research has centred on trying to understand the evolutionary origins of migratory life histories. In several instances, migratory life histories have evolved and been lost repetitively within a group, enabling contrasts against candidate environmental and behavioural variables. Research on this topic could cover any or a range of taxa (e.g. fishes, birds, mammals) using a phylogenetic approach. Enhanced assessments of the impact of fisheries on deep-sea skates in the Southern Ocean using genetic taxonomy (Honours): Deep-sea skates (primarily Bathyraja spp.) are a common bycatch species in longline fisheries targeting toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides and D. mawsoni) throughout the Southern Ocean. Deep sea skates are believed to take a relatively long time to reach maturity, and have low fecundity, and are therefore potentially vulnerable to over-fishing. Management of these species is further complicated by a lack of robust data to enable species-specific estimates of risk. This project will examine morphometric data and specimens of deep-sea skate captured in fisheries across the Southern Ocean, and use genetic methods to evaluate hypotheses regarding the species composition of deep-sea skate bycatch, and the identity of species or populations most at risk from fishing.

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Some recent publications • Burridge, C.P., McDowall, R.M., Craw, D., Wilson, M.V.H., and Waters, J.M. 2012.

Marine dispersal as a pre-requisite for Gondwanan vicariance among elements of the galaxiid fish fauna. Journal of Biogeography 39: 306-321.

• Waters, J.M., Rowe, D.L.; Burridge, C.P., and Wallis, G.P. 2010. Gene trees versus

species trees: reassessing life-history evolution in a freshwater fish radiation. Systematic Biology 59: 504-517.

• Burridge, C.P., Craw, D., Jack, D.C., King, T.M., and Waters, J.M. 2008. Does fish

ecology predict dispersal across a river drainage divide? Evolution 62: 1484-1499.

• Overeem, R.L., Peucker, A.J., Austin, C.M., Dann, P., and Burridge, C.P. 2008.

Contrasting genetic structuring between colonies of the World’s smallest penguin, Eudyptula minor (Aves: Spheniscidae). Conservation Genetics 9: 893-905.

• Burridge, C.P., Craw, D. Fletcher, D., and Waters, J.M. 2008, Geological dates and

molecular rates: fish DNA sheds light on time-dependency. Molecular Biology and Evolution 25: 624-633.

• Burridge, C.P., and Versace, V. L. 2007. Population genetic structuring in

Acanthopagrus butcheri (Pisces: Sparidae): does low gene flow among estuaries apply to both sexes? Marine Biotechnology 9: 33-44.

• Burridge, C.P., Meléndez, R, and Dyer, B.S. 2006. Independent origins of the Juan

Fernández kelpfish fauna (Perciformes: Chironemidae), and evidence for frequent and unidirectional dispersal of cirrhitoid fishes across the South Pacific. Systematic Biology 55: 566-578.

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Professor Elissa Cameron Head of School http://fcms.its.utas.edu.au/scieng/zoo/pagedetails.asp?lpersonId=6356 Tel: (03) 6226 7632; Fax (03) 6226 2745; Email: Elissa.Cameron@utas.edu.au My research interests centre on integrating evolutionary behavioural and population ecology with conservation and management issues using a variety of techniques and approaches. The basis of my research programme is intensive behavioural and demographic sampling on known individuals, combined with experimental manipulations. I am currently working in three main areas, within which there is potential for a variety of different projects.

1. Mechanisms for sex ratio adjustment

Sex ratios at birth show significant variation in some mammals. While there has been a lot of attention on the evolutionary causes and consequences of such variation, there has been little research on the mechanisms by which sex ratios are adjusted. Marsupials show adaptive variation in sex ratios, and provide an excellent experimental system given the short duration of gestation, enhancing the opportunity for experimental manipulation. We are also investigating ways to manipulate sex ratios in mice.

2. Harassment, bonding and reproduction

Male aggression can have significant consequences for females, which may be countered by a variety of strategies in females, including social bonding. Social contact may enhance reproductive success through reducing harassment directly, but may also reduce stress levels. Furthermore, immune function and disease resistance may be enhanced by the quality of social relationships. The benefits of social contact seem to transcend kin benefits. Consequently, while difficult to measure, social integration may be an important overlooked variable in determining reproductive success and shaping social structure. In addition, it may explain some conservation successes and failures, since reintroductions are more successful when familiar individuals are translocated.

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Examples of recent publications Dalerum, F* and Cameron, EZ and Kunkel, K* and Somers, MJ*, ‘Interactive effects of

species richness and species traits on functional diversity and redundancy’, Theoretical Ecology, 5 pp. 129-139. ISSN 1874-1738 (2012)

Ganswindt, A* and Muilwijk, C* and Engelkes, M* and Muenscher, S* and Bertschinger, H* and Paris, M* and Palme, R* and Cameron, EZ and Bennett, NC* and Dalerum, F*, ‘Validation of Noninvasive Monitoring of Adrenocortical Endocrine Activity in Ground-Feeding Aardwolves (Proteles cristata): Exemplifying the Influence of Consumption of Inorganic Material for Fecal Steroid Analysis’, Physiological and Biochemical Zoology, 85 (2) pp. 194-199. ISSN 1522-2152 (2012

Gray, ME* and Cameron, EZ and Peacock, MM* and Thain, DS* and Kirchoff, VS*, ‘Are low infidelity rates in feral horses due to infanticide?’, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 66 pp. 529-537. ISSN 0340-5443 (2012)

Tambling, CJ* and Laurence, SD* and Bellan, SE* and Cameron, EZ and du Toit, JT* and Getz, WM*, ‘Estimating carnivoran diets using a combination of carcass observations and scats from GPS clusters’, Journal of Zoology, 286 pp. 102-109. ISSN 0952-8369 (2012

de Bruyn, PJN* and Tosh, CA* and Bester, MN* and Cameron, EZ and McIntyre, T* and Wilkinson, IS*, ‘Sex at sea: alternative mating system in an extremely polygynous mammal’, Animal Behaviour, 82 (3) pp. 445-451. ISSN 0003-3472 (2011

de Vries, JL* and Pirk, CWW* and Bateman, PW* and Cameron, EZ and Dalerum, F*, ‘Extension of the diet of an extreme foraging specialist, the aardwolf (Proteles cristata)’, African Zoology, 46 (1) pp. 194-196. ISSN 1562-7020 (2011

Ncube, H* and Duncan, P* and Grange, S* and Cameron, EZ and Barnier, F* and Ganswindt, A*, ‘Pattern of faecal 20-oxopregnane and oestrogen concentrations during pregnancy in wild plains zebra mares’, General and Comparative Endocrinology: An International Journal, 172 (3) pp. 358-362. ISSN 0016-6480 (2011

Thorn, M* and Green, M* and Keith, M* and Marnewick, K* and Bateman, PW* and Cameron, EZ and Scott, DM*, ‘Large-scale distribution patterns of carnivores in northern South Africa: implications for conservation and monitoring’, Oryx: Journal of Fauna and Flora International, 45 (4) pp. 579-586. ISSN 0030-6053 (2011)

White, AM* and Cameron, EZ, ‘Evidence of helping behaviour in a free-ranging population of communally breeding warthogs’, Journal of ethology, 29 pp. 419-425. ISSN 0289-0771 (2011)

White, AM* and Cameron, EZ, ‘Fitness consequences of maternal rearing strategies in warthogs: influence of group size and composition’, Journal of Zoology (285) pp. 77-84. ISSN 0952-8369 (2011

Gray M.E. & Cameron E.Z. 2010. Does contraceptive treatment in wildlife result in side-effects? A review of quantitative and anecdotal evidence. Reproduction 139: 45-55.

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White A.M., Cameron E.Z. & Peacock M.M. 2010. Grouping patterns in warthogs: Is communal care of young enough to explain sociality? Behaviour 147: 1-18.

Cameron E.Z., Setsaas T.H., Linklater W.L. 2009. Social bonds between unrelated females increase reproductive success in feral horses. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 106: 13850-13853

Linklater W.L.& Cameron E.Z. 2009. Dispersal but with philopatry reveals incest avoidance in a polygynous ungulate. Animal Behaviour 77: 1085-1093

Dalerum F., Cameron E.Z., Kunkel K. & Somers M.J. 2009. Diversity and depletions in continental carnivore guilds: implications for prioritizing global carnivore conservation. Biology Letters 5: 35-38.

Cameron E.Z., Dalerum F. 2009. A Trivers-Willard effect in contemporary humans: male-biased sex ratios among billionaires. PLoS ONE 4: e4195

White A.M. & Cameron E.Z. 2009. Do ecological constraints explain communal nesting in common warthogs? Animal Behaviour 77: 87-94.

McLean I.G., Cameron E.Z., Linklater W.L., Schmitt N., Pulskamp K. 2009. Partnerships in the mating system of a small macropod marsupial, the quokka (Setonix brachyurus). Behaviour 146: 89-112.

Cameron E.Z., Linklater W.L., Stafford K.J. & Minot E.O. 2008. Maternal investment results in better foal condition through increased play behaviour in horses, Animal Behaviour 76: 1511-1518.

Dalerum F., Somers M.J., Kunkel K., Cameron E.Z. 2008. Potential for large carnivores as surrogate species for biodiversity conservation in southern Africa. Biodiversity and Conservation 17: 2939-2949.

Cameron E.Z. 2008. Productivity in conservation research in the southern hemisphere. Conservation Biology 22: 232-233.

Cameron E.Z., Lemons P.R., Bateman P.W. & Bennett N.C. 2008. Experimental alteration of litter sex ratios in a mammal. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 275: 323-327

Cameron E.Z. & Linklater W.L. 2007. Extreme sex ratio variation in relation to change in condition around conception. Biology Letters 3: 395-397.

Cameron E.Z. & du Toit J.T. 2007. Winning by a neck: tall giraffes avoid competing with smaller browsers. American Naturalist 169: 130-135

Cameron E.Z. & du Toit J.T. 2005. Social influences on vigilance behaviour in giraffes. Animal Behaviour 69: 1337-1344

Cameron E.Z. 2004. Facultative adjustment of mammalian sex ratios in support of the Trivers-Willard hypothesis: evidence for a mechanism. Proceedings of the Royal Society London, B 271: 1723-1728.

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Dr Scott Carver Lecturer, Wildlife Ecology http://www.utas.edu.au/zoology/people/scott-carver Tel: 03 6226 2794; Fax 03 6226 E-mail: scott.carver@utas.edu.au My research emphasizes factors that underpin community dynamics and the ecology of infectious diseases across natural and anthropogenic environments. My research interests are multidisciplinary and include integration of ecological, conservation, epidemiological, veterinary and medical research fields. My interests in ecological processes that structure pathogen transmission enable me to address critical issues, such as determinants of changes in transmission, and control and emergence of virulent infectious diseases among wildlife, domestic animals and humans. My research is not restricted to any particular taxon, though it has tended to focus on the roles of terrestrial vertebrates and aquatic fauna in the ecology of infectious diseases. The outcomes of my research have fundamental relevance for the conservation and health of wildlife and ecosystems, and the health of humans. My research program spans a range of systems in Australia and North America and includes collaborations at UTAS, Colorado State University, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Montana Tech of the University of Montana. Locally, I am interested in: 1) how trophic interactions among aquatic fauna influence mosquito vectors of Ross River virus and ultimately the potential for human infections, 2) how marsupial host demographics influences the dynamics of Ross River virus among marsupials and humans, 3) the effects of introduced domestic cats and toxoplasmosis on wildlife, domestic animals and humans, 4) impacts of sarcoptic mange on wombats, 5) the ecology and impact of platypus Mucormycosis in Tasmania, 6) the ecology and impact of Koala retrovirus, and 7) mechanisms that underscore pathogenesis of Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumour Disease. At an international level my research interests extend to: 1) the effects of urbanization on pathogens shared among mountain lions, bobcats and feral domestic cats, 2) within host dynamics of retrovirus infection, utilizing model systems for HIV, 3) the dynamics of small mammal populations and a zoonotic hantavirus, and 4) utilizing models to predict dengue cases within cities in Brazil. I am enthusiastic to speak with students interested in pursuing honour, masters and PhD studies among these areas, and who have strong interests in developing their analytical expertise. I am also open to discussing novel projects that students may have interests in developing. Some potential honours project questions include: 1. How does seasonality in reproductive cycles of mosquitoes and marsupials can produce annual, multi-annual and steady patterns of Ross River virus dynamics?

2. How does distance to urban-wildland boundaries influences patterns of pathogen exposure and infection in wild and domestic felids in North America?

3. Do resources govern competition among micro-crustaceans and vectors of Ross River virus?

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Selected publications: Carver, S., A. V. Scorza, S. N. Bevins, S. P. D. Riley, K. R. Crooks, S. VandeWoude, and M. R. Lappin. 2012. Zoonotic parasites of bobcats around human landscapes. Journal of Clinical Microbiology 50:3080-3083. Werner, A. K., S. Goater, S. Carver, G. Robertson, G. R. Allen, and P. Weinstein. 2012. Environmental drivers of Ross River virus in south-east Tasmania, Australia: towards strengthening public health interventions. Epidemiology and Infection 140:359-371. Bevins, S. N., S. Carver, E. E. Boydston, L. M. Lyren, M. Alldredge, K. A. Logan, S. P. D. Riley, R. N. Fisher, T. W. Vickers, W. Boyce, M. Salman, M. R. Lappin, K. R. Crooks, and S. VandeWoude. 2012. Three pathogens in sympatric populations of pumas, bobcats, and domestic cats: implications for infectious disease transmission. PLoS ONE 7:e31403. Haley, N. J., C. K. Mathiason, S. Carver, G. C. Telling, M. D. Zabel, and E. A. Hoover. 2012. Sensitivity of protein misfolding cyclic amplification versus immunohistochemistry in ante-mortem detection of chronic wasting disease. Journal of General Virology 93:1141-1150. Carver, S., A. Kuenzi, K. H. Bagamian, J. N. Mills, P. E. Rollin, S. N. Zanto, and R. Douglass. 2011. A temporal dilution effect: hantavirus infection in deer mice and the intermittent presence of voles in Montana. Oecologia 166:713-721. Weinstein, P., D. Judge, and S. Carver. 2011. Biological and cultural coevolution and emerging infectious disease: Ross River virus in Australia. Medical Hypotheses 76:893-896. Carver, S., T. J. Trueax, R. Douglass, and A. Kuenzi. 2011. Delayed density-dependent prevalence of Sin Nombre virus infection in deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) in central and western Montana. Journal of Wildlife Diseases 47:56-63. Haley, N. J., C. K. Mathiason, S. Carver, M. Zabel, G. C. Telling, and E. A. Hoover. 2011. Detection of chronic wasting disease prions in salivary, urinary, and intestinal tissues of deer: potential mechanisms of prion shedding and transmission. Journal of Virology 85:6309-6318. Richardson, K., S. Carver, R. Douglass, and A. Kuenzi. 2011. Effect of rock cover on small mammal abundance in a Montana grassland. Intermountain Journal of Sciences 17:20-29. Carver, S., S. Goater, G. Allen, R. Parr, E. Fearnley, and P. Weinstein. 2011. Relationships of the Ross River virus (Togoviridae: Alphavirus) vector, Aedes camptorhynchus (Thomson) (Diptera: Culicidae), to biotic and abiotic factors in saltmarshes of south-eastern Tasmania, Australia: a preliminary study. Australian Journal of Entomology 50:344-355. Zheng, X., S. Carver, R. M. Troyer, J. A. Terwee, and S. VandeWoude. 2011. Prior virus exposure alters the long-term landscape of viral replication during feline lentiviral infection. Viruses 3:1891-1908. Carver, S., H. Spafford, A. Storey, and P. Weinstein. 2010. The roles of predators, competitors and secondary salinisation in structuring mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) assemblages in ephemeral waterbodies of the Wheatbelt of Western Australia. Environmental Entomology 39:798-810. Carver, S., A. M. Kilpatrick, A. Kuenzi, R. Douglass, R. S. Ostfeld, and P. Weinstein. 2010. Integration of environmental monitoring to enhance comprehension and control of infectious diseases. Journal of Environmental Monitoring 12:2048-2055.

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Carver, S. 2010. Resistance of mammal asemblage structure to dryland salinity in a fragmented landscape. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 93:119-128. Carver, S., B. D. Bell, and B. Waldman. 2010. Does chytridiomycosis disrupt amphibian skin function? Copeia 2010:487-495. Carver, S., A. Bestall, A. Jardine, and R. S. Ostfeld. 2009. The influence of hosts on the ecology of arboviral transmission: potential mechanisms influencing dengue, Murray Valley encephalitis and Ross River virus in Australia. Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases 9:51-64. Carver, S., H. Spafford, A. Storey, and P. Weinstein. 2009. Colonisation of ephemeral water bodies in the Wheatbelt of Western Australia by assemblages of mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae): role of environmental factors, habitat and disturbance. Environmental Entomology 38:1585-1594. Carver, S., H. Spafford, A. Storey, and P. Weinstein. 2009. Dryland salinity and the ecology of Ross River virus: the ecological underpinnings of the potential for transmission. Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases 9:611-622. van Schie, C., H. Spafford, S. Carver, and P. Weinstein. 2009. The salinity tolerance of Aedes camptorhynchus (Diptera: Culicidae) from two regions of southwestern Australia. Australian Journal of Entomology 48:293-299. Carver, S., A. Storey, H. Spafford, J. Lynas, L. Chandler, and P. Weinstein. 2009. Salinity as a driver of aquatic invertebrate colonisation behaviour and distribution in the wheatbelt of Western Australia. Hydrobiologia 617:75-90. Carver, S., V. Sakalidis, and P. Weinstein. 2008. House mouse abundance and Ross River virus notifications in Victoria, Australia. International Journal of Infectious Diseases 12:528-533. Jardine, A., P. Speldewinde, S. Carver, and P. Weinstein. 2007. Dryland salinity and Ecosystem Distress Syndrome: human health implications. EcoHealth 4:10-17. Bell, B. D., S. Carver, N. J. Mitchell, and S. Pledger. 2004. The dramatic decline of a New Zealand endemic: how and why did populations of Archey's frog Leiopelma archeyi crash over 1996-2001? Biological Conservation 120:193-203.

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Dr Ashley Edwards http://fcms.its.utas.edu.au/scieng/zoo/pagedetails.asp?lpersonId=1698 Tel: (03) 6226 2617; Fax: (03) 6226 2745; Email: Ashley.Edwards@utas.edu.au I am a comparative endocrinologist fascinated by the role of hormones in the regulation of physiology in vertebrates. My own research focuses on the physiological roles of sex steroid hormones such as testosterone and estradiol: how do vertebrate animals signal reproductive readiness to conspecifics, synchronise gamete maturation and mating behaviours, or time all these events to fit within a single reproductive season of limited duration? Regulation of these and many other processes related to reproduction occur at many levels (e.g. biosynthesis, circulation, peripheral conversion of hormones), and the co-ordination of these is a complex process. I find that reptiles make excellent models to examine the roles of not only sex steroid hormones such as estradiol and testosterone, but also the control of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG axis) control of other reproductive hormones in the regulation of the onset of sexual maturity and the timing of seasonal reproductive events. I’m also interested in the role of both hormones and stored energy resources in decisions to breed – how and when do female lizards in particular make the “decision” to reproduce? I take a mechanistic approach to answering these questions, investigating the underlying hormonal controls related to both storage and mobilisation of energy reserves, and I believe thyroid hormones will play an important role. This research addresses the interface between physiology and ecology, looking to identify the mechanisms by which ecological decisions about breeding are made and physiologically regulated. Potential projects include

1) Using hormones to sex newborn lizards 2) The role of androgens in female reproduction 3) The role of estrogens in male reproduction

We have the facilities and experience to address a wide variety of either laboratory- or field-based research projects, including, but not limited to, those listed below. The School of Zoology has excellent indoor and

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outdoor reptile housing facilities and a well-equipped endocrinology laboratory. We regularly use RIA, TLC and other endocrine-related and histological techniques, and have access to GC-MS, HPLC (with radiometric detection) and excellent technical assistance at the University of Tasmania’s Central Science Laboratory. Selected papers: Edwards A, Jones S.M. and Davies N.W. 2005. Patterns of peripheral steroid

metabolism vary with sex, season and tissue type in blotched blue-tongued lizards (Tiliqua nigrolutea). General and Comparative Endocrinology. 140 14-24.

Edwards A, and Jones S.M. 2004. Parturition in the blotched blue-tongued lizard, Tiliqua nigrolutea, in captivity. Herpetofauna. 34 113-118.

Edwards A. and Jones S.M. 2003. Mating behaviour in the blotched blue-tongued lizard, Tiliqua nigrolutea, in captivity. Herpetofauna 33 60-64.

Edwards A., Jones S.M. and Davies N.W. 2003. Sex and season influence gonadal steroid biosynthetic pathways, end-product production and steroid conjugation in blotched blue-tongued lizards (Tiliqua nigrolutea). Gen. Comp. Endocrinol. 134 131-138.

Edwards A., Jones S.M. and Davies N.W. 2002. A possible alternative to 17β-estradiol in a viviparous lizard, Tiliqua nigrolutea. Gen. Comp. Endocrinol. 129 114-121.

Edwards A., Jones S.M., and Wapstra, E. 2002. Multiennial reproduction in females of a viviparous skink, Tiliqua nigrolutea. Herpetologica 58 407-414.

Atkins, A., Jones S.M. and Edwards A. 2002. Fecal testosterone concentrations may not be useful for monitoring reproductive status in male blue-tongued lizards (Tiliqua nigrolutea: Scincidae) J. Herpetol. 36 106-109.

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Professor Chris Johnson http://fcms.its.utas.edu.au/scieng/zoo/pagedetails.asp?lpersonId=6371 Ph: (03) 6226 6634; Fax: (03) 6226 2745 Email: C.N.Johnson@utas.edu.au I work in wildlife ecology, conservation biology and wildlife management. I specialize in the ecology of Australian mammals, especially the marsupials. My work on mammal ecology has two main goals: (1) to provide the underpinning science for the management of threatened species, and prevent further declines of mammalian biodiversity; and (2) to understand the way in which mammals interact with other elements of the Australian fauna and flora to maintain ecological processes and sustain biodiversity. I have a strong interest in the role of large mammalian predators (such as the dingo on mainland Australia and the devil in Tasmania) as keystone species that maintain biodiversity. Beyond this, I have broad interests that include ecological modelling, Quaternary environmental change and human impacts in prehistory, macroecology and biogeography, and the biology of extinction.

Potential postgraduate projects include the following. Conservation genetics of the Tasmanian bettong (with Dr Chris Burridge): The Tasmanian bettong is currently widespread in the State, although it went extinct on mainland Australian around 100 years ago. It may now be threatened by the invasion of the red fox. This project will assess current population structure and gene flow, and link this to distribution models to identify high-priority populations for protection against fox impact. The project would also use genetic methods to reconstruct the demographic history of the Tasmanian bettong population, and this could include comparisons with mainland populations based on DNA extracted from museum specimens. Marsupials as ecosystem engineers in Tasmania: several species of Tasmanian marsupials forage by digging for underground fungi (‘truffles’). In the process, they may affect soil structure and litter decomposition, and create micro-sites that promote plant regeneration. It is also possible that these effects could interact with fire in dry open woodlands, to both reduce the impacts of fire and promote plant

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regeneration in the aftermath of fire. This project will test these effects in studies of Tasmanian bettongs, potoroos and bandicoots. Behavioural responses of prey to decline of devils (with Dr Menna Jones): As the Tasmanian devil declines, predator-prey interactions are being re-organised in Tasmanian ecosystems. Predation pressure is being relaxed for some species, and increased for others as a result of increase of smaller predators that may previously have been suppressed by devils. Several projects on the complex results of these changes for prey species are possible. The following two potential projects would involve long periods of field work in northern Australia: Predator-prey interactions - indirect effects of dingo predation on agile wallabies: recent work in northern Australia has shown that dingoes limit populations of macropods, and that agile wallabies are especially strongly affected. This project will use behavioural and landscape-scale experiments to test how the presence of dingoes affects behaviour and habitat use by agile wallabies, to better understand the mechanisms by which dingoes limit wallaby abundance. Mammal declines in northern Australia: A large collaborative project will be investigating the causes of current declines of the distribution and abundance of small and medium-sized mammals through the savannas of northern Australia. We will be examining the effects on mammal communities of fire, livestock grazing and predation in diverse landscapes. Specific PhD projects can be developed within this framework. Examples of recent papers: Bateman, BL* and VanDerWal, J* and Johnson, CN, ‘Nice weather for bettongs: using

weather events, not climate means, in species distribution models’, Ecography, 35 (4) pp. 306-314. ISSN 0906-7590 (2012) [Refereed Article]

Rule, S* and Brook, BW* and Haberle, SG* and Turney, CSM* and Kershaw, AP* and Johnson, CN, ‘The Aftermath of Megafaunal Extinction: Ecosystem Transformation in Pleistocene Australia’, Science-, 335 pp. 1483-1486. ISSN 0036-8075 (2012) [Refereed Article]

van Bommel, Linda and Johnson, CN, ‘Good dog! Using livestock guardian dogs to protect livestock from predators in Australia's extensive grazing systems’, Wildlife Research, 39 pp. 220-229. ISSN 1035-3712 (2012) [Refereed Article]

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Bateman, BL* and Johnson, CN, ‘The influences of climate, habitat and fire on the distribution of cockatoo grass (Alloteropsis semialata) (Poaceae) in the Wet Tropics of northern Australia’, Australian Journal of Botany, 59 (4) pp. 315-323. ISSN 0067-1924 (2011) [Refereed Article]

Johnson, C. N. & Brook, B. W. (2011) Reconstructing the dynamics of ancient human populations from radiocarbon dates: 10 000 years of population growth in Australia. Proceedings of the Royal Society B (published on-line May 11)

Williams, S. E., Williams, Y. M., VanDerWal, J., Isaac, J. L., Shoo, L. P. & Johnson C. N. (2009) Ecological specialization and population size in a biodiversity hotspot: how rare species avoid extinction. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 106, 19737-19741

Ritchie, E. G. & Johnson, C. N. (2009) Predator interactions, mesopredator release and biodiversity conservation. Ecology Letters 12, 982-998

Johnson, C. N. & VanDerWal, J. (2009) Evidence that dingoes limit abundance of mesopredators in eastern Australian forests. Journal of Applied Ecology 46, 641-646

VanDerWal, J., Shoo, L. P., Johnson, C. N. & Williams, S. E. (2009) Abundance and the environmental niche: environmental suitability estimated from niche models predicts the upper limit of local abundance. The American Naturalist 174, 282-291

DeGabriel, J. L., Moore, B. D., Foley, W. J. & Johnson, C. N. (2009) The effects of plant defensive chemistry on nutrient availability predict reproductive success in a mammal. Ecology 90, 711-719

Johnson, C. N. (2009) Ecological consequences of late Quaternary extinctions of megafauna. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 276, 2509-2519

Ritchie, E. G., Martin, J., Krockenberger, A. K., Garnett, S. J. & Johnson, C. N. (2008) Large herbivore distribution and abundance in the tropics: intra- and inter-specific niche variation across species ranges. Ecological Monographs 78, 105-122

Symonds, M. R. E. & Johnson, C. N. (2008) Species richness and evenness in Australian birds. The American Naturalist 171, 480-490.

Johnson, C. N., Isaac, J. L. & Fisher, D. O. (2007) Rarity of a top predator triggers continent-wide collapse of mammal prey: dingoes and marsupials in Australia. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 274, 341-346

Johnson, C. N. (2006) Australia’s mammal extinctions: a 50 000 year history. Cambridge University Press, Melbourne

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Dr Menna Jones http://fcms.its.utas.edu.au/scieng/zoo/pagedetails.asp?lpersonId=1321 Tel: (03) 6226 2897, 0407 815606; Fax: (03) 6226 2745; E-mail: Menna.Jones@utas.edu.au My research interests are in wildlife ecology and conservation. I work mostly with mammals and I specialise on carnivores: Tasmanian devils, quolls, and feral cats. My goals are 1) to understand the ecological and evolutionary processes that influence wildlife at multiple levels from the individual to the ecosystem, and 2) to incorporate these into developing approaches for conservation and ecological restoration, thus providing the science that underpins conservation programs. My research programs are generally field-based on wild animals and use a range of approaches including field, behavioural and molecular ecology, and modelling. Our group is a hub for research on the Tasmanian devil disease and predator dynamics. We collaborate widely in multidisciplinary teams, within the School and UTAS, nationally with researchers at Griffith University, The Universities of Sydney, New South Wales and Melbourne, and internationally with Cambridge University and Washington State. We also work closely with government and non-government conservation programs and agencies: Save the Tasmanian Devil Program, Threatened Species Unit, Forest Practices Authority, Tasmanian Land Conservancy. In Tasmania, we have access to a range of close and remote field sites that offer opportunities to test ecological and evolutionary questions. Tasmania has the most abundant and diverse marsupial carnivore fauna in Australia, and conservation and ecological research projects on these species are both do-able and fun. In 2012-13 I can offer Honours, Masters and PhD projects within the following research programs. I am also willing to support the development of projects outside these areas. Can we save the Tasmanian devil from extinction in the wild by understanding and managing the evolutionary and ecological interaction between the devil and facial tumour disease? Tasmanian devils are at risk of extinction in the wild from an unusual transmissible cancer. Our research provides the scientific grounding for

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conservation management of devil populations in the wild and in captivity. We are investigating the evolutionary interaction between the devil and its tumour and how we might translate this to conservation actions for ecological and genetic restoration of devils in the wild. Our research on the ecological, behavioural and genetic adaptation to captivity will maximise suitability of these insurance populations for reintroduction to the wild. Specific projects:

• Parasite coinfection, stress and disease • Life history and behavioural adaptation of the devil to DFTD • Genomic evolution of the devil in response to DFTD • How to minimise adaptation to captivity

What is the role of Tasmania’s top predator, the devil, in protecting smaller marsupials from cat and fox predation? Loss of keystone predators, such as the Tasmanian devil, can lead to cascading changes in ecosystems. Devil decline has led to an increase in feral cats which will increase predation and disease pressure on small native animals. Effects of top predator loss can be direct (predation) or indirect, as changing predator guilds change the landscape of fear. Smaller predators and prey will adjust their behaviour (habitat use and activity), often to suboptimal patterns, to reduce the risk of predation. Over time, this will lead to reduced populations. These indirect effects of changing predator dynamics are at least as important as direct predation. We will experimentally test in the field the behavioural and demographic responses of smaller predators and prey to devil decline. We will test the behavioural interactions and mechanisms underlying these responses and the role of the individual’s behavioural and stress phenotype in the response. Specific projects:

• Prey responses to changing predator dynamics/landscapes of fear

What are the responses of terrestrial vertebrates to multiple land uses (farming, forestry and urban) and loss of habitat and connectivity at landscape and regional scales? Ecological restoration: How can we restore wildlife to these landscapes? Projects in this area are related also to changing predator dynamics, the availability of predator refuges in the habitat, and with a view to landscape-scale ecological restoration.

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Selected publications: Hamede R. K., Jones M. and McCallum H. (2012) Patterns of biting injuries and

transmission of Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease. Journal of Animal Ecology. Accepted 7 July 2012.

Hamede R., Bashford J., Jones M. and McCallum H. (2012) Simulating devil facial tumour disease outbreaks in weighted networks: the role of contact heterogeneities in epidemic behavior. Journal of Applied Ecology. 49 (2): 447-456.

Jones, M. and H. McCallum (2011) The Devil’s Cancer. Scientific American, June 2011: 32-37

Hamede R., Lachish S., Belov K., Woods G., Kreiss A., Pearse A.M., Lazenby B., Jones M. and McCallum H. (2011) Reduced effect of Tasmanian devil facial tumor disease at the disease front. Conservation Biology (in press)

McCallum H. & Jones M. E. (2010) Infectious cancer in wildlife. Conservation Medicine: Applied Cases of Ecological Health. (Eds. A. Alonso Aguirre, Peter Daszak and Richard S. Ostfeld). Oxford University Press.

Lachish, S., Miller, K. & Jones, M. (2010) Dispersal in disease-affected populations of Tasmanian devils: Genetic evidence that an infectious disease epidemic alters dispersal patterns in a wild mammal. Heredity 1-11; doi:10.1038/hdy.2010.17.

Siddle H. V., Marzec J., Cheng Y., Jones M., and Belov K. (2010) MHC gene copy number variation in Tasmanian devils: Implications for the spread of a contagious cancer. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: (accepted 9 Feb 2010; on-line 10 March 2010; doi:10.1098/rspb.2009.2362).

Lachish S., McCallum H., Mann D., Pukk C., & Jones M. (2010) Evaluating selective culling of infected individuals to control Tasmanian devil Facial Tumor Disease. Conservation Biology 78 (2): 427-436

Hamede R. K., Bashford J., McCallum H., & Jones, M. (2009) Contact networks in a wild Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) population: using social network analysis to reveal seasonal variability in social behaviour and its implications for transmission of devil facial tumour disease. Ecology Letters 12 (11): 1147-1157

McCallum, H., Jones M., Hawkins C., Hamede R., Lachish S., Sinn D., Beeton N. & Lazenby B. (2009) Transmission dynamics of Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumor Disease may lead to disease induced extinction. Ecology 90: 3379-3392.

Jones, M.E., Cockburn, A., Hawkins, C., Hesterman, H., Lachish, S., Mann, D., McCallum, H., Pemberton, D. (2008) Life history change in disease-ravaged Tasmanian devil populations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 205: 10023 - 10027.

Jones, M.; Jarman, P.; Lees, C.; Hesterman, H.; Hamede, R.; Mooney, N.; Mann, D.; Pukk, C.; Bergfeld, J.; McCallum, H. (2007). Conservation management of Tasmanian devils in the context of an emerging, extinction-threatening disease: Devil Facial Tumor Disease. EcoHealth 4(3): 326-337.

Lachish, S., Jones, M. & McCallum, H. (2007) The impact of devil facial tumour disease on the survival and population growth rate of the Tasmanian devil. Journal of Animal Ecology. 76: 926-936

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McCallum, H. and Jones, M. (2006) To lose both would look like carelessness... Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumour Disease. Unsolved Mystery; Public Library of Science, Biology 4 (10): 1671 – 1674.

Soulé, M. E., Mackey, B. G., Recher, H. F., Williams, J. E., Woinarski, J. C. Z., Driscoll, D., Dennison, W. C., and Jones, M. E. (2006) “The role of connectivity in Australian conservation.” in Connectivity Conservation (Ed. Crooks, K. & Sanjayan, M.), Conservation Biology 14. Cambridge University Press, pp. 649-675.

Jones, M. E., Paetkou, D., Geffen, E. and Moritz, C. (2004) Genetic diversity and population structure of Tasmanian devils, the largest marsupial carnivore. Molecular Ecology 13: 2197-2209

Jones, M. E., Smith, G. C. and Jones, S. M. (2004) Is anti-predator behaviour in Tasmanian eastern quolls (Dasyurus viverrinus) effective against introduced predators? Animal Conservation 7 (2): 155-160

Jones, M.E. (2000) Road upgrade, road mortality and remedial measures: impacts on a population of eastern quolls and Tasmanian devils. Wildlife Research 27 (3): 289-296.

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Professor Sue Jones http://fcms.its.utas.edu.au/scieng/zoo/pagedetails.asp?lpersonId=223 Tel: (03) 6226 2615; Fax: (03) 6226 2745; E-mail: S.M.Jones@utas.edu.au How does an animal’s environment influence both its physiology and its behaviour? How does environmental change impact on a species, especially upon on its reproductive capability? These fascinating fundamental questions underpin my work as a comparative endocrinologist. I am particularly intrigued by viviparous reptiles: why did viviparity evolve so many times in reptiles, how do their endocrine systems compare with those of placental mammals, and why do they provide both yolk and placental nutrients to their embryos? Tasmania is one of the best places in the world for studying these phenomena. My second major interest is how adrenal hormones allow animals to cope with environmental stressors, natural or unnatural. Understanding how stress responses may be modulated by environmental factors can provide important information for conservation managers: the new field of conservation endocrinology is growing fast! Current or recent projects carried out by students in the Comparative Endocrinology Research Group include: Endocrine disruption of reproduction in metallic skinks; Stress responses in southern snow skinks; Determinants of offspring quality in Tasmanian viviparous skinks; Effects of capture and captivity on adrenal function in lizards; Hormones and hibernation in echidnas. At Honours level, I especially encourage projects on lizards because they make such great model organisms for addressing a variety of eco-physiological and/or behavioural questions. Projects may contain a major field component or you may prefer a more laboratory-based approach: my laboratory is equipped for a range of endocrine techniques, including hormone assays and analyses. We have fantastic facilities for keeping lizards in the School, and there are a number of people involved in herpetological research. An August start is strongly recommended for lizard-based projects.

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Potential projects include: • Placental transfer of nutrients in viviparous lizards Do viviparous lizards provide organic nutrients to their developing embryos via the placenta as well as through the yolk? This project will build on previous studies in my lab. (e.g Jones and Swain 2006) to investigate placental transfer in selected species with different types of placentae. • Effects of urbanisation on lizard physiology As urbanisation increases, wildlife increasingly has cope with a human-modified environment. How might this affect their physiology? This project will compare adrenal function, metabolic reserves and immune function in lizards from urban and natural environments. • Adrenal steroids in reptiles Can we work out the pathways through which steroid hormones are produced in reptile adrenals? How do the patterns fit within an evolutionary sequence from fish to mammals? Could the adrenals contribute to the maintenance of pregnancy in viviparous lizards? • Ecophysiology and/or behaviour of feeding in omnivorous skinks Several of our local lizards include a component of plant material in their diet. This project could focus on anatomical and physiological adaptations to a mixed diet, or on behavioural aspects of food choice. Selected publications Gartrell, BD and Jones, SM, ‘No evidence for synchrony of physiological or behavioural preparations for migration in a short-distance migratory parrot’, Emu: Austral Ornithology, 112 pp. 1-8. ISSN 0158-4197 (2012) Itonaga, K and Wapstra, E and Jones, SM, ‘A novel pattern of placental leucine transfer during mid to late destation in a highly placentotrophic viviparous lizard’, Journal of Experimental Biology, 318 pp. 308-315. ISSN 0022-0949 (2012) Itonaga, K and Jones, SM and Wapstra, E, ‘Do gravid females become selfish? Female allocation of energy during gestation’, Physiological and Biochemical Zoology ISSN 1522-2152 (2012 Itonaga, K and Wapstra, E and Jones, SM, ‘A novel pattern of placental leucine transfer during late pregnancy in a highly placentotrophic viviparous lizard’, Journal of Experimental Zoology. Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution ISSN 1552-5007 (2012)

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Itonaga, K and Jones, SM and Wapstra, E, ‘Effects of maternal basking and food quantity during gestation provide evidence for the selective advantage of matrotrophy in a viviparous lizard’, PLoS-One, 7 (7) pp. 1-9. ISSN 1932-6203 (2012) Malau-Aduli, AEO and Nightingale, E and McEvoy, P and Eve, J and John, AJ and Hobbins, A and Alamoudi, AA and Petrie, K and Damen, P and French, M and Craigie, AM and Bales, SK and Kashani, A and Holman, B and Vargas Bravo, J and Jones, SM and Malau-Aduli, BS and Lane, PA, ‘Teaching Animal Science and Genetics to Australian University undergraduates to enhance inquiry-based student learning and research with sheep: Growth and conformation traits in crossbred prime lambs’, British Journal of Educational Research, 2 (1) pp. 59-76. ISSN 2249-5983 (2012) Sprent, JA and Jones, SM and Nicol, SC, ‘Does leptin signal adiposity in the egg-laying mammal, Tachyglossus aculeatus?’, General and Comparative Endocrinology: An International Journal, 178 pp. 372-379. ISSN 0016-6480 (2012) Cadby CD, Jones SM, and Wapstra E. 2010. Are increased concentrations of maternal corticosterone adaptive to offspring? A test using a placentotrophic lizard (Niveoscincus ocellatus). Functional Ecology, 24(2): 409-416. Hesterman H., Susan. M. Jones and F. Schwarzenberger. 2008. Plasma and Faecal Steroid Monitoring of Ovarian Cycles in the Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus laniarius). General and Comparative Endocrinology, 155: 234-244 Atkins, Natalia, Roy Swain, Erik Wapstra, and Susan M. Jones 2007. Late stage deferral of parturition in the viviparous lizard Niveoscincus ocellatus (Gray 1845): implications for offspring quality and survival. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 90:735-746. Cartledge, Victoria and Susan M. Jones 2007. Does adrenal responsiveness vary with sex and reproductive status in Egernia whitii, a viviparous skink? General and Comparative Endocrinology 150: 132-139. Atkins, N., Roy Swain, and Susan M. Jones 2006. Does date of birth or a capacity for facultative placentotrophy influence offspring quality in a viviparous skink, Niveoscincus microlepidotus? Australian Journal of Zoology, 54: 369-374. Jones, Susan M. and Roy Swain 2006. Placental transfer of 3H- oleic acid in three species of viviparous lizards: a route for supplementation of embryonic fat bodies? Herpetological Monographs 20: 186-193.

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Dr Regina Magierowski http://www.utas.edu.au/zoology/people/regina-magierowski Tel: (03) 6226 2592; Fax (03) 6226 2745; Email: reginam@utas.edu.au

My research interests include the community ecology of macroinvertebrate communities (freshwater and marine). Recent research projects include identifying drivers of change in river ecological condition in response to land-use (e.g. agriculture and forestry) and the development of decision support tools (e.g. Bayesian Belief Networks) for regional land managers (Landscape Logic). In my current research fellowship, I aim to develop spatially explicit models that can be used to explore realistic management options for reducing risk to the biodiversity and conservation value of rivers in the Tasmanian midlands and the Australian Alps under a range of climate change scenarios. This research is funded by the Landscapes and Policy Hub of the National Environmental Research Program and is being conducted in collaboration with social scientists, economists and climate scientists.

I’m interested in supervising honours projects related to my current research project in the Tasmanian Midlands and Australian Alps. Potential projects include (but are not limited to):

1. Determining the spatial extent of priority macroinvertebrate communities in the Tasmanian midlands.

2. Identifying barriers to the dispersal of exotic fish species in the Tasmanian midlands and the implications of climate change impacts on these barriers for endangered species (e.g. Galaxias fontanus (swan galaxias) and endangered freshwater fish).

3. Habitat preferences (e.g. preferred substratum type and flow regime) of stream macroinvertebrates.

4. Vulnerability of alpine bogs in the Australian Alps to climate change.

5. Impacts of land-use on river health. 6. Collaborative projects with the other Landscapes and Policy Hub

researchers (see http://www.utas.edu.au/science-engineering-technology/research/areas/centre-for-environment/landscapes-and-policy-research-hub )

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Those students with their own ideas for freshwater or riparian vegetation projects that could be conducted in the Tasmanian Midlands or the Australian Alps are encouraged to contact me to discuss.

My publications include:

• Magierowski, R.M., Davies, P.E. Read, S.M. and Horrigan, N. (in press). Impacts of land use on the structure of river macroinvertebrate communities across Tasmania, Australia: spatial scales and thresholds. Marine and Freshwater Research.

• Allan, J.D., Yuan, L.L., Black, T., Stockton, Davies, P.E., Magierowski, R.H. and Read, S.M. (2012). Investigating the relationships between environmental stressors and stream condition using Bayesian Belief Networks. Freshwater Biology. 57: 58–73.

• Davies, P.E., Magierowski, R.H., Read, S.M. and Horrigan. N. (2012). Measuring and modelling the impacts of land use on ecological river condition. In: Lefroy, T., Curtis, A., Jakeman, T. and McKee, J. (eds). Landscape Logic: Integrating Science for Landscape Management. CSIRO Publishing Australia.

• Magierowski, R.H., Davies P.E., Read S.M. (2010) The Tasmanian River

Condition Bayesian Network. Landscape Logic Technical Report No. 26, Hobart, Tasmania.

• Valentine , J.P., Magierowski, R.H. and Johnson, C.R. (2007). Mechanisms of invasion - establishment, spread and persistence of introduced seaweed populations. Botanica Marina. 50, 351-360

• Magierowski, R.H. and Johnson, C.R. (2006) Robustness of surrogates of biodiversity in marine benthic communities. Ecological Applications, 16(6), pgs. 2264-2275

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Assoc Prof Erik Wapstra Graduate Research Coordinator & Deputy Head of School http://fcms.its.utas.edu.au/scieng/zoo/pagedetails.asp?lpersonId=2458 Tel: 03 6226 2813; Fax 03 62262745; E-mail: erik.wapstra@utas.edu.au I am interested in many aspects of terrestrial and behavioural ecology and I am interested in supervising projects on a variety of animal groups – although the emphasis with my own research has been on using reptiles to answer key questions in behavioural and evolutionary ecology. I have been in the School of Zoology, UTAS since 2004 after completing research fellowships at the Macquarie University, The University of Sydney and Gothenburg University in Sweden. Our group has current collaborations with Oxford University (UK), Groningen University (The Netherlands), and The University of Sydney. We are ideally placed for field projects with access to many fantastic sites close to the University. We also have excellent holding and experimental facilities for small vertebrates in the terrestrial ecology facilities. Depending on the type of project you are interested in there a number of potential co-supervisors for projects (see pages for other staff members). Honours projects are likely to involve both a field and laboratory component and can be started in February or August. I have three current focuses in my research at present and honours and postgraduate projects are available in each of these. Climate variability and climate change and their impacts on vertebrate populations: Assessing species' responses to climate change is one of the greatest challenges ecologists face because global warming is expected to have significant, and at this stage largely unknown, effects on a range of species. Recent reviews described one of the key problems in understanding the impact of climate change in Australia as the lack of long-term datasets and tradition of detailed monitoring that have occurred in the Northern Hemisphere and a distinct lack of research on species whose biology suggests they may be sensitive indicators of climatic change. We have an ongoing research program that addresses these shortcomings using a system in which long-term datasets have been accumulated (>10 years) and one in which environmental effects

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are predicted to be profound. We use ectothermic reptiles in which temperature affects key life history traits including timing of birth, offspring size and offspring sex. Our system is particularly powerful because snow skinks have temperature-dependent sex determination and natural fluctuations in climatic conditions results in significant shifts in offspring sizes and sex. This could potentially have large and long-term impacts but these have not been assessed in detail. Maternal effects of offspring characters Maternal effects arise when the phenotype of a female affects the phenotype of her offspring, over and above that of her direct genetic effects. These effects can either be the result of a direct response of females or their embryos to the environment conditions, e.g., decreased offspring size in response to low food quality, or alternatively, may be a result of a female’s ability to shift behaviour in order to actively manipulate offspring phenotype in line with environmental conditions. The importance of these non-genetic influences of female phenotype on offspring fitness has become an increasing area of focus for evolutionary biologists with recent research documenting many strong and persistent effects of environmental factors acting during embryogenesis on fitness-related traits. Despite this, the degree to which maternal effects are adaptive remains unclear. Our research focuses on maternal effects on offspring characteristics in snow skinks (Niveoscincus). Snow skinks are a genus of small live-bearing lizards largely endemic to Tasmania and its offshore islands. They are an ideal model group for studying a variety of evolutionary and ecological questions. All snow skinks are viviparous (live-bearing) and my principal interest is in how female behaviour during pregnancy affects offspring characters. Maintenance of individual variation in behaviour Our third focus of research is on what determines (and maintains) individual variation in behaviour within populations. Perhaps there is no area of study that is currently “hotter” than the study of animal personalities (or behavioural syndromes) within the field of behavioural ecology. In recent years there has been an acceptance (or possible re-acceptance) that not all individuals behave in the same way and that individuals often are consistent in their behaviour (that is they have a behavioural type, e.g., some individuals are consistently bolder or shyer than their counterparts). What remains poorly understood is what causes the variation in behavioural types, what maintains the variation

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observed (why hasn’t evolution moulded type to some optima?) and what are the consequences at the individual level of the behavioural type. For example, are individuals constrained in their response to situations (such as the predation risk) because of their behavioural type or personality? We investigate these ideas with a variety of small mammals (e.g., antechinus) or reptiles. Some potential projects at honours and post-graduate level include: • How female behaviour during pregnancy affects offspring fitness in

live-bearing species • Maternal effects in ectothermic vertebrates: how important are they? • Genotypic versus phenotypic fitness predictors of offspring fitness • Effects of short, medium and long-term climatic variation on

population demographics • Evolution of sex determination systems within and between species • Evolution of sociality in reptiles. • Maintenance of behavioural variation within vertebrate populations • Do behavioural types constrain individual responses to risk situations

such as predation risk? • Costs and benefits of social grouping in White’s Skink (Egernia whitii) • Mate choice and its effects on offspring fitness *Many other projects on a range of biological questions and taxa are possible, email me with your interests (more details on my website): Examples of recent papers Ballen, C* and Healey, M* and Wilson, M* and Tobler, M* and Wapstra, E and

Olsson, M*, ‘Net superoxide levels: steeper increase with activity in cooler female and hotter male lizards’, Journal of Experimental Biology, 215 pp. 731-735. ISSN 0022-0949 (2012)

Itonaga, K and Wapstra, E and Jones, SM, ‘A novel pattern of placental leucine transfer during mid to late destation in a highly placentotrophic viviparous lizard’, Journal of Experimental Biology, 318 pp. 308-315. ISSN 0022-0949 (2012)

Itonaga, K and Jones, SM and Wapstra, E, ‘Do gravid females become selfish? Female allocation of energy during gestation’, Physiological and Biochemical Zoology ISSN 1522-2152 (2012)

Itonaga, K and Wapstra, E and Jones, SM, ‘A novel pattern of placental leucine transfer during late pregnancy in a highly placentotrophic viviparous lizard’,

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Journal of Experimental Zoology. Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution ISSN 1552-5007 (2012)

Itonaga, K and Jones, SM and Wapstra, E, ‘Effects of maternal basking and food quantity during gestation provide evidence for the selective advantage of matrotrophy in a viviparous lizard’, PLoS-One, 7 (7) pp. 1-9. ISSN 1932-6203 (2012)

Pharo, EJ and Davison, AG and Warr, K and Nursey-Bray, MJ and Beswick, K and Wapstra, E and Jones, Colin, ‘Can teacher collaboration overcome barriers to interdisciplinary learning in a disciplinary university? A case study using climate change’, Teaching in Higher Education (Online) pp. 1-11. ISSN 1470-1294 (2012)

Olsson, M., Wapstra, E., Schwartz, T., Madsen, T., Ujvari, B., Uller, T., Shine, R. (2011). In hot pursuit: fluctuating mating system and sexual selection in sand lizards. Evolution, 65: 574–583

Pen, I., Uller, T., Feldmeyer, B., Harts, A., While, G.M., & Wapstra, E. (2010). Climate driven population divergence in sex determining systems. Nature, 468, 436-438

While, G.M., Uller, T., Wapstra, E. (2011). Variation in social organisation influences the opportunity for sexual selection in a social lizard. Molecular Ecology, 20, 844–852.

Uller, T., While, G.M., Cadby, C.D., Harts, A., O’Connor, K., Pen, I., and Wapstra, E. (2011). Altitudinal divergence in maternal thermoregulatory behaviour may be driven by differences in selection on offspring survival at different climatic extremes in a viviparous lizard. Evolution, 65: 2313–2324.

While, G. M., Isakkson, C., McEvoy, J., Sinn, D. L., Komdeur, J., Wapstra, E. & Groothius, T. G. G. (2010) Repeatable intra-individual variation in plasma testosterone concentration and its sex-specific link to aggression in a social lizard. Hormones and Behavior, 58: 208-213

Cadby, C.D., While, G.M., Hobday, A., Uller, T., Wapstra, E. (2010). The effect of climatic variation at the local, regional and global scale on offspring size and date of birth in a terrestrial reptile Integrative Zoology (invited contribution), 5: 163-174

Wapstra, E. and Warner, D.A. (2010). Sex allocation and sex determination in squamate reptiles. Sexual Development (invited review) 4:119-128

Cadby, C.D., Jones, S.M. and Wapstra, E. (2010). Are elevated levels of maternal corticosterone adaptive to offspring? A test using a viviparous lizard with complex placenta (Niveoscincus ocellatus).Functional Ecology, 24: 409-416 (IF 3.70)

Wapstra, E., Uller, T., While, G., Olsson, M., and Shine, R. (2010). Giving offspring a head start in life: field and experimental evidence for selection on maternal basking behaviour in lizards. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 23: 651–657 (IF 3.47)

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Dr Geoff While http://www.utas.edu.au/zoology/research/behavioural-and-evolutionary-ecology/behavioural-and-evolutionary-ecology-research-group/researchers Lecturer, Behavioural and Evolutionary Ecology Tel: 03 6226 7822; Fax 03 62262745; E-mail: gwhile@utas.edu.au I work in behavioural and evolutionary ecology and my interests within this area are relatively broad. I have worked on foraging ecology, hatching asynchrony, mating systems and sexual selection, social behaviour, parental care, maternal effects, life-history trade-offs, invasive species biology and sex allocation theory. My research also utilises a broad range of model organisms including reptiles, amphibians and macropods (I have also worked on conservation projects assessing primate and rodent biodiversity). At present I have three primary research areas: 1) the evolution of sociality; 2) invasive species biology and; 3) and maternal effects, all of which have the overall goal of trying to provide a greater connect between ecological process and evolutionary theory. I have a number of honours and postgraduate projects available in each of these areas but other projects on a range of biological questions and taxa utilising a range of techniques (empirical, comparative, meta-analytical) are also possible (please email me if you are interested). 1) The Causes and Consequences of Sociality My main area of interest is in identifying the factors responsible for the evolution and maintenance of complex social organisation. To address this I use a social lizard group, the Egernia group, as a model organism. Egernia are excellent model organisms for examining such questions as they display relatively complex social behaviour (for reptiles) which exhibits considerable variation both between and within species. We have previous documented variation in social organisation within a natural population of Egernia whitii and demonstrated that behavioural traits, such as aggression, are key to explaining variation in important social strategies (e.g. extra-pair paternity parental care), which co-vary to mediate male and female fitness. Our ongoing work is aimed at testing these patterns more thoroughly through the use of experimental (large outdoor enclosures), theoretical and comparative techniques (e.g., looking at variation in social organisation across the

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group). I also hope to expand our understanding of key social traits which may mediate variation in social organisation (e.g., aggression, birthing asynchrony, kin recognition). Some potential projects at honours and post-graduate level include: 1. How does the availability of high quality habitat influence variation in social organisation? 2. How does aggression mediate social interactions and the evolution of social organisation? 3. How does male and female aggression influence parental care ability? 4. What are the key characteristics of Egernia burrows and do females choose males based on the quality of their burrows (e.g. do they function as sexual selection trait and are they examples of an extended phenotype)? 5. What compounds are Egernia pheromones composed of and how do they function in the recognition of kin 6. What factors influence offspring propensity to disperse (e.g. disperse or remain with their parents) and dispersal distance (how far they disperse)? How does this influence the social structure of the population? 7. How is birthing asynchrony (producing a litter of offspring over a number of days) achieved (e.g., what are the endocrinological or physiological mechanisms)? What is the evolutionary significance of birthing asynchrony and how does it relate to social organisation? 2) The ecological and evolutionary implications of multiple introductions in an invasive lizard My second main research area involves invasion biology and specifically the role that the mixture of genotypes from multiple source populations during colonisation plays in influencing the ecological and evolutionary trajectories of introduced species. To address these questions I work on the introduced wall lizard (Podarcis muralis) in the United Kingdom. The wall lizard has been introduced into the UK about 30 times over the past 100 years from very different source populations in France and Italy. We are primarily interested in how the introduction of these two source populations (French and Italian lizards) as well as environmental quality during colonisation mediates sexual behaviour and its consequences for population persistence and evolutionary diversification. We have a large data set consisting of 30 native French populations, 30 native Italian populations, and 30 introduced UK populations with data on genetic

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diversity, morphometric traits (including size, colour, pheromones), introduction history, hatching success, and developmental instability. Analysis of components of this data set can be combined with empirical work on a variety of reptile systems in Tasmania. Some potential projects at honours and post-graduate level include: 1. What are the consequence of genetic diversity and inbreeding depression within introduced populations for offspring quality? 2. How will climate change influence the spread of invasive species? 3. What are the factors that influence the establishment success of introduced reptiles? 3) The evolutionary significance of maternal thermal effects My third main research theme examines the evolutionary significance of maternal thermal effects. Maternal effects arise when the phenotype of a female affects the phenotype of her offspring, over and above that of her direct genetic effects. Maternal thermal effects are common in ectotherms, however, their ecological or demographic consequences in changing environments are still poorly understood. I am involved in a long term monitoring program (in collaboration with Erik Wapstra) which collects data on female reproductive output, offspring survival, and offspring growth, to determine the strength and consistency of maternal thermal effects within and between two natural populations of the spotted snow skink Niveoscinsus ocellatus. We combine field based monitoring with i) detailed lab based manipulations of conditions during gestation to experimentally test patterns derived from the field and ii) theoretical models to assess their long term consequences for evolutionary and ecological processes. We also focus specifically on the consequences of these effects for species persistence under projected climate change. Some potential projects at honours and post-graduate level include (see also Erik Wapstra): 1. What are the long term consequences of maternal thermal effects for population demography? How will this influence population persistence under projected climate change? 2. How will phenotypic plasticity in reproductive mode (annual vs. bi-annual reproduction) influence the persistence of highland snow skink species under projected climate change?

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3. What are the levels of niche overlap between highland and lowland snow skink species and how does this influence competitive interactions and species distributions? 3. What factors influences male reproductive success?

Examples of recent papers Rago, A., While, G.M. and Uller, T. (2012) Introduction pathway and climate trump ecology and life history as drivers of establishment success in alien amphibians. Ecology and Evolution, 2, 1437-1445 While, G. M. (2011) Intrasexual competition among females: evidence for sexual selection. Behavioral Ecology 22, 1141. While, G. M., Uller, T. and Wapstra, E. (2011) Variation in social organisation influences the opportunity for sexual selection in a social lizard. Molecular Ecology 20, 844-852. Uller, T., While, G. M., Cadby, C., Harts, A., O’Connor, K., Pen, I. and Wapstra, E. (2011) Altitudinal divergence in maternal thermoregulatory behaviour may be driven by differences in selection on offspring survival in a viviparous lizard. Evolution 65, 2313-2324. Isakkson, C., While, G. M., McEvoy, J., van de Crommenacker, J., Olsson, M., Groothius, T. G. G., Komdeur, J., and Wapstra, E. (2011) Aggression, but not testosterone, is associated with oxidative status in a free-living vertebrate. Behaviour 148, 713-731. Pen, I., Uller, T., Feldmeyer, B., Harts, A., While, G. M. and Wapstra, E. (2010) Climate-driven population divergence in sex determining systems. Nature 468, 436-438. While, G. M., Isakkson, C., McEvoy, J., Sinn, D. L., Komdeur, J., Wapstra, E. and Groothius, T. G. G. (2010) Consistency in plasma testosterone concentration and its sex-specific link to aggression in a social lizard. Hormones and Behaviour 58, 208-213. While, G.M., Uller, T. and Wapstra, E. (2009) Variation in social strategies characterise the social and mating system of an Australian lizard, Egernia whitii. Austral Ecology 34, 938-949. While, G.M., and Wapstra, E. (2009) Snow skinks (Niveoscincus ocellatus) do not shift their sex allocation patterns in response to mating history? Behaviour 146, 1405-1422. While, G.M., Uller, T. and Wapstra, E. (2009) Physiological performance and adaptive benefits of prolonged pregnancy: experimental tests in a viviparous lizard. Functional Ecology 23, 818 -825 While, G.M., and Wapstra, E. (2009) Effects of basking opportunity on birthing asynchrony in a viviparous lizard. Animal Behaviour 77, 1465-1470. While, G.M., Sinn, D.L., and Wapstra, E. (2009) Female aggression predicts mode of paternity acquisition in a social lizard. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B 276, 2021-2029. While, G.M., Uller, T., and Wapstra, E. (2009) Family conflict and the evolution of sociality in a non avian vertebrate. Behavioral Ecology 20, 245-250. Uller, T., While, G.M., Wapstra, E., Warner, D.A., Goodman, B., Schwarzkopf, L., Langkilde, T., Doughty, P., Radder, R. S., Rohr, D. H., Bull, C. M., Shine, R. and Olsson, M. (2009) Evaluation of offspring size-number invariants in twelve species of lizard. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22, 143-151. Sinn, D.L., While, G.M., and Wapstra, E. (2008) Maternal care in a social lizard: links between female aggression and offspring fitness. Animal Behaviour 76, 1249-1257. While, G.M. and Wapstra, E. (2008) Are there benefits to being born asynchronously? An experimental test in a social lizard. Behavioral Ecology 19, 208-216. While, G.M., Jones, S.M., and Wapstra, E. (2007). Birthing asynchrony is not a consequence of asynchronous offspring development in a non-avian vertebrate, the Australian skink, Egernia whitii. Functional Ecology 21, 513-519. While, G.M., and McArthur, C. (2005). Foraging in a risky environment: a comparison of Bennett’s wallabies Macropus rufogriseus rufogriseus (Marsupialia: Macropodidae) and red-bellied pademelons Thylogale billiardierii (Marsupialia: Macropodidae) in open habitats. Austral Ecology 30, 756-765.

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Honours projects offered through the School of Zoology by honorary staff in associated organisations

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dr Clare Hawkins http://www.utas.edu.au/zoology/people/clare-hawkins Senior Zoologist, Threatened Species Section, Dept. Primary Industries, Parks, Water & Environment Tel: (03) 6233 3627 Fax: (03) 6233 3477 Email clare.hawkins@dpipwe.tas.gov.au As Senior Zoologist for the Threatened Species Section, I am responsible for researching and advising on the conservation management of Tasmania's threatened fauna. My research background is primarily in the conservation ecology of wide-ranging, low density mammal species, but I have also been involved in a variety of other conservation projects, including research in wildlife disease, mollusc distribution and the relationship between land use and bird community structure. With collaborators within the Threatened Species Section and UTas, I am developing field-based and data analysis projects on the management of species ranging from butterflies to parrots. For more information on Tasmania's threatened species, go to: http://www.threatenedspecieslink.tas.gov.au/ To find out where they've been recorded, query the Natural Values Atlas: http://www.naturalvaluesatlas.tas.gov.au/ Common questions concerning these species relate to monitoring, habitat modelling and disturbance thresholds. Specific projects currently available are listed below; others are also being developed. All projects would be co-supervised by a UTas Department of Zoology member of staff. Some will need good advance planning to obtain funding. While you are deciding on what you would like to do, consider our various volunteer fieldwork opportunities - email me to find out what's available.

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• Vigilance behaviour and human activity around eagle nests This project will be co-supervised by Sarah Munks, Forest Practices Authority, and a student grant is available. During breeding season, Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagles are extraordinarily sensitive to certain disturbances within 1 km of their nests, in contrast to their mainland counterparts. The sensitive period lasts about 6 months, and a pair of eagles may choose a different one of several nests across their territory each year. Appropriate management of human activities (from forestry to bushwalking) around eagle nests is thus extremely challenging. Factors determining which activities are more or less disturbing, and whether an individual is more or less sensitive, are not fully understood. A field project directly observing and remotely filming behavioural responses to different types of disturbance in different contexts has the potential to greatly reduce human-eagle conflicts (eg Magle, S.B. et al. (2011) Effects of urbanization on the behaviour of a keystone species Behaviour 148: 31-54; Mooney, N.J. & Holdsworth, M.C. (1991) The effects of disturbance on nesting wedge-tailed eagles (Aquila audax fleayi) in Tasmania Tasforests 3:15-31).

• Habitat requirements / conservation needs of various threatened fauna Several threatened fauna species would particularly gain from survey work and habitat modelling. Current hypotheses relating to factors determining presence can be tested on the basis of the survey findings. , Related work may also enable an assessment of population size, and identification of likely key needs and conservation requirements. Focal species include the azure kingfisher, the glossy grass skink, the tussock skink, the hairstreak butterfly and the chequered blue butterfly. Additionally, there is a genetic question relating to the subspecies status of the chequered blue butterfly. Habitat modelling is a dynamic field and an invaluable skill in conservation (eg Rota, C.T. et al.(2011). Does accounting for imperfect detection improve species distribution models? Ecography 34: 659-670)

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Selected publications Threatened Species Section (2010). Prioritisation of Threatened Flora and Fauna

Recovery Actions for the Tasmanian NRM Regions. Nature Conservation Report 10/03. Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment, Hobart.

Hawkins, C.E., Baars, C., Hesterman, H., Hocking, G.J., Jones, M.E., Lazenby, B., Mann, D., Mooney, N., Pemberton, D., Pyecroft, S., Restani, M. & Wiersma, J. (2006). Emerging disease and population decline of an island endemic, the Tasmanian devil Sarcophilus harrisii. Biological Conservation 131, 307-324.

Hawkins, C.E. & Racey, P.A. (2005). Low population density of a tropical forest carnivore, Cryptoprocta ferox: implications for protected area management. Oryx, 39, 35-43.

Mackinnon, J.L., Hawkins, C.E. & Racey, P.A. (eds) (2001). Le rôle ecologique, le statut de conservation et le plan de sauvegarde des mégachiroptères (fanihy) à Madagascar. Tetikasa Fikajiana Fanihy, University of Aberdeen. [Action Plan for Conservation of Madagascars Fruit Bats].

Hawkins, C.E. & Macdonald, D.W. (1992). A spool-and-line method for investigating the movements of badgers, Meles meles. Mammalia 56, 322-325.

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Proposed higher degree projects with the Forest Practices Authority, Biodiversity Program. This document lists higher degree projects which would enhance the applied zoological research being undertaken in the FPA Biodiversity program. See www.fpa.tas.gov.au for FPA student grants. Publications by FPA staff and information on current research priorities can also be found on this web page. Contact Dr Sarah Munks for more information sarah.munks@utas.edu.au or sarah.munks@fpa.tas.gov.au. 1. Projects to assist the development of management

recommendations for threatened species and Priority species listed in the RFA. (In collaboration with Threatened Species Section, DPIPWE), phil.bell@dpipwe.tas.gov.au)

• Distribution and ecological requirements of the threatened Dwarf galaxiid (Honours or PhD) This species is found in three main areas (2 in NE and 1 in NW) and can live in temporary water bodies. This study would determine the occurrence of Dwarf Galaxiids throughout their range and would examine the characteristics of the wetlands in which they are found. A longer project would involve examining source-sink dynamics of this species, how populations change over time as rainfall patterns change, and the effect of plantations on the hydrology and occurrence of this species.

• Use by bats of trees retained in plantations (Honours) Tasmanian bats are insectivorous and could potentially help control insect pests in agricultural or plantation areas. This study would examine whether having remnants retained within plantations increases bat activity. The work would involve using an ANABAT detector to compare bat activity levels in plantation areas without retained trees, and in plantation areas with retained trees.

2. Projects to assess the efficacy of Forest Practices Code provisions

relating to the retention of habitat for hollow-dependant fauna

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• Investigation of the relationship between the abundance of

arboreal marsupials and hollow-using birds and the availability of hollow bearing trees in dry forest in Tasmania (Honours or Masters). Hollow-dependent fauna are considered to be the group of forest-dependent fauna most vulnerable to the impacts of timber harvesting, as harvesting most often results in a reduction in the number of suitable hollows. One of the main management prescriptions in the Tasmanian Forest Practices Code that provides for hollow-using is the retention of ‘wildlife habitat clumps’ containing habitat trees (i.e. trees with old-growth characteristics such as hollows). The degree to which the Tasmanian Forest Practices Code ‘wildlife habitat clump’ prescriptions result in the retention of habitat for hollow dependent birds has not been tested. This project would build on previous projects (on possums and bats) and would complement our larger research program looking at this issue. Study sites would be located in the dry forests of SE Tasmania.

• Use of modified landscapes compared to intact forest by the Endangered Masked Owl. (Honours) Masked owls are widely distributed across the landscape. They use tree hollows for roosting and nesting, and paddock trees can provide important habitat for this species. Management focuses on retention of suitable habitat in areas of intact forest, with minimal provisions provided for agricultural areas. This project would use playback to examine how the densities of masked owls varies between intact forest and modified landscapes. This project would help improve management prescriptions for this species.

• Assessing the use of coarse woody debris by vertebrate fauna

(Honours or PhD). (In collaboration with Dr Menna Jones, menna.jones@utas.edu.au) Hollow logs on the forest floor have received a lot of recent attention because of their value to invertebrate fauna. They also have value as refuge sites for vertebrates. This study will use methods developed on the mainland to investigate the characteristics of rotting logs important for vertebrate fauna in both dry and wet forest types of importance to the forest industry. This project would assess the availability of the coarse woody debris resource in dry forest areas.

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Typically most research has focused only on wet forest areas but dry forest areas are the areas most heavily used for activities such as firewood harvesting which would potentially have a large impact on coarse woody debris availability.

• Assessing the impact of firewood harvesting on the tree hollow and coarse woody debris resources. (Honours or Masters)

It has been suggested that the amount of wood collected for firewood can rival the amount collected for timber production. Firewood is collected on both state forest and private land. Wood collection can include fallen timber, or the felling of live or dead trees. This study would assess the impact of firewood harvesting on state forest and private land in dry forest areas of Tasmania.

Recent papers (2010 -12) (see www.fpa.tas.gov.au for further publications) Stephens, H, Baker, SC, Potts, BM, Munks, SA, Stephens, D & O'Reilly-Wapstra, JM,

2012, Short-term responses of native rodents to aggregated retention in old-growth wet eucalyptus forests, Forest Ecology and Management, 267 pp. 18–27.

Wiersma, J & Koch, AJ 2012, Using surveys of nest characteristics to assess the breeding activity of the Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle, Corella 36, 38–44.

Cawthen, L, & Munks, S 2011, The use of hollow-bearing trees retained in multi-aged regenerating production forest by the Tasmanian brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula fuliginosus), Wildlife Research 38 (8) pp.687–695.

Cawthen, L and Munks, S 2011, ‘The design and testing of linen thread weak-links in brushtail possum radio-collars’, Australian Mammalogy, 33, pp 33–35.

Flynn, EM, Jones, SM, Jones, ME, Jordan, GJ and Munks, SA 2011, ‘Characteristics of mammal communities in Tasmanian forests: exploring the influence of forest type and disturbance history’, Wildlife Research, 38, pp 13–29.

Flynn, EM, Munks, SA, & Jones, SM 2011, Influences of forest type and disturbance on reproduction of the brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula), Journal of Mammalogy 92: pp 1050–1059.

Koch, AJ and Baker, S 2011, 'Using aerial photographs to remotely assess tree hollow availability', Biodiversity and Conservation 20: 1089-1101.

Macgregor, JW, Holyoake, CS, Munks, SA, Robertson, ID and Warren, KS 2010, ‘Preliminary investigation into the prevalence of mucormycosis in the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) in three catchments in north-west Tasmania’, Australian Veterinary Journal volume 88, pp.190–196.

Wiersma, J 2010, ‘Eagle Nest Monitoring Project – Year 2 2008–09, Nest site use and timing of breeding events’, Forest Practices Authority Scientific Report 9, report to Roaring 40s and the Forest Practices Authority, Hobart, Tasmania.

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