13/12/2010

The Ecological Society of Australia (ESA) held their annual conference in Canberra, from December 5 to 10. Over 800 people attended, including many famous scientists, authors, researchers, policy makers and ecologists. Hundreds of lectures and presentations were delivered, including ongoing research being conducted on the Sapphire Coast.

“During the lunch breaks you could be literally rubbing shoulders with the great minds of today, and bumping into the author of your favourite ecology textbook,” said Tony Hastings from the Science Centre at Manna Park. Tony displayed a conceptual model of Bell Miner associated dieback, which suggested that dense understory and presence of fresh water were helping the Bell Miner colonies expand.

Professor Charles Krebs explained we now live in the Anthropocene Era, which has been named to acknowledge the great number of human-caused extinctions. This tragedy continues to play out, with predictions that further species will be lost as rapid climate change eliminates their habitats. As sunlight, rain and soil determine the growth rates of plants, changes in these elements produce corresponding changes in ecosystems.

Ross Garnaut advocated bio-sequestration to combat climate changes. Examples include planting wildlife corridors and stream-side buffers on private land. He also supported the use of timber products and wood-fired power generation. He argued that regulatory intervention would protect against negative impacts, but none of the case studies presented provided evidence to support that notion.

Professor Bill Sutherland described the importance of “horizon scanning”, as scientists have the responsibility to predict what might happen if certain actions are taken. A local example was provided by Dan Lunney, who has monitored micro-bat populations in Mumbula State Forest for almost 20 years. He found that old hollow trees are critical habitat for bats, and predicted that logging prescriptions must be in place to conserve these trees of the bats would be eliminated from the forests.

Studies of wildlife across the country were consistent in reporting that remnant habitats were most important for species conservation, while restoration efforts provided a useful supplement. Conserving and restoring native ecosystems is seen as essential to restore ecosystem services on which us humans rely. However, the impacts of humans has been found to be directly related to population size, regardless of how developed the society is. Australia’s population was regarded as already beyond sustainable carrying capacity, and with predicted population increases in almost all countries more clearing is likely.

Author Julian Cribb predicts a coming famine, as today’s food production systems and diets are unsustainable. He explained, “the word development means the loss of land with food-growing potential”, noting that urban areas typically covered rich alluvial plains. The challenge of feeding an increasing human population will require doubling food supply, on half the available land, with half the water, while enduring the extreme weather events associated with climate change.

Some good news includes the great new tools available to ecologists, such as mobile devices and software. There is a proliferation of schemes to encourage the public in the collection of ecological data, broadly referred to as “Citizen Science”.

A record number of applications were received for the Jill Lansberg Trust scholarship and other award funding, which reflects an increase in reliance on grant funding for ecological projects. Ph D researcher Jeremy Little commented, “project funding used to be for 5 or even 10 years, but now it has been typically reduced to just 3 years. The projects aren’t any smaller, so it seems people expect us to do the impossible.”

After reviewing the challenges facing the profession, ESA President Carla Catterall concluded “this is an exciting time to be an ecologist”.