Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 The science of understanding landscape change: setting the scene for the Tumut Fragmentation Study
- 2 The theory: an overview of landscape change and habitat fragmentation
- 3 The field laboratory: the Tumut study area and the vertebrate animals it supports
- 4 Setting up the study: the design and implementation of the main cross-sectional study at Tumut
- 5 The core findings: the effects of landscape context on animals and plants
- 6 Patch use: how animals use patches of remnant eucalypt forest surrounded by pine
- 7 Theory against data: testing ecological theories and concepts
- 8 Testing PVA models with real data: melding demographic work with population modelling
- 9 Genes in the landscape: integrating genetic and demographic analyses
- 10 Refining and extending the research programme: additional studies at Tumut (and nearby) that build on the Fragmentation Study
- 11 Recommendations for plantation managers: implications for biodiversity and conservation in plantations
- 12 Lessons on running large-scale research studies: some insights from running the Tumut Fragmentation Study and directions for the future
- Appendix 1 List of collaborators/contributors to the Tumut Fragmentation Experiment
- Appendix 2 Detections of bird species in the Tumut Fragmentation Study classified by four broad classes of sites
- References
- Index
10 - Refining and extending the research programme: additional studies at Tumut (and nearby) that build on the Fragmentation Study
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 The science of understanding landscape change: setting the scene for the Tumut Fragmentation Study
- 2 The theory: an overview of landscape change and habitat fragmentation
- 3 The field laboratory: the Tumut study area and the vertebrate animals it supports
- 4 Setting up the study: the design and implementation of the main cross-sectional study at Tumut
- 5 The core findings: the effects of landscape context on animals and plants
- 6 Patch use: how animals use patches of remnant eucalypt forest surrounded by pine
- 7 Theory against data: testing ecological theories and concepts
- 8 Testing PVA models with real data: melding demographic work with population modelling
- 9 Genes in the landscape: integrating genetic and demographic analyses
- 10 Refining and extending the research programme: additional studies at Tumut (and nearby) that build on the Fragmentation Study
- 11 Recommendations for plantation managers: implications for biodiversity and conservation in plantations
- 12 Lessons on running large-scale research studies: some insights from running the Tumut Fragmentation Study and directions for the future
- Appendix 1 List of collaborators/contributors to the Tumut Fragmentation Experiment
- Appendix 2 Detections of bird species in the Tumut Fragmentation Study classified by four broad classes of sites
- References
- Index
Summary
The Tumut Fragmentation Study has spanned basic research on the demographics of vertebrate populations, testing of ecological theory, population modelling and genetics – all of which have implications for conservation biology as well as for forest and plantation management. However, as the study evolved, it became apparent that there existed some limitations of these initial studies. This is hardly surprising – perfect studies don't exist. Even famous large-scale experimental studies such as the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project in Brazil (Laurance et al., 1997; Gascon et al., 1999) have statistical and ecological limitations.
A key deficiency at Tumut was that the lack of animal and plant occupancy data of eucalypt patches prior to major landscape modification (i.e. plantation establishment) weakens the inferences that can be made about biotic responses to change (Margules, 1992). Such a limitation is common in the vast majority of studies of landscape change and habitat fragmentation worldwide (Lindenmayer and Fischer, 2006).
A second deficiency was the rapidity with which the stands of Radiata Pine surrounding the patches of native eucalypt forest were modified. The dynamic nature of the age and condition of pine stands significantly influenced the biota which inhabited the eucalypt patches (Tubelis et al., 2004). Hence, the results derived from work completed, for example, in 1996 or 2000 may not reflect responses at a subsequent time when pine stands surrounding a given eucalypt remnant are clear-felled.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Large-Scale Landscape ExperimentsLessons from Tumut, pp. 211 - 224Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009