ScienceNetwork WA

THE World Wildlife Fund and Indigenous rangers have commenced a survey of three Kimberley rock wallaby species.

THE Kings Park Botanic Garden’s science director is leading a team studying the ecology and physiology of the wild sugarbag bee (Austroplebeia essingtoni).

TRADITIONAL Owners are helping scientists from UWA and CSIRO conduct a genetic survey of insects in Kimberley vine thickets for bio-molecular analysis in bulk—a technique that comes under the heading of ‘eco-genomics’.

STANDING still on the tidal mudflats of Roebuck Bay is an amazing experience—the soft, squishy mud under your feet is likely to be crawling with invertebrates that are either hunting for food or escaping the bills of hungry shorebirds.

A UWA ecologist says most benthic macro-invertebrate populations in Roebuck Bay’s intertidal zone have decreased significantly after blooms of the toxic blue-green algae Lyngbya majuscule.

AN article by Western Australian and American environmental scientists is putting forward a new way of looking at the native versus non-native species debate and proposes species origin is no longer the best judgement tool in the ever-changing environment.

ECOLOGISTS are studying the influence of cattle on the ability of flora and fauna in northern tropical floodplain waterholes to regenerate after drought.

THE WA Government has listed an ecological community on Broome’s outskirts as Priority 1 PEC (Priority Ecological Community).

A Murdoch University marine scientist has just commenced an aerial survey of the western Kimberley coast.

EDITH Cowan University is playing a crucial role in a massive new project, unveiled last month, which will help CSIRO to understand and estimate the potential of marine environments to capture and store blue carbon in Australia.

THE WA government is planning to re-introduce 10 locally-extinct mammal species to Dirk Hartog Island, a former pastoral lease that is now a national park.

BARDI JAWI ranger Chris Sampi says an ecological survey of monsoonal vine thickets (MVT) involving Indigenous rangers on the Kimberley’s Dampier Peninsula has turned up disturbing results.

TWO recent papers by palaeontologists working north of Broome highlight a new approach to the study of dinosaur footprints.

AN endemic mammal has been re-discovered in the eastern Kimberley, almost a century after its last recorded sighting.

CERTAIN Kimberley corals appear to be resisting the extreme environmental fluctuations usually associated with coral bleaching.

SYDNEY University ornithologists are enhancing the breeding rates of endangered Gouldian finches (Erythrura gouldiae) in the Ord Valley near Wyndham.

WA’s status as home to the world’s largest herd of feral camels is leading to calls for a camel meat industry to protect the state’s environment and provide economic opportunities for rural people.

WA Museum’s herpetology curator says scientists are yet to describe several species of Australia’s smallest gecko (Crenadactylus sp.).

THE WA Museum’s herpetology curator Dr Paul Doughty has just taken part in a birds and geckos survey of the Kimberley’s Gibb River Road.

TWO WA scientists have been recognised for their work in the natural sciences in this year’s Queen’s birthday honours.