Pieter Poot presented last week in one of our ‘exchanges’-meetings about UWA’s research on Wandoo crown decline. His presentation once more demonstrated the arbitrary nature of words like tree or forest ‘health’. A not so healthy looking tree (e.g. one with flagging branches) may in fact partly be adapting to drought in its own particular way!
January 5, 2010
A New Year after Copenhagen
By Marleen Buizer, Postdoctoral Researcher
Was it to be a Roadmap, an Agreement or a Treaty? In the very end, it became ‘but’ an agreement with a commitment to limit global warming to 2°C. What do they mean by commitment? It gives an odd feeling, this agreement, as temperatures outside are swinging around 40°C now and temperatures in Australia are breaking new records almost every year. Unfortunately, the Copenhagen agreement has no teeth. No deadline for a legally binding treaty, no commitments to CO2-reductions and no reduction target for the long run. I am telling myself that it is normal for these processes to take a long time…
So what is next for us? While Copenhagen came to a standstill in December, we went out in the Wandoo forests, to select sites for future research and, later on, to participate in a field trip organized by Liz Manning. We found that in some areas the Wandoo were doing remarkably well, but why were they not doing so well at other spots? What makes the difference? How about the Tuarts in the coastal zone? At seed collection day with volunteers, we found many Tuarts full with buds and yet some other trees were obviously suffering. If it is about global climate change, why then are results so differentiated and local? Though Climate Change for some has become an empty signifier or an umbrella term for a whole range of phenomena, it is also a trigger for relevant research as far as we can judge it; to what extent does a shortage of water affect the trees? Are they able to adapt? What are the conditions in which they can? What is the role of borers and fungi? Etcetera. Regardless of Copenhagen, there is work to do in 2010! We wish you an explorative productive new year with plenty of common sense!
December 11, 2009
Can something be done…? Bunbury experiences
By Colin Spencer, Environmental Officer, City of Bunbury
The City of Bunbury is really blessed to have a number of well forested reserves, but unfortunately a distressing number of trees within them are sick, dying or recently dead. A growing number of residents within our community were expressing concern over this and wanted to know what to do to help save their trees.
In response we invited a panel of experts from The Centre of Excellence for Climate Change, Woodland and Forest Health to give presentations and practical workshops on native tree decline in the south west. Three workshops were conducted: one for year ten students; one for professionals; and another for the community. All workshops were well attended.
The workshops generated some very positive results:
• Within two weeks of the workshops a number of students from a local high school started treating trees in one of our reserves. They will conduct experiments to determine how long it takes for different species of tree to absorb phosphite injected into a tree using stem injection syringes. We hope to be able to generate enough quality data to generate some useful information. Any advice welcome please.
• Within one week a friends group commenced treatment, for the first time, of declining tuart trees in their reserve; and
• I commenced discussions with horticultural supervisors about having staff treat trees within parkland areas.
Some of the challenges I have faced include:
• Raising the profile of tree decline.
• Making people realise that they can apply horticultural treatments to native plants too!
• The provision of phosphite treatment kits;
• Administration of phosphite treatment kits;
• Collection and management of data;
• Influencing professionals as they seem to be the most hesitant to take action, perhaps it is because of competing interests and commitments; and
• answering these recent questions:
1. Does it really work? How long does it take? My staff are busy.
2. How much does it cost?
3. What is the shelf life of mixed phosphite?
4. What concentration of phosphite should be injected into different tree species?
5. Can we use manual drills?
6. What are typical symptoms of trees that can be saved using phosphite and nutrients?
Some of these questions I could answer others not.
What is satisfying for me is that injecting trees with phosphite seems very appealing to the general community. If I can get some of our staff hooked it will be great. It means that people, even teenagers are getting into the bush and doing something for it, other than planting trees. In the process, they advertently become aware of other ways of helping the bush such as weeding.
Interestingly our advertising campaign focused on native tree decline which unfortunately de-emphasised the presentation on restoration ecology which contained some fantastic practical advice on restoring tuart forests.
Thanks to all the workshop presenters. Keep up the good work.
November 26, 2009
Monitoring forest health using satellite data: win a prize!
By Brad Evans, PhD student in the Centre of Excellence for Climate Change Woodlands and Forest Health.
A preliminary stage of my PhD study has involved sourcing and processing satellite, aircraft and field data to be used in the assessment of forest health. Data has come in from across the country and the world and so we are building up a substantial library. My colleagues and our network of partners have been very generous in sharing data, ideas and knowledge on and around data – thank you all!
As I understand it, satellite data is a useful tool for the assessment of forests, not only by us but globally. The good news is that the data has now become more accessible than ever. Jacques Diouf, Director General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation had this to say about the recently launched Global Forest Resource Assessment Portal (GFRAP):
“This brings a revolution to the forest monitoring field. Never before have data of this kind been provided directly to users in developing countries. Monitoring will be cheaper, more accurate and transparent for countries that want to participate in reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation…”
Now, use your imagination and make the link between the acronym “GFRAP” and what they are doing on their web portal. I came up with gift wrapped… This portal is a gift! Over the coming years, I will use it in my attempts to understand vegetation responses to recent climate variability. I will then use it to predict how our vegetation might respond to future climate changes. See below to have a look at it yourself!
Time to do some analysis of your own and win a prize!
We now have lots of data so the processing phase of my work has begun. My first objective is to understand temporal and spatial patterns of vegetation change in Dryandra, southwest Western Australia. To help me in this I have developed a method to test your pattern recognition. First have a look at multi year images of the SPOT VEGETATION normalised difference vegetation index for Dyrandra. Figure 1 shows the monthly variability of this index for the period from January 2000 to December 2008. Red indicates active live green activity in vegetation, i.e. photosynthetic activity (on a scale from 0-255 where 0 is also used to distinguish woodlands from farmland). The lighter colours are a sign of less live green activity in the vegetation. So far my nearest colleagues have made some very interesting observations from this image – so can you!
Figure 1. SPOT VEGETATION 1st of the month 1km NDVI from Jan 2000 to Dec 2008 in rows of months left to right for years top to bottom.
Win a prize for your skill in visual analysis!
Firstly, make sure you use this PDF version of the time series so you can zoom in (hint).
I am offering a prize for giving me your insights:
1. Make three significant observations you make from this image (click it to enlarge)
2. Describe two errors
3. Comment on this before the next blog posting (see below to comment)
The winner’s prize will be decided on the basis of your sense of taste….
And herewith my gift for everybody: http://geonetwork4.fao.org/geonetwork/srv/en/fra.home
November 12, 2009
Forays into Wandoo Country: What’s up with the fauna?
By Liz Manning (Executive Officer, Wandoo Recovery Group).
Recently I spent two mornings helping Tracey Moore, (PhD candidate, Murdoch University) monitor her fauna traps in parts of Wandoo National Park. Tracey is studying how changes in the overstorey canopy, predominantly wandoo (Euc. wandoo), is related to the abundance and diversity of small fauna. Part of Tracey’s field work involves monthly trapping sessions in the Dryandra Nature Reserve and the Wandoo National Park. This involves early morning starts!
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- Focus needed
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- Pair of Parrots in Wandoo hollow
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- Tracey in Jarrah
Before the temperature rises, we check all traps to identify and release the animals. This time, we find a number of small humming frogs, a Gunther’s toadlet, a Gilbert’s Dunnart, a skink and a gecko. Tracey says that this result is in sharp contrast with the huge spread of fauna in Dryandra, where she found frogs, pygmy possums, mardos, dunnarts, dragons, skinks, geckos, bobtails, varanids, snakes and blind snakes. We debate whether the recent bout of cool weather may account for the low diversity of fauna caught in this trap session. Or could it be something else?
The wandoo forest at sunrise is really beautiful; peaceful, yet alive with bird calls and the spring flush of flowering understorey plants. There are vivid splashes of colour from flowering understorey shrubs such as acacia, smoke bush, bottlebrush, poison bushes as well as a mass of ground cover species. Wandoo country affords such generous habitat for the great diversity of plants and animals that live within it. The leafy canopies of mature trees offer filtered shade and are full of birds and insects. Hollows which form in large trees like wandoo and jarrah provide essential shelter, nesting and protection for many birds, bats, reptiles and mammals. Hollow logs on the ground house echidna, lizards, chuditch, numbats and young rufous treecreepers. Spring is the breeding season and many adult fauna divide their time between foraging for food and returning to their nests to feed and care for their young. I really love to see this.
While helping Tracey, I observe the wandoo trees exhibit varying states of crown health. Most trees have the classic stag head appearance, evidence that a widespread decline event occurred sometime previously (possibly around ten years ago). Scattered amongst these are healthy trees, with vigorous spreading crowns, heavy with buds. The decline phase appears to have stabilised with trees showing signs of recovery, evidenced by the strong growth of epicormic shoots.
As we drive along the rough tracks, we come upon a huge jarrah tree, its base almost completely burnt out from a previous fire, yet the crown still very much alive. I take a photo of Tracey standing inside the enormous bole. I also photograph a majestic wandoo near my home in Talbot Brook. I plan to nominate these trees on the National Register of Big Trees, www.nationalregisterofbigtrees.com.au
October 23, 2009
A new blog about forest health
Welcome to our weblog. As people involved in the “Centre of Excellence on Climate Change, Woodlands and Forest Health” we consider the blog as a vehicle to share experiences, insights and questions with interested persons like you. The blog also provides the opportunity to comment, put in your own ideas and questions, and share with readers what you would like to share with them.
The topics of our Centre are by no means uncontested. And there is a lot that we do not know. At the same time, we feel that ‘knowledge’ about climate change and tree health is widespread. A lot of people have ideas and develop local knowledge about these issues. Because they have seen changes in the landscape around them, because they have been professionally involved, or just because they take an interest. We would love to keep a connection with the day-to-day experiences of people like you and we hope that by starting this weblog, we will also enthuse you to participate.
