Rod Fensham - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Rod Fensham
Ludwig Leichhardt had to abandon a large and important collection of botanical specimens during h... more Ludwig Leichhardt had to abandon a large and important collection of botanical specimens during his Expedition from Moreton Bay to Port Essington. Here we attempt to assess the significance of the lost collection by identifying the botanical references in his detailed published journal from the journey. From Leichhardt’s description of the plants and their habitats, and with our accurate knowledge of current distribution, it has been possible, in most cases, to identity his botanical references to a single species. In other cases there is lower degree of certainty. Well over one hundred of the species recorded in Leichhardt’s journal would have been new to science at the time if specimens had survived. The record does identify some potential locations for species that would represent range extensions and suggests an indigenous status for a number of plant species that where previously considered exotic. Certainly Leichhardt was a talented botanist and his significant contribution to...
This study reports on the responses of bird assemblages to woodland clearance, fragmentation and ... more This study reports on the responses of bird assemblages to woodland clearance, fragmentation and habitat disturbance in central Queensland Australia, a region exposed to very high rates of vegetation clearance over the last two to three decades. Many previous studies of clearing impacts have considered situations where there is a very sharp management contrast between uncleared lands and cleared areas: in this situation, the contrast is more muted, because both cleared lands and uncleared savanna woodlands are exposed to cattle grazing, invasion by the exotic grass Cenchrus ciliaris and similar fire management. Bird species richness (at the scale of a 1-ha quadrat) was least in cleared areas (8.1 species), then regrowth areas (14.6 species), then uncleared woodlands (19.9 species). Richness at this scale was unrelated to woodland fragment size, connectivity or habitat condition; but declined significantly with increasing abundance of miners (interspecifically aggressive colonial hon...
A dataset of 3,250,404 measurements, collated from 26,114 sampling locations in 94 countries and ... more A dataset of 3,250,404 measurements, collated from 26,114 sampling locations in 94 countries and representing 47,044 species. The data were collated from 480 existing spatial comparisons of local-scale biodiversity exposed to different intensities and types of anthropogenic pressures, from terrestrial sites around the world. The database was assembled as part of the PREDICTS project - Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems; [www.predicts.org.uk](http://www.predicts.org.uk).\r\n\r\nThe taxonomic identifications provided in the original data sets are those determined at the time of the original research, and so will not reflect subsequent taxonomic changes.\r\n\r\nThis dataset is described in [10.1002/ece3.2579](http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2579). A description of the way that this dataset was assembled is given in [10.1002/ece3.1303](http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.1303).\r\n\r\n* `columns.csv`: Description of data extract columns\r\n* `database...
Ecological Management & Restoration
Queensland Review
The work of colonial artists has provided precious insights into the nature of the Australian lan... more The work of colonial artists has provided precious insights into the nature of the Australian landscape as it was at the time immediately following white settlement. The works of Glover, Lewin and von Guérard, for example, have been employed by historical geographers and have fuelled some fascinating debates about the nature of the landscape as it was under Aboriginal management. Of course, the work of some of these artists forms more faithful historical documentation than that of others. The stylised works of J.S. Lycett, the emancipated convict turned painter, are almost certainly unreliable as accurate landscape documentation, as his criminal conviction for forgery may suggest (Plate 1). It is likely that Lycett never visited some of the locations he painted and much of his work was probably commissioned as immigration propaganda, intended to placate the fears of the Britons equivocating about a move to the awesome and intimidating southern land.
Australian Journal of Botany
Studies attempting to calibrate vegetation attributes from aerial photography with field data are... more Studies attempting to calibrate vegetation attributes from aerial photography with field data are reviewed in detail. It is concluded that aerial photography has considerable advantages over satellite-based data because of its capacity to assess the vertical dimension of vegetation and the longer time period the record spans. Limitations of using the aerial photo record as digital data include standardising image contrast and rectification. Some of these problems can be circumvented by manual techniques, but problems of crown exaggeration that varies with photo scale and variation in contrast between the textures of tree crowns and the ground remain. Applications of aerial photography for assessing vegetation change are also reviewed and include deforestation, reforestation, changes in vegetation boundaries, tree density, community composition and crown dieback. These changes have been assessed at scales ranging from individual tree crowns to regional landscapes. In Australia, aeria...
The Rangeland Journal
A long-term (1993–2016) fire experiment in the grazed semi-arid savanna of the Northern Territory... more A long-term (1993–2016) fire experiment in the grazed semi-arid savanna of the Northern Territory was used to investigate the relative impacts of soil properties and fire history on vegetation composition and diversity in grassland and woodland habitats. Subtle variation in soil texture influenced vegetation composition and abundance independently of fire variables and was generally a more important control on floristic patterns. Total species richness, lifeform richness and the abundance and presence of many individual plant species declined with increasing clay content. Linear mixed effect models with combined habitat data, showed total richness and richness of annual and perennial forbs, annual grasses and legumes increased with more frequent fire. Perennial grass abundance and richness was not influenced by fire. Total and lifeform mean richness did not vary between two and four yearly or early and late burnt treatments. Richness and abundance was generally significantly higher ...
Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia
Global change biology, Jan 30, 2017
Ongoing climate change poses significant threats to plant function and distribution. Increased te... more Ongoing climate change poses significant threats to plant function and distribution. Increased temperatures and altered precipitation regimes amplify drought frequency and intensity, elevating plant stress and mortality. Large-scale forest mortality events will have far-reaching impacts on carbon and hydrological cycling, biodiversity, and ecosystem services. However, biogeographical theory and global vegetation models poorly represent recent forest die-off patterns. Furthermore, as trees are sessile and long-lived, their responses to climate extremes are substantially dependent on historical factors. We show that periods of favourable climatic and management conditions that facilitate abundant tree growth can lead to structural overshoot of aboveground tree biomass due to a subsequent temporal mismatch between water demand and availability. When environmental favourability declines, increases in water and temperature stress that are protracted, rapid, or both, drive a gradient of t...
Ecology letters, Apr 1, 2017
Drought events are increasing globally, and reports of consequent forest mortality are widespread... more Drought events are increasing globally, and reports of consequent forest mortality are widespread. However, due to a lack of a quantitative global synthesis, it is still not clear whether drought-induced mortality rates differ among global biomes and whether functional traits influence the risk of drought-induced mortality. To address these uncertainties, we performed a global meta-analysis of 58 studies of drought-induced forest mortality. Mortality rates were modelled as a function of drought, temperature, biomes, phylogenetic and functional groups and functional traits. We identified a consistent global-scale response, where mortality increased with drought severity [log mortality (trees trees(-1) year(-1) ) increased 0.46 (95% CI = 0.2-0.7) with one SPEI unit drought intensity]. We found no significant differences in the magnitude of the response depending on forest biomes or between angiosperms and gymnosperms or evergreen and deciduous tree species. Functional traits explaine...
Journal of Biogeography, 1989
... Epilobium sarmentaceum Hassk. 50 - 29 - - - - - 7 33 33 - Veronica gracilis R. Br. 33 50 57 -... more ... Epilobium sarmentaceum Hassk. 50 - 29 - - - - - 7 33 33 - Veronica gracilis R. Br. 33 50 57 - - 21 - 5 50 11 15 44 100 - ... Schoenus apogon Roem. et Schult. 67 100 86 78 70 76 93 65 17 67 74 89 33 - Danthonia laevis JW Vickery 33 - - +71 44 50 66 71 45 17 33 56 67 33 - ...
Australian Journal of Ecology, Jun 1, 1994
Forest Ecology and Management, 2016
Australian Journal of Botany, 1992
Downslope boundaries of forest with grassland and grassy woodland occur over a wide altitudinal r... more Downslope boundaries of forest with grassland and grassy woodland occur over a wide altitudinal range in central Tasmania. Three sites were selected for study of the causes of these boundaries at low, medium and high elevations. The open vegetation was generally associated with moister and less rocky soils and more subdued topography than the adjacent forest. Frost incidence and intensity, soil moisture and waterlogging varied markedly among the three open areas. Planted tree seedlings survived 4 years in the open at all sites, and seedlings established in the open both naturally, and after sowing, where grass competition was reduced by herbicide application, digging or root competition from adult eucalypts. Grazing had no detectable effect on seedling establishment. A pot experiment demonstrated a suppressive effect of native grass swards on both seedling establishment and growth, this effect being largely independent of available moisture and nutrients. While frost, waterlogging, fire and drought may play a role in inhibiting eucalypt establishment and increasing eucalypt mortality at some or all of the sites, the dense grass swards found in all the open areas are considered to be the most likely primary agent of tree exclusion.
Australian Journal of Ecology, Sep 1, 1990
Ludwig Leichhardt had to abandon a large and important collection of botanical specimens during h... more Ludwig Leichhardt had to abandon a large and important collection of botanical specimens during his Expedition from Moreton Bay to Port Essington. Here we attempt to assess the significance of the lost collection by identifying the botanical references in his detailed published journal from the journey. From Leichhardt’s description of the plants and their habitats, and with our accurate knowledge of current distribution, it has been possible, in most cases, to identity his botanical references to a single species. In other cases there is lower degree of certainty. Well over one hundred of the species recorded in Leichhardt’s journal would have been new to science at the time if specimens had survived. The record does identify some potential locations for species that would represent range extensions and suggests an indigenous status for a number of plant species that where previously considered exotic. Certainly Leichhardt was a talented botanist and his significant contribution to...
This study reports on the responses of bird assemblages to woodland clearance, fragmentation and ... more This study reports on the responses of bird assemblages to woodland clearance, fragmentation and habitat disturbance in central Queensland Australia, a region exposed to very high rates of vegetation clearance over the last two to three decades. Many previous studies of clearing impacts have considered situations where there is a very sharp management contrast between uncleared lands and cleared areas: in this situation, the contrast is more muted, because both cleared lands and uncleared savanna woodlands are exposed to cattle grazing, invasion by the exotic grass Cenchrus ciliaris and similar fire management. Bird species richness (at the scale of a 1-ha quadrat) was least in cleared areas (8.1 species), then regrowth areas (14.6 species), then uncleared woodlands (19.9 species). Richness at this scale was unrelated to woodland fragment size, connectivity or habitat condition; but declined significantly with increasing abundance of miners (interspecifically aggressive colonial hon...
A dataset of 3,250,404 measurements, collated from 26,114 sampling locations in 94 countries and ... more A dataset of 3,250,404 measurements, collated from 26,114 sampling locations in 94 countries and representing 47,044 species. The data were collated from 480 existing spatial comparisons of local-scale biodiversity exposed to different intensities and types of anthropogenic pressures, from terrestrial sites around the world. The database was assembled as part of the PREDICTS project - Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems; [www.predicts.org.uk](http://www.predicts.org.uk).\r\n\r\nThe taxonomic identifications provided in the original data sets are those determined at the time of the original research, and so will not reflect subsequent taxonomic changes.\r\n\r\nThis dataset is described in [10.1002/ece3.2579](http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2579). A description of the way that this dataset was assembled is given in [10.1002/ece3.1303](http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.1303).\r\n\r\n* `columns.csv`: Description of data extract columns\r\n* `database...
Ecological Management & Restoration
Queensland Review
The work of colonial artists has provided precious insights into the nature of the Australian lan... more The work of colonial artists has provided precious insights into the nature of the Australian landscape as it was at the time immediately following white settlement. The works of Glover, Lewin and von Guérard, for example, have been employed by historical geographers and have fuelled some fascinating debates about the nature of the landscape as it was under Aboriginal management. Of course, the work of some of these artists forms more faithful historical documentation than that of others. The stylised works of J.S. Lycett, the emancipated convict turned painter, are almost certainly unreliable as accurate landscape documentation, as his criminal conviction for forgery may suggest (Plate 1). It is likely that Lycett never visited some of the locations he painted and much of his work was probably commissioned as immigration propaganda, intended to placate the fears of the Britons equivocating about a move to the awesome and intimidating southern land.
Australian Journal of Botany
Studies attempting to calibrate vegetation attributes from aerial photography with field data are... more Studies attempting to calibrate vegetation attributes from aerial photography with field data are reviewed in detail. It is concluded that aerial photography has considerable advantages over satellite-based data because of its capacity to assess the vertical dimension of vegetation and the longer time period the record spans. Limitations of using the aerial photo record as digital data include standardising image contrast and rectification. Some of these problems can be circumvented by manual techniques, but problems of crown exaggeration that varies with photo scale and variation in contrast between the textures of tree crowns and the ground remain. Applications of aerial photography for assessing vegetation change are also reviewed and include deforestation, reforestation, changes in vegetation boundaries, tree density, community composition and crown dieback. These changes have been assessed at scales ranging from individual tree crowns to regional landscapes. In Australia, aeria...
The Rangeland Journal
A long-term (1993–2016) fire experiment in the grazed semi-arid savanna of the Northern Territory... more A long-term (1993–2016) fire experiment in the grazed semi-arid savanna of the Northern Territory was used to investigate the relative impacts of soil properties and fire history on vegetation composition and diversity in grassland and woodland habitats. Subtle variation in soil texture influenced vegetation composition and abundance independently of fire variables and was generally a more important control on floristic patterns. Total species richness, lifeform richness and the abundance and presence of many individual plant species declined with increasing clay content. Linear mixed effect models with combined habitat data, showed total richness and richness of annual and perennial forbs, annual grasses and legumes increased with more frequent fire. Perennial grass abundance and richness was not influenced by fire. Total and lifeform mean richness did not vary between two and four yearly or early and late burnt treatments. Richness and abundance was generally significantly higher ...
Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia
Global change biology, Jan 30, 2017
Ongoing climate change poses significant threats to plant function and distribution. Increased te... more Ongoing climate change poses significant threats to plant function and distribution. Increased temperatures and altered precipitation regimes amplify drought frequency and intensity, elevating plant stress and mortality. Large-scale forest mortality events will have far-reaching impacts on carbon and hydrological cycling, biodiversity, and ecosystem services. However, biogeographical theory and global vegetation models poorly represent recent forest die-off patterns. Furthermore, as trees are sessile and long-lived, their responses to climate extremes are substantially dependent on historical factors. We show that periods of favourable climatic and management conditions that facilitate abundant tree growth can lead to structural overshoot of aboveground tree biomass due to a subsequent temporal mismatch between water demand and availability. When environmental favourability declines, increases in water and temperature stress that are protracted, rapid, or both, drive a gradient of t...
Ecology letters, Apr 1, 2017
Drought events are increasing globally, and reports of consequent forest mortality are widespread... more Drought events are increasing globally, and reports of consequent forest mortality are widespread. However, due to a lack of a quantitative global synthesis, it is still not clear whether drought-induced mortality rates differ among global biomes and whether functional traits influence the risk of drought-induced mortality. To address these uncertainties, we performed a global meta-analysis of 58 studies of drought-induced forest mortality. Mortality rates were modelled as a function of drought, temperature, biomes, phylogenetic and functional groups and functional traits. We identified a consistent global-scale response, where mortality increased with drought severity [log mortality (trees trees(-1) year(-1) ) increased 0.46 (95% CI = 0.2-0.7) with one SPEI unit drought intensity]. We found no significant differences in the magnitude of the response depending on forest biomes or between angiosperms and gymnosperms or evergreen and deciduous tree species. Functional traits explaine...
Journal of Biogeography, 1989
... Epilobium sarmentaceum Hassk. 50 - 29 - - - - - 7 33 33 - Veronica gracilis R. Br. 33 50 57 -... more ... Epilobium sarmentaceum Hassk. 50 - 29 - - - - - 7 33 33 - Veronica gracilis R. Br. 33 50 57 - - 21 - 5 50 11 15 44 100 - ... Schoenus apogon Roem. et Schult. 67 100 86 78 70 76 93 65 17 67 74 89 33 - Danthonia laevis JW Vickery 33 - - +71 44 50 66 71 45 17 33 56 67 33 - ...
Australian Journal of Ecology, Jun 1, 1994
Forest Ecology and Management, 2016
Australian Journal of Botany, 1992
Downslope boundaries of forest with grassland and grassy woodland occur over a wide altitudinal r... more Downslope boundaries of forest with grassland and grassy woodland occur over a wide altitudinal range in central Tasmania. Three sites were selected for study of the causes of these boundaries at low, medium and high elevations. The open vegetation was generally associated with moister and less rocky soils and more subdued topography than the adjacent forest. Frost incidence and intensity, soil moisture and waterlogging varied markedly among the three open areas. Planted tree seedlings survived 4 years in the open at all sites, and seedlings established in the open both naturally, and after sowing, where grass competition was reduced by herbicide application, digging or root competition from adult eucalypts. Grazing had no detectable effect on seedling establishment. A pot experiment demonstrated a suppressive effect of native grass swards on both seedling establishment and growth, this effect being largely independent of available moisture and nutrients. While frost, waterlogging, fire and drought may play a role in inhibiting eucalypt establishment and increasing eucalypt mortality at some or all of the sites, the dense grass swards found in all the open areas are considered to be the most likely primary agent of tree exclusion.
Australian Journal of Ecology, Sep 1, 1990