Since 1996 Australia has produced a national State of the Environment report every five years, providing a synthesis of the state and trend across major biomes. Since 2016 reporting has become more complicated with major reports released from IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services), as well as the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Australia’s States and Territories produce different types of reports, no standard set of SoE Reports. A recent OECD review found the need to better link our national SoE Report with State indicators and measures. For SoE 2021 could we develop a set of measures that provide a level of concordance across sub-national indicators? This would provide the ability to also meet various international reporting obligations.

Developing an agreed framework across Australia’s nine jurisdictions for a shared set of outcome-based questions for each of the SoE report’s major themes can provide a new way forward to simplify reporting at many levels, while continuing to ensure the autonomy of states and territories. This presentation will focus on whether our national SoE should align with goals, targets or indicators of the SDGs, and if so how to develop a pragmatic approach to aligning Australia’s disparate goals and targets across multiple reporting frameworks. At the same time work is under way in the development of a national approach to environmental-economic accounts which provides new opportunities to building the capability to ‘report once and use many times’, across a range of sub-national, national and international reporting obligations.

The rise of the Poaceae in the Cenozoic Era saw a massive expansion in plants that take up significant amounts of silicon (Si) from the soil. Si is deposited throughout the plant, reaching concentrations of up to 10% dry mass. Si is thought to alleviate many biotic and abiotic stresses, mostly through modification of plant tissues and metabolic processes. Among the biotic stresses, Si is known to increase plant resistance to herbivores but the exact mechanisms are unclear. Most anti-herbivore defences are under the control of the jasmonic acid (JA) pathway which is triggered following herbivore attack. Using the model grass Brachypodium distachyon, we demonstrate that chewing herbivores induce Si uptake. Similar results using methyl jasmonate suggest that induction of the JA pathway drives Si uptake. Chewers were negatively affected when feeding on plants with Si (+Si plants) which also possessed higher densities of leaf macro-hairs. Removal of these macro-hairs restored chewer performance. Crucially, attack by chewing herbivores triggered a much weaker JA response in +Si plants compared to plants without Si. Sap-feeding herbivores, in contrast, did not induce Si uptake or trigger the JA pathway and were unaffected by Si. We hypothesise that certain grasses use Si physical defences constitutively or in response to either chewing herbivory or triggering of the JA pathway, in lieu of other metabolically costly secondary metabolites. Dampened JA responses may be sufficient to stimulate Si uptake and deposition, which is irreversible, without requiring levels of JA activity needed for continued synthesis of secondary metabolites.

There has been a rapid decline of small mammals across northern Australia, possibly driven by predation by feral cats and habitat simplification via changed fire regimes. It has been suggested, that arboreal mammals are being negatively affected by the fire-driven loss of large, hollow-bearing trees. We aimed to characterise the use of tree hollows by arboreal mammals on Melville Island. Motion-activated video cameras were installed, and hollow usage was monitored at 30 hollows over the wet season (August-May). Three size classes of entrance diameter were represented (5-10cm, 10-20cm and >20cm) as well as a range of hollow heights (0-14m). We found all arboreal species more frequently visited hollows that had an entrance diameter >10cm. Hollows had a slightly different assemblage of arboreal species based on hollow height with Savanna Gliders not present <2.5 meters and Brushtail Rabbit-Rat not present >8 meters. Over half the hollows (56%) in this survey had more than one species of arboreal mammal confirmed using or visiting the hollow. With all hollows frequently visited by predators, including arboreal goannas, tree snakes and dingoes. Understanding the usage of hollows in savanna woodlands by arboreal wildlife, and demonstration of den sharing is important as a potential flagship for the conservation of tree hollows in northern Australia. We speculate that the rapid decline could have been amplified by contemporary fire regimes reducing the abundance of large tree hollows.

The spatial, spectral and temporal resolution of freely accessible satellite imagery has improved in recent years, providing a detailed source of data for landscape classification and monitoring. Well-established Landsat-based products estimate the per-pixel biophysical proportion of bare, green and non-green vegetation for every image in the time series. These products have been calibrated with over 4000 field sites across Australia, providing a more finely tuned product than generic vegetation indices. Ecological applications of these data includes identifying the location of habitat resources, differences in habitat quality over time and comparative productivity compared to long term conditions. However, for some ecological applications, these Landsat-based products are somewhat limited by their spatial (30m) and temporal (16 days) resolution, which is a particular issue for highly heterogeneous and/or cloudy areas. The recent development and testing of Sentinel 2 data products has improved the spatial and temporal resolution of these products, while ground-based sensors complement the satellite data by providing fine temporal detail on vegetation phenology. These technologies complement existing approaches and are also enhancing our ability to discriminate finer scale spatio-temporal change, thus allowing investigation of new questions on the spatial arrangement of vegetation, the temporal dynamics of ground cover and detailed phenology measures in variable rainfall environments.

Faunal diversity is considered a key indicator of environmental health and ecological responses to anthropogenic change. In Australia, the push for intensified agriculture and urbanisation has resulted in unprecedented habitat destruction of arid landscapes. Small vertebrate surveys provide invaluable information of ecosystem function and serve a critical role in biodiversity management and conservation. Unfortunately, traditional ecological survey methods often face environmental and logistical limitations, especially in the difficult terrain of arid landscapes. Recent technological advances in molecular genetic techniques provide ecologists with a new analysis platform. The application of environmental DNA (eDNA) combines modern molecular genetic technology with traditional ecological questions to determine species composition in sites of interest. Whilst eDNA has been beneficial in modern ecological assessments, many uncertainties remain about its applicability in terrestrial environments. A practical use of terrestrial eDNA is through top-predator dietary analysis which offers the benefits of observing the whole food chain. Owl pellets and feral cat stomach contents have been used in Australian small mammal monitoring schemes for some time. However, traditional analysis of dietary contents involves time-intensive morphological assessment of skeletal remains. The present project aims to assess the utility, feasibility and applicability of eDNA in a case study scenario involving the use of barn owl (Tyto alba) and feral cat (Felis catus) dietary analysis in far west Queensland through a comparative assessment of five traditional fauna survey methods versus the dietary eDNA approach. Here, I report the results from the research in top-predator dietary eDNA thus far and discuss future directions.

Conservation behaviour is an interdisciplinary field that investigates the proximate and ultimate causes of behaviour and their value in preventing the loss of biodiversity. Animal behaviour can be useful for determining the impacts of rapid environmental change such as habitat fragmentation, anthropogenic impacts or climate change. An understanding of behaviour can additionally be used for monitoring or to directly inform conservation management strategies. Activity patterns are a useful behavioural tool for indicating foraging effort, energetics and risk exposure. Previously, determining activity patterns of free-living animals has been difficult to measure in the field. However, the use of camera traps is a useful technique for determining activity patterns of free-living animals in the field in a cost-effective and non-invasive way. Here, we present a year-long pilot study to estimate the daily activity patterns of spotted-tailed quolls (Dasyurus maculatus) in a strong-hold population in south eastern Australia using camera traps. In addition, provide information on the demographic structure of the population. This study highlights obtaining site specific behavioural data of species may assist in understanding the species’ ecology within a given area and population, and directly inform conservation management strategies.

Camera trapping small mammals is often restricted due the limited focus distance of most trail cameras. Animals are either too small within the image for accurate identification, or when photographed up close, the animals are completely out of focus. Overcoming these issues is the method of the selfie trap; an enclosed design with a close focus lens that captures close-up camera footage of small mammals. To date, the selfie trap design has been able to collect large volumes of data for Antechinus species, Rattus species, Sugar Gliders and Brushtail Possums. The method allows for accurate identification of these species, which is particularly important when identifying very similar-appearing rat, antechinus or glider species (i.e. sugar gliders compared to squirrel gliders). In pilot work to date, these datasets indicate they have the potential to replace live trapping for studies estimating abundance and distribution. Additionally, activity patterns and individual tracking is also feasible. We present current species studied using the selfie trap, as well as other potential species that can be targeted, and the information that this method could provide. The novel and cost-effective use of the selfie trap can allow for morphological and behavioural changes to be determined and used in management at long-term scales. The novelty of ‘animal selfies’ also has great citizen-science and community engagement potential.