Karawatha forest team of 17 honours, PhD students, undergraduate students, research assistants, summer scholarship holders, Lecturers and school students have completed the job of establishing and completing a PPBio Research Grid with 33 plots in Karawatha Forest, Brisbane.
In January of 2007, Dr William Magnusson kindly visited Griffith University from Manaus, Brazil, to help train our team in the art of establishing plots and conducting vegetation surveys. The established research grid can be seen below:
The PPBio Karawatha research grid is currently funded by:
Data collected from the PPBio Karawatha Grid will be available to the public after a three year window of publishing opportunity. The data will be readily available from this website in the future.
Publications
- Hero, Jean-Marc, J. Guy Castley, Mikalah Malone, Ben Lawson & William E.
- Magnusson. 2010. Long- term ecological research in Australia: innovative approaches for future benefits. Australian Zoologist. In press.
- Haughland, D.L., J.-M. Hero, J. Schieck, J. G. Castley, S. Boutin, P. Sólymos, B. E. Lawson, G. Holloway and W.E. Magnusson. 2010 Planning forwards: biodiversity research and monitoring systems for better management TREE 1210: 199-200.
- Mossaz, A. 2010 Estimating low-density Koala Populations in Southeast Queensland: comparing the spot assessment technique and distance sampling. Honours Thesis
- Healy, Sally 2009 Assessing the social values and recreational user perception of Karawatha Forest. Griffith University: Honours Thesis. First Class.
- Ogden, Cathy 2009 Tree-Hollows and Tree Dwelling Creatures of Karawatha Forest Park, SE QLD. GriffithUniversity: Honours Thesis. First Class.
- Kampmann, Saara. 2008. The Influence of Vegetation Structure and Fire History on the Composition of Lizard Assemblages at Karawatha Forest Park, South-east Queensland. Griffith University: Honours Thesis.
- Hughes, R. 2008. Factors affecting mesoscale avian community assemblages in an urban forest remnant, SEQld. Griffith University: Honours Thesis.
- Butler, Sarah. 2007. Associations of Mesoscale Vegetation Patterns with the Soil, Topography and Fire History of Karawatha. Griffith University, Honours Thesis
Research projects currently operating on the grid include:
- Honours 2009, Catherine Ogden: Koala distribution and abundance and Tree Hollow density, characteristics and inhabitants at Karawatha Forest Park.
- Honours 2009, Sally Healy: Political ecology, socio-economic benefits of Karawatha to the surrounding community.
- PhD 2007-2010, Danial Stratford: Measuring, monitoring and modelling the impacts of climate on frogs.
- PhD 2007-2010, Subhashni Appanna: Sustainability Indicators for Terrestrial ecosystems.
- Honours 2007-2008, Ryan Hughes:Mesoscale variation in bird species composition in response to vegetation structure.
- Honours 2007-2008, Saara Kampmann: Mesoscale variation in lizard species composition in response to fire, vegetation, soil, and topography.
- Honours 2007-2008, Sarah Butler: Associations of Mesoscale Vegetation Patterns with the Soil, Topography and Fire History of Karawatha.
Research Opportunities currently available on the PPBio Karawatha Research Grid:
- PhD (Engineering): Measuring and modelling the hydrology of surface and ground waters at Karawatha.
- PhD (up to 3 candidates): Selection of invertebrate taxa as indicators of climate change and fire.
- PhD: Ecosystem Services; estimating the flux in standing biomass, carbon sequestration in response to fire and ecosystem services of Karawatha.
- PhD: Dynamics of Tree Hollows and their inhabitants, for long-term management.
- PhD: Koala density estimation and population viability analysis.
- Honours: Mesoscale variation in ground small mammal species composition in response to fire, vegetation, soil, and topography.
- Honours: Investigating and validating current fire data, A comparison of on ground measures with historical records.
If you are interested in any of the research opportunities available, please contact A/Prof Jean-Marc Hero.