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DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE The past year has presented many challenges for the Division as we sought to meet the expectations of government at a time of fiscal constraint. These challenges presented the opportunity to review our activities to focus on the core functions we are required to deliver to support government priorities. Our Strategic Plan identifies how our science is integrated into delivery of the Department’s strategic goals of wildlife management, parks management, forest management, and managed use of natural assets. In reviewing our business we articulated our core functions as conserving threatened plant, animals and communities, landscape scale conservation, wildlife assets and inventory, WA Herbarium, bushfire research, marine monitoring and research, forest monitoring and research, wetland monitoring, hydrological monitoring, and data management and distribution. We have aligned our resources with these functions and refocused our activities to ensure we are delivering best practice science driven by management priorities to inform effective wildlife conservation and parks management. Through all of this we have continued to deliver significant scientific information to support conservation of our diverse plants, animals and ecological communities. Highlights of activities this year include publication of a book documenting the outcomes of the Kimberley Islands Biological Survey; documenting the response of mammals to the establishment of a patchy early dry season burning regime in the Kimberley; development of genetic monitoring techniques for bilbies; registration of the cat bait, Eradicat®, for operational use after many years of research; significant reduction in cats on Dirk Hartog Island following baiting; production of a book on algae of the north-west waters; production of a fire spread model for coastal scrublands of the south-west; revision of the fire behaviour ratings for communities in the Great Western Woodlands; increased understanding of effects of climate change and adaptation in coral reef communities, widespread eucalypts and in seed germination; addition of the 10,000th plant species to the WA census and description of 35 new plant species; maintenance of genetic diversity in seed collections from populations now extinct due to impacts of Phytophthora; understanding of seed collection zones for south-west forest rehabilitation and land restoration in the mid-west; establishment of an innovative citizen science program to monitor little penguins and visitor access to Penguin Island. A Science Statement for Western Australia was released in April and it is pleasing to see that Biodiversity and Marine Science is one of the five science priorities for Western Australia, along with mining and energy, medicine and health, agriculture and food, and radio astronomy. The Science Statement announced State Government support for establishment of the Western Australian Biodiversity Science Institute (WABSI), a joint venture between nine partners including Department of Parks and Wildlife, Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority, WA Museum, CSIRO, The University of Western Australia, Murdoch University, Curtin University, Department of Mines and Petroleum and Office of the Environmental Protection Authority. Several other partners have been members of the Steering Committee guiding the development of WABSI, including BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Fortescue Metals Group, and the Chamber of Minerals and Energy, under the leadership of Professor Alan Robson. WABSI will have a Governing Council and a Board to guide its operations, and with support for the governance and administrative operations from the State Government. It will be organised around four nodes of Information Management, Biodiversity Survey, Biodiversity Processes and Threats, and Restoration and Ex-situ conservation, with node leaders responsible for engaging all relevant partners in delivering the agreed research plan for each node. I look forward to engagement of the Division in all of the nodes as the institute develops. Our partnership with Western Australian Marine Science Institution (WAMSI) continues with projects fully operational and starting to deliver outcomes. The WAMSI conference held in April highlighted the wide range of projects being delivered through the Dredging Science Node and the Kimberley Marine Research Program. The Blueprint for Marine Science was also released and implementation will be further developed through the Premier’s Round Table process. Another major development in the past year has been the funding of the National Environmental Science Program (NESP) and we have significant involvement in three hubs, the Threatened Species Hub, the Northern Australian Environment Hub and the Marine Science Hub. The NESP hubs are strongly aligned with our own objectives as they are seeking to deliver applied research to support on- ground management; hence we have a significant role to play in these hubs through our integrated and highly applied research function. I encourage you all to be involved in the hubs where relevant. 1 In April, we hosted a visit by delegates from the Institute of Botany-Jiangsu Province and Chinese Academy of Sciences. This visit followed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the WA Government and the Jiangsu Institute, aimed at the development of joint programs that build on shared interests and research strengths, including participation in an international exchange of seeds, plants and specimens. Similarly, we welcomed a visit by the Commonwealth’s Threatened Species Commissioner to enhance collaborations and improve awareness of the opportunities for investment in threatened species research and management in WA. We continue to maintain excellent partnerships with universities, CSIRO, industry, not-for-profit- organisations and other government agencies with many new projects and a large number of students that we co-supervise. As we consolidate after some major change over the past two years, I am confident we will continue to deliver excellent science to underpin effective biodiversity conservation in Western Australia. I encourage you all to make the most of all opportunities and continue to seek innovative ways of delivering science to support conservation. Our engagement with the conservation function continues to deliver excellent outcomes as we integrate our science expertise with our conservation policy capacity, enabling our science to more directly inform conservation policy and management, and for management requirements and knowledge gaps to set our research priorities. Our engagement with regional staff and with staff from Forest and Ecosystem Management and Parks and Visitor Services Divisions is critical to implementation of effective science to support the department’s core functions. I look forward to continued engagement with all our partners, both within the Department and externally, in delivery of innovative science to inform conservation and management of our plants, animals and ecosystems, and to support effective management of our parks and reserves, delivery of our fire program, managed use of our natural resources and science stories that inspire and engage people to explore and appreciate our natural heritage. Dr Margaret Byrne Director Science and Conservation August 2015 2 CONTENTS SCIENCE DELIVERY STRUCTURE...............................................................................7 PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS..................................................................................8 CURRENT COLLABORATION WITH ACADEMIA (STUDENT PROJECTS)...................................19 EXTERNAL PARTNERSHIPS....................................................................................23 SUMMARY OF RESEARCH PROJECT LOCATIONS BY PROGRAM..........................................28 RESEARCH ACTIVITIES.........................................................................................36 BIOGEOGRAPHY................................................................................................36 South-Western Australia Transitional Transect (SWATT)...............................................................36 Biological Survey and Conservation Planning for the Swan Coastal Plain IBRA and adjacent Scarps (Dandaragan, Darling and Whicher)...........................................................................37 Western Australian flora surveys....................................................................................................38 Western Australian terrestrial fauna surveys..................................................................................40 Western Australian wetland fauna surveys....................................................................................41 Development of ethically acceptable techniques for invertebrate wet-pit trapping.........................42 Biological survey of the Ravensthorpe Range...............................................................................43 Kimberley islands biological survey...............................................................................................43 Pilbara regional biological survey...................................................................................................44 ANIMAL SCIENCE...............................................................................................46 Improved fauna recovery in the Pilbara – Assessing the uptake of feral cat baits by northern quolls, and their associated survivorship................................................................................46