Connecting conservation policy Issue #89 / June 2015 makers, researchers and practitioners

Looking after our nomads Citizen science and nomadic

Koala conservation and Planning Eremea-eBird’s Of mosquito fish and red- climate change future fin blue-eyes

Decision Point Plus Decision Point is the monthly magazine of the Why publish research? Environmental Decisions Group (EDG). It presents news and views on environmental decision making, biodiversity, A good home for fish in the desert conservation planning and monitoring. See the back cover The Australian Citizen Science Association for more info on the EDG. Decision Point is available free Citizen science and conservation from http://www.decision-point.com.au/ Issue #89 / June 2015 Contents On the point Citizen scientist stand tall In a world of remorseless (and often accelerating) biodiversity decline, one bright star that seems to shine brighter all the time in the conservation firmament is the movement called ‘citizen science’. According to Wikipedia, the term itself only entered the Oxford English Dictionary last year, suggesting it has only recently achieved a certain ‘orthodoxy’. Of course, it’s been around for much longer than that, centuries according to Jessie Cappadonna (see page 16). However, what is new is the growing network of Citizen Science Research briefs 3 Associations (see page 13, Australia has recently set up its own chapter), a growing evidence base demonstrating its potential (see  Improving policy to save more species Ayesha Tulloch’s story on page 12), and the increased use of citizen-  Improving the use of surrogates science collected data in authoritative conservation research (see  Integrating conservation and restoration page 11 for how citizen-science projects like Eremaea eBird have informed studies on extinction risk of nomadic species). Citizen science is a bright shining light because not only is it helping Why publish research? 4 collect information for better conservation outcomes, it’s also When what we are after is outcomes engaging an ever enlarging population of nature lovers with the ideas of biodiversity and conservation. As Ayesha points out, the bird citizen-science group in India (eBird India) reports that the number of Fish in the desert 6 new users is growing at a rate of 6% per month – that’s in a country of more than a billion people! The possibilities are huge. Sam Nicol on saving a ‘most endangered’ from a ‘most invasive’ And the data being generated by citizen science isn’t just for research that only appears in conservation science journals, it’s also guiding Conservation prioritisation for koalas 8 real-world investment. On page 15 there’s the story on BirdReturns in which eBird observations inform compensation payments to farmers Where east meets west, where best to invest who are providing habitat to migratory shorebirds. And having mentioned the topic of ‘research that only appears Looking after our nomads 10 in conservation science journals’, Hugh Possingham and Vanessa Adams discuss the sometimes vexed issue of publication and Geographic size range and extinction risk of nomadic species outcomes (page 4). The Environmental Decisions Group has an impressive record when it comes to our published science underpinning significant conservation advances. We’re also an Citizen science and conservation 12 active player in the world of citizen science with CEED launching the Are volunteers the way of the future for effective decision-making? Eremaea-eBird portal (see Decision Point #77). David Salt Editor Birding in the 21st Century 14 Decision Point A joint CEED and Eremaea-eBird conference [email protected]

The dawn of citizen science 16 And the Global Big Day

Decision Point is the monthly magazine of the Environmental Decision Group (EDG). The EDG is a network of conservation researchers working on the science of effective decision making The nomadic flock bronzewing is adapted to the to better conserve biodiversity. Our members are largely arid plains. In the mid 1800s, many observers based at the University of Queensland, the Australian National wrote about the enormous flocks of the flock University, the University of Melbourne, the University of bronzewing pigeons within areas where they Western Australia, RMIT and CSIRO. are now just occasional visitors. See our story on page 10 about better determining the extinction Decision Point is available free from: http://www.decision-point.com.au/ risk of our nomadic species. (Photo by Jeremy Ringma )

Page 2 Decision Point #89 - June 2015 Research Briefs

Improving policy to save more species Improving the use of surrogates Native flora and fauna species continue to decline in Australia – a Surrogates are used in many areas of ecology and the environmental megadiverse, wealthy, economically and politically stable nation. sciences as faster or cheaper substitute measures of populations, This is despite current efforts in policy and management. Ongoing ecosystems or ecological processes. The significant appeal of research is examining these declines, their causes and the adequacy surrogates has led to their study and application in a wide range of of current policy, but strategies for improving the outcomes for fields, such as conservation planning, the monitoring of pollution, threatened species have attracted less attention. water quality and biodiversity. Each of these fields informs Jane McDonald and colleagues discuss Australia’s approach to important policy and management decisions, such as the location managing nationally-listed threatened species. They examine of reserves for the protection of biodiversity, or the risk of disease aspects that potentially hinder the efficiency and effectiveness of transmission from water-borne bacteria. The need for informative management: surrogates in ecology and the broader environmental sciences is therefore important. • the threatened species listing process is lengthy and biased; Despite the widespread application of surrogates, much of the • recovery plan development is resource intensive, restricted to a progress in their selection and application has been based on subset of species and often not effective; correlative findings. For example, there has been a substantial • funding for threatened species management is not allocated amount of work on which species or environmental variables are efficiently or transparently; and associated with variation in the diversity of sets of taxa. In contrast, there has been limited progress made on how to use surrogates in • management is not designed to incorporate uncertainties and a predictive context or the circumstances under which they work. adapt to changing future threats. Philip Barton and colleagues investigated if anything could be Based on these issues they recommend four changes to the current learnt from research in the clinical medical sciences, including the process: rationalize listing and assessment processes; develop causal statistical frameworks available to validate relationships approaches to cost-effectively prioritize species-based and threat- between treatments, surrogate variables, and the outcome of based responses; estimate funds required to recover species and interest. They adapted this medical thinking to ecology by providing secure longer term funding; and accommodate uncertainties and a new framework that involves specification of the surrogate model, new threats into the current planning framework. statistical validation, and subsequent evaluation in a range of spatial Cost-effective prioritization for species and threats identifies which and temporal contexts. An inter-disciplinary surrogate concept will actions are likely to achieve the greatest benefits to species per unit allow for a more rigorous approach to validating and evaluating cost, thereby managing more species and threats with available proxy variables, thus advancing the selection and application of funds. These improvements can be made without legislative reform, surrogates in ecology. additional funding or socio-economic shifts. If implemented, they believe more Australian threatened species will benefit from current There has been limited progress efforts. made on how to use surrogates in a Many of the challenges facing Australia are analogous to issues “ in other countries including the United States, Canada and the predictive context or the circumstances United Kingdom. These recommendations could assist in improving threatened species management in these countries as well. under which they work Reference Their rigorous method can advance ”the science underpinning the McDonald JA, J Carwardine, LN Joseph, CJ Klein, TM Rout, JEM application of surrogates in ecology by shifting the focus away from Watson, ST Garnett, MA McCarthy & HP Possingham (2015). correlative understanding to one that focuses instead on causation Improving policy efficiency and effectiveness to save more and prediction. An improved use of surrogates is imperative if we species: A case study of the megadiverse country Australia. are to meet the challenge of properly measuring and understanding Biological Conservation 182: 102-108. the multifarious and complex problems in contemporary ecology. Reference These improvements can be made Barton PS, JC Pierson, MJ Westgate, PW Lane & DB Lindenmayer without legislative reform, additional (2015). Learning from clinical medicine to improve the use of “ surrogates in ecology. Oikos 124: 391-398. funding or socio-economic shifts.” Integrating conservation and restoration Conservation biology and restoration ecology share a common using clearly defined criteria, recognizing that not everything can interest in maintaining or enhancing populations, communities, be conserved or restored; some form of triage is inevitable. and ecosystems. Much could be gained by more closely integrating Because goals and priorities are societal concerns, conservation and the disciplines, but several challenges stand in the way. Goals differ, restoration must include people as part of—rather than separate reflecting different origins and agendas. Because resources are from—nature. A more meaningful and integrated approach will blur insufficient to meet all needs, priorities must be established. Rapid disciplinary boundaries, focus on outcomes rather than approaches, environmental changes create uncertainties that compromise goals and use the tools of both disciplines. and priorities. Reference To realize the benefits of integration, goals should be complementary, acknowledging the uncertainties that stem from Wiens JA & RJ Hobbs (2015). Integrating Conservation and temporal and spatial dynamics. Priorities should be established Restoration in a Changing World. Bioscience 65:302-312.

Decision Point #89 - June 2015 Page 3 Editorial

Why publish research? When what we are after is outcomes By Hugh Possingham and Vanessa Adams (University of Queensland) In the past few months we have been piecing together our components behind published scientific results including data sets, Threatened Species Recovery hub. The hub is part of NESP, the computer code and software. Peer review, therefore, provides an National Environmental Science Programme funded by the Australian important avenue for ensuring the quality of the data and methods Government Department of the Environment and innumerable used in the research as well as a way of making these items publically partners. During this process, several people have asked us why we available for others to use. Indeed, we believe more government publish in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. We were asked if we reports, policies and processes should be peer-reviewed. could focus more on “outcomes, communication and engagement” The government now requires that research outputs such as data rather than publication. The sometimes valid fear that research will sets and software funded through programs such as NESP be made rot in academic journals has caused this question to be asked before. publically available and peer review provides one way of achieving As these conversations progress we have discovered that there is a this in a rigorous manner. Publication is a key step in global great deal of confusion about research and research communication. engagement and communication. Consequently, we decided to attempt to explain the reason for publishing research in the international peer-reviewed literature. Why is peer-reviewed publication essential? We argue that the process of publication is not separate to outcomes There are several key reasons why it is important that we continue but an essential part of achieving them for universities. Publishing to make every effort to publish our results in the peer-reviewed increases the magnitude and chance of biodiversity conservation literature. outcomes by ensuring the best advice is provided based on evidence that has been judged as meeting certain standards. Indeed, to argue 1. Replicability: Research that is not freely available to be scrutinized against peer-reviewed publication jeopardises the conservation and replicated by people anywhere in the world is more likely to of Australia’s biodiversity by diminishing the role of the scientific be false and hard to argue against. By publishing our methods process. and results they can be replicated and either refuted or supported. Replicability is a fundamental pillar of the scientific process and What is research in biodiversity conservation? distinguishes it from many other forms of knowledge. 2. Quality assurance: Peer review is the gold standard method for There are at least three broad categories of research that helps researchers to demonstrate that the science they are conducting achieve biodiversity conservation outcomes: 1) applied ecology, 2) with public funds is of high quality and meets required standards. social-economic aspects of conservation, 3) policy design. Therefore, peer review provides a measure to the government or Research in applied ecology provides evidence for designing other funding body for both the quality of recommendations they conservation interventions – more specifically, most applied ecology receive as well as the value for money they are spending on the is designed to evaluate different kinds of conservation interventions, science behind these recommendations. Further, many journals, such as the best way to suppress a weed or feral predator. The results especially the higher impact journals, will only accept research of applied ecological research mean that conservation interventions outputs that deliver substantial advances in knowledge, ideas that are more likely to deliver favourable conservation outcomes on the are genuinely ground-breaking, not just accurate ground. 3. A basis for evidence-based policy: All Australian governments Social-economic research provides information about public (and especially their public servants) pride themselves on providing preferences for conservation outcomes that can inform the design evidence-based policy. Peer-review increases the quality of evidence of socially acceptable and cost-effective conservation interventions. – although it does not purport to provide bullet-proof fact. Peer- This means conservation interventions are more likely to be feasible review also provides a public record of the science behind decisions and in turn more likely to be implemented. so that policy makers and the public alike can judge for themselves Policy research brings together the outputs from applied ecology the evidence. Without peer reviewed, repeatable and publicly and social-economic research to ensure that policies are designed accessible information it is hard to transparently justify the decisions to achieve their intended on-ground outcomes in a cost-effective government makes with taxpayers funds. manner that meets public demands. This means that the conservation 4. International communication: Australia has a role in contributing policies of the government are evidence-based and provide efficiency to global knowledge; we especially have a role assisting managers when spending public money. and policy-makers in our region and in similar megadiverse countries outside of the wealthy north – (eg, South Africa, Brazil, Indonesia What is peer review? and India). The peer-reviewed literature still remains the best way of communicating science findings and the outcomes of conservation Peer review is the process by which research is validated. As its name so that there is an enduring record of lessons learnt that can be suggests, it involves research being submitted for publication to applied globally. Publishing the science behind conservation policies be scrutinized and tested by a researcher’s peers, other reputable is therefore a critical component of distributing the knowledge which researchers working in the same area of science or social science. has been gained through public funding and informed best practice It’s not perfect, but peer review is currently the best system we conservation. International peer-reviewed science is becoming have for ensuring the transparency, communication, veracity and increasingly freely available. Australia leads conservation science replicability of social and biophysical science. And it’s not applied globally and gains enormously from the global dialogue with our to publications only; peer review has been extended to individual overseas colleagues. 5. Develops early career researchers: One of the most enduring The process of publication is not legacies of our past and present research networks is the pool of outstanding scientists we cultivate through training early-career “separate to outcomes but an essential researchers and providing them with the best possible career part of achieving them. opportunities. Publication in the peer-reviewed literature is, whether ” we like it or not, essential for a career in research, whether that Page 4 Decision Point #89 - June 2015 Editorial

research be for government, the NGO sector, CSIRO, industry or a university. Arguing against peer-reviewed publication cripples our early-career researchers and degrades our national research capacity. Of foxes and malleefowl How good are our investments in protecting threatened Are we doing the right research? species? Much of the time we simply don’t know. Repeated audits of investments made through the Natural Heritage When people ask if we could focus more on ‘outcomes’ rather than Trust, for example, found that decisions regarding the publication, they frame our activity as an either/or situation. Surely the implementation of conservation management actions more relevant question is – has the research been designed to deliver are seldom critically evaluated for their effectiveness or information that delivers outcomes? All our research is demonstrably cost-effectiveness. Without monitoring and evaluation, applied, and with the new Threatened Species Recovery hub a key practitioners can only guess or assume the effectiveness question is: how will the results of that research deliver an outcome of an action, thereby reducing their ability to make smart for threatened species on the ground or via policy? management choices in the future. Producing peer-reviewed research does not in itself mean the research A point in case is the management of malleefowl (Leipoa is arcane or detracts from time spent on other activities contributing to conservation outcomes. Indeed the reverse is true. Hopefully the ocellata). This icon of the mallee is in trouble. Its distribution arguments above have convinced you that peer review is an essential across Australia has declined dramatically in past decades component for researchers to contribute to conservation outcomes. due to habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation, predation by foxes, grazing by herbivores and frequent, A more critical issue is to ensure the research questions being intense fires. Current conservation management actions answered are relevant to the conservation issues at hand. This is include predator control, habitat protection and restoration, not a trivial matter as it requires researchers to collaborate with fencing and community engagement. policy makers, conservation organizations, managers and other stakeholders to design useful research questions. The emphasis, however, is on fox baiting because we know that foxes are a threat to the malleefowl through predation We need to know what knowledge could change actions and policies of eggs, chicks, juveniles and occasionally adults; and foxes – information for information’s sake is not enough. Our research are common in areas occupied by malleefowl. But is our consortium has a long track record of successfully discovering management working? knowledge that is directly relevant to stakeholders in designing and implementing conservation policies that achieve outcomes on the EDG researchers looked at the data. According to their ground. models, an increase in fox baiting intensity did not significantly decrease the presence of foxes at a monitoring Must peer-review publication be the first step? site (Walsh et al, 2012). Indeed, fox presence was positively correlated with the growth of malleefowl populations, which If biodiversity conservation was not a crisis discipline we would is quite unexpected. Increased investment in fox control say yes, peer review is an essential first step. However, because the did not result in higher malleefowl population growth, peer review process is so slow (but getting faster), and preparing suggesting that baiting is generally not a cost-effective paper submissions to world-class journals is also time-consuming, management strategy for the recovery of this species. we will often need to communicate our discoveries to end-users before they are peer-reviewed and published. This pre-publication The bottom line is that without evaluation, the effectiveness communication can take many forms: a conversation, a seminar, of different conservation management actions is unknown. a public lecture, a conference presentation, briefing notes, advice And with very limited resources available to solve enormous at meetings, pamphlets, booklets, books, a Decision Point article challenges (often involving endangered species), that’s (although they generally follow or coincide with publication), an simply not acceptable. article in a variety of social media forums (such as ‘The Conversation’), Reference a YouTube video or even a tweet! Walsh JC, KA Wilson, J Benshemesh & HP Possingham (2012). However, regardless of the communication strategy for any synthesis Unexpected outcomes of invasive predator control: the or discovery, publication must be part of the process for all the importance of evaluating conservation management reasons outlined in the previous sections. All too often we find that, actions. Conservation 15: 319-328. especially in Australia, ecological and conservation myths spread because of a lack of careful analysis and scrutiny (consider the box on Malleefowl have foxes and malleefowl). Again, peer-review does not guarantee perfect experienced dramatic knowledge; it simply reduces the risks of mistakes. Further, other declines in distribution kinds of knowledge (eg, expert opinion), are increasingly being used in recent decades. Fox in research publications and being integrated with more classical baiting has been the scientific knowledge to provide an evidence base for decisions. main management The scientific community is often guilty of inadequately explaining response. (Photo by its actions. In this reflection we attempt to redress that problem with Dee Parkhurst) respect to the specific issue of ‘why we publish’. Putting these words together has certainly helped us clarify in our own minds that the peer-reviewed publication process, frustrating though it is, is absolutely fundamental to the business of saving biodiversity. Hopefully this brief, (un-reviewed) essay will help us, and This is an edited others, understand why we do what we do. excerpt of story that Further reading appeared in Decision Point #63, Arlettaz R et al (2010). From Publications to Public Actions: When p4,5 and 12,13. Conservation Biologists Bridge the Gap between Research and Implementation. Bioscience 60: 835-842.

Decision Point #89 - June 2015 Page 5 What makes a good home for a fish in the desert? Saving a ‘most endangered’ from a ‘most invasive’

By Sam Nicol (CSIRO) Searching for red-finned blue-eyes at dusk, Edgbaston reserve. (Photo by May-Le Ng) Did you know that there are fish living in the Australian desert? Obviously, fish need water, and that’s usually scarce in the desert. However large parts of arid Australia sit over the Great Artesian Basin, which is an area where groundwater is under such pressure that if and one of the worst invasive fish in the world – it’s considered to be you dig a well, it’ll come to the surface all by itself – no pumping one of the world’s 100 most invasive species. We think they spread required! This is good news for fish, because weak points in the during floods, but however they got there, mosquitofish are bad aquifer mean that water seeps to the surface and forms permanent news for the red-finned blue-eye. Wherever mosquitofish show up springs in the desert. in a spring, red-finned blue-eye disappear, usually a short time later (though sometimes it takes a bit longer and there is at least one Because these springs are so isolated from other sources of fish, example where the species have co-existed in a spring for at least unique species have evolved that live only in spring complexes. 15 years before the red-finned blue-eyes disappeared). The red- One of the best looking of these fish is the red-finned blue-eye, finned blue-eye has been placed on the IUCN list of the 100 most Scaturiginichthys vermeilipinnis, which lives only in springs on a single endangered species on the planet. property in central-western Queensland. This property is called Edgbaston Reserve. It’s now owned by Bush Heritage Australia, and Scientists and conservationists are working to stop the spread of protects the outstanding biological values of the springs. mosquitofish and protect the red-finned blue-eye, but since the red- finned blue-eye was only discovered in 1990 there’s much we don’t As you might imagine, life for a little fish living in the desert comes know about its biology. with many challenges (see the box ‘the remarkable red-finned blue- eye’), but this resilient little creature has evolved to cope well with the constantly changing environment of the groundwater spring. Occupancy What it has never had to deal with, however, is competition from an However, all is not lost for the red-finned blue-eye. As yet, the alien invader in the form of the mosquitofish Gambusia holbrooki. mosquitofish hasn’t gotten into all the springs at Edgbaston. What Unfortunately for the red-finned blue-eye, the mosquitofish has makes a spring good habitat for red-finned blue-eye, and bad for found its way to Edgbaston’s springs. mosquitofish? We’ve got a number of guesses: perhaps the red- Mosquitofish are an environmental pest species from North America, finned blue-eye survives in the higher altitude springs because they don’t flood as much? Perhaps the most isolated springs are the best habitat for the native fish because they’re harder for the mosquitofish What makes a spring good habitat to reach? Maybe the bigger springs are better for mosquitofish, or for red-finned blue-eye? There are a lot of hypotheses. We set out to test “for red-finned blue-eye, and bad for some of these with occupancy models (Nicol et al, 2015). mosquitofish? We’ve got a number of We found support for the hypothesis favoured by the fish biologists, which is that the high elevation springs are the best red-finned guesses.” blue-eye habitat. Big springs were good for both species. Using our

Page 6 Decision Point #89 - June 2015 The remarkable red-finned blue-eye Red-finned blue-eyes have other interesting features beyond the striking red fins and iridescent blue eyes of the adult males (the females are silver and have translucent fins). At just 3 cm long, it is Australia’s smallest freshwater fish and the only member of its genus. However perhaps most interesting is the fact that they can survive in the desert at all. While water conditions can be quite steady in some springs, in others they fluctuate wildly. Water temperature in the tail of one spring was recorded to change from 3 to 30˚C in a 24 hour period! Springs change size regularly, and may expand to be as much as four times larger in winter than in summer (one spring containing red-finned blue-eye dried up completely!). On top of these impediments to fish survival, most of the springs are only a few centimetres deep, have limited vegetation cover Red finned blue-eyes in their natural habitat at Edgbaston Reserve. A and no shade, so the existence of an endemic fish in this closer up shot of the fish in this image appears in the box on the left. hostile environment is truly remarkable. (Photo by May-Le Ng) The red-finned blue-eye is listed as Endangered under both Australian (EPBC) and Queensland legislation and as Critically have studied competition for a long time, there are few published Endangered by the IUCN. examples that quantify the strength of the competition between species. In this case, the presence of mosquitofish increases extinction probability of the red-finned blue-eye by 8% on average across all springs. So, what’s the future for the red-finned blue-eye? The main goal for managers is to prevent the spread of mosquitofish. At the moment this means erecting barriers around the springs that allow water to pass, but not fish. Biologists are also working to eradicate mosquitofish from selected springs using a fish poison and continuing an ongoing program of translocation of red-finned blue-eye to increase the number of occupied springs. Work is also being done to exclude stock and feral herbivores from the springs. This benefits not just red-finned blue-eyes, but also many of the other unique biota of these unique ecosystems. We’re hopeful that, taken together, these efforts will protect the red-finned blue-eye so that this little desert wonder will be around for future generations of curious fish lovers who happen to pass through the desert. More info: Sam Nicol [email protected] Reference Nicol S, TB Haynes, R Fensham & A Kerezsy (2015). Quantifying the impact of Gambusia holbrooki on the extinction risk of the critically endangered red-finned blue-eye. Ecosphere 6:41. DOI: dx.doi.org/10.1890/ES14-00412.1 available as open access: http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/ ES14-00412.1 models we can estimate the probability that a spring will be occupied by each species of fish. This is good news for managers of the springs because it helps to decide where to re-introduce red-finned blue- eye and eradicate mosquitofish. However the physical factors that we tested explained only a part of the pattern in fish occupancy. We think that the biological characteristics of the springs (eg, water quality, vegetation composition and extent) probably explain a lot more of the variance. This data is currently being collected as part of a PhD project on endemic snails that inhabit the springs.

Extinction probability We were also able to quantify the increase in red-finned blue-eye A typical net drag through a bore drain at Edgbaston: there’s no extinction probability imposed by mosquitofish. While ecologists shortage of mosquitofish! (Photo by Sam Nicol)

Decision Point #89 - June 2015 Page 7 Conservation prioritisation for koalas Where east meets west, where best to invest? By Christine Adams-Hosking (Global Change Institute, University of Queensland) For species that are increasingly threatened by the combined effects of habitat loss and climate change, we need to identify priority regions where we should be focussing our conservation efforts. In the case of specialist leaf-eaters, considering the effects of climate change on the distributions of their essential food resources should be a key component of conservation planning. The koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) was listed in 2012 as Vulnerable under Commonwealth Government law in the states of Queensland and New South Wales (including the ACT). Yet the synergistic threats to this species continue unabated. Research reveals ongoing declines in koala populations, primarily attributed to habitat loss in the coastal east (urbanisation) and climate change (more extreme drought and heatwaves) in the more arid west of their range. These declines are often being observed in areas that had previously been considered ‘stronghold’ areas for koalas in Queensland and New South Wales. Compounding the problem are disease and the secondary effects of urbanisation, According to the IUCN, the koala has been identified as one of ten namely collisions with cars and attacks by dogs. species globally that is most vulnerable to climate change due to a decline in the nutritional quality of food trees resulting from increased atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide. See http://cmsdata.iucn.org/ downloads/fact_sheet_red_list_koala.pdf for more info. (Photo by B Balch)

Food trees and priority regions We addressed the question of where koalas and their critical habitats are most likely to persist under climate change by incorporating predictive models (that we developed in a previous study) into a conservation prioritization analysis (Adams-Hosking et al, 2014). We used the software Zonation (http://cbig.it.helsinki.fi/software/zonation/). We developed four scenarios: (1) the probability of occurrence for the koala under the current climate, (2) the probability of overlap for the koala and at least one key food tree under the current climate, (3) the probability of occurrence for the koala under future climate change, and (4) the probability of overlap for the koala and at least one key food tree under future climate change. We found that the inclusion of key koala food trees affected the identification of priority regions for conserving koalas and those priority regions are predicted to shift considerably, often outside the current range of this species, posing additional challenges for its conservation (Figure 1). In Queensland and New South Wales, the Australian states where this species is now federally listed as vulnerable, all scenarios predicted that high priority regions will be concentrated eastwards from the western edge of the koala’s current range. However, when we incorporated key koala food trees into the analysis, some high priority regions expanded westwards from the coast in Queensland and New South Wales, although less from the coastal margins under the future climate. In Victoria and South Australia, high priority areas contracted and fragmented when food trees were included.

The inclusion of key koala food trees Figure 1 shows Zonation rankings (0 = lowest priority [cream] and 1 = “affected the identification of priority highest priority [dark green]) with dark green indicating approximately the top10% priority areas for (a) koala under current climate; (b) koala regions for conserving koalas and those and food trees under current climate; (c) koalas under future climate priority regions are predicted to shift and (d) koala and food trees under future climate. Insert map indicates the current koala range in black. considerably.”

Page 8 Decision Point #89 - June 2015 Conservation planning needs to incorporate both the species of conservation concern and its critical food and habitat resources when developing spatial models of areas of high conservation priority. You can’t model the future of the koala without incorporating the trees it depends upon. (Photo by N Smith)

A paucity of high priority areas This is an important planning consideration for conservation. Ongoing urbanization of many coastal regions in Queensland and New South Wales is encroaching into areas that historically also contain strong koala populations. To be able to consider high priority koala conservation areas that are not directly in the path of coastal development, yet are not so far west that increasing droughts and heatwaves will affect them detrimentally, would be very useful in planning and decision-making. Of concern is the paucity of protected areas in ecologically important areas. When overlaying the Zonation maps with current protected areas it becomes apparent there are few areas of high Figure 2 indicating a portion of Queensland and New South Wales, koala conservation priority under all scenarios, particularly in with current protected areas outlined in red overlayed with highest Queensland (Figure 2). Furthermore, unprotected koala habitats priority areas for koala conservation (current climate) in darker green. support many other native species and associated ecosystem services. A key point resulting from our study is the importance of considering, in one prioritization model, not only the specialist species but also its interaction with its critical food resources. Having this knowledge may reduce unwise conservation investment decisions in the future. For example, investing in a region where the food and/or habitat for the species is unlikely to persist under future climatic conditions is not the best use of resources compared to investing in a region where both the species and its essential resources are more likely to persist. This broad-scale study can provide planning guidance for prioritising koala conservation areas at local and regional levels, where other land uses would be taken into account. More info: Christine Adams-Hosking [email protected] Reference Adams-Hosking, C, C McAlpine, JR Rhodes, Patrick T Moss & HS Grantham (2014). Prioritizing regions to conserve a specialist folivore: considering probability of occurrence, food resources, and climate change. Conservation Letters. DOI: 10.1111/ conl.12125.

More food for thought For more on Christine and her co-authors’ work on modelling An increase in extreme weather events such as prolonged droughts climate-change impacts on koala food, see her story ‘Food for and heatwaves are lethal for koalas, particularly on the western edge thought (and survival)’ in Decision Point #59. of their ranges in Queensland and New South Wales. (Photo by P Murphy)

Decision Point #89 - June 2015 Page 9 Looking after our nomads Geographic range size and extinction risk By Claire Runge (University of Queensland) More than any other Australian pigeon, the nomadic flock bronzewing is adapted to the arid plains. The preferred habitat is open grassland Geographic range size (the size of a species’ distribution) is plains, clumped grasses and small shrubs with open spaces. The main often treated as a fixed attribute of a species for the purposes of impact on flock bronzewings has been through pastoralism as stock feed calculating extinction risk (see the box on EOO & AOO). All else on the grasses the bird uses for food and nesting. In the mid 1800s, many being equal, species occupying smaller geographic ranges are observers wrote about the enormous flocks of the flock pigeons within assumed to have a higher risk of extinction. However many species areas where they are now just occasional visitors such as northern South move around the landscape. Sometimes their movements involve Australia and western New South Wales. (Photo by Jeremy Ringma ) relatively predictable to-and-fro migrations (migratory species). But sometimes they involve complex irregular movements, with these species often being referred to as nomads (nomadic species). We For many of these species we have only a rudimentary recently modelled the distributions of many Australian nomadic understanding of where they spend their time, when and why bird species and found that at certain times their range contracts those places are important, and what drives them to move around to a very small area making them much more vulnerable than had the landscape.These movements can lead to substantial temporary been previously realized (Runge et al, 2015). This has important expansion and contraction of geographic ranges. Sometimes the implications for how we calculate their risk of extinction. size of the contraction can potentially pose an extinction risk. This is of particular concern here in Australia, where almost half of our bird Nomad challenges species are migratory or nomadic. Australian bird nomads include the enigmatic and threatened grey Nomads move in complex patterns, often associated with highly falcon (Falco hypoleucos), the flock bronzewing ( histrionica) fluctuating resources such as seasonal fruiting or irregular desert – an outback pigeon that irrupts in incredible flocks of tens of rainfall. Movement strategies may be adjusted dynamically thousands of birds and the princess parrot (Polytelis alexandrae), a according to the prevailing conditions at each time and place. rarely seen but spectacular inland bird. Nomadic movements limit our ability to determine population EOO & AOO dynamics and consequently our ability to estimate risk on that basis. Many migratory species can be surveyed annually because Several different measures of geographic range size exist. of predictable movements to and from breeding grounds, which Estimations of extinction risk are typically calculated using static allows reasonably accurate measurement of population change metrics such as extent of occurrence (EOO) or area of occupancy and extinction risk. However, for nomadic species when and where (AOO), which are based on a conceptualization of geographic we monitor may dramatically influence our estimates of both range size as a fixed attribute of a species. EOO is a measure population abundance and trend. of the degree to which a species’ distribution, and hence its vulnerability to threats, is spread across geographic space. AOO Monthly maps is a measure of the area actually occupied by the species. With these metrics, species with smaller extents or areas are assumed In our investigation we used a species distribution modelling to be more threatened. However, when a species is nomadic approach to predict the distribution of 43 Australian nomadic bird within its overall distribution, estimates of EOO or AOO based on pooling observations across time will often be larger than the Our approach provides a tool for geographic range size at any one point in time. This could lead discovering spatial dynamics in highly to an erroneous conclusion that a nomadic species is safe from “ extinction when it is not. We examined the temporal variability mobile species and can be used to in the AOO of nomadic species and explored the consequences of such dynamism for extinction risk assessments (Runge et al, unlock valuable information for improved 2015). extinction risk assessment ” Page 10 Decision Point #89 - June 2015 areas, making them vulnerable to threats in those places, whether through changing grazing regimes, loss of habitat to vegetation clearing or increases in feral predators. Indeed, all the species we examined exhibited significant bottlenecks during some period in terms of low areas of occupation.

Implications for nomads These findings have implications for the way we prioritise and conserve nomadic species. For example, we discovered that two species (the scarlet-chested parrot, Neophema splendida; and the near threatened chestnut-breasted whiteface, Aphelocephala pectoralis) contract to very small areas, leaving them with a much greater risk of extinction than is suggested by their current IUCN status. Figure 1 shows the distribution of the scarlet- chested parrot. If its distribution is based on all sightings (pooled over time) then it geographical range (extent of occurrence) would be considered quite large. However, when its potential distribution is modelled at different times of the year we found that in spring of 2010 its potential distribution is large but in autumn 2010 its distribution is Figure 1: The scarlet-chested parrot contracts down to very small areas (so small we only a tiny fragment of that range, and its risk is highlight them here with the pink arrows), making it vulnerable to habitat loss during significantly higher. these times. Grey lines show the extent of the previously mapped distribution. (http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=1487). We believe our approach to determining (Photo of parrot by Kay Parkin) geographic range size is more appropriate for the assessment of extinction risk in nomadic species. This is even more important with climate species. By combining existing data from citizen-science projects change predicted to affect the pattern of resource (see the box on citizen science) with remotely sensed data from fluctuations across much of the southern hemisphere, where the time of each species record, we were able to map monthly nomadism is the dominant form of animal movement. distributions for these nomads over an 11 year period, even in Our approach provides a tool for discovering spatial dynamics species with only a few sightings. in highly mobile species and can be used to unlock valuable We found that the distributions of many species expand and contract, information for improved extinction risk assessment and and shift around the landscape throughout time, sometimes by one conservation planning. And we recommend that extinction risk or two orders of magnitude. While many of these species have large frameworks for nomadic species be assessed on the basis of their ranges overall, at certain points in time (usually during periods of minimum range size. poor environmental conditions) they can be present in only small More info: Claire Runge [email protected] Reference: Runge, CA, A Tulloch, E Hammill, HP Possingham & RA Fuller (2015). Geographic range size and extinction risk assessment in nomadic species. Conservation Biology http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.12440/abstract

Citizen science to the rescue Monitoring nomadic species is a major challenge all around the world but it’s an even bigger challenge in a large country with a small population like Australia. The sightings data that formed one crucial element of our analysis were largely derived from citizen-science projects like Eremaea eBird (http://ebird. org/content/australia/) and the BirdLife Atlas (http://birdlife. org.au/projects/atlas-and-birdata). Thanks to citizen-science initiatives such as these, for most Australian birds we now have the information we need to plan conservation actions imperative for the survival of nomads. By combining the desires of volunteers to travel and explore remote regions with analytical tools such as species distribution modelling, we can now predict and map the key sites for conservation action to ensure species’ ongoing The grey falcon is a rare medium-sized falcon, one of the enigmatic persistence. [See our stories on citizen science (p12,13) and eBird ‘mystery’ birds of Australia, neither easily nor predictably seen. (p14,15) for more details on these exciting developments.] (Photo by Dean Portelli)

Decision Point #89 - June 2015 Page 11 Citizen science and conservation Are volunteers the way of the future for effective decision-making? By Ayesha Tulloch (ANU)

Citizen science, the involvement of volunteers from the general community in academic research, has become increasingly important in conservation science. Aided by the internet, the popularity and scope of citizen science appears almost limitless. For citizens, the motivation is to contribute to science and better conservation outcomes. For researchers, citizen science provides an opportunity to gather information that would be impossible to collect because of limited resources. So, how much of a contribution is citizen science actually making? We recently reviewed scientific publications applying citizen-science bird-monitoring programs to determine their influence in the scientific literature, and whether or not they are useful for informing management decisions (Tulloch et al, 2013). Our review revealed two key things. First, there is a massive in-kind contribution in terms of survey investment by volunteers, an investment that is unlikely to be possible in most scientific projects (Figure 1). Second, the way in which a citizen science program is designed and delivered is key Figure 1. Mean (SE) annual investment by volunteers and with to whether it can inform conservation and management decisions. coordinators added relative to publication output, in cross-sectional (orange bars) and longitudinal (dark bars) programs. This kind of Real benefits investment is impossible for the majority of scientific research papers.

Although there has been criticism in the past about the ability of manage the invasion front. With attention in Australia focused on citizen science to deliver real conservation benefits, we showed how native species and invasive species such as cane toads might that not only are multiple types of citizen science protocols useful spread under future changed climate conditions, citizen scientists for informing decisions, but also that they have a range of side are primed to play an increasing role in managing their spread benefits that most scientific monitoring programs fail to achieve. before it is too late. These benefits include increasing public awareness of conservation, education, recreation, social and economic research, and learning to Of course, gaining knowledge about management usually requires improve methods of monitoring and evaluation (Figure 2). ancillary information about that management (eg, grazing or fire or logging). This is rarely a part of citizen science, so the future The most-frequent application of citizen-science research was success of citizen-science programs hinges on good collaboration to improve ecological knowledge – learning for learning’s sake – with organisations collecting landscape-level data that might be this knowledge informs management decisions that require an combined with the huge monitoring efforts of citizen scientists. underlying understanding of how species respond to different environmental conditions, or why species occur in one location and not another. As we struggle to address all of the threats affecting our declining biodiversity, particularly in sparsely populated and difficult- to-access places like Australia, citizen science will become the only practical way to achieve the geographic extent required to document ecological patterns and address ecological questions at scales relevant to species range shifts, migration patterns, disease spread, broad-scale population trends, changes in national and state policy, and impacts of environmental processes like climate change.

Tracking invasion In our review, the study with the highest influence on the scientific literature (a whopping 21.5 citations per year on average) investigated the emergence and impacts on birds of the deadly West Nile Virus in the US (LaDeau et al, 2007). Citizen scientists are the perfect tool for tracking and perhaps even managing the spread of invasive species and diseases, with a recent application in the UK for tracking the invasive grey squirrel and informing where to Figure 2. The impact (in terms of number of times cited per year) of different kinds of citizen science programs relative to the objective There is a massive in-kind contribution for which they were used in scientific publications (orange = cross- sectional schemes such as Atlases – collections of surveys of many “in terms of survey investment by species contributed by volunteers over a set period of time; purple = longitudinal schemes such as Breeding Bird Surveys (BBS) – on-going volunteers, an investment that is unlikely stratified monitoring of sites that require more coordination). to be possible in most scientific projects.” Page 12 Decision Point #89 - June 2015 Making the most of citizen science To ensure citizen science data are used to their full potential, we The Australian Citizen recommend the following: 1. That we learn: Elements of successful citizen science protocols Science Association are incorporated into future programs, emphasising: By Jessie Cappadonna (ACSA) (a) fine-scale data collection, Citizen-science projects are blossoming all around the world. (b) temporal replication that covers the full range of habitats or And, with their rise, networks have been forming to help them land use types, and in their work. These networks aim to promote citizen science, (c) communication of data needs with volunteers. facilitate idea sharing, and better connect researchers with 2. That we maintain quality: Regional coordinators are in place citizens wanting to contribute to science. For example, in the to maintain data quality. northern hemisphere the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) and the US-based Citizen Science Association (US CSA) 3. That we communicate: Communication between researchers have recently formed. And now it’s Australia’s turn. and the organisations coordinating volunteer monitoring is In May of 2014, EarthWatch held a meeting at the Queensland enhanced, with monitoring targeted to meet specific needs Museum with a range of citizen-science practitioners from and objectives. around Australia. Participants discussed the idea of forming 4. That we seek to fill the gaps: Application of citizen science a citizen-`science network in Australia and, from this, the programs to under-explored objectives and species is Australian Citizen Science Association (ACSA) was born. encouraged, and data are made freely and easily accessible. Since that initial meeting, dedicated volunteers have developed One exciting example of successful communication and a growing Association objectives, governance, and a website. A founding citizen-science network is the Australian program Fungimap, which board was also nominated by working group volunteers, and encourages citizens to report and send in photos of some 220 target one of the first tasks of the newly formed board was selecting species. This effort led to one of the first ever fungi ID guides in the the Australia Museum as the ACSA host institution for the next world. few years. The current board members are associated with a wide range of organizations, including Queensland Museum, But it’s not just bird lovers (or even fungi lovers) who will be the Atlas of Living Australia, the Atlas of Life in the Coastal contributing to this new movement. With the emergence of new Wilderness, Australian Museum, and BirdLife Australia. technologies, greater networking and the rise of open-access science, citizens of all types will have the capacity to participate There are many exciting initiatives being developed for in citizen science and play a role in monitoring and managing the future of ACSA, so it is a great time to get involved. For biodiversity into the future. A more formalized citizen-science example, ACSA membership is planning the first Citizen Science enterprise, complete with networked organizations, associations, Conference for Australia, which is to take place in Canberra journals and cyber-infrastructure, will advance research and further (23-24 July 2015). Registration is now open, and details can be educate the public. found on the ACSA website. If you know of a citizen-science project being done in Australia, This is already becoming possible with programs such as eBird (see and you haven’t told me about it yet, please do, as I am Birding into the 21st Century on p14), the Atlas of Living Australia’s currently compiling a nationwide list. Also, if you have citizen- Citizen Science portal and recent formation of the Australian Citizen science news or upcoming events don’t hesitate to share them Science Association (see the box on the ACSA). on the ACSA email list, as well as on our social media, which More info: Ayesha Tulloch [email protected] currently includes Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+. If you would like to get more involved with the ACSA , please References don’t hesitate to contact me. LaDeau SL, AM Kilpatrick & PP Marra (2007). West Nile virus emergence and large-scale declines of North American bird populations. More info: [email protected] Nature 447: 710–713. http://www.citizenscience.org.au/ Tulloch AIT & JK Szabo (2012). A behavioural ecology approach to Editor’s note: Jessie is a Founding Board Member of the ACSA. She understand volunteer surveying for citizen science datasets. Emu has also recently begun a PhD on the value of citizen science at 112: 313-325. Griffith University. Jessie has just returned from a US conference Tulloch AIT, LN Joseph, JK Szabo, TG Martin & HP Possingham (2013). on citizen science and the three associations (US, Europe and Realising the full potential of citizen science monitoring programs. Australian CSAs) are keen to work together whenever appropriate. Biological Conservation 165: 128-138.

Every new ‘association’ needs its own symbol and the Australian Citizen Science Association ’Citizens’ collecting data out in the field may be our only practical way has created a logo that attempts to project the of achieving the geographic extent required to document ecological notion of people networked over Australia. patterns at large scales. (Photo by Claire Fuller)

Decision Point #89 - June 2015 Page 13 News

Birding into the 21st Century A joint CEED and Eremaea-eBird conference (UQ, March 2015) By Ayesha Tulloch (ANU) and Claire Runge (University of Queensland)

The times, they are a changing. Science is no longer only the realm of an elite body of academics locked in their ivory towers. Today, millions of people from all sorts of backgrounds – artists, teachers, tour guides, computer analysts – are volunteering their time to gathering scientific data as ‘citizen scientists’ (see the story on page 12). Many of these people want to achieve conservation outcomes in their local area or worldwide; many others just want to learn something new, and some just want to find new friends or share their knowledge. One such citizen-science program is Eremaea eBird (see Decision Point #77). CEED recently hosted the first ever Eremaea eBird Conference, ‘Birding into the 21st Century’ at The University of Queensland. The conference brought together Eremaea-eBird reviewers and users, the web-site committee, researchers and other stakeholders, to meet and promote discussion and collaboration on citizen-science applications and research. Strategic planning at the Eremaea eBird workshop. On the first day, 45 participants coming from as far as India and the USA, participated in a range of talks about eBird and the usefulness of citizen science for conservation. These talks were Society for Conservation Biology’s UQ Chapter, recently started followed by an afternoon spent developing a strategic plan for a project that aims to create habitat for threatened and declining Eremaea eBird in Australia, and a unique opportunity to discuss species on the University’s St Lucia campus. The project is using web-portal development and engagement of citizen scientists. A eBird data to learn about restoration success of riparian areas in wide range of stakeholder groups attended, including academics, Brisbane. (Their research is supported by a grant from the Everyone’s the Atlas of Living Australia, NGOs such as BirdLife Australia, and environment urban wild spaces pilot project). employees from several state government departments such as the Citizen science data are also being used to inform where to conserve Queensland Threatened Species Unit. mobile species such as nomadic birds, and to better understand the vulnerability of these species to extinction (see the story on page Conservation in the US 10). Brian Sullivan and Steve Kelling from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology described exciting new conservation and learning applications for And around the world eBird data. One way that eBird is helping to inform conservation But citizen science is not only expanding in the USA and Australia. decisions is through The Migratory Bird Conservation Partnership, a Suhel Quader, a scientist representing Bird Count India, showed the partnership of Audubon California, PRBO Conservation Science, and potential of citizen scientist programs such as eBird in developing The Nature Conservancy (and see http://blog.allaboutbirds.org/2014/10/31/ nations. Since December 2013, eBird India has harnessed the moneyball-for-shorebirds-how-precision-analytics-are-changing-habitat-conservation/ ). contagious quality of citizen science and new submissions are This project, called BirdReturns, combines big-data analytics from growing exponentially. With the number of new users also growing eBird – fuelled by more than 230,000 birder checklists submitted to at a rate of 6% per month in a country of more than a billion people, eBird from California – with NASA satellite technology to locate the the possibilities are huge (see figure 1). places likely to be important for migrating birds. TNC economists And consider eBird’s recent Global Big Day (see page 16). then use a market-based mechanism to choose which farmers to pay to provide bird habitat, through short-term flooding of their fields at the time and in the place that they are most needed by the migrating birds. This is the first time incentives such as these have been trialled using citizen-science data, and the ability to do this was solely due to the efforts of thousands of volunteer citizen scientists keen to count birds and help deliver conservation outcomes. (see the box on ‘Big BirdReturns’.)

In Australia Citizen science is also helping inform decisions about conserving birds in Australia. Nancy Auerbach and Jeremy Simmonds, PhD students at the University of Queensland and members of the eBird is increasingly being used by “scientists and conservation, so it is important to provide those communities Figure 1: Growth of eBird India. Note: a ‘record’ is an observation of a species at a particular time and location. with an accurate dataset.” Page 14 Decision Point #89 - June 2015 Data quality The second day of the conference was spent on workshops attended Dbytes by 16 dedicated volunteer reviewers of eBird survey data. Using Dbytes is EDG’s internal eNewsletter. It gets sent to members a combination of automated data filters and a network of local and associates of EDG each week, and consists of small experts, eBird tackles the issue of data quality in citizen science. snippets of information relating to environmental decision The review process is continuously updated and improved as making. They might be government documents, research knowledge of bird distributions, , and ecology improves. articles, blogs or reports from other research groups. Here are Having a fast and efficient system is essential because the number six bytes from recent issues. If you would like to receive the of lists from Australia has grown exponentially. We now receive Dbytes eNewsletter, email [email protected] around 9,000 per month. eBird is increasingly being used by scientists and conservation, so it 1. Saving forests at risk is important to provide those communities with an accurate dataset. Saving Forests at Risk is produced by WWF. It identifies where The eBird review process intentionally errs on the conservative side; most deforestation is likely between 2010 and 2030: these are ie, more likely to treat a possibly correct record as not accepted than the deforestation fronts where efforts to halt deforestation to treat a possibly incorrect record as accepted. This means that the must be concentrated. The chapter also provides compelling maps and graphs in eBird can be trusted to be correct and that we examples of solutions for reversing the projected trends in can vouch for any record in the system. these deforestation fronts. http://www.wwf.org.au/news_resources/resource_library/?13360/Living-Forests- The next phase Report-Chapter-5-Saving-forests-at-risk Now that the conference is finished we can start planning the next exciting stage of Eremaea eBird: finalising the Strategic Plan, using 2. Experimental Ecosystem Account for GBR the data we have already to assess where and how we might need As part of a set of integrated environmental–economic to recruit more volunteer effort, and analysing the surveys to inform accounts currently being produced by the ABS that uses decisions about managing the numerous threats to Australian the System of Environmental–Economic Accounting (SEEA), wildlife. the Centre of Environmental Statistics has produced an If you’d like to learn more about eBird or download data (did we information paper which presents an experimental ecosystem mention it’s free!) visit http://ebird.org/content/australia/. account for the Great Barrier Reef Region of Australia. More info: Ayesha Tulloch [email protected] http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/[email protected]/ProductsbyReleaseDate/FB46321B5BA1 A8EACA257E2800174158?OpenDocument

3. Ramsar wetlands dataset Big BirdReturns Now available under Creative Commons licensing. The During the workshop participants were introduced to a ground- Department of the Environment’s spatial data portal includes a breaking conservation application called BirdReturns that dataset of Australia’s Ramsar wetlands. is being informed by eBird observations. In BirdReturns, The http://www.environment.gov.au/fed/catalog/search/resource/details. Nature Conservancy compensates farmers to flood fields at the page?uuid=%7B3F208CDF-28ED-4B1F-B965-A733EB58D952%7D time and in the place that they are most needed by migratory shorebirds. eBird observations were used to identify key 4. Better budgeting with environmental accounting shorebird habitat. Precision big-data analytics from eBird, based on observations from more than 230,000 eBird checklists, were The Australian Bureau of Statistics has produced national combined with NASA satellite technology and a market-based accounts data for more than 50 years and it provides mechanism developed by TNC economists. This is the first time consistent statistics for tracking of the health of the economy such incentives have been trialed, and the ability to do so was and informing decision-making including the federal Budget. due to the efforts of thousands of eBirders keen to count birds But there’s a crucial piece of the puzzle missing: data on the and help inform conservation outcomes. health of our environment is not included in national accounts. https://theconversation.com/better-budgeting-with-environmental- accounting-40699

5. Senate enquiry on Environmental Biosecurity Launched in mid May this committee report presents 26 recommendations to improve Australia’s environmental biosecurity. http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_ and_Communications/biosecurity/Report

6. The Centre for Open Science The Centre for Open Science is a is a non-profit technology company with the aim of fostering the “openness, integrity and reproducibility of scientific research”. An aerial view of Snow Geese in a flooded rice field, Central Valley, http://centerforopenscience.org/stats_consulting California. (Photo courtesy TNC and Drew Kelly)

Decision Point #89 - June 2015 Page 15 The dawn of citizen science By Jessie Cappadonna As electronic devices have become more advanced, mobile and readily available, citizen-science projects that utilize smartphones, tablets, and laptops have been popping up like corn in a hot saucepan (consider the Global Big Day, below). It’s tempting to think that citizen science is a child of the digital age however public input into scientific research has been happening for centuries (Dickinson et al, 2010). The fields of astronomy and ornithology have led the charge for citizen science with prominent efforts beginning at the end of the nineteenth century. In 1874, the British government funded the ‘Transit of Venus’ project to measure the Earth’s distance to the Sun. The project engaged the admiralty to support data collection all over the globe and recruited the services of the most prominent amateur astronomers of the time. Bird monitoring goes back even longer, with amateurs collecting data on timing of migration beginning in Finland in 1749. In 1900, the American Museum of Natural History’s ornithologist, Frank Chapman, initiated the Christmas Bird Count as an alternative to regular holiday bird- shooting contests. This project popularized ENVIRONMENTAL ornithological monitoring in the US and is now run by the Audubon Society. The DECISIONS GROUP US Geological Survey began engaging the public in bird monitoring even earlier, in 1880, and became a major player in The Environmental Decision Group (EDG) is a network of conservation monitoring of birds with the well-known researchers working on the science of effective decision making to Breeding Bird Survey launched in 1966. better conserve biodiversity. Our members are largely based at the Reference University of Queensland, the Australian National University, the University of Melbourne, the University of Western Australia, RMIT and Dickinson JL, B Zuckerberg, & DN Bonter Frank Chapman suggested counting birds rather than CSIRO. (2010). Citizen Science as an Ecological shooting them. Research Tool: Challenges and Benefits. The EDG is jointly funded by the Australian Government’s National (Image: American Museum of Environmental Research Program and the Australian Research Council’s Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural History) Systematics,41: 149-172. Centre of Excellence program. Decision Point is the monthly magazine of the EDG. The funding of the research presented in this issue of Decision Point, like most research, comes from multiple sources and is identified in the What’s the point? original papers on which the stories are based (references are provided in each story). In terms of CEED and NERP ED, the research relating to The Global Big Day red-finned blue eyes (p6,7) was supported by NERP; the work on koala Saturday, 9 May 2015 was the date of eBird’s inaugural Global Big conservation (p8,9) was supported by CEED; and the analysis involving Day, where citizen-science birders working with eBird (and the nomadic species (p10,11) was supported by CEED and NERP. Cornell Lab of Ornithology which founded eBird) attempted to To contact the EDG please visit our websites at: observe and record as many bird species as possible in a single day, http://ceed.edu.au/ or http://www.nerpdecisions.edu.au/ while raising $500,000 for global bird conservation. And, guess what, over 4,000 species were logged in meaning that this effort in citizen science ended up recording more than half of the bird species in the world – in a single day! Well done eBird, we look forward to many more Global Big Days in the future. For more information on Eremaea eBird, see page 14. For background on the value of citizen science, see page 12. http://ebird.org/content/australia/news/may-ebirder-of-the-month-challenge/

Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Global Big Day map

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