The ESA Bulletin VOLUME 48, ISSUE 2 J U N E 2 0 1 8 CONTENTS The science and poli- 1 Have your say: Managing Australia’s cy of managing Aus- tralia’s ecosystems ecosystems. Closes 15 June 2018 By David Keith David Goodall 2 David Keith other forms of life that depend on them. 1918–2018 Centre for Ecosystem Science, University of By Andy Gillison & New South Wales Many Australians are awakening to the very Ladislav Mucina real possibility that the Great Barrier Reef, as ecent ecological changes to the Great we knew it, may not be around for our Guarding Against 6 children and grandchildren to see. While the Questionable Re- Barrier Reef have captured public spatial extent and magnitude of ecosystem search Practices as a R attention in Australia unlike any other Graduate Student recent environmental issue. A succession of decline are shocking to many who value the By Hannah Fraser & mass bleaching events of unprecedented Reef, this kind of phenomenon is not new. Fiona Fidler severity are occurring so frequently in the Ecologists have studied ecosystem northern reefs that there is insufficient time transformations for a decades. Not just on The real value of 8 for coral to recover. Additionally, ocean coral reefs but in a range of marine, attending conferences freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems. By Alison Matthews acidification is slowing rates of coral growth, creating further barriers to recovery. Although ecosystem transformations are variously described as regime shifts, state The secret to confer- 9 The southern reefs are declining for different changes, ecological catastrophes and mass ence success reasons, with catchment runoff bearing eroded By David M Watson mortality events, the generic phenomenon is sediments and fertilisers that reduce habitat known as “ecosystem collapse”. suitability for corals and make them more Australia’s draft Na- 10 susceptible to disease and predators. Periodic Collapse is a transformation of ecosystem tional Biodiversity identity that involves loss of defining Strategy underwhelms cyclones further reduce coral cover under features—living things, the relationships By Jenny Lau & Charlie these muted conditions for recovery. The Sherwin systematic and rapid decline in coral cover with their environment and the processes that over recent decades offers undeniable sustain them. Attending conferences 12 evidence of the combined impact of these as a postgrad student: pressures. Of course, the declines are not Continued Page 4 perspectives, dos and limited to corals but cascade through many don’ts By Suz Everingham Welcome to ESA’s 13 new Book Review Editor: Maggie Wat- son! By Gail Spina Stronger legislation is required to protect Australia’s ecosystems. Credit: Wikimedia Commons P a g e 2 Vale David Goodall 1914–2018 Andy Gillison1 & Ladislav Mucina2 clustering and ordination was conducted on a hand 1ESA President 1981–1982, (former colleague and calculator. This way, it took him several weeks to friend) accomplish a simple-matrix PCA analysis, David 2The University of Western Australia (a much once admitted. younger friend of David’s) In effect, Goodall’s Australian work set the research avid William Goodall was born April 4, agenda for the next generation of vegetation 1914 in Edmonton, England. So began the ecologists. His modelling skills were recognised by D extraordinarily productive life of one of the the United States National Academy of Science world’s leading scholars, practitioners, and mentors. which appointed him as the Director of the International Biological Program’s Desert Biome David graduated some 83 years ago and completed Program from 1968 to 1974. Aside from his his doctorate at Imperial College of Science and modelling expertise, David published more than 168 Technology in 1939. Trained originally as a plant scientific papers between 1936 and 2014, and became physiologist he was a senior lecturer in the School of widely known as the Editor-in-Chief of the 38 Botany at Melbourne for four years (1948–1952). volume “Ecosystems of the World” (Elsevier, David moved to Ghana before Amsterdam)—a massive taking up the Chair of scholarly undertaking over 34 Agricultural Botany at “Goodall’s Australian work years. Reading University in 1954. set the research agenda for When his academic and He then joined the CSIRO as a the next generation of administrative roles as a Senior Principal Research vegetation ecologists” Professor or Honorary Staff Scientist in 1956. It was member in several universities around that time he developed and as a leader in field-based his initial approaches to numerically-based vegetation research are taken into account, his influence on the classification while with the CSIRO Division of discipline of ecology has been immense. Mathematics and Statistics from 1961 to 1967. David’s field experience covered an extraordinary David Goodall was one of the pioneers of spectrum of vegetation that included (among many quantitative plant ecology and much of his seminal others) detailed ecological studies of hot desert work was based in Australia. He became a significant chenopods through to lichens in Swedish Lapland. and leading figure, along with contemporaries Bill Williams and Peter Greig-Smith, in developing He was a member of 14 learned societies and his innovative, quantitative approaches to the analysis of many prestigious awards included promotion to plant patterns, resemblance, ordination and Doctor Honoris Causa at the University of Trieste, classification of vegetation. His passion for Italy in 1990. He received the Distinguished multivariate statistics fostered progress in ordination Statistical Ecologist Award from the International techniques and paved the way for its wide acceptance Association for Ecology in 1994, and in 1997 he was throughout the world of ecological sciences. made an Honorary Member of the International Association for Vegetation Science (IAVS), the From his early work on the adaptation of factor organization's highest award. analysis and principal component analysis to ecological problems, he continued to refine these ESA members will know that he received the Gold techniques through non-linear approaches and the Medal of the Ecological Society of Australia in 2008. introduction of probability to provide a more realistic At all stages of his term in Australia, David basis for the understanding vegetation patterns. For maintained close ties with the ESA and was a valued those of us used to laptops, it has to be remembered mentor to many ESA members. Goodall turned 100 that much of Goodall’s initial research on numerical in 2014 when a book of scientific contributions The ESA Bulletin P a g e 3 resulting from the Annual Symposium of the IAVS in living to such an advanced age. Before the lethal Perth was dedicated injection ended his life to him and the on May 10, 2018, to an following year he was assembled international honoured in a special “A lesson for all to maintain a fresh media, in a strong voice issue of the journal and active mind after the pressures he sang in German, a Plant Ecology. of academic life: challenge yourself, passage from and keep an open mind to the Beethoven’s 9th In the 2016 Australia changing world” symphonic version of Day Honours list he Schiller’s ‘Ode to Joy’. was made a Member Perhaps an enduring of the Order of message to others, epitomising his unwavering Australia for "significant service to science as an attitude to life. Unlike many who “never die but only academic, researcher and author in the area of plant fade away” David Goodall went out with a ecology and natural resources management." characteristic bang.¤ David was an outstanding illustrious member of the scientific scene of Western Australia for many years. From his home in Yanchep, he drove to work at the Edith Cowan University in north Perth almost daily for many years. A beacon of passion for science in service to the scientific community at large, he was an inspiration to all his colleagues and students alike. After his retirement he did exactly what a scientist passionately in love with science should do: ‘stay afloat’. A lesson for all to maintain a fresh and active mind after the pressures of academic life: challenge yourself; and, keep an open mind to the changing world. David did exactly that… and still was able to publish aged 100! What a remarkable role model! A family man, David was married three times and had four children and 12 grandchildren. In later life, Goodall advocated for the legalisation of voluntary euthanasia, being a member of assisted dying advocacy group Exit International for over twenty years. Aged 104, Goodall chose to end his own life with the aid of physicians in Switzerland. Euthanasia advocates said that his quality of life had deteriorated, and he publicly expressed regret about David Goodall during a field excursion in South Africa, 2008. Photo L. Mucina P a g e 4 The science and policy of managing Australia’s consequences. Ecosystem collapse often has negative ecosystems by David Keith, continued from Page 1 consequences for regional economies, physical and mental health, and cultural identity, key elements of Collapsed ecosystems are replaced by novel human well-being. Indeed, new evidence on the ecosystems that have different properties and relationship between mental health and connection with organisational processes, but which may have some nature reinforces historical beliefs about the benefits of features in common with the prior system. ‘fresh air’, so poignantly expressed in the legislation declaring Australia’s first national park. Australia has had a checkered history of ecosystem collapse after European arrival. A number of Evidence about the importance of ecosystems to human contemporary ecosystems are essentially derivatives well-being is notable for its antiquity, strength, and of prior systems. Several rangeland ecosystems volume. The ecological collapse of the Aral Sea collapsed in the late 19th century when squatters precipitated economic collapse of shipping and flooded into western NSW with their sheep and fisheries industries, and generated a surge in dust- introduced herbivores and predators.