For detailed descriptions of the outputs for this project for Year 4 (2009/2010) of the MTSRF Research Programme, see the Annual Research Plan.

Project 1.2.1 consists of four linked sub-projects:

Project 1.2.1(a) - Identification Skills Workshops - Australian Tropical Rain Forest Plants (Continuation of Project 1.2.1 Status and trends of biodiversity and ecosystem services)

Project 1.2.1(b) - Biodiversity monitoring for climate change

Project 1.2.1(c) -  Status and trends of biodiversity and ecosystem services:  State of the Environment reporting and gap filling

Project 1.2.1(d) - Insect Diversity

This project will proceed as a co-research partnership between the CSIRO, James Cook University, MTSRF, Wet Tropics Management Authority and Terrain NRM Ltd.  

Project 1.2.1(a) - Continuation:  Identification Skills Workshops - Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants (Status and trends of biodiversity and ecosystem services)

Project Leader and Host Organisation

Professor Darren Crayn, Australian Tropical Herbarium

Project Description and Objectives

The objectives of this project are to:

• Use interactive plant identification keys to provide practical hands-on training for informed members of the Wet Tropics community (e.g. land mangers, students, NGO groups) to learn and develop skills in plant identification techniques;

• Provide accredited training plant identification for TAFE and university students and land managers;

• Generate community interest and awareness and appreciation of the diverse and unique local and regional flora;

• Provide a forum for the community to engage with the local research community, university and herbarium; and

• Provide a forum for the community to provide feedback on the newly launched rainforest plant identification key.

The team will develop workbook materials and conduct a series of plant identification workshops for a range of end users in a various locations in the wet tropics region. The workshops will be developed for various skill levels.

The identification workshops will be based on the Interactive Key to Australian Rain Forest Plants including the recent work funded through this project (forbs), and the orchid and fern modules. The workshops will be delivered by experienced botanists and it is anticipated that they will initially be run in Cairns, Atherton, Cooktown and Townsville, Queensland, and other locations depending on demand.

The workshops will include testing and seeking user feedback on the new interactive key modules developed under MTSRF Project 1.2.1a once beta versions are developed.

It is anticipated that workshops will be accredited as approved training courses through James Cook University (School of Marine and Tropical Biology) and the Cairns TAFE. It is expected that up to five free one-day accredited workshops will run throughout the region for beginners and one four-day intensive workshop will be run for tertiary participants to gain formal accreditation.

Project 1.2.1(b) - Biodiversity monitoring for climate change

Project Leader and Host Organisation

Associate Professor Stephen Williams, James Cook University

Project Description and Objectives

This project aims to provide the knowledge and methods needed for accurate and up-to-date state of the region reporting on the key biodiversity and ecosystem services and assets of North Queensland, to support future iteration of Natural Resource Management planning and the management of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, through:

• A synthesis of current knowledge and identification of gaps for key biological and environmental assets;

• Filling knowledge gaps in conjunction with field surveys being carried out in Project 1.4.3 (Threatened species and communities), Project 2.6.2 (Identification and impact of invasive pests in the Wet Tropics Rainforest) and completion of the rainforest plant identification key; and

• Design and testing of a monitoring program to track the status and trends of key environmental assets and ecosystem services.

Project 1.2.1(c) - Status and trends of biodiversity and ecosystem services:  State of the Environment reporting and gap filling

Project Leaders and Host Organisations

Dr James Butler and Dr Petina Pert, CSIRO and Australian Tropical Forest Institute

Project Description and Objectives

The Wet Tropics Natural Resource Management (NRM) region, which includes North Queensland's eastern coastal catchments and much of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, supports a range of complex and diverse ecosystems and a large number of rare, endemic or iconic species. These natural assets provide a broad range of ecosystem services to the local community and society at large.

This project will identify key ecosystem services provided by these assets, develop indicators for tracking their status and trends, present results and trial a reporting framework suitable for all partners. It will also create a synthesis of current knowledge and databases on key biological and environmental assets in the Wet Tropics, including the World Heritage Area and the Terrain NRM region. The project draws on information gathered by nine other relevant MTSRF projects in the Rainforest and Catchments theme, and monitoring and evaluation projects in other MTSRF themes, with particular reference to the Torres Strait (Project 1.3.5) and Great Barrier Reef (Project 1.1.2). In addition, parallel projects not funded by MTSRF will continue to feed into the social and community-based facets of the project, including a CSIRO-funded post-doctoral project on the development of linked cultural and ecological indicators of ecosystem health.

Project 1.2.1(d) - Insect Diversity

Project Leader and Host Organisation

Professor Nigel Stork, The University of Melbourne

Project Description and Objectives

This project is providing information on the variation in insect abundance and diversity at different, altitudes, locations and seasons throughout the central Wet Tropics from Paluma to the Windsor Uplands. Insects are arguably the most speciose animal group on the planet and play important roles in terrestrial ecosystems. Understanding how they vary in abundance and diversity across the Wet Tropics landscape is vitally important to providing some measures of how susceptible these ecosystem processes are to environmental change, particularly climate change.

This project will provide:

• A report on the first model of insect abundance across the Wet Tropics landscape including seasonal change;

• A report on the first model of insect diversity (species richness) across the Wet Tropics landscape using selected taxa; and

• A report describing the first assessment of extinction proneness of insects in the Wet tropics using beetles as an indicator group.

Insects have been sampled using Flight Intercept Traps for more than one year on a range of sites at different altitudes and transects managed by Associate Professor Stephen Williams and his group. Beetles have been removed from these samples and counts made. Given the enormous number of individuals in the samples, five beetle families are now the focus for the next stage of specimen preparation and species sorting. These families are selected on the basis of previous non-MTSRF research on the Atherton Tablelands and Rainforest CRC funded studies at the Australian Canopy Crane Research Facility.