Having recently spent some time out in country New South Wales, I thought I’d share a quick description of the sight that greets you when you get out past Deniliquin in southern New South Wales and start driving north. It’s arid land, but it’s might still be beautiful were it not for the dead kangaroos that litter roadsides.
The Environmental Water Scheme will aim to rejuvenate one of Australia’s largest drainage basins. I looked at the pros and cons of the scheme during a week in the field.
We are currently part of the most dramatic mass extinction event that the planet has ever seen, and more of these stories crop up every year. But is it a problem that the alarm bells are only raised when a creature hits the critically endangered level? And how do we even prioritise conservation efforts?
After my recent talk with Marlene Zuk (which we’ll be publishing later this week), I have been thinking more about the species we focus on in ecology and the species we neglect. In ecology, conservationists have traditionally focused on a select few animals. But can we change what the public cares about, and ask them to focus more on the role of a species in an ecologic system?
At the ASFB 2018 Conference, I spoke to plenary speaker CSIRO’s Dr. Éva Plagányi, who works on maintaining the sustainability of marine life. Éva’s work includes interaction with everyone from corporate businessmen to indigenous island populations, and integrating social anthropology into her work has yielded great results. I spoke to Éva on the importance of incorporating social science into ecology.
A short follow-up to last week’s interview with invasion ecologist Mark Davis.
This week we look at how male and female predators affect community composition due to difference in hunting tactics.
