Our rural wealth: using functional responses of native fauna to predict conservation values of agricultural landscapes

Landscape Futures Alliance

Can we predict how wildlife will respond to land-use changes in agricultural landscapes? Native animals are a distinctive part of the heritage of rural Australia. As native vegetation is cleared from the rural landscape, what happens to the wildlife in these areas? Are species being lost from this landscape? How do different species respond to habitat clearing and changes? How much habitat is enough for wildlife populations to survive and thrive? The aim of this project is to develop and test a new approach for assessing the conservation value of agricultural landscapes in Australia. This new approach is based on identifying the functional responses of native fauna to the extent and pattern of native vegetation and the types and intensity of agricultural land-uses in whole landscapes. We will use these responses to predict the status of birds and mammals in different landscapes in three bioregions. These predictions will be tested in field studies. This new landscape-level approach will help land managers assess present agricultural environments as well as evaluate scenarios for future changes in land-use. Project home: Deakin University (external link) Key personnel Chief Investigators Associate Professor Andrew Bennett School of Ecology and Environment, Deakin University Email: bennetta@deakin.edu.au Professor Ralph MacNally Australian Centre for Biodiversity Analysis, Policy and Management, Monash University Email: Ralph.McNally@sci.monash.edu.au Dr Josh Dorrough Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research, DSE Project Team Dr Jim Radford Email: jradford@deakin.edu.au Contact For any questions or clarification please don’t hestitate to contact David Duncan, LFA coordinator (03 9450 8750)

Photo: Andrew Bennett

How much habitat is enough? (PDF 967KB)

This brochure was prepared in 2004 by Jim Radford, Andrew Bennett and Lindy MacRaild - former School of Ecology and Environment (now School of Life and Environmental Sciences), Deakin University. It provides information on wildlife in rural landscapes; thresholds of change; changes in ecological processes, and planning for the future. To view the information PDF requires the use of a PDF reader. This can be installed for free from the Adobe website (external link).

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