ScienceNetwork WA

STANDING still on the tidal mudflats of Roebuck Bay is an amazing experience—the soft, squishy mud under your feet is likely to be crawling with invertebrates that are either hunting for food or escaping the bills of hungry shorebirds.

A NEW method for estimating the time-since-fire in infrequently burnt woodlands in the Goldfields has been developed by scientists at the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) and CSIRO.

A NEW strain of the deadly water mould Phytophthora may be the key to combating the spread of European blackberry – an invasive weed taking hold in the south-west.

WESTERN Australian research groups and conservationists are continuing to work together in the fight to conserve the Carnaby’s black cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus latirostris) which has long been recognised as the Swan Coastal Plain’s most iconic bird, once blackening Perth skies with countless flock sizes – now seriously endangered.

RESEARCHERS in the Kalahari Desert have found fledgling pied babblers put their lives at risk from predators in a bid to blackmail their parents to feed them more.

WESTERN Australian scientists are continually on alert for reported infestations of a fungus that could potentially cross the Nullarbor and devastate many important and unique plant species, if left unchecked.

A UWA ecologist says most benthic macro-invertebrate populations in Roebuck Bay’s intertidal zone have decreased significantly after blooms of the toxic blue-green algae Lyngbya majuscule.

PERTH Zoo is attracting international attention because of its breeding of short-beaked echidnas, with fauna experts there identifying that housing females away from other females and the separation of males from females after mating, as key factors in its success.

THE conservation and ecological restoration of Acacia species in the Mid West of Western Australia has had a breakthrough with new DNA barcoding research.

TAMMAR wallaby reproduction is influenced by individual variation in body condition as well as climate variation according to a new study.