Category Archives: Science and nature

Coastal development impacts migrating shore birds 10/4/2016

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Red Knot by Adrian Boyle

Red Knot by Adrian Boyle

Shorebird ecologists say they have proven conclusively that Chinese and Korean developments on the Yellow Sea coast are decimating migrating shorebirds.

Careful banding and observation by scientists and the bird watching fraternity shows almost all of the birds that leave Broome’s Roebuck Bay reach the Yellow Sea, their second major feeding ground. 

Shorebird_threats_by Adrian Boyle

A Yellow Sea dredge dumping site. Photo by Adrian Boyle.

However it seems they don’t all find enough food there to complete their journey back to North West Australia via Siberia.

Science Network WA [read this story]

Orbital snaps reveal Roebuck Bay’s tidal movements 1/3/2016

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Image courtesy of the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA Johnson Space Centre

Click on this NASA image to expand it. 

 

A simple editor’s request to find scientists to interpret a picture of the coastline near Broome turned into quite a paper chase.

The academic year was only just starting, so it took a week to find two experts to interpret a photograph taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station..

They then fundamentally disagreed about what caused the unusual parallel tidal creeks.

Science Network WA [read this story]

Genetic tool to help feed the world 27/2/2016

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UWA researchers have compiled a database they hope will eliminate much of the time and expense spent developing new crop varieties to feed the world’s people.

Photo by Ross Hooper

Photo by Ross Hooper

The research contributes to global food security which is a constant challenge as populations continue to expand and increased salinity, drought, nitrogen deficiency and soil acidity confront farmers in WA and around the world.

The easily-accessible database of food crop proteins called CropPAL is an extensive repository of knowledge about where specific proteins occur within wheat, barley, rice and maize cells.

The CropPAL (Crop Proteins with Annotated Locations) database can be used by crop scientists to explain the functions of proteins, UWA’s lead investigator Cornelia Hooper says.http://www.sciencewa.net.au/topics/agriculture/item/4069-genetic-tool-to-help-feed-the-world

Dining remnants point to megafauna’s end 20/2/1016

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Australia once had a giant flightless bird – about two metres tall – that lasted just 7,000 years after humans arrived on the continent.

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Photo Courtesy University of Colorado

In North America, stone points have been found embedded in Mastadon skeletons, and Europe has similar evidence of megafauna hunts.

However up until now, it was not clear whether the first Australians preyed on any of the megafaunal birds or animals.

Charred eggshells in the Exmouth-Carnarvon area provide the first evidence that they did.

Science Network [read this story]

State soils library catalogues samples for future science 5/2/2016

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ac37d23a1bfab39ff0118c3645959b54_LA library of soil samples is being established at Muresk, the old agricultural college near Northam in WA’s wheatbelt.

It will mostly consist of specimens collected during studies for the grain industry, but others will be welcome.

This will be an exciting resource for researchers.

Science Network WA [read this story]

Curtain drawn on ‘average’ harvest 14/01/2016

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High soil moisture levels had farmers in the Great Southern excited about a bumper harvest last spring.

Click on this image to read the story.

Click on this image to read the story.

The reality turned out to be different for some, with destructive hail storms and catastrophic fires bringing down Western Australia’s overall yeild.

Still, many grain growers reported a good year if they were lucky enough to avoid these events, and smart enough to put their crops in at the right time.

From the Great Southern Weekender, January 14, 2016

Lessons learned from fire 14/01/2016

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ALBANY’S chief fire control officer offers a different slant on the events of the past few weeks.

Click on this image to read the story.

Click on this image to read the story.

Residents of the South West town of Yarloop have criticised authorities for not warning them of the catastropic blaze that destroyed their town until it was almost upon them.

He contrasted this with the actions of a few young campers at Two Peoples Bay, near Albany, who alerted authorities within 15 minutes of a similar fire starting, allowing firefighters to start arriving within another 20.

From The Great Southern Weekender, January 14, 2016.

Juvenile toad snacks save local goannas 9/01/2016

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Rangers Herbert and Wesley Alberts with Georgia Ward-Fear. Photo courtesy Georgia Ward-Fear

Almost every conceivable measure to stop cane toads advancing into the Kimberley has been tried and failed.

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Click on this image to read the story.

Collecting cane toads and killing them has failed.

Constructing barriers to keep them out of waterholes has failed.

Experiments with lungworm showed the worms were even more harmful to native frogs.

Meanwhile, other researchers have been training larger predators to avoid eating the toxic amphibians.

And strange as it may seem, a future program could involve releasing more toads into the environment, ahead of the invading wave.

Science Network WA [read this story]

This story has been republished in The West Australian, Friday, January 15, 2016.

Drier areas a refuge from cane toad 26/9/2015

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The pindan scrub, which is a type of arid heathland, is not a place toxic cane toads care to tarry.

Click on this image to read the story as printed in Kimberley Echo, Kununurra WA, 26 Nov 2015.

Click on this image to read the story as printed in Kimberley Echo, Kununurra WA, 26 Nov 2015.

As a result, the large reptiles that tend to eat them have had a better survival rate in this drier environment.

This is an interesting, opportunistic study by government scientists working out of Kununurra in the East Kimberley.

It has now been republished in The Kimberley Echo. 

Science Network [read this story]

 

 

26 Nov 2015
Kimberley Echo, Kununurra WA

Expert quashes oil spill drift concerns 29/10/2015

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A scientist says West Australians have no need to worry about new oil exploration wells in the Great Australian Bight.

Click on this image to read the story.

Click on this image to read the story.

A company wishes to explore for oil, and there have been fears a potential oil spill from the wells would drift westwards to Albany and beyond.

Oil spills expert Monique Gagnon says the heavy crude oil the explorers are seeking would degrade and sink before it had a chance to reach WA shores.

The Great Southern Weekender, October 29, 2015 p7