Tag Archives: Science and nature

More research needed into Roebuck Bay menu options 24/12/2013

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Last  months story about Wilson Inlet (Denmark, WA) shorebirds has prompted me to post this story from two years ago.

From the Broome Advertiser, March 13, 2014. Click on this image to read the story.

From the Broome Advertiser, March 13, 2014. Click on this image to read the story.

The Royal Netherlands Institute of Sea Research is the world centre for shorebird ecology.

Dutch biologists Tanya Compton and Marc Lavaleye have been to Broome a couple of times to sample and assess the marine life that migrating shorebirds feed on during their annual stay.

They say the relative population of bivalves, worms and crabs has changed every time they have been there.

Science Network WA [read this story]

The Broome Advertiser republished this story.

Birds face high water threat 25/6/2015

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THE decision by the Department of Water (DoW) not to open the Sandbar at Wilson Inlet could be depriving endangered migrating shorebirds of valuable feeding grounds.

Click on this image to read the story

Click on this image to read the story

Local resident and member of Birdlife Australia, Jesz Fleming, said a report prepared by Denmark’s Green Skills noted the water levels in the inlet have remained at an unusually high level in recent years.

The report says this makes it impossible for shorebirds to feed on animals such as molluscs and worms that usually lie buried under the saturated sand.

Great Southern Weekender [go to website]

Writing science stories can be tricky when you have a report before you and you are not sure of its scientific validity.

The author had not trained as a scientist and, while he may have been following the accepted principles of ornithology and ecology, I was not personally able to make an assessment of this.

Luckily I was able to contact a shorebird ecologist I had previously interviewed, who agreed to read the report.

She told me it was a good report, and she added some useful comments of her own.

Archaeological find puts shellfish on the menu 24/6/2015

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An archaeologist told me of some interesting evidence for climate change before the Christian era.

Photo: Carly Monks

It seems shellfish were easy enough to gather in Australia’s mid-west to make it worth throwing a seaside shellfish party.

Stormier weather set in around 3,000 years ago, making shellfish less plentiful.

Science Network WA [read this story]

Eradication efforts unite to preserve fairy-wren population 24/9/2014

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Indigenous rangers have been working with WA’s department of food and agriculture to eradicate an exotic plant.

427 ClippingOrnamental rubber vine, which first escaped from a garden, is threatening the purple-crowned fairy wren’s habitat.

This story first appeared in Science Network WA on 24 September 2014 [read this story]. The Kimberley Echo republished it on 4 December 2014.

Kimberley frogs prove vulnerable to lungworms 19/9/2014

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HOPES of using a parasite as a new biological control for cane toads have been dashed, as it has proven fatal to one of the Kimberley’s tree frog species.

Click on this image to read the story

Click on this image to read the story

University of Sydney herpetologist Rick Shine says lungworm infected and killed splendid tree frogs during laboratory trials.

“Not only did the parasite infect the frog and find its way to the lungs but it killed the frog very quickly,” Professor Shine says.

“[This happened] much more quickly than it affected the cane toads.”

This story first appeared in Science Network WA [read this story]. The Kimberley Echo republished it on 9 October 2014. I am planning another story about how the parasite passes from toad to frog which I will post when available.

Travelling dunes encroach on infrastructure, and reveal geological pattern 16/4/2014

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Recent research shows sand dunes in the Mid-West could easily engulf roads and buildings.

Guardian News 4 July 2014 p 35

Guardian News 4 July 2014 p 35

The strange phenomenon begins when a dune become separated from the beach, and begins to travel inland as prevailing winds blow it along.

It may end up many kilometres from the coast before it runs out of sand.

In the meantime it engulfs anything lying in its path.

Science Network WA [read this story]

 

Burning the bush helps conserve animals and plants 26/07/2012

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STANFORD University researchers have produced hard data to show desert Aboriginal bush-burning practices result in smaller, cooler fires and help conserve reptiles and small mammals while promoting plant diversity.

bush_burningEcological anthropologist Associate Professor Rebecca Bliege-Bird says key game species are more plentiful near Western Desert communities and well-used roads, where people frequently light hunting fires.

“Where people are lighting fires and making small fire mosaics you tend to find more kangaroo (Macropus robustus) and you also tend to find more sand goannas (Varanus gouldii),” she says.

Science Network WA, now defunct, originally published this article. –GV 21/5/2017

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Digital technology resurrects ancient rock art 29 April 2013

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STORIES BY GEOFF VIVIAN PHOTOS BY JANE FYFE

from Science Network WA

Aboriginal artists have been painting Kimberley cave walls for tens of thousands of years.

Layer on layer, these ancient art sites can contain hundreds of images, some completely obscured by later paintings.

Cheap digital technology now allows archaeologists to peer below the layers and photograph what lies beneath the surface, while cutting-edge science makes it possible to accurately date them.

You can read more here and here.

The second story has now been republished in The Broome Advertiser on 13/06/2013.

From The Broome Advertiser 13 June 2013