I hope that by now all Pulse of the Planet fans have checked out our latest project - the Kids Science Challenge

http://www.kidsciencechallenge.com

Yesterday our team - Tim Hawkins, Brett Barry, Nicole de la Parte and I met with a number of the Kids Science Challenge (KSC) scientists in Whyville, our partner virtual world.  There’s a KSC Clubhouse on Whyville, and our scientists give live chats in Whyville’s Greek Theater. A treat to see a virtual Jill Tarter - head of SETI, rubbing elbows with a virtual Paul Schmitt, godfather of skateboarding in the US.  There we all were - cartoon avatars, replete with beanies - learning to “chat”.  Whyville kids wandered in, figured out what was going on, and started asking Adina Paytan about water quality and Doug Vakoch about how to communicate with aliens.  Michael Bream (Gravity Skateboards) was wondering how his avatar could deep-six its virtual tie.  And in the midst of it all, a Whyville Sarah Palin replicant wandered through muttering Palin-drome non-sequitors like, “I can see Russia outside my backdoor window!”  Doug Vakoch will give the first KSC Whyville Chat on Friday October 17th at 3 PST, (6 PM EST).  Hope you can be there.

Here’s the rest of the chat schedule:

Friday, October 17: Doug Vakotch
Tuesday, October 21: Joan Harvey
Wednesday, October 22: Michael Bream
Tuesday, October 28: Adina Paytan
Wednesday, November 5: Joan Harvey
Tuesday, November 11: Seth Shostak
Tuesday, November 18: Paul Schmitt
Tuesday, November 25: Adina Paytan
Tuesday, December 2: Michael Bream
Tuesday, December 9: Joan Harvey
Tuesday, December 16: Jill Tarter
Tuesday, December 30: Adina Paytan
Tuesday, January 6: Joan Harvey
Tuesday, January 13: Paul Schmitt
Tuesday, January 20: Nathalie Cabrol
Tuesday, January 27: Adina Paytan

The western, mostly semi-arid, populations are poorly understood reflecting their regional remoteness and low settlement density. The region is relatively uncleared and the contemporary koala distribution is considered to be the least disturbed by European activity and more reflective of habitat and environmental factors than koala populations elsewhere. Further their occurrence at the north western extent of the species distribution is likely to have produced distinct genotypic and phenotypic characteristics. Consequently these populations are of scientific interest and are considered likely to be of national conservation significance (Sullivan et al. 2004).

There have been few studies of western koalas. Gordon et al. (1988) described the koala’s dependence on riverine drought refugia and vulnerability to extreme events in inland southern Queensland. Munks et al. (1996) showed an association with the better watered riparian systems in north western Queensland. Sullivan et al. (2003, 2003b) found a similar pattern with the distribution associated with, and diet derived from, the riverine communities and also with headwaters and springs in adjacent ridges, mesas and plateaus. These populations appear to be widespread and low density (Sullivan et al. 2003b, 2004). Indeed, Munks et al. (1996) did not sight a koala during their study. So understanding the koala’s population dynamics and conservation biology in this environment is difficult at best.

There are indications that the koala’s distribution has contracted eastwards during the 20th century (Sullivan et al. 2003, Gordon et al. 2006) although the reasons are unclear.

Travelling the country
This was the third expedition to the Thomson River over the last eight years. Previous trips were in early spring 2000 and 2003. On those occasions the team travelled to Longreach and then up the river via Muttaburra to Iona Station and Moorrinya National Park. This expedition diverged from that route. We were able to visit a property in the Tambo district. So our itinerary was to include a few days at Tambo before travelling directly to Iona Station near Hughenden.

The team consisted of experienced volunteers Carman Drake, Mary McCabe, Shirley Hopkins travelling with me in one vehicle and new volunteers, but experienced bushies, John Rideout and Barbara Howard in a second vehicle. John and Barbara left a few days earlier. The second vehicle departed on the 28 August.

We left Rockhampton and travelled via Emerald to Springsure. From there we followed the Dawson Development Road up the Nogoa River Valley and crossing the Great Dividing Range near Castlevale to reach Tambo for the night. John and Barbara were waiting for us there. The following day we travelled together about 40km south to Stirling Downs - our first study location in the headwaters of the Ward River.

The Ward River flows south to join the Warrego River which, in turn, flows to the Darling River.

We spent a few days on Stirling Downs as well as a “flying” visit to the nearby Bayrick Station. This excursion was cut short by threatening rain and greasy black-soil tracks. Rain eventually delayed us a day at Stirling Downs, but this was spent profitably trudging through black-soil paddocks to the creeks in search of koalas. We were warmly received by property owners Jenny and Jim Skelton. They kindly allowed us to use their shearer’s quarters -providing us with a well equipped base for our field work, property maps and reports as well as a very tasty fruit cake.

A day behind schedule we travelled west through heavy rain to Blackall then north to Barcaldine and then under clear skies to Muttaburra on the Thomson River. Here we set up camp in time for a wet and windy storm. Roads remained open and next morning we travelled north through the Landsborough Creek catchment to Hughenden and on to Iona Station. We set up camp on the banks of Walker Creek in time for another very wet night.

Walker Creek flows west to Landsborough Creek which flows to the Thomson River. The Thomson flows via Cooper Creek to Lake Eyre.

Weather cleared during the following morning but left us with some heavy black clay to walk through for a day or so. We spent the next week working on the creeks and hills around the property before John and Barbara left on the 9th September. The second vehicle departed on the 10th September. It was good to see Bill and Rhonda Rogers and their family after a few years and we enjoyed their kind hospitality, excellent company and fine cooking during our stay.

We travelled to the township of Torrens Creek (in the headwaters of the Flinders River that drains to the Gulf of Carpentaria) and then south following Bullock and Torrens creeks before turning east and passing Lake Galilee and crossing the Great Dividing Range, for the second time, near Lou Lou Station. We camped by the roadside in silver leafed ironbark woodlands before descending into the Burdekin basin, crossing the Belyando River and on to Clermont on the eastern slopes of the Drummond Range. From here we travelled across the Fitzroy basin on the high quality sealed roads busy with industrial traffic. We arrived in Rockhampton late that afternoon on the 11th September.

The trip lasted 15 days and we covered 3025km – mainly on dirt roads and in high range 4wd. We crossed five of Australia’s major drainage basins (Fitzroy, Murray-Darling, Lake Eyre, Carpentaria and Burdekin basins) all supporting koala populations.

Finding koalas and hugging trees
On Stirling Downs Jenny Skelton gave us an orientation property tour and then guided us to a well preserved koala skeleton. We quickly found fresh signs of koalas but walked a lot of creek lines before finding one elusive and somewhat ginger koala (Carmen did the spotting above Mary’s head!). Managers Matt and Jenny Peters kindly allowed us a flying visit to Bayrick Station. This was a short but productive trip and within an hour Mary spotting a well camouflaged koala in the forest canopy.

At Iona Station Bill Rogers directed us to areas where he had most recently seen koalas. After many kilometres of creek-walking we found three koalas (two males, one female).

But it was not all fun. The team spent many hours measuring trees so that the koala habitat can be described meaningfully. While they did that I wandered amongst the trees counting the number with koala pellets beneath them and measuring their girth so that I can have a measure of koala activity within the different plant communities and see if there was any size pattern in the trees with koala pellets beneath them.

In summary we found five koalas, collected one skeleton, measured almost 1,500 trees and collected three dozen bags of koala pellets. We also became experts in distinguishing koala pellets from possum pellets and aging the koala pellets by colour, texture and smell. The koalas used mainly river red gum and coolabah but also gidgee, boree, napunyah (less frequently), and rarely narrow leafed ironbark.

Enjoying “the bush”
Hardly an appropriate heading when refereeing to the Mitchell grasslands. However, you cannot spend days looking on the ground for koala pellets, in the canopy for koalas or across the paddock for the best path without encountering the richness of the landscape. So Barbara and John collected bird lists for both localities; Mary admired attractive rocks that could fit well into her garden; Carmen looked greedily at rocks, timber and abandoned and rusty bits of metal in old property rubbish dumps that held potential for transformation to works of art. She did find a very little time for sketching and wate colours. And then there was the excitement of encountering unexpected fossils in the mudstone and sandstone of the ancient inland sea. The undulating grasslands, stream fringing forests, gidgee and boree woodlands and the spinifex and ironbark uplands all held their own appeal especially in the warm light of sunset and sunrise. Red and grey kangaroos, wallaroos, swamp wallabies, emus and bustards were abundant and added to the excitement of driving on rural roads.

Ongoing work
We have brought back a large amount of data and specimens that require analysis and interpretation. The tree measurements will be used to develop a description of the composition and structure of the koala habitats at each location. The koala pellets will be analysed to discover the species of tree eaten by the koalas. It will take some time to complete this work but we should have some results by the new year.

We now have a better understanding of where to find the koalas and some guess as to how far they move each night. So we are now planning our next campaign. More on that in the future.

Thanks to our supporters
Jenny and Jim Stirling, Matt and Jenny Peters and Bill and Rhonda Rogers kindly allowed us access to their land and facilities. Dave Akers from the Queensland Environmental Protection Agency went out of his way to facilitate property contacts for us.
The Harvard Travellers Club provided funding towards transport costs for this expedition. The Central Queensland Koala Volunteers provided field equipment and some travel costs. CQUniversity Australia provided administrative support as well as access to laboratory and computing facilities to be used soon. The support of the team participants in running the trip and providing resources is gratefully acknowledged.

References
Gordon, G., Brown, A. S. and Pulsford, P. (1988) A population crash during heatwave conditions in southwestern Queensland. Australian Journal of Ecology 13, 451 – 461.
Gordon, G., Hrinda, F. and Patterson, R. (2006) Decline in the distribution of the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) in Queensland. Australian Zoologist 33(3) 345 – 358.
Munks, S. A., Corkrey, R. and Foley, W.J. (1996) Characteristics of arboreal marsupial habitat in the semi-arid woodlands of North Queensland. Wildlife Research 23, 185 – 195.
Sullivan, B. J., Baxter, G. S. and Lisle, A. T. (2003) Low-density koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) populations in the mulgalands of south-west Queensland. III. Broad-scale patterns of habitat use. Wildlife Research 30, 583 – 591.
Sullivan, B. J., Baxter, G. S., Lisle, A. T., Pahl, L. and Norris, W. M. (2004) Low-density koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) populations in the mulgalands of south-west Queensland. IV. Abundance and conservation status. Wildlife Research 31, 19 – 29.
Sullivan, B. J., Norris, W. M. and Baxter, G. S. (2003b) Low-density koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) populations in the mulgalands of south-west Queensland. II. Distribution and diet. Wildlife Research 30, 331 – 338.

Alistair Melzer
18 September 2008

St Bees Island
The wet season
There have been two Earthwatch supported field trips to St Bees Island this year – in May and July. The May trip is in autumn and just after our wet season. The wet season had been intense and about 1.5 metres of rain fell in February. It was fortunate that we had decided, in 2007, not to run wet season trips as any work would have been impossible. Peter Berck has water running through his house. All the rainforest streams and gullies carried large volumes of water and the ground was saturated. In May we found many small land slips and fallen trees. Our field equipment was covered in mould. Despite the intense rain there was no indication of adverse impacts on the koalas. The island vegetation has responded to the rain and in May it was difficult to find koalas in the thickened foliage.

This wet season is ecologically important being a decadal event. The flood flows scoured the valleys and carried large volumes of litter and debris to the bay and reorganising the beach dunes and tidal sand banks. There has been a widespread seedling response and we can expect to see a pulse of young trees, shrubs and vines growing into the rainforests and eucalypt forests over the next decade.

Despite that there is still no evidence of regeneration of the koala’s food species Eucalyptus tereticornis (Blue Gum) and Eucalyptus platyphylla (Poplar Gum).

The goats
Queensland Parks and Wildlife (formally Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service) commenced managing the island goats last year after it became evident that the vegetation was being severely graded. Goat browsing was also considered as one possible factor limiting regeneration of the koala food tree species. About 2,500 goats have been removed so far. Despite that in the May and July trips we found small groups of goats wherever we went on the island. So it is possible that the remnant browsing pressure is still sufficient to suppress Eucalyptus regeneration. Goat control teams are continuing to visit the island with the intent of removing all goats eventually. There has been an exponential decline in goat numbers and the project is now in a long tail of low detection numbers for effort. It will be some years before goat eradication is achieved.

We can detect changes on the island, however. Firstly, the island is much quieter. The constant background bleating of nanny and kid is gone. It is no longer possible to glance at a hillside and see 40 or so goats. Also the degradation of the vegetation seems to have stopped. No evidence of recovery yet, but it seems that this will be evident soon.

The field trips
Five Earthwatch volunteers (an all USA group) joined the team in May. We spent the time relocating the koalas last tracked in October last year, servicing the weather stations and data loggers and assisting Bill and Sean to catch koalas and recover GPS data loggers. The trip went well although the sand flies were frustrating in the evening.

The July trip was at capacity with 10 volunteers (five Australians, 5 from USA). The work focused on tracking the 13 radio collared koalas to follow their response to the severe weather experienced during this trip. The weather was cold and windy at times. At the end of the first week a three day gale blew across the island. We confined ourselves to the houses for a day and a half when flying branches, falling tree limbs and coconuts as well as buffeting wind gusts and heavy rain made field activity dangerous. By day the koala’s reaction to the adverse weather was not what we expected. As the gale and rain intensified the koalas moved to exposed trees and limbs – some leaving their usual habitat in sheltered rainforest communities. Once the rain and wind had passed and the sun reappeared they returned to their use of sheltered trees and gullies. Why would these animals place themselves at greatest exposure to the elements rather than retreating to the most sheltered aspects of their habitat available to them? Can we presume that they are seeking sun for warmth - although there was no sun, only strong winds and rain? Interestingly we observed a change of behaviour at the start of the gale and another as the gale declined. When we collect the weather data (in October) we’ll look for a potential environmental trigger. These sorts of observations are rare and, in turn, rarely replicated in the field. However, they help us develop our understanding of the increaslingly complex behavioural world of the koala.

In the last few days of the July trip a team from Queensland Parks and Wildlife arrived to monitor the vegetation recovery after goat removal.

The upcoming October trip will, hopefully, be assisting in catching koalas and changing radio collars and observing the private lives of some of the island’s male koalas in the breeding season as well as tracking the movement and tree use of the collared group in this season.

Later in September I’ll give an account of the expedition to the north western edge of the koala’s range.

Thanks to everyone who assisted in the field trips so far. It is making a difference!

Alistair.

Figure 4: Trina and the spider. Orb-web spiders are particularly common in summer.

Upcoming Pulse programs reveal a few of the secrets of finding caterpillars.  If you’re interested in heading to Costa Rica on a caterpillar hunting expedition, check out Lee Dyer’s Earthwatch expedition.  They actually discover new caterpillars there every trip.

http://www.earthwatch.org/expeditions/dyer_costarica.html

Much of the research to date has focused on identifying the geographic scope of WNS and determining the pathogen causing the symptoms (if there even is a pathogen). A lot of work has been done on both fronts, but many questions remain unanswered. Affected caves have been found in New York, Massachusetts and Vermont, and a few caves in Pennsylvania are suspicious; however, I am wary of using affected caves to determine the geographic scope of the problem because these bats are migratory and will spread out over the entire Northeast this summer. Further, affected caves are being identified by conspicuous fungal growth on the bats, but we still do not know if this is a universal indicator of WNS. The pathology work is also a little inconclusive. Several species of fungi have been identified growing on the bats, but none have been directly implicated for actually killing the bats.

Several other projects were also conducted last winter. My involvement with this project has revolved around determining the energetic consequences of WNS. We know affected bats are prematurely running out of energy, but we still do not know why. We used thermal imaging cameras to determine if bats were hibernating differently than bats in unaffected caves. Affected bats do not appear to be doing anything different during hibernation, but we did find that they are not responding normally to disturbance, which is likely because of a lack of energy. During our trips into the caves, Marianne Moore from Boston University was also taking blood from hibernating bats to test the immune responses of affected and unaffected individuals.

The hibernation season is essentially over in the Northeast, so much of the in-field research has ended for the year. However, labs around the country are continuing the search for the cause of WNS. The next step is determining what research needs to be conducted and how projects should be prioritized for the upcoming winter. To this end, researchers will be meeting in New York this June to discuss what is known, what needs to be done, and where funding can be obtained to conduct the necessary research. Bat Conservation International is one of the sponsoring groups for this meeting, and donations to their WNS fund will help defray the travel costs of getting all of the relevant experts to the meeting. If you are interested in donating funds to be used specifically for research of WNS, Indiana State University’s Center for North American Bat Research and Conservation has started a fund as well.

All of the bats in the Northeast are insectivorous (they eat only insects). They consume huge numbers of insects each night during the summer including crop and agriculture pests, various swarming insects, moths, and even the occasional mosquito (but mosquitoes are not a large part of their diet as is sometimes claimed). What exactly will happen when all of these insect populations are released from their main predator is unknown. The standard answer that we bat biologists give the media is that we should expect an increase in all of these insects—especially, it often seems, the ones that cause the most harm to humans. Unfortunately, this “sound bite” type answer doesn’t really do justice to the scope of the problem.

The latest and greatest ecological theory would predict that some species of insects, but probably not all, will experience population increases. Some species will do better than others, either because they reproduce more quickly or because they are better competitors for food. This will lead to a change in the composition of the insect communities in addition to an increase in their overall numbers. Changes in the insect communities may trickle down and lead to changes in the plant communities; changes in the plant communities may affect herbivore communities; changes in herbivores may affect carnivore communities; and so on throughout the entire food web (ecologists call this a trophic cascade). The possibilities are endless (and almost completely unpredictable) and the direct effect of this ecological change on humans is unknown, but should concern environmentally-conscious people nonetheless.

If an ecological catastrophe doesn’t concern you, it is almost assured that some economic impacts will result from the population decline of bats and the subsequent increase in insects. If an agricultural pest increases, there are the obvious costs associated with decreased crop production. The affected area is relatively minor in terms of agriculture, but if this spreads to the Midwest in the future, the economic costs may skyrocket. If forest pests increase, there will be costs (and they can be substantial) related to controlling the pest, whether through application of pesticides or more extreme measures. If an insect species that is a vector for a human disease increases, there will be medical costs.

As I mentioned before, we really don’t know what the ecological and economic outcome of WNS and the decline in bat numbers will be. As Scott Darling of the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department said, “We may be living in an ecological experiment that will demonstrate the role of bats”

It is unknown exactly how many bats died during 2007, but estimates of about 10,000 individuals seem reasonable. Unfortunately, in January 2008 we realized the problem had become much worse when it was discovered that WNS had spread to several more caves in New York. State agencies in the region set about the task of surveying most of the known bat hibernacula in the region. As I’m writing this, bats with visible white fungus have been discovered in about 16 caves (this number is growing) in New York, Vermont, and Massachusetts. It has been estimated from censuses done in previous years that as many as 500,000 bats may hibernate in the affected caves, although surveys are not being conducted this year so it is unknown what proportion of these individuals are affected. The fear is that the very high mortality seen in 2007 will continue in 2008 and many hundreds of thousands of bats may die.

Who was right?

Here’s a report about this event that I sent to Bryan Lambeth at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and Peter Bella at AACOG
_______________________________________________________________
March 18, 2008

Bryan and Pete,

I swabbed material from the window using an alcohol pad and transferred some to a flat microscope slide.

The material is predominantly tan to translucent tan mineral dust ranging in size from sub micron to 20 microns.

The material includes some pollen and large black carbon particles, the latter being up to 20 microns across. A spherical nigrospora was noted. Various vegetative matter was observed.

The large black carbon suggests outdoor burning or, more likely, a brush fire origin.

Some pollen (there isn’t much) closely matches Quercus virginiana (live oak) based on my copy of E. Grant Smith’s “Sampling and Identifying Allergenic Pollens and Molds.”

Looks like I need to visit the USDA solar instruments at Texas Lutheran University that I manage for Colorado State before solar noon to remove this matter.
_______________________________________________________________

The TV weather people got it right.

As for the sunlight instruments that I manage for Colorado State, they were coated! The visible wavelengths were attenuated by about 10 percent before I cleaned them.