Holsworth Research Endowment in partnership with the Ecological Society of Australia, $6750
Leanne Greenwood (PhD student), Associate Professor Dale Nimmo, Professor Rebecca Bliege Bird Pennsylvania State University), Dr Anja Skroblin (University of Melbourne) and Dr Jodi Price
Biodiversity conservation
Buffel grass (Cenchrus ciliaris) is among the most widespread non-native plants in arid Australia and has been identified amongst Australia’s 18 worst weeds. Once established, buffel grass forms dense swards that can transform the structure, composition and function of ecosystems. In recent decades, buffel grass has begun to spread across the Martu’s 13 million hectare Native Title Determination, in Australia’s western deserts. Martu still use fire to hunt and gather, deriving approximately 25 – 50% of their diet from bush foods.
Photo A/Prof Dale Nimmo, Leanne Greenwood and Professor Rebecca Bliege Bird setting camera traps in the Western Desert
Fire is a key management tool, not only used to locate goanna burrows (their primary staple), but also to create a mix of fine-scale mosaic of successional stages that ensures the long-term provision of food plants and supports a range of native species. The most significant threat buffel grass poses to ecosystems is alteration of fire regimes, causing more frequent and intense fires. If buffel grass has the potential to change the fire regimes in these ecosystems, then buffel grass not only threatens the species it directly displaces, but also the continuation of ancient management practices and the species dependent on them.
This project aims to:
There is potential to deploy Indigenous rangers to undertake ambitious, broad-scale buffel grass control programmes within the Martu estate. This project aims to provide a demonstration of current and future impact sufficient to garner the resources required to halt its spread and to provide insight into where management (both control and prevention) can be most effective.
Contact
Associate Professor Dale Nimmo Email
CSU Albury-Wodonga campus
Leanne Greenwood
PhD student – Distance Email
June 2018