Andrew John Lowe

University of Adelaide · University of Adelaide

In May 2014, the Member States of the United Nations adopted Resolution 23/1 on “strengthening a targeted crime prevention and criminal justice response to combat illicit trafficking in forest products, including timber.” The resolution promotes the development of tools and technologies that can be used to combat the illicit trafficking of timber....

Contemporary climate change is having widespread impacts on plant populations. Understanding how plants respond to this change is essential to our efforts to conserve them. The key climate responses of plant populations can be categorised into one of three types: migration, in situ adaptation, or extirpation. If populations are to avoid extirpation...

Aim Maintaining genetic diversity and evolutionary processes are important goals in plant conservation. Genetic studies are increasingly undertaken but results from such studies are still rarely implemented as management actions in the field. We address this ‘research‐implementation gap’ by developing a plain‐language genetic assessment approach fo...

Habitat loss is causing declines in native bees and reducing pollination services. Revegetation can be used to reverse these declines, and this restoration technique attracts growing efforts and resources. However, how the quality of revegetation affects native bee abundance, diversity and their pollination services is not well understood, and this...

Maintenance of a diverse pollinator community helps ensure resilience in pollination services. Fragments of woody and grassy vegetation in the vicinity of croplands have been shown to encourage the presence of crop‐pollinating bees. However, to date, little attention has been given to the management practices that may enhance the presence of bees i...

Between 4 th and 8 th June 2023, the IUFRO all-Division 5 conference 2023 took place in Cairns (Australia) under the title "The Forest Treasure Chest-Delivering Outcomes for Everyone". The conference focused on improving sustainable trade in timber and forestry, adapting forests to climate change, and cooperation between regional forestry and indig...

The article presents various topics that were focused on at the conference. These include, in particular, improving sustainable trade in timber and forestry, adapting forests to climate change, and collaboration between regional forestry and indigenous communities. In addition, the problems and measures of the Australian forestry industry, which in...

140 Teilnehmer diskutieren bei Konferenz der Iufro-Division 5 Forest Products in Australien Vom 4. bis 8. Juni 2023 fand in Cairns (Australien) eine Konferenz der IUFRO-Division 5 (Forest products) unter dem Titel "The Forest Treasure Chest-Delivering Outcomes for Everyone" (Die Schatztruhe des Waldes-Ergebnisse für alle erzielen) statt. Die Konfer...

Inoculation of soil with living microbes or propagules has grown in interest and in application due to the modification/degradation of soil systems (including native microbial communities), and the need to maintain agricultural yields with fewer synthetic inputs. However, whilst beneficial microorganisms such as plant growth promoting bacteria (PGP...

Efforts to explore optimal molecular methods for identifying plant mixtures, particularly pollen, are increasing. Pollen identification (ID) and quantification is important in many fields, including pollination ecology and agricultural sciences, but quantifying mixture proportions remains challenging. Traditional pollen ID using microscopy is time-...

Aboveground ecological impacts associated with agricultural land use change are evident as natural plant communities are replaced with managed production systems. These impacts have been extensively studied, unlike those belowground, which remain poorly understood. Soil bacteria are good candidates to monitor belowground ecological dynamics due to...

Genetic relationships among teak (Tectona grandis) seed sources have been found to be low, thus genetic materials from other sources are required to maintain broad genetic diversity. This study here is therefore aimed to assess the potency of teak genetic structure in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia. Leaf materials were sampled from six populations:...

Genetic relationships among teak (Tectona grandis) seed sources have been found to below, thus genetic materials from other sources are required to maintain broad genetic diversity. This study here is therefore aimed to assess the potency of teak genetic structure in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia. Leaf materials were sampled from six populations: t...

Illegal logging and illegal timber trade is a global problem. Anatomical, genetic, and chemical techniques support illegal logging legislation by verifying the species and geographic origin of timber. In principle, these methods can be used to identify timber species and the origin of harvest, however, the availability of specific tests for importa...

Societal Impact Statement Sandalwood and other high value tree species are under significant threat from illegal harvest. Illegal logging is an increasing problem contributing to deforestation, biodiversity loss, human rights abuses and funding transnational crime. Successful prosecution of illegal logging is hindered by a lack of methods to provid...

Monitoring shifts in vegetation composition over time is essential for tracking biodiversity changes and for designing ecosystem management strategies. In Australia, the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) provides a continent-wide network of monitoring sites (AusPlots) that can be used to assess the shifts in vegetation composition and s...

Creating biodiverse urban habitat has been proposed, with growing empirical support, as an intervention for increasing human microbial diversity and reducing associated diseases. However, ecological understanding of urban biodiversity interventions on human skin microbiota remains limited. Here, we experimentally test the hypotheses that disturbed...

Ecological impacts associated with agricultural land use change are evident via the direct replacement of natural communities with managed production systems. These impacts are extensively studied, but the implications for soil biology and belowground diversity remain poorly understood. Due to their contribution to soil systems and ability to survi...

Vegetation complexity is potentially important for urban green space designs aimed at fostering microbial biodiversity to benefit human health. Exposure to urban microbial biodiversity may influence human health outcomes via immune training and regulation. In this context, improving human exposure to microbiota via biodiversity-centric urban green...

Accurate identification of species from timber is an essential step to help control illegal logging and forest loss. However, current approaches to timber identification based on morphological and anatomical characteristics have limited species resolution. DNA barcoding is a proven tool for plant species identification, but there is a need to build...

Predictions of how vegetation responds to spatial and temporal differences in climate rely on established links with plant functional traits and vegetation types that can be encoded into Dynamic Global Vegetation Models. Individual traits have been linked to climate at species level and at community level within regions. However, a recent global as...

The planting and conservation of biodiverse habitat in urban contexts has been proposed as a public health intervention aimed at reducing the prevalence of non-communicable diseases via microbiome rewilding (Mills et al. 2017; Mills et al. 2019). However, our understanding of the effect of urban biodiversity interventions on the human microbiota re...

Olearia pannosa is a plant species listed as vulnerable in Australia. Two subspecies are currently recognised (O. pannosa subsp. pannosa (silver daisy) and O. pannosa subsp. cardiophylla (velvet daisy)), which have overlapping ranges but distinct leaf shape. Remnant populations face threats from habitat fragmentation and climate change. We analysed...

Biological sources of carbon sequestration such as revegetation have been highlighted as important avenues to combat climate change and meet global targets by the global community including the Paris Climate Agreement. However, current and projected carbon prices present a considerable barrier to broad‐scale adoption of tree planting as a key mitig...

We examine evolutionary relationships, hybridization and genetic diversity in species of Dacrydium (Podocarpaceae) in Remote Oceania, where it is restricted to New Caledonia and Fiji. We use cpDNA sequence (trnL-trnF) data to construct a phylogeny and estimate taxon divergence using a relaxed molecular clock approach. The phylogeny is verified usin...

Vegetation complexity is potentially important for urban green space designs aimed at fostering microbial biodiversity to benefit human health. Exposure to urban microbial biodiversity may influence human health outcomes via immune training and regulation. In this context, improving human exposure to microbiota via biodiversity-centric urban green...

Effective ecosystem management requires spatially distributed measurements that are representative of ecological diversity. When considering which sites complement existing conservation or monitoring networks, there are many strategies for optimising ecological coverage in the absence of ground observations. However, such optimisation is often impl...

Field-based sampling of terrestrial habitats at continental scales is required to build ecosystem observation networks. A key challenge for detecting change in ecosystem composition, structure, and func- tion within these observatories is to obtain a representative sample of habitats. Representative sampling across a continent contributes to ecolog...

The drivers and rate of vegetation change across spatial gradients can give critical insights into the compositional and structural change we can expect under climate change. Spatial ecotones are of particular interest as they represent heterogeneity in the patterning of vegetation that may reflect how temporal environmental change will manifest in...

Background: In industrialized countries, non-communicable diseases have been increasing in prevalence since the middle of the 20th century. While the causal mechanisms remain poorly understood, increased population density, pollution, sedentary behavior, smoking, changes in diet, and limited outdoor exposure have all been proposed as significant c...

Restoration interventions such as revegetation are globally-important to combat biodiversity declines and land degradation. However, restoration projects are generally poorly monitored because current approaches to monitoring are limited in their ability to assess important components of biodiversity, such as belowground microbial diversity. Since...

In this paper we apply a conservation genomics approach to make evidence-based management recommendations for Acacia whibleyana, an endangered shrub endemic to Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. We used population genomic analysis to assess genetic connectivity, diversity, and historical inbreeding across all known stands of the species sampling remn...

Ecosystem monitoring is fundamental to our understanding of how ecosystem change is impacting our natural resources and is vital for developing evidence‐based policy and management. However, the different types of ecosystem monitoring, along with their recommended applications, are often poorly understood and contentious. Varying definitions and st...

Today we have five types of timber tracking tools available. Each has its own strengths and limitations (see the Timber Tracking Tool Infogram), but together they offer a broad range of methods that can assist us in identifying the botanical as well as the geographic origin (provenance) of most kinds of timber samples, even those smaller than 1 cm³...

Ecosystem surveillance monitoring is critical to managing natural resources and especially so under changing environments. Despite this importance, the design and implementation of monitoring programs across large temporal and spatial scales has been hampered by the lack of appropriately standardized methods and data streams. To address this gap, w...

1. When considering which sites or land parcels complement existing conservation or monitoring networks, there are many strategies for optimising ecological coverage in the absence of ground observations. However, such optimisation is often implemented theoretically in conservation prioritisation frameworks and real-world implementation is rarely a...

Leaf area (LA), mass per area (LMA), nitrogen per unit area (Narea) and the leaf‐internal to ambient CO2 ratio (χ) are fundamental traits for plant functional ecology and vegetation modelling. Here we aimed to assess how their variation, within and between species, tracks environmental gradients. Measurements were made on 705 species from 116 sites...

Many non‐communicable diseases are linked to degraded diversity in the human and environmental microbiota and are rising globally in epidemic proportions in industrialized urban populations. Reducing this disease burden may be aided by the ecological restoration of microbiota and their habitat in urban green spaces – a process termed microbiome rew...

Additional figures: Maps of ecologically scaled exposure to climate change for South Australia; EYB sub-region of South Australia; FLB sub-region of South Australia.

Field-based sampling of terrestrial habitats at continental scales is required to build ecosystem observation networks. However, a key challenge for detecting change in ecosystem composition, structure and function is to obtain a representative sample of habitats. Representative sampling contributes to ecological validity when analysing large spati...

Environmental monitoring data is fundamental to our understanding of environmental change and is vital to evidence-based policy and management. However, different types of ecological monitoring, along with their different applications, are often poorly understood and contentious. Varying definitions and strict adherence to a specific monitoring typ...

Ecosystem surveillance monitoring is critical to managing natural resources and especially so under changing environments. Despite this importance, the design and implementation of monitoring programs across large temporal and spatial scales has been hampered by the lack of appropriately standardised methods and data streams. To address this gap, w...

Green plants (Viridiplantae) include around 450,000–500,000 species1,2 of great diversity and have important roles in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Here, as part of the One Thousand Plant Transcriptomes Initiative, we sequenced the vegetative transcriptomes of 1,124 species that span the diversity of plants in a broad sense (Archaeplastida),...

Green plants (Viridiplantae) include around 450,000–500,000 species1,2 of great diversity and have important roles in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Here, as part of the One Thousand Plant Transcriptomes Initiative, we sequenced the vegetative transcriptomes of 1,124 species that span the diversity of plants in a broad sense (Archaeplastida),...

Our study quantified the global tree restoration potential and its associated carbon storage potential under existing climate conditions. We received multiple technical comments, both supporting and disputing our findings. We recognize that several issues raised in these comments are worthy of discussion. We therefore provide a detailed common answ...

Understanding population genetic structure provides insight into historic population connectivity, and is largely driven by migration, population size, and species life history. During the last glacial maximum, sea levels around the biogeographically interesting, but poorly studied, South Australian coastal plains and geosyncline were thought to be...

Green plants (Viridiplantae) include around 450,000–500,000 species1,2 of great diversity and have important roles in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Here, as part of the One Thousand Plant Transcriptomes Initiative, we sequenced the vegetative transcriptomes of 1,124 species that span the diversity of plants in a broad sense (Archaeplastida),...

(You are invited to visit the Journal's page to view the video abstract.) The global challenge of understanding and forecasting ecosystem responses to climate extremes and climate change is addressed in this review of research enabled through environmental research infrastructure (RI) provided by Australia's Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network...

Large-scale restoration efforts are underway globally to mitigate the impact of decades of land degradation by returning functional and biodiverse ecosystems. Revegetation is a heavily relied upon restoration intervention, and one that is expected to result in associated biodiversity returns. However, the outcome of such restoration interventions r...