Brenton von Takach

Curtin University · School of Molecular and Life Sciences

Context. Many Australian threatened species occur on Indigenous-owned and/or managed lands, often in vast, remote areas that are difficult and expensive to access. One such species is the white-throated grasswren (WTGW, Amytornis woodwardi), a rare ground-dwelling bird found in rocky spinifex-covered escarpment habitats of northern Australia. To ma...

Small, fragmented or isolated populations are at risk of population decline due to fitness costs associated with inbreeding and genetic drift. The King Island scrubtit Acanthornis magna greeniana is a critically endangered subspecies of the nominate Tasmanian scrubtit A. m. magna, with an estimated population of < 100 individuals persisting in thre...

In our present age of extinction, conservation managers must use limited resources efficiently to conserve species and the genetic diversity within them. To conserve intraspecific variation, we must understand the geographic distribution of the variation and plan management actions that will cost-effectively maximise its retention. Here, we use a g...

Analysis of the spatial and temporal patterns of animal occurrence data can provide insight into the distribution, abundance, and dynamics of populations. Snakes may exhibit seasonal changes in their spatial use of landscapes, and understanding these patterns is crucial for improving management strategies that reduce human–snake conflict. Here, we...

Using genetic information to develop and implement conservation programs is vital for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem resilience. Evaluation of the genetic variability within and among remnant populations can inform management of both natural and translocated populations to maximise species’ adaptive potential, mitigate negative impacts of i...

Small, fragmented or isolated populations are at risk of population decline due to fitness costs associated with inbreeding and genetic drift. The King Island scrubtit Acanthornis magna greeniana is a critically endangered endemic subspecies of the nominate Tasmanian scrubtit A. m. magna, with an estimated population of <100 individuals persisting...

Small, fragmented or isolated populations are at risk of population decline due to fitness costs associated with inbreeding and genetic drift. The King Island scrubtit Acanthornis magna greeniana is a critically endangered endemic subspecies of the nominate Tasmanian scrubtit A. m. magna, with an estimated population of <100 individuals persisting...

Invasive plants are a threat to natural ecosystems worldwide, with urban wetlands being some of the most susceptible and highly modified environments of all. The tiger snake (Notechis scutatus) is a top predator that persists in urban wetlands of southwestern Australia, many of which have been degraded by introduced kikuyu grass (Cenchrus clan-dest...

Genomic diversity is a fundamental component of Earth’s total biodiversity, and requires explicit consideration in efforts to conserve biodiversity. To conserve genomic diversity, it is necessary to measure its spatial distribution, and quantify the contribution that any intraspecific evolutionary lineages make to overall genomic diversity. Here, w...

Urbanisation changes landscapes, often simplifying and homogenising natural ecosystems while introducing novel environments. Although this transformation often adversely impacts native wildlife, generalist species that exhibit broad dietary and habitat requirements can persist and take advantage of urban environments. To understand which life histo...

Invasive plants are a threat to natural ecosystems worldwide with urban wetlands being some of the most susceptible and highly modified environments of all. The tiger snake (Notechis scutatus) is a top predator that persists in urban wetlands in south-western Australia, many of which have been degraded by introduced kikuyu grass (Cenchrus clandesti...

Abstract Mammal declines across northern Australia are one of the major biodiversity loss events occurring globally. There has been no regional assessment of the implications of these species declines for genomic diversity. To address this, we conducted a species‐wide assessment of genomic diversity in the northern quoll (Dasyurus hallucatus), an E...

Context Increases in fire frequency, intensity and extent are occurring globally. Relative to historical, Indigenous managed conditions, contemporary landscapes are often characterised by younger age classes of vegetation and a much smaller representation of long-unburnt habitat. Objectives We argue that, to conserve many threatened vertebrate spe...

The intentional movement of species outside their indigenous range – assisted colonisation – is an emerging tool in conservation. Here, we outline the process developed to identify and assess candidate sites for assisted colonisation of the critically endangered Northern Corroboree Frog (Pseudophryne pengilleyi), a range‐restricted species highly t...

Quantifying mean annual tree seed production is important for conservation and forestry applications, but its estimation remains a substantial challenge. Interspecies variation in seed production is often expressed as a trade-off between seed size and seed number, forming a key component of established models of mean annual seed production in fores...

Urbanisation alters landscapes, introduces wildlife to novel stressors, and fragments habitats into remnant ‘islands’. Within these islands, isolated wildlife populations can experience genetic drift and subsequently suffer from inbreeding depression and reduced adaptive potential. The Western tiger snake (Notechis scutatus occidentalis) is a preda...

Tree hollows are a critical resource for many arboreal vertebrates, including many threatened species. In northern Australia’s vast tropical savannas, arboreal mammals are of particular conservation concern, as many have exhibited rapid population declines in recent decades. To understand the extent to which arboreal vertebrates compete for tree ho...

Understanding local adaptation is critical for conservation management under rapidly changing environmental conditions. Local adaptation inferred from genotype-environment associations may show different genomic patterns depending on the spatial scale of sampling, due to differences in the slope of environmental gradients and the level of gene flow...

Global wildlife trade is a multibillion-dollar industry and a significant driver of vertebrate extinction risk. Yet, few studies have quantified the impact of wild harvesting for the illicit pet trade on populations. Long-lived species, by virtue of their slow life history characteristics, may be unable to sustain even low levels of collecting. Her...

Conservation management is improved by incorporating information about the spatial distribution of population genetic diversity into planning strategies. Northern Australia is the location of some of the world's most severe ongoing declines of endemic mammal species, yet we have little genetic information from this regional mammal assemblage to inf...

Australia, a continent recognized globally for its unique, endemic fauna, has a lamentable record of historic mammal extinctions. In the past 250 years, Australia has lost at least 34 mammal species, with many more species now threatened, or with greatly diminished geographic distributions. Due to its productive environment and limited land-clearin...

Globally, cities and urban areas are expanding rapidly, leading to increased human–wildlife conflict. To reduce human–snake conflict in Australia, ‘snake catchers’ are employed to remove and relocate snakes detected by the public in urban or rural areas. Where records of human–snake interactions are being collected, these data can inform our unders...

Global wildlife trade is a multibillion-dollar industry and a significant driver of vertebrate extinction risk. Yet, few studies have quantified the impact of wild harvesting for the illicit pet trade on populations. Long-lived species, by virtue of their slow life history characteristics, may be unable to sustain even low levels of harvesting. Her...

Aim Investigation of realized niche contraction in declining species can help us understand how and where threats are being either mediated or tolerated across landscapes. It also provides insights into species' sensitivity to environmental change that are unable to be identified through analysis of declines in range size or abundance alone. Here,...

Tiger snakes (Notechis scutatus) in wetlands of South-West Western Australia (SW WA) are commonly parasitised by the nematode Ophidascaris pyrrhus. Host-parasite interactions are complex and can potentially be impacted by factors such as urbanisation or climate. We assessed whether urbanisation, distance to wetland sites, and climatic factors have...

Natural disturbance regimes in forest ecosystems are being rapidly modified by anthropogenic pressures, including silvicultural practices and climate change. Australian forests dominated by mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnans) are critically endangered, with wildfires and clearfell logging predicted to cause ecosystem collapse within the next 50 years...

Uncovering the population genetic histories of non-model organisms is increasingly possible through advances in next generation sequencing and DNA sampling of museum specimens. This new information can inform conservation of threatened species, particularly those for which historical and contemporary population data are unavailable or challenging t...

Conservation management often uses information on genetic population structure to assess the importance of local provenancing for ecological restoration and reintroduction programs. For species that do not exhibit complete reproductive isolation, the estimation of population genetic parameters may be influenced by the extent of admixture. Therefore...

Timber harvesting, frequent wildfires and a changing climate are influencing ecosystem composition, structure and function globally, with resulting losses to biodiversity and economic indicators. In south-eastern Australia, these factors are causing the rapid ecosystem collapse of montane forests. Here, I characterise and quantify the demographic a...

Anthropogenic modifications to climate and natural fire regimes are occurring globally, leading to the production of environments that may be unsuitable for some species. Fire-intolerant plant species that rely on specific fire regimes for reproduction are at risk of population decline when successive fires occur in less than the time taken to prod...