Grant Wardell-Johnson

• BSc ANU, MSc Ox, PhD UWA
• Curtin University

Context The Coastal Integrated Forestry Approval (CIFOA) areas of New South Wales (NSW), Australia include most populations of at least two threatened species of glider Petaurus australis australis (Yellow-bellied Glider [south-eastern]) and Petauroides volans (Greater Glider [Southern and Central]). The NSW Environmental Protection Authority (EPA)...

Groundwater-dependent vegetation (GDV) is threatened globally by groundwater abstraction. Water resource managers require maps showing its distribution and habitat preferences to make informed decisions on its protection. This study, conducted in the southeast Pilbara region of Western Australia, presents a novel approach based on metrics summarisi...

While geobotanists have long used plant occurrence to locate subsurface resources, none have utilised floristic surveys as evidence in models of mineral potential. Here, we combine plant species distributions with terrain metrics to produce predictive models showing the probability of bauxite presence. We identified nineteen taxa with statistically...

Empirical evidence in scientific literature shows that forest flammability in south‐western Australia declines as forests recover from disturbance, indicating that current policies mandating disturbance may be counterproductive. Zylstra et al. (2023) used mechanistic modelling to explain this trend in Red Tingle (Eucalyptus jacksonii) forest in sou...

The International Principles and Standars for the Ecological Restoration and Recovery of Mine Sites were used to assess the restoration quality of one of the world's largest mines, located in the world's most biodiverse temperate forest. Quantitative analysis of longitudinal data spanning 35 years scored restoration quality at 2‐stars against a 5‐s...

Decades of industrial-scale logging have damaged the structure, function, and composition of Australia’s forests; increased the threat from severe fires; and generated social distrust – all in a disrupted climate regime. As state agencies withdraw from logging, restoration of forest resilience becomes paramount. We critique two recent proposals for...

Forest wildfire impact is widely believed to increase with time since disturbance, presenting a dilemma for the persistence of fire‐sensitive species. However, in south‐western Australia, disturbance has been shown to increase wildfire likelihood for some decades before it again declines. It has been proposed that this trend occurs through ‘ecologi...

Context The tall forests of Victoria, Australia, which are available for logging, are foreshadowed to be converted from mature forest to hostile environments for mature-forest dependent species by 2030. This has occurred within a 60-year time-frame since the advent of industrial-scale logging in the region. In this light, Protection Areas (PAs) of...

Invertebrates are important for restoration processes as they are key drivers of many landscape-scale ecosystem functions; including pollination, nutrient cycling and soil formation. However, invertebrates are often overlooked in restoration monitoring because they are highly diverse, poorly described, and time-consuming to survey, and require incr...

Despite the roles they play in ecosystem function, animals have have long been neglected in the monitoring of ecological restoration. Vertebrate surveys can be time consuming and costly, often requiring multiple methodologies and taxonomic expertise, making comprehensive monitoring cost prohibitive. Here, we evaluate a new method of assessing mamma...

Invertebrates are important for restoration processes as they are key drivers of many landscape-scale ecosystem functions, including pollination, nutrient cycling and soil formation. However, invertebrates are often overlooked in restoration monitoring because they are highly diverse, poorly described, and time-consuming to survey, and require incr...

Conservation reserve selection is guided by vegetation classification and mapping. New survey data and improvements in the availability of archived data through online data-sharing platforms enable updated classifications and the critique of existing conservation criteria. In the Northern Jarrah Forest Region of south-western Australia, percentage-...

Parasitism is a pervasive phenomenon in nature with the relationship between species driving evolution in both the parasite and host. Due to their host‐dependent lifestyle, parasites may adapt to the abiotic environment in ways that differ from their hosts or from free living relatives; yet rarely has this been assessed. Here, we test two competing...

Granite outcrops are globally widespread habitat islands that harbour naturally fragmented areas of vegetation in ‘pockets’ of soil. These habitats are ideal for investigating the drivers of biogeographic patterns at different scales. However, beyond the tropics, understanding of the environmental drivers of community composition within and between...

Invertebrate communities provide many critical ecosystem functions (e.g. pollination, decomposition, herbivory and soil formation), and have been identified as indicators of ecological restoration. Unfortunately, invertebrates are often overlooked in restoration monitoring because they are time-consuming to survey, often require rare taxonomic expe...

The ecological restoration of ecosystem services and biodiversity is a key intervention used to reverse the impacts of anthropogenic activities such as mining. Assessment of the performance of restoration against completion criteria relies on biodiversity monitoring. However, monitoring usually overlooks soil microbial communities (SMC), despite in...

Sympatric tree species are subject to similar climatic drivers, posing a question as to whether they display comparable adaptive responses. However, no study has explicitly examined local adaptation of co‐occurring parasitic and autotrophic plant species to the abiotic environment. Here we test the hypotheses that a generalist parasitic tree would...

Biological surveys based on visual identification of the biota are challenging, expensive, and time consuming, yet crucial for effective biomonitoring. DNA metabarcoding is a rapidly developing technology that can also facilitate biological surveys. This method involves the use of next generation sequencing technology to determine the community com...

Hybridization has an important and often positive role in plant evolution. However, it can also have negative consequences for species. Two closely related species of Ornduffia are endemic to the Porongurup Range in the South West Australian Global Biodiversity Hotspot. The rare Ornduffia calthifolia is found exclusively on the summits, while O. ma...

The identification of research questions with high relevance for biodiversity conservation is an important step towards designing more effective policies and management actions, and to better allocate funding among alternative conservation options. However, the identification of priority questions may be influenced by regional differences in biodiv...

Aim Understanding how landscape features affect gene flow is critical to connectivity conservation and restoration management. Here, we examined the relationship between functional connectivity (gene flow) and structural connectivity (area and spatial configuration of habitats) in three co‐occurring short‐range plant taxa in an ancient terrestrial...

Determining patterns of plant diversity on granite inselbergs is an important task for conservation biogeography due to mounting threats. However, beyond the tropics there are relatively few quantitative studies of floristic diversity, or consideration of these patterns and their environmental, biogeographic, and historical correlates for conservat...

Refugia are key environments in biogeography and conservation. Because of their unique eco-evolutionary formation and functioning, they should display distinct functional trait signatures. However, comparative trait-based studies of plants in refugia and non-refugia are lacking. Here, we provide a comparison between resource-rich (putative microref...

Invertebrate biomonitoring can reveal crucial information about the status of restoration projects; however, it is routinely underused because of the high level of taxonomic expertise and resources required. Invertebrate DNA metabarcoding has been used to characterise invertebrate biodiversity but its application in restoration remains untested. We...

Background. Refugia are island-like habitats that are linked to long-term environmental stability and, as a result, high endemism. Conservation of refugia and endemism hotspots should be based on a deep ecological and evolutionary understanding of their functioning, which remains limited. Although functional traits can provide such insights, a corr...

The high species endemism characteristic of many of the world's terrestrial island systems provides a model for studying evolutionary patterns and processes, yet there has been no synthesis of studies to provide a systematic evaluation of terrestrial island systems in this context. The banded iron formations (BIFs) of south‐western Australia are an...

Native bushland fragmented by urbanization often experiences increased cover of flammable weeds, reduced biomass turnover and an absence of fuel management combined with increased ignitions. Depending on species’ mobility and dispersal traits, and the extent of burns within urban remnants, such fires may reduce individual survival rates or limit na...

Predator-prey interactions may be altered under human-induced rapid environmental change, such as urbanisation. Extensive clearing in urban areas may leave short-range endemic species, such as mygalomorph spiders, more vulnerable to local extinction through predation in remaining remnants. Predation rates on Australian mygalomorph spiders were asse...

Ecological restoration of landscapes is an integral part of the mining process. However, restoration is often constrained by a lack of consistent monitoring approaches. For example, the need for specialist techniques and trapping approaches often limits monitoring of fauna recovery. Application of molecular tools has made important contributions to...

The role of intraspecific trait variability is increasingly recognized as a key factor shaping plant fitness and community assembly worldwide. Studying the direct effects of habitat heterogeneity on trait expression of individual plants of the same species is a useful tool to quantify intraspecific trait variability locally. We investigated how hab...

Ecological traps attract biota to low-quality habitats. Landscape traps are zones caught in a vortex of spiralling degradation. Here, we demonstrate how short-range endemic (SRE) traits may make such taxa vulnerable to ecological and landscape traps. Three SRE species of mygalomorph spider were used in this study: Idiommata blackwalli, Idiosoma sig...

Table of prey assemblage species organised by Recognisable Taxonomic Units. Species were categorised by size with values for abundance and number of recognisable taxonomic units within each category.

The banded ironstone formation (BIF) ranges of south-western Australia are prominent landforms in a flat landscape and host a diverse flora. Plant diversity is expected to have a positive relationship with environmental heterogeneity in these ranges. However, there has been a lack of high-resolution data to assess how fine-scale environmental varia...

Confusion surrounding the definition and application of terminology in post-mining ecological repair has resulted in uncertainty for industry, the scientific community and regulators. This lack of clarity may underrepresent high aspirations or could be misused to disguise low aspirations and so is problematic for setting objectives, establishing go...

Authors or journals often claim internationality or multidisciplinarity based on assertion or qualitative evidence, while scientometric studies employ sophisticated analyses or software beyond the resources of occasional users to assess these concepts. This paper demonstrates how statistics used to describe ecological communities can be applied to...

We report the longest-lived spider documented to date. A 43-year-old, female Gaius villosus Rainbow, 1914 (Mygalomorphae: Idiopidae) has recently died during a long-term population study. This study was initiated by Barbara York Main at North Bungulla Reserve near Tammin, south-western Australia, in 1974. Annual monitoring of this species of burrow...

Banded Ironstone Formation (BIF) ranges feature numerous rare and endemic plant species. We tested whether non-occurrence in neighbouring ranges is due to habitat dissimilarity across five groups of proximal ranges for three sets of species (18 taxa). Set 1 comprised 15 BIF-specialist species centred on the Helena and Aurora Range (HAR); Set 2, of...

After over 50 000 years of interaction between Aboriginal people and changing climates, south-western Australia’s tall forests were first logged less than 200 years ago, initiating persistent conflict. Recent conservation advocacy has resulted in the protection of 49% of these tall forests in statutory reserves, providing an opportunity to implemen...

Wet sclerophyll forests (WSFs) are dominated by sclerophyllous trees (Eucalyptus and closely allied genera; family Myrtaceae) usually taller than 30 m at maturity in areas of greater than 1 000 mm of annual rainfall. They include the tallest angiosperms, and exhibit biomass amongst the highest in terrestrial ecosystems. Although occupying only 0.75...

Tall eucalypt old-growth forests are notable for their large, old (i.e. venerable) trees and have both significant conservation value and high carbon stores. We investigated whether canopy height and biomass had recovered in an old-growth red tingle (Eucalyptus jacksonii) forest 78 years after a high-intensity fire. We recorded species, diameter, h...

The Biodiversity Conservation Bill 2015 for Western Australia was criticised by scientists and conservation activists for its perceived flaws as it progressed from Bill through to Act. In this article, we summarise what we consider to be the major flaws in the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 (WA) and suggest future amendments that could make the...

The isolated forested ecosystems of south-western Australia are experiencing warming, drying, and increasing wildfires. How are these changes impacting on biodiversity in the region? A wildfire burnt over 98 000 ha in the high-rainfall (>1100 mm) zone between Northcliffe and Walpole in January–February 2015. A lack of permanent plots limited assess...

• Premise of the study: Microsatellite markers were developed for the rare sedge Lepidosperma bungalbin (Cyperaceae) to assess genetic variation and its spatial structuring. • Methods and Results: We conducted shotgun sequencing on an Illumina MiSeq and produced 6,215,872 sequence reads. The QDD pipeline was used to design 60 primer pairs that wer...

Premise of the study Microsatellite primers were developed for the rare shrub Acacia adinophylla (Fabaceae) to assess genetic diversity and its spatial structuring. Methods and Results Shotgun sequencing on an Illumina MiSeq produced 6,372,575 reads. Using the QDD pipeline, we designed 60 primer pairs, which were screened using PCR. Seventeen loci...

Background and Aims Low-altitude mountains constitute important centres of diversity in landscapes with little topographic variation, such as the Southwest Australian Floristic Region (SWAFR). They also provide unique climatic and edaphic conditions that may allow them to function as refugia. We investigate whether the Porongurups (altitude 655 m)...

The Gondwana Link (GL) program spans some 1,000km and includes organizations, businesses, and individuals working to improve ecological function across the most intact large areas of habitat remaining in southwestern Australia (SWA). Noncompetitive leadership plus a focus on tangible achievement have been critical to providing the cohesion and init...

Bounded by ocean and desert, the isolated, predominately Mediterranean-climate region of south-western Australia (SWA) includes nine bioregions (circa 44 million hectares). The ecological integrity of the landscapes in this global biodiversity hotspot has been compromised by deforestation, fragmentation, exploitation, and introduced biota. Nature a...

Urban remnant vegetation is subject to varying degrees of disturbance that may or may not be proportional to the size of the patch. The impact of disturbance within patches on species with low mobility and dispersal capabilities was investigated in a survey targeting nemesiid species of the mygalomorph spider clade in the Perth metropolitan area, s...

Impacts on the forested bioregions of south-western Australia have, since first European settlement in 1826, been extensive and dramatic. Large-scale land clearing removed over two-thirds of the vegetation for agriculture and urbanisation. Other significant threats to the biota include: changed fire regimes; exotic predators, diseases and herbivore...

K’gari-Fraser Island, the world's largest barrier sand island, is at the crossroads of World Heritage status, due to destructive environmental use in concert with climate change. Will K’gari-Fraser Island exemplify innovative, adaptive management or become just another degraded recreational facility? We synthesize the likely impact of human pressur...

Refugia - areas that may facilitate the persistence of species during large-scale, long-term climatic change - are increasingly important for conservation planning. There are many methods for identifying refugia, but the ability to quantify their potential for facilitating species persistence (ie their ?capacity?) remains elusive. We propose a flex...

Refugia are habitats that populations can retreat to as prevailing climates become inhospitable, and potentially expand from should climates again become favourable [1]. They therefore potentially facilitate the long-term persistence of populations, despite changes in the regional climate. The importance of refugia for the survival of populations u...

Knowledge of the location and extent of granite outcrops (GOs) in the Southwest Australian Floristic Region is important to understand their role as refugia. We present a methodology to map GOs using biannual Landsat TM imagery. An adaptive vegetation cover mask capitalising on seasonal differences, combined with a supervised classification, allowe...

The environment of the northern jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) forest (NJF) of Mediterranean-climate, south-western Australia is characterised by deeply weathered soil profiles and low fertility, reflecting long geological stasis. This fire-prone environment is characterised by primary forests of low productivity but high biomass. Since European set...

Identifying refugia is a critical component of effective conservation of biodiversity under anthropogenic climate change. However, despite a surge in conceptual and practical interest, identifying refugia remains a significant challenge across diverse continental landscapes. We provide an overview of the key properties of refugia that promote speci...

The scarcity of environmental data means that other sources of information are needed to complement empirical evidence for conservation decisions. By regularly interacting with their local environment, protected area practitioners may generate local ecological knowledge (LEK) that can be used to inform management decisions. However, the accuracy of...

Aim Granite outcrops may be able to act as refugia for species during adverse climate change, owing to their topographic complexity. We assessed this hypothesis by examining phylogeographical patterns in a common, geographically widespread granite endemic, Stypandra glauca (Hemerocallidaceae). Location Granite outcrops of the Southwest Australian...

Dispersal of plant propagules by ocean currents can result in long-distance dispersal and is important for the persistence of coastal species. However, the ability of such species to disperse via the ocean is often unknown because there is relatively little evidence that demonstrates that seeds or fruits can float and survive for extended periods i...

Aim Granite outcrops are prominent throughout the world and harbour many endemic species. Their topographic complexity and range of environments have led to the hypothesis that they act as refugia facilitating the persistence of species through climate change. We evaluate this hypothesis by investigating the phylogeographic patterns in a common gra...

Identification of refugia is an increasingly important adaptation strategy in conservation planning under rapid anthropogenic climate change. Granite outcrops (GOs) provide extraordinary diversity, including a wide range of taxa, vegetation types and habitats in the Southwest Australian Floristic Region (SWAFR). However, poor characterization of GO...

The objective of this work was to compare and contrast the patterns of alien plant invasions in the world's five mediterranean-climate regions (MCRs). We expected landscape age and disturbance history to have bearing on levels of invasion. We assembled a database on naturalized alien plant taxa occurring in natural and semi-natural terrestrial habi...

Seeds of many coastal plants can survive exposure to seawater and may be dispersed long distances by the ocean. The salt tolerance or avoidance strategies of seeds are poorly understood, even though these traits may fundamentally influence dispersal and recruitment in coastal dunes. This research aimed to demonstrate how salt exclusion or localizat...

The steppe ecosystem, mainly characterised by the presence of tussock, short grasses and shrubs, covers 85% of the total area in Santa Cruz Province and 25% in Tierra del Fuego Island. Most of the land in the Patagonian region has been influenced by domestic livestock grazing for more than 100 years. This has led to a substantial modification of th...

Anthropogenic climate change is already impacting native vegetation world-wide. Thus accurate mapping of current vegetation condition is necessary for benchmarking and conservation planning. We examine the potential for the mapping of native vegetation of forested ecosystems in south-western Australia using LiDAR data. Airborne LiDAR (distance betw...

Uncertainty associated with past land-use emissions restricts quantification of climate change effects. We identify the major affects of commercial forestry initiated over recent decades on Tasmanian primary-forest carbon (C), and search for means to mitigate its ongoing impacts. Spatio-temporal trends were derived from records of commercial operat...

The world's five Mediterranean-climate regions are typified by similarities in climate reflected in structural vegetation patterns. We developed a methodology to define high-rainfall (annual precipitation ≥800 mm) Mediterranean climates and contrast patterns of between- and within-region climatic heterogeneity. Climatic indices describing the seaso...

Uncertainty in past and future anthropogenic carbon emissions obscures climate change modelling. Available allometrics are insufficient for regional-level accounting of old-growth, pre-logging carbon stocks. The project goal was to determine the aboveground carbon (biomass and necromass) for a typical old-growth Eucalyptus delegatensis-dominated mi...

Land-use emissions accompanying biomass loss, change in soil organic carbon (ΔSOC) and decomposing wood-products, were comparable with fossil fuel emissions in the late 20th century. We examine the rates, magnitudes and uncertainties for major carbon (C) fluxes for rangelands due to commercial grazing and climate change in Australia. Total net C em...

Employing rangelands for climate change mitigation is hindered by conflicting reports on the direction and magnitude of change in soil organic carbon (ΔSOC) following changes in woody cover. Publications on woody thickening and deforestation, which had led to uncertainty in ΔSOC, were re-evaluated, and the dimensional-dependence of their data was d...

Plant functional traits weighted by cover-abundance have been used to measure change across a wide range of temperature, moisture and grazing gradients. We use this approach along a chronosequence of disease infestation (Phytophthora cinnamomi) in the species-diverse Banksia woodlands of the Southwest Australian Floristic Region (SWAFR). We compare...

The ancient landscape of the South - West Australian Floristic Region (SWAFR) is characterized by exceptional floristic diversity, attributed to a complex mosaic of nutrient - impoverished soils. Between - soil type differences in nutrient availability are expected to affect floristic assemblage patterns in the SWAFR. We compared patterns of floris...

Aim Identifying and protecting refugia is a priority for conservation under projected anthropogenic climate change, because of their demonstrated ability to facilitate the survival of biota under adverse conditions. Refugia are habitats that components of biodiversity retreat to, persist in and can potentially expand from under changing environment...

Question: What is the relative importance of environmental and spatial factors for species compositional and phylogenetic turnover? Location: High-rainfall zone of the Southwest Australian Floristic Region (SWAFR). Methods: Correlates of species compositional turnover were assessed using quadrat-based floristic data, and establishing relationships...

Hopper (Plant Soil 322:49-86, 2009) introduced landscape age, climate buffering, and soil nutrient status as descriptors for a continuum between old, climatically buffered landscapes characterised by low soil fertility (OCBIL) and young, often disturbed landscapes characterised by fertile soils (YODFEL). Hopper (Plant Soil 322:49-86, 2009) provided...

The importance of ecological management for reducing the vulnerability of biodiversity to climate change is increasingly recognized, yet frameworks to facilitate a structured approach to climate adaptation management are lacking. We developed a conceptual framework that can guide identification of climate change impacts and adaptive management opti...

We review the threats from anthropogenic climate change to the terrestrial biodiversity of Oceania, and quantify decline in carbon stocks. Oceania’s rich terrestrial biodiversity is facing unprecedented threats through the interaction of pervasive environmental threats (deforestation and degradation; introduced and invasive species; fragmentation)...

No Yes

No Yes

No Yes

The qualitative label ‘international journal’ is used widely, including in national research quality assessments. We determined the practicability of analysing internationality quantitatively using 39 conservation biology journals, providing a single numeric index (IIJ) based on 10 variables covering the countries represented in the journals’ edito...

Question: Can species compositional dissimilarity analyses be used to assess and improve the representation of biodiversity patterns in a priori ecological classifications? Location: The case study examined the northern-half of the South-east Queensland Bioregion, eastern Australia. Methods: Site-based floristic presence–absence data were used to c...

Question: Does the introduced pathogen Phytophthora cinnamomi change Banksia woodland α- or β-diversity and what are the implications for species re-colonization? Location: High rainfall zone of the Southwest Australian Floristic Region (SWAFR). Methods: We measured pathogen-induced floristic change along a disease chronosequence, and re-sampled hi...

1. An important step in the conservation of biodiversity is to identify what exists, its quantity and its quality (i.e. condition). This can be a daunting task at the landscape-scale, so vegetation communities are often used as surrogates for biodiversity. Satellite imagery has improved our ability to rapidly measure vegetation parameters but the n...

1. An important step in the conservation of biodiversity is to identify what exists, its quantity and its quality (i.e. condition). This can be a daunting task at the landscape-scale, so vegetation communities are often used as surrogates for biodiversity. Satellite imagery has improved our ability to rapidly measure vegetation parameters but the n...