Josh Dorrough

Department of Planning and Environment

Measuring the status and trends of biodiversity is critical for making informed decisions about the conservation, management or restoration of species, habitats and ecosystems. Defining the reference state against which status and change are measured is essential. Typically, reference states describe historical conditions, yet historical conditions...

Ecological community and ecosystem “red lists” have been developed in several jurisdictions to improve ecosystem‐level biodiversity protection. However, a challenge for the conservation and management of listed ecosystems is consistent identification in the field or from plot records. Ecosystem descriptions must have enough detail for positive iden...

It is standard practice to compare the status of performance indicators between restoration and reference sites to monitor restoration progress and demonstrate restoration success. However, standard methods for defining the reference ecosystem, selecting reference sites, and measuring success are surprisingly lacking. Our study develops these metho...

Identifying threatened ecosystem types is fundamental to conservation and management decision‐making. When identification relies on expert judgment, decisions are vulnerable to inconsistent outcomes and can lack transparency. We elicited judgements of the occurrence of a widespread, critically endangered Australian ecosystem from a diverse pool of...

Analyses of diverse aboveground and belowground indicators should underpin assessments of ecosystem recovery, yet monitoring many indicators is costly and their integration is challenging. Our objective was to combine indicators through a Bayesian hierarchical model to provide a comprehensive assessment of ecosystem status and identify a cost‐effec...

Expert judgment underpins assessment of threatened ecosystems. However, experts are often narrowly defined, and variability in their judgments may be substantial. Models built from structured elicitation with large diverse expert panels can contribute to more consistent and transparent decision‐making. We conducted a structured elicitation under a...

Perennial plants create productive and biodiverse hotspots, known as fertile islands, beneath their canopies. These hotspots largely determine the structure and functioning of drylands worldwide. Despite their ubiquity, the factors controlling fertile islands under conditions of contrasting grazing by livestock, the most prevalent land use in dryla...

The global trend in offsetting for nonet loss (NNL) is increasing, focusing on protecting high-condition habitats and restoring degraded ones. Australia's New South Wales (NSW) Biodiversity Offset Scheme (BOS) promotes active restoration (AR; reconstruction of missing ecosystem properties, AR) on offset sites. We examined (1) the adoption of AR und...

Vegetation condition metrics are often used as a surrogate of biodiversity to support management decisions, conservation regulations and biodiversity markets. Vegetation condition metrics, which aggregate multiple attributes, are often criticised for simplifying the complexity of biodiversity. A particular challenge is substitution when high‐scorin...

The forthcoming post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework aims to achieve a 15% net gain in the area, connectivity and integrity of natural systems by 2050. Here we focus on integrity using the summed plant foliage cover and native species richness of 6 plant functional groups compared to their empirically defined biodiversity benchmark. We extrapola...

Of the staggering 23 million records within the global sPlot 2.1 vegetation database, approximately 66% contain plant cover-abundance estimated on an ordinal scale. Ordinal plant cover data often need to be transformed into a continuous form (0%–100%), especially when scrutinising summed foliage cover of multiple species. Traditional approaches to...

Ecological resilience is the capacity of a system to maintain function following disturbance. With the frequency and severity of wildfire activity increasing due to warmer and drier global climate conditions, there are increasing reports of declines in ecological resilience and ecosystems at risk of collapse due to post-fire recovery failure. Obser...

Human‐induced disturbance has substantially influenced the structure and function of terrestrial ecosystems globally. However, the extent to which multiple ecosystem functions (multifunctionality) recover following anthropogenic disturbance (ecosystem recovery) remains poorly understood. We report on the first study examining the temporal dynamics...

Context The draft post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework aims to achieve a 15% net gain in the area, connectivity and integrity of natural systems by 2050. Objectives First, we analyse the complexity (foliage cover) and composition (native species richness) of 6 plant functional groups relative to their empirically defined benchmark. Second, we ex...

Ordinal cover data often need to be transformed to a quantitative form (0–100%), especially when scrutinising summed cover of multiple species. Traditional approaches to transforming ordinal data often assume that data are symmetrically distributed. However, skewed abundance patterns are ubiquitous in plant community ecology. We tailored different...

The Vegetation Integrity metric has been designed within a clear management and decision-making context: to quantify losses and predict gains in terrestrial biodiversity value at development and offset sites. The metric incorporates a number of key developments that differentiate it from others. Firstly, the intent is explicitly defined and therefo...

Conservation decision thresholds have most often been described within the context of triggering management actions necessary to maintain an ecological system within a desired state. Thresholds are also applied within conservation legislation, often as triggers to determine when certain regulations may or may not apply. In many applications, thresh...

Measuring the status and trends of biodiversity is critical for making informed decisions about the conservation, management or restoration of species, habitats and ecosystems. Defining the reference state against which status and change are measured is essential. Typically, reference states describe historical conditions, yet historical conditions...

Effective environmental assessment and management requires quantifiable biodiversity targets. Biodiversity benchmarks define these targets by focusing on specific biodiversity metrics, such as species richness. However, setting fixed targets can be challenging because many biodiversity metrics are highly variable, both spatially and temporally. We...

Biodiversity offsetting typically involves the trade of certain losses of habitat with uncertain future conservation benefits. Predicting the latter requires estimates of two outcomes; the biodiversity losses without conservation management (averted loss), and the biodiversity gains with conservation management (management gain). However, because e...

Fitted boosted regression tree functions for initial aggregate vegetation condition, management gain, averted loss and total benefit. (PDF)

Are individual experts consistently optimistic or pessimistic? Individual expert mean estimates of averted loss and management gain. (PDF)

Selection of experts, online survey & questionnaire for potential participants and summary of survey results. (PDF)

Elicitation material and scenarios. (PDF)

Boosted regression tree for predicting vegetation condition to new sites. (PDF)

Management gains, do they vary according to vegetation type?. (PDF)

Boxplots of individual expert estimates of aggregate management gain. (PDF)

Predicted change in individual attribute values with offset on original measurement scale. (PDF)

Boxplots of individual expert probability distributions of MG, AL and TB. (PDF)

Questions The cover and abundance of individual plant species have been recorded on ordinal scales for millions of plots world‐wide. Ordinal cover data often need to be transformed to a quantitative form (0%–100%), especially when scrutinising summed cover of multiple species. Traditional approaches to transforming ordinal data often assume that da...

The cover and abundance of individual plant species have been recorded on ordinal scales for millions of plots world-wide. Many ecological questions can be addressed using these data. However ordinal cover data may need to be transformed to a quantitative form (0 to 100%), especially when scrutinising summed cover of multiple species. Traditional a...

Grassland ecosystems across the globe have been extensively modified and degraded by agriculture and urban development, leaving conservation managers with a complex set of interacting legacies and opportunities to contend with. We advocate the use of state-and-transition models to assist conservation managers to deal with this complexity. Using a m...

Herbivores alter plant biodiversity (species richness) in many of the world’s ecosystems, but the magnitude and the direction of herbivore effects on biodiversity vary widely within and among ecosystems. One current theory predicts that herbivores enhance plant biodiversity at high productivity but have the opposite effect at low productivity. Yet,...

Determining which species should or should not be on priority lists of invasive alien species is far from trivial. It is rare to have sufficient data to obtain empirical estimates of whether an individual species should be included or excluded and so risk assessment protocols depend heavily on expert-opinion. A challenge is deciding what to do if e...

Habitat assessments often require observers to estimate tree hollows in situ, which can be costly, destructive and prone to bias. An alternative is to count the number of trees above a specific size. The size at which a tree develops hollows differs substantially among tree species. To assist with setting standards for habitat assessment we defined...

Background/Question/Methods Conservation, restoration and management goals often aim for benchmarks and reference states that are perceived through a historical, near-natural or relatively undisturbed conceptual lens. Due to rapid transformation of the biosphere, we argue that historical reference frames are effectively unmeasurable and unknowable....

Questions Understanding how livestock grazing alters plant composition in low productivity environments is critical to managing livestock sustainably alongside native and introduced wild herbivore populations. We asked four questions: (1) does recent livestock and rabbit grazing reduce some plant attributes more strongly than others; (2) does grazi...

Grazing by domestic livestock is one of the most widespread land uses world‐wide, particularly in rangelands, where it co‐occurs with grazing by wild herbivores. Grazing effects on plant diversity are likely to depend on intensity of grazing, herbivore type, co‐evolution with plants and prevailing environmental conditions. We collected data on clim...

Globally the prevalence and impact of invasive non‐native plant species is increasing rapidly. Experimentally based research aimed at supporting management is limited in its ability to keep up with this pace, partly because of the importance of understanding historical abiotic and biotic conditions. Contrastingly, landholders are in unique position...

Context We address the issue of adapting landscapes for improved insect biodiversity conservation in a changing climate by assessing the importance of additive (main) and synergistic (interaction) effects of land cover and land use with climate. Objectives We test the hypotheses that ant richness (species and genus), abundance and diversity would...

Fire has a major influence on the structure and composition of temperate grasslands and woodlands. We investigated whether the impacts of fire exclusion on a temperate grassland plant community varied according to the scale of investigation and soil texture. Ten sites with known fire histories were selected along a soil texture gradient in south-ea...

Eragrostis curvula (African lovegrass) is a major problem weed in the agricultural landscapes of Australia where it is both non-desirable for grazing and is replacing local biodiversity, putting species rich native grasslands at risk. The seedbanks of these fragmented landscapes are an indicative relic of historical species composition, land histor...

Systematic reviews provide a rigorous, repeatable and quantitative method for assessing and synthesizing all available empirical evidence to evaluate a specific research, management, or policy question. They are particularly well suited for evaluating the effectiveness of environmental management actions, and thus for underpinning evidence-based ad...

Temperate perennial grasslands globally have been subject to extensive biodiversity loss. Identifying livestock grazing regimes that maintain and enhance the diversity and cover of native plant species in these ecosystems remains a key challenge. The responses of vegetation to different sheep grazing regimes were assessed over 3 years in grasslands...

The primary question asked by this review is “what components of ground layer plant diversity occur in temperate grassy ecosystems under different levels of grazing and fertilisation?” A second question posed, and one of particular interest to managers, is “How does ground layer plant diversity respond to relief from grazing and/or fertilisation?”...

Background: Herbivory and inter-specific competition are major determinants of the relative abundance of plant species in grasslands. Herbivores modify competitive hierarchies among plants through selective foraging and as a result of variation in the relative tolerance of plants to herbivory. Aims: We examined the direct effects of herbivory and t...

The relative effects of tree clearing, increased livestock densities and nutrient enrichment have rarely been compared across markedly different organism types, but negative effects are generally predicted. In contrast, adoption of rotational grazing is thought to benefit biodiversity in pastures but there are few supporting data. We examined the r...

The woodlands of temperate south-eastern Australia are characterised by extensive historical clearing and ongoing modification of the understorey habitat through livestock grazing, fertilization and cropping. The reptile assemblage of these temperate woodlands, while relatively speciose, is believed to be in decline. We report on the abundance and...

![Figure][1] Land sharing. A wildlife-friendly landscape in Romania. CREDIT: KIMBERLIE RAWLINGS According to B. Phalan et al. (“Reconciling food production and biodiversity conservation: Land sharing and land sparing compared,” Reports, 2 September, p. [1289][2]), land sparing—

Livestock grazing and fertilisation are primary management activities that determine variation in plant species composition within grazed temperate grassy ecosystems of Australia. The present paper provides an extensive catalogue of the responses of individual species to grazing and fertilisation that can be used to guide management and restoration...

Question: Can vegetation changes that occur following cessation of cultivation for cereal crop production in semi-arid native grasslands be described using a conceptual model that explains plant community dynamics following disturbance? Location: Eighteen native grasslands with varying time-since-last cultivation across northern Victoria, Australia...

Worldwide, temperate grasslands have been extensively cleared for agriculture and urban expansion and the 'Natural Temperate Grassland of the Victorian Volcanic Plain' in south-eastern Australia has recently been listed as critically endangered. Because of land clearing, these grasslands now occupy <1% of their original distribution and much of the...

We present logistic regression models predicting the distribution and abundance of a threatened cryptic lizard, Delma impar (Pygopodidae), in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). The models incorporate current habitat and historical land use and habitat change (woodland clearance, ploughing, grazing, fertilizer application). Information on histo...

A significant challenge for policy and land management is to alter agricultural systems to reduce their detrimental impacts on native vegetation and biodiversity habitat. We analysed historical, ecological and land use data to understand the threats to native vegetation, and prospects for future recovery in the wheat–sheep zone of the Wimmera and M...

Profitable grazing systems used widely since European settlement has been associated with a decline in the extent and quality of native vegetation. In this paper it is shown that, for one farming system, making profit and preserving biodiversity are compatible objectives. Dynamic solutions are available that improve the quality of native vegetation...

Increasing fertiliser use in agricultural landscapes is likely to threaten the viability of remnant native vegetation in many parts of the world. Australia’s prime grain production landscapes have nutrient poor soils, which formerly supported semi-arid woodland. The ecological function and capacity for regeneration of these remnants may be particul...

Summary • A large proportion of the world's land surface is extensively managed for livestock production. In areas where livestock systems are becoming more intensive, a major challenge is to predict those plant species likely to decline, persist or increase as a result of agricultural intensification. • Most analyses develop inferences for frequen...

Future investment in Australia's countryside will greatly influence the appearance of the landscape, and the ecosystem services provided. Primarily, landowners will undertake this investment. Government investment in revegetation programs is likely to be relatively small. This paper is about research conducted on grazing properties in south-eastern...

Broadscale land use changes are occurring rapidly in rural landscapes worldwide, within which revegetation with native plant species to increase the area of suitable habitat is a key activity. Current models for planning revegetation are based solely on the spatial arrangement of new and remnant vegetation. Making wise decisions about revegetation...

1. Many ecological management problems involve assessing competing options based on the trade-off between economic costs and short-and long-term probabilities of success. In many cases the time to success is crucial, and opportunity costs may be greater than direct costs of implementation. We analyse the problem of how to choose between options whe...

Eucalyptus strzeleckii K. Rule (Strzelecki gum) is a medium-to-tall forest swamp gum, endemic to Victoria and listed as Nationally Vulnerable in Australia. This species occurs in the high rainfall (up to 1600mm) region of Gippsland in south-eastern Victoria. The region has been intensively developed for agriculture, in particular dairy production....

1. Interpreting the functional diversity of vegetation is important in unravelling the relationship between environmental change, community composition and ecosystem processes. Functional diversity is the range and distribution of functional trait values in a community. It can be described, among other indicators, by community-level weighted means...

Many ecological management problems involve assessing competing options based on the trade‐off between economic costs and short‐ and long‐term probabilities of success. In many cases the time to success is crucial, and opportunity costs may be greater than direct costs of implementation. We analyse the problem of how to choose between options when...

Abstract Native vegetation has been destroyed or dramatically modified throughout agricultural regions of southern Australia. Extensive restoration of native perennial vegetation is likely to be crucial in these areas for the persistence of native plant and animal species, to ameliorate dryland salinity and soil degradation, and to maintain long-te...

Land use change associated with agriculture is arguably the greatest threat to global biodiversity. There is a need to develop management strategies and policies that meet conservation and agricultural objectives. One approach argued to have merit is intensification within productive parts of the landscape to allow increased land saving for conserv...

The interactive effect of grazing and soil resources on plant species richness and coexistence has been predicted to vary across spatial scales. When resources are not limiting, grazing should reduce competitive effects and increase colonisation and richness at fine scales. However, at broad scales richness is predicted to decline due to loss of gr...

The effects of grazing on the richness of understorey plant communities are predicted to vary along gradients of resources and tree cover. In temperate Australia livestock management has involved phosphorus addition and tree removal but little research has examined how the effects of grazing on plant species richness may vary with these management...

Substantial revegetation is required across much of Australian agricultural landscapes. Managers need to minimise the risks of failure and costs associated with revegetation. Whereas 'natural regeneration' of eucalypts is relatively cheap compared with direct seeding or planting tubes, natural regeneration in grazed lands occurs infrequently and un...

In south-eastern Australia large-scale re-establishment of woody vegetation is required to halt loss of biodiversity, land degradation and dryland salinisation. Revegetation is often undertaken via intensive replanting by tube-stock or seed although such methods are costly and can have limited biodiversity benefits. Regeneration from naturally disp...

Livestock grazing is often thought to enhance native plant species co-existence in remnant grasslands but may also favour exotic invaders. Recommendations for appropriate grazing strategies are needed, for which an understanding of the response of plant species is necessary. We explored the response of plant species and plant functional groups to g...

There is an increasing interest in the development of livestock grazing management strategies that achieve environmental sustainability and maintain or improve the long-term production capacity of commercial grazing systems. In temperate Australia, these strategies are generally focussed on reducing perennial pasture decline, soil loss, acidity, an...

The presence of perennial plant species in grazed habitats may be an imperfect predictor of their long-term ability to persist under grazing by livestock. This is particularly the case in landscapes where grazing by livestock is a relatively recent occurrence or where management practices are leading to intensification of grazing. This paper invest...

Better ways of managing native biodiversity and farm business are examined on selected wool properties across the Central Victoria region in Australia, using the Ararat Hills as a case study. Future management options are being developed in close collaboration with each producer in order to enhance native biodiversity while maintaining or improving...

Native temperate grassland and grassy woodlands have been subject to considerable modification by livestock grazing and clearance for exotic pastures and crops. In Victoria, very little high-quality grassy vegetation persists. Consequently, native grasslands and grassy woodlands are considered endangered ecological communities and therefore are a v...

Native temperate grassland and grassy woodlands have been subject to considerable modification by livestock grazing and clearance for exotic pastures and crops. In Victoria, very little high-quality grassy vegetation persists. Consequently, native grasslands and grassy woodlands are considered endangered ecological communities and therefore are a v...