‘Monitoring Country’: A web-based system providing resources to support indigenous land and sea country managers

Mark Cowan, Curtin University

Co-Authors:
Stephen van Leeuwen, Curtin University
Haylee D’Agui, Curtin University
Carly Moir, Curtin University
Vanessa Westcott, Curtin University
Georgie Anderson, Curtin University
Evan Hallien, Curtin University

Indigenous Land and Sea Country managers protect, manage, and monitor vast areas of Country. A recurring challenge they face is accessing straightforward, science-based techniques and tools for on-Country environmental monitoring and management. There is also a need for guidance on managing monitoring data in a secure and enduring way that respects and upholds the sovereignty of that data.

To help address these challenges, this project, being undertaken as part of the NESP Resilient Landscapes Hub, is developing a web-based system (‘Monitoring Country’) designed to provide:

• fit-for-purpose environmental monitoring methods suited to local contexts and species of interest.
• guidance on the selection of which of these methodologies could be used to meet specific environmental monitoring needs.
• interactive guidance, including peer-to-peer instructional videos on how, why, when, and where to deploy these monitoring methods.
• guidance on culturally safe and enduring storage of monitoring data.

This system, along with its resources, is being co-developed through a consultative process. The project team is working with both Indigenous and non-Indigenous environmental management practitioners who are providing insight and technical advice, including through the identification and provision of methods, protocols, standards, and guidelines relevant to Indigenous-led land and sea Country management, and by highlighting gaps in current procedures where there is a need for more guidance.

Monitoring Country is intended to support Indigenous land and sea Country managers in producing and delivering outputs, including reporting, that affirm the exceptional quality and impact of their on-ground activities. This is essential for ensuring the ongoing support and growth of Indigenous land, water, and sea Country management programs.

How high do bats fly?

Lisa Dinis, Biologic Environmental

Understanding and accurately tracking the vertical space use of the vulnerable Ghost bat (Macroderma gigas) is critical for informing conservation strategies, particularly in light of proposed wind farm developments in the Pilbara region of north-western Australia.

To investigate flight behaviour, lightweight Druid tags were affixed to individual bats to record both horizontal position and altitude. Flight height above ground level was calculated as the difference between recorded altitude (referenced to a fixed elevation) and the underlying terrain elevation. However, this approach is subject to several sources of uncertainty:

• Error in altitude measurements,
• Error in estimating ground elevation,
• Horizontal position error, which influences the accuracy of both altitude and terrain estimates.

These combined errors introduce considerable variance, often manifesting as heavy-tailed distributions, in the estimated flight heights. Such distortions can lead to misinformed ecological inferences, ultimately affecting conservation management decisions.

To address this, we implemented a state-space modelling framework that distinguishes between true biological variability in flight height and observation error. This approach improves the reliability of height distribution estimates by explicitly modelling and separating sources of uncertainty.

Thinking inside the box – enhancing arboreal marsupial monitoring in a post-mining landscape using environmental DNA

Austin Guthrie, Curtin University

Restoring faunal communities is a key goal in post-mining rehabilitation, yet monitoring cryptic species such as arboreal marsupials remains challenging. Artificial habitat structures such as nest boxes have been widely used to support hollow-dependent fauna in regenerating landscapes, particularly where natural tree hollows are scarce. This study examined nest box occupancy on the South32 Worsley Alumina bauxite mine, located in the Northern Jarrah Forest bioregion of south-western Australia, using a multi-method approach. Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding was used to detect the presence of four arboreal marsupials the red-tailed phascogale, brush-tailed phascogale, yellow-footed antechinus, and the western pygmy possum from swab samples collected inside 90 nest boxes. Sampling was conducted every six months over a two-year period across a rehabilitation gradient (1980s2010s) and reference forest. eDNA results were compared with conventional monitoring techniques, including motion-activated camera traps and visual nest box inspections. The findings highlighted the complementary strengths of each method, with eDNA metabarcoding providing increased species detectability relative to visual and camera-based observations alone. This study demonstrated the value of integrating molecular tools into ecological monitoring frameworks for cryptic fauna. Ongoing analyses are assessing the role of vegetation structure and rehabilitation age in shaping species presence, to provide further insight into habitat quality and restoration success.

Nature-based tourism on public lands in Western Australia

Shannon Hassell, Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions

Co-Authors:
Jacinta Overman, Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions
Sveva Falletto, Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions

Western Australia is blessed with a wide range of spectacular flora and fauna species, ecosystems and landscapes, which are primary attractions for tourists and locals alike. Management of visitors to natural areas is essential to minimise negative impacts and provide opportunities for environmental conservation education and the fostering of increased stewardship and respect for the environment. The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) Parks and Wildlife Service manages around 34 million hectares of lands and waters in Western Australia, including national parks, nature reserves and marine parks. DBCA recognises that people and the natural environment are intrinsically connected. DBCA has made significant shifts in recognising Aboriginal connection to Country, and many lands and waters are now managed or vested jointly with the Aboriginal Traditional Owners. These partnerships provide opportunities for DBCA to learn about traditional land management, as well as opportunities for tourists to learn about Aboriginal culture directly from those who speak for that Country, which is consistently cited as a desired experience by visitors to Western Australia. Nature-based tourism is intertwined with ecology and is reliant on biodiversity and healthy ecosystems and is strengthened by the authentic voices of the Traditional Owners of the land. DBCA has created a Nature-based Tourism Division to support nature-based tourism, including Aboriginal cultural tourism, and to help deliver outcomes in conservation through outstanding visitor experiences of Western Australia’s parks.

Exploring Airborne Fungal Diversity and Its Impact on Plant Health

Diman Krwanji, Edith Cowan University

Co-Authors:
Mary Hanson, Edith Cowan University
Kristina Lemson, Edith Cowan University
Carla Zammit, Edith Cowan University

Airborne fungi are considered major sources of plant pathogens in natural and agricultural niches. Monitoring airborne fungi is crucial in management and conservation plans. This research will determine the airborne fungal diversity and the relationship between airborne fungi and plant pathogens, and their association in different seasons. Airborne fungi and plant disease will be analysed morphologically and phylogenetically in forest, orchard, and urban habitats in different seasons. This research is expected to improve insight into airborne fungi and plant pathogens as well as their endemicity in Australia. The outcome of this study is expected to find the direct relationship between airborne and plant disease, with variations in different seasons. It is also expected to discover numerous endemic fungi species associated with natural forest and orchard habitats. The results might confirm that natural forest and orchard habitats hold varied fungal communities and are affected by seasonal climate variation. This finding helps monitor fungal pathogens for plant conservation strategies and possibly updates fungal taxonomy by finding new species of fungi.

Sensing Country: Using big data, shared knowledge, and strategic assessment to inform local to regional decision making around feral species impact

Holly Lourie, Charles Darwin University

Co-Authors:
Helen Murphy, CSIRO
Keller Kopf, Charles Darwin University
Justin Perry, NAILSMA
Olivia Carroll, Mimal Land Management
Lewellyn Moulin, Mimal Land Management
Alex Ernst, Mimal Land Management
Mimal Rangers, Mimal Land Management
Andrew Hoskins, NAILSMA

Arnhem Land is vast in its culture, biodiversity, and breadth. Land managers here face complex decision making around management of feral species, accounting for a plethora of views, values, knowledges, and aspirations as well as operational limitations due to seasonality, remoteness, and scale. Current monitoring strategies rely on either ground-based surveys with a focus on place and local Indigenous community engagement but with limitations in scope and scalability, or aerial surveys that provide excellent broad-scale data but lack the ability to speak to and include local communities, values, and aspirations. To fully encapsulate the impact of feral species in a manner that informs both local and regional decision making, monitoring needs to consider the importance and intricacies of place, whilst retaining the ability to scale and talk to challenges of regional and national importance. Here we propose an adaptive, multi-scalar approach for combining strategic regional scale assessments to inform and calibrate assessments of locally important, on-ground sites. Presented here are the initial results of this approach which combines a fusion of feral species aerial surveys and rapid aerial assessments of waterhole health with bioacoustics, water quality testing and on-ground values assessments. Using this approach, we supported ranger led monitoring of country and integrated broad-scale biodiversity impact assessments into a tool that provides deeper understanding of the impacts of feral species across vast and remote landscapes, thus, allowing land managers to monitor the effectiveness of land management actions against improving key biodiversity metrics.

Canopy crossings and kin connections: Using relatedness to infer dispersal of western ringtail possums through a fragmented road corridor

Serina McConnell, Helix Molecular Solutions

Co-Authors:
Roy Teale, Biota Environmental Sciences
Zoë Hamilton, Helix Molecular Solutions
Yvette Hitchen, Helix Molecular Solutions
Nathan Beerkens, Biota Environmental Sciences
Joshua Keen, Biota Environmental Sciences

As the scale of landscape fragmentation accelerates, it becomes increasingly important for conservation management to incorporate an understanding of the dispersal dynamics of threatened species. Information on contemporary dispersal can provide insight into potential barriers to movement, and genetic relatedness provides a means of inferring such trends through the identification of closely related individuals at disparate locations. We applied this approach to the critically endangered western ringtail possum (WRP), an arboreal folivore endemic to south-west Western Australia. WRP movement is believed to depend on the degree of continuous canopy connectivity, thereby enhancing their vulnerability to genetic isolation by fragmentation. Using 12 microsatellites, we determined the genetic relatedness of 99 individuals with abutting home ranges along a peri-urban road corridor in Bunbury. We found evidence that females disperse farther than expected, and of first-order relationships across large canopy gaps (roads, paddocks). Our result suggests that WRP can overcome canopy gaps during dispersal, and even small habitat patches in an otherwise urbanised area may act as important stepping stones for the species movement.

Egg banks as biodiversity archives: Using desiccation-resistant eggs to monitor community structure in a salt lake ecosystem

Mahabubur Rahman, Biologic Environmental

Co-Authors:
Mahabubur Rahman, Biologic Environmental
Chris Hofmeester, Biologic Environmental
Jess Delaney, Biologic Environmental

Salt lakes are prevalent across Australia and are predominantly temporary ecosystems. Despite this, they support diverse aquatic invertebrate communities, dominated by crustaceans, many of which withstand dry phases by depositing desiccation-resistant eggs in the sediment. As part of ecological monitoring at Lake Way, a large salt lake in central WA, Biologic Environmental has conducted passive (sediment rehydration) and active (net sweeping) sampling to survey aquatic invertebrate communities during dry and wet periods, respectively, since 2021. This study compares communities recorded from rehydration trials with those captured by net sweeping across four years and evaluates the efficacy of sediment rehydration for assessing community structure in salt lakes.

Sediment rehydration trials were successful in all years, recovering six to nine taxa per trial, including crustaceans, dipterans, rotifers, and Turbellaria. In contrast, net sweeping recorded higher richness (2634 taxa), including coleopterans, dipterans, hemipterans, odonates, oligochaetes, polychaetes, nematodes, Hydra, rotifers, and crustaceans. As observed in other ephemeral systems, crustaceans, particularly ostracods (seed shrimp), dominated the emerging communities from sediments. Nine ostracod species were recorded overall, with eight detected through rehydration and five through net sweeping. Notably, three ostracod taxa (Bennelongia sp., Cypretta sp., and Diacypris sp.) and one cladoceran (Daphnia wardi) were detected only via rehydration, contributing additional species to the lakes known biodiversity. Halophilic brine shrimp (Parartemia laticaudata), shield shrimp (Triops sp.), and clam shrimp (Eocyzicus sp.) were also recorded through both methods.

These findings highlight the value of using egg banks as a complementary tool for monitoring aquatic invertebrate communities in ephemeral systems and for detecting species that may be overlooked through conventional active sampling methods.

Building support for ‘non-charismatic’ species conservation through citizen science: bats and bioacoustics

Kelly Sheldrick, Murdoch University

Co-Authors:
Rochelle Steven, Murdoch University
Trish Fleming, Murdoch University

Bats represent approximately 20% of all mammal species and play vital roles in ecosystems. Despite their importance, bats remain under-researched in Western Australia, hindering conservation and effective management. Citizen science offers a promising approach to build local capacity and foster public appreciation and support for non-charismatic species. Informed by systematic literature reviews on Australian bat acoustic research and global citizen science bat projects, this study seeks to address key research gaps in bioacoustic methods and community engagement for bats. The global review found that 70% of citizen science bat studies utilised acoustic methods, yet only two assessed the impact of citizen science participation on volunteers. This collaborative project engaged community members in both active (transect) and passive acoustic bat surveys of urban bushland reserves in Western Australia. In-person training sessions in March 2025 were followed by Bat Week acoustic surveys in March and April 2025. The social impact of participation was assessed through three questionnaires administered before training (A), after training (B), and following survey participation (C). The responses to questionnaires evaluated changes in participation knowledge, conservation attitudes, and connection to nature. This initiative contributes ecological data to local biodiversity planning while also exploring how citizen science can build capacity and appreciation for underrepresented but ecologically vital species like bats.

Using eDNA to unveil trophic dynamics of subterranean invertebrates

Mahima Tawal, Curtin University

Co-Authors:
Tarik Meziane, The French National Museum of Natural History
Karina Meredith, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO)
Morten Allentoft, Curtin University
Mattia Saccò, Curtin University

Groundwater is the most abundant source of unfrozen freshwater and is often connected to surface aquatic ecosystems such as wetlands, rivers, and springs. Stygofauna, the aquatic obligate fauna in groundwaters, play a key role in maintaining the ecological integrity of these ecosystems through their biotic activities such as grazing and burrowing. However, the functional diversity of this fauna still remains poorly understood despite numerous anthropogenic and climate change-related threats.

Understanding trophic interactions and the flow of energy in groundwater ecosystems is essential for protecting this unique and often fragile subterranean biodiversity. Stygofauna are highly sensitive to environmental changes, and alterations to the temperature and nutrients can disrupt ecological niches, potentially leading to ecosystem collapse. However, direct observation of food-web dynamics in subterranean environments is challenging due to low visibility, limited access, and the cryptic nature of underground systems, and the small size of many stygofaunal species. This study explores the use of environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding approaches targeting the gut contents of amphipods, decapods, and copepods to unravel the trophic links in three groundwater systems in Western Australia. By targeting the microbial, invertebrate and plant sources via high-throughput sequencing, we aim to identify stygofaunal dietary sources and reconstruct the food web interactions. This molecular approach offers a non-invasive, high-resolution method that complements traditional techniques, enhancing our understanding of trophic dynamics.

The results of this study will provide insights into key predator-prey relationships, revealing potential variations in feeding strategies across different groundwater regions. Ultimately, this research will support evidence-based conservation efforts aimed at protecting the essential but still overlooked subterranean biodiversity of Western Australia.