Forestry Corporation

Tropical rainforests in Southeast Asia are globally recognized as biodiversity hotspots. However, floristic inventories are limited, particularly for hemiparasites growing in forest canopies. This study presents a checklist of showy mistletoe (Loranthaceae) from the Lambir Hills National Park located in the Miri district, Sarawak, northern Borneo, Malaysia. The data were obtained from our intensive field surveys in the national park from 2016 to 2022, and analysis of the herbaria of The Sarawak Herbarium, The Kyoto University Museum, and the Botanical Research Centre in the Semenggoh Wildlife Centre in Sarawak, Malaysia.

BackgroundClimate change is driving global fire regimes toward greater extremes, potentially threatening plant species that are adapted to historic fire regimes. Successful conservation of threatened plant species depends upon improving our understanding of how they respond to these changing fire regimes in fire prone regions. The 2019–2020 Australian megafires burnt at very high to extreme severity across an unprecedented extent and overlaid a complex history of prescribed burns and wildfires, providing an ideal foundation to study the consequences of multiple fire regime elements. We examined the recruitment response of Pomaderris bodalla, one of many threatened obligate-seeding shrub species growing in wet sclerophyll (mesic) forest in south-east Australia. We surveyed seedling recruitment at sites across a gradient of fire severity and frequency. Our aims were to (i) confirm in vitro results that suggest a positive relationship with fire severity; (ii) determine the species response to fire frequency and (iii) identify the nature of the effect of fire severity and fire frequency in combination.ResultsWe found that recruitment had a positive response to fire severity, peaking at high severity sites as soil temperatures reached optimal levels for dormancy-break but declining, while still remaining positive, at moderate and extreme severity sites. The pattern of response matched in vitro studies, which had established that physically dormant P. bodalla seeds had minimal dormancy broken at low fire-related temperatures, peak dormancy broken at high fire-related temperatures and heat-induced mortality at extreme temperatures. Fire frequency had an overall negative effect on recruitment, with fewer recruits at more frequently burnt sites and this effect appeared to be additive with fire severity.ConclusionOur findings indicate that increased fire frequency poses an ongoing threat to P. bodalla and similar obligate-seeding shrub species. The hump-shaped relationship with fire severity suggests that future large-scale extreme fires will cause seed mortality-induced reduction in recruitment, with the potential to exacerbate the negative effects of high fire frequency. Informed management of threatened species requires detailed knowledge of species responses to multiple fire regime elements, and novel fire response traits like seed dormancy can provide beneficial insights for robust conservation strategies.

The common names of species serve an important role in scientific and everyday communication, so well-constructed names should be easy to remember and convey important information about a species. The discovery of new species, or the revision and splitting of existing species, may lead to new or changed common names. We review new common names given to Australian mammal species described, or recognised, since the year 2000. We reference the principles adopted by the Australian Mammal Society in 1980, formulated to guide the selection of common names. Of 31 new species, 25 had common names that referenced their morphology, geographic location or ecosystem, one had an indigenous name and five involved eponyms (named after a person). Three of the eponyms reflected the animal’s specific name, one was given after consultation with indigenous cultural experts, and one was named after the collector of the specimen. We argue that the recommended common name for this latter species (Petaurus notatus) was inconsistent with the long-standing principles of the Australian Mammal Society for selecting common names, so we offer an alternative name, the inland sugar glider. Common names may be subservient to scientific names but they play an important role, and therefore, should be selected very carefully and be consistent with established principles.

ABSTRACT Drought is a regular feature of Australian landscapes, and its intensity and frequency are likely to increase in a changing climate. Land managers are grappling with managing the impacts of drought, with large-scale die-offs occurring more frequently in forests globally. Drought-induced tree mortality has caused major impacts in Pinus radiata plantations in New South Wales, Australia, with extended drought, heatwaves and pest and disease attacks all recognised as predisposing, inciting or contributing factors. The extent and severity of drought-induced tree mortality has been mapped across the Pinus plantation estate in New South Wales annually since 1996. In this study, we used this long-term empirical data to develop a model of drought risk for P. radiata plantations. Using random forest, we identified site index, annual temperature, annual rainfall, elevation and increasing number of hot days (above 20°C and 35°C) as the influencing variables associated with drought-induced tree mortality. We then used this model to look at the risk of drought-induced tree mortality under climate-change scenarios in 2050 and 2070. Although forest managers already understand the drought risk in their estates, we developed an empirical model and produced GIS layers at high resolution (100 m) to assist in more accurately and effectively managing drought. The accuracy and precision of our model (overall accuracy 89.2%, kappa 0.75) enables forest managers to include it in their decision-making in the management of the potential impacts of drought on the current plantation estate (e.g. via modified silvicultural regimes) as well as in the future (e.g. modified silvicultural regimes or planting drought-tolerant genotypes).

ABSTRACT Early detection of exotic pests is key to a timely response for enabling options for eradication and future management. It is widely recognised that engaging the public and industry in general surveillance significantly increases the chance of detecting newly arrived pests and pathogens. Once a new pest or pathogen is detected, Australia has guidelines to follow via the Emergency Plant Pest Response Deed and PLANTPLAN. This paper describes the detection of unusual symptoms in a Pinus radiata production nursery in New South Wales, Australia, and the subsequent response. The unusual symptoms were detected in early January 2021 by nursery staff and reported immediately to biosecurity authorities. The nursery was placed under quarantine as a precaution. Within five weeks, Fusarium commune was diagnosed from the samples, a known pathogen of conifers not previously recorded in Australia. Formal biosecurity processes were enacted immediately to determine whether the pathogen was an emergency plant pest and whether eradication was necessary and technically feasible. Quarantine and movement restrictions continued, such that no seedlings could leave the site other than for ongoing diagnosis and under biosecure protocols. Tracing was conducted to determine the distribution of the pathogen and a potential source, including ongoing sampling in production nurseries, diagnosis of planting media and seed, and diagnosis of root and soil eDNA samples collected in previous years. Fusarium commune was recovered at a very low frequency from two nurseries, primarily in association with healthy seedlings. Root and soil samples collected from nurseries and plantations between 2019 and 2020 tested negative for the presence of F. commune using F. commune-specific primers. Pathogenicity tests revealed that F. commune did not cause wilting or significant disease on tested seedlings. Overall, evidence suggested that F. commune did not pose a serious threat to the P. radiata industry. The Consultative Committee on Emergency Plant Pests determined that F. commune was not a significant pathogen and that no further action was warranted. The affected nursery was allowed to resume operations in mid-May 2021, in time for the winter planting season. Here we discuss the lessons from this response, including the benefits of a quick and timely response, cross-institutional collaboration, the potential threat to the forest industry, and the need to encourage greater general surveillance. These lessons can help in the event of an incursion of a serious pathogen such as F. circinatum (pine pitch canker).

A rapid and passive primate survey using a scanning technique was conducted in Sibuti Wildlife Sanctuary (Sibuti WS) from 11th to 16th July, 2018. This study provided the first confirmed record of the presence and the diet of silvered langur in the wildlife sanctuary. A group of silvered langur that comprise 20 to 30 individuals were observed in the vicinity of the sanctuary. The diurnal langur feeds on fig plants (Ficus sp.), simpoh air (Dillenia suffruticosa) and tree from the family Leguminosae. However, this langur population appears to be isolated and is probably decreasing due to limited food sources, intra- and interspecific competition, and hunting pressure by local people.

Over two field seasons during 2014-15, 35 long-nosed potoroos (Potorous tridactylus) were captured in state forests in South Eastern New South Wales for translocation to Booderee National Park, Jervis Bay Territory, Australia. Animals were anesthetized for physical examination and collection of samples to assess general health and screen for select diseases identified during a disease risk assessment. Morphologic, hematologic, and biochemical parameters were determined, and parasites were identified where possible. Trypanosoma gilletti, Trypanosoma vegrandis, and novel genotypes most similar to a Trypanosoma wallaby-derived isolate (ABF) were identified from blood samples by PCR; the first time Trypanosoma has been described in this species. Also reported is the first confirmation of the Australian paralysis tick, Ixodes holocyclus, from the long-nosed potoroo. Surveillance showed that Cryptococcus sp. may form part of the normal nasal flora for long-nosed potoroo. Salmonella enterica serotype Dublin and Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica was identified from rectal swabs of otherwise healthy animals. The data provide baseline health and disease parameters for this newly established population and the source population and will inform future translocation and conservation management activities. These data expand current knowledge on aspects of the biology and microbiology of the long-nosed potoroo, both locally and nationally.

Case study on an office building is conducted using a novel performance-based method for verifying compatibility of fire spread prevention performance of a building with that required by the building standard law. In order to relax the restriction on the fire-resistive performance of the inner wall and floor to be equivalent to the quasi-fire-resistive construction of 45 minutes, it is necessary not only to improve the fire-resistive performance of the external wall and window, but also to subdivide the inner space into several fire compartments.