Forestry Tasmania

Widespread climate-driven increases in background tree mortality rates have the potential to reduce the carbon storage of terrestrial ecosystems, challenging their effectiveness as natural buffers against atmospheric CO2 enrichment with major consequences for the global carbon budget. However, the global extent of trends in tree mortality and their drivers remains poorly quantified. The Australian continent experiences one of the most variable climates on Earth and is host to a diverse range of forest biomes that have evolved high resistance to disturbance, providing a valuable test case for the pervasiveness of tree mortality trends. Here we compile an 83-year tree dynamics database (1941-2023) from >2,700 forest plots across Australia covering tropical savanna and rainforest and warm and cool temperate forests, to explore spatiotemporal patterns of tree mortality and the associated drivers. Over the past eight decades, we found a consistent trend of increasing tree mortality across the four forest biomes. This temporal trend persisted after accounting for stand structure and was exacerbated in forests with low moisture index or a high competition index. Species with traits associated with high growth rate-low wood density, high specific leaf area and short maximum height-exhibited higher average mortality, but the rate of mortality increase was comparable across different functional groups. Increasing mortality was not associated with increasing growth, given that stand basal area increments either declined or remained unchanged over time, but it was associated with increasing temperature over time. Our findings suggest that ongoing climate change has driven pervasive shifts in forest dynamics beyond natural recovery in a range of forest biomes with high resilience to disturbance, threatening the enduring capacity of forests to sequester carbon under current and future climate scenarios.

Plants can have a facilitative effect on co-occurring neighbours by moderating microclimate conditions. In forested areas, vegetation buffers microclimates against macroclimate extremes compared to open areas, yet the neighbourhood characteristics tha

BackgroundDescriptions of service development processes in the youth mental health sector are lacking. Further, youth with lived experience of mental illness are rarely involved in service design. Intervention Mapping (IM) is a well-established framework for program development, implementation and evaluation, yet its applicability in the youth mental health sector is unknown. This paper describes the use of IM methodology to co-design and develop a psychosocial service to support youth aged 10–25 years experiencing mental illness in Tasmania, Australia. MethodsThe six steps of IM were followed: 1) needs assessment; 2) define program outcomes and objectives; 3) program design; 4) program production; 5) implementation planning; and 6) evaluation planning. ResultsKey outputs of each IM step are described. The service was successfully co-designed with young people at the centre of each step. The service includes wrap-around psychosocial support from lived-experience peer-support workers; outreach; and flexible frequency/intensity/duration to achieve young people’s psychosocial goals. ConclusionsThis is the first study to document the use of IM in co-designing a psychosocial service with youth experiencing mental illness. IM may provide a valuable roadmap for the youth mental health sector in supporting collaborative service design, implementation and evaluation planning, and systematic documentation of service development.

<p dir="ltr">The Vale of Belvoir is a large open grassy valley of striking appearance located northwest of Cradle Mountain. At 800 m altitude, it is Tasmania’s only subalpine limestone valley. The unusual geology and human history have combined to give the valley its unique character. The three main geological elements are: the folded Ordovician limestone bedrock, which produced the synclinal valley and numerous sink holes; lava flows of Cenozoic basalt, which have covered parts of the valley floor; and Pleistocene glaciations, which have delivered large amounts of bouldery till to mantle much of the valley floor and redistribute much of the basalt into the glacial deposits to add to the fertility of the soils. The glacial deposits have disrupted the drainage of the valley, so that the Lea River and Lake Lea now drain northwards out of the valley, while the Vale River drains most of the valley and flows southwards to the Pieman system. Dolerite erratics in the glacials indicate that the ice came from the Cradle Mountain area.<br>The Vale has one of the most extensive and diverse areas of montane grassland in the state and contains several threatened vegetation communities and plant species. The valley provided Tasmanian Aboriginal people with abundant wildlife and shelter, and their burning practices maintained its grassy nature and remnant patches of rainforest. Europeans arrived in the 1820s and grazed cattle from the 1850s onwards; their practice of patch burning the grasslands has been continued by the current owners, the Tasmanian Land Conservancy.</p>

Biomass burning has shaped many of the ecosystems of the planet and for millennia humans have used it as a tool to manage the environment. When widespread fires occur, the health and daily lives of millions of people can be affected by the smoke leading to a range of health consequences such as respiratory issues, cardiovascular issues, and mortality. It is critical to include smoke and its consequences in atmospheric modeling systems to meet needs such as informing and protecting the public during smoke episodes. This chapter profiles many of the global and regional smoke prediction systems available. It is not an exhaustive list, but rather a profile of many of the systems to give examples of the creativity and complexity needed to simulate the phenomenon of smoke. The global smoke prediction systems are advanced, and many are self-organizing into a powerful ensemble. Regional and national systems are being developed independently for example in Europe (11 systems), North America (7 systems), and Australia (3 systems). Finally, the World Meteorological Organization is bringing together global and regional systems to form an ensemble to support countries with smoke issues and who lack resources. For each system we discuss how fire activity information is obtained, how fire emissions are calculated, and how atmospheric transport and chemical transformation of the smoke plume is treated.

ABSTRACT Although there is an increasing awareness of the high rates of seabird bycatch in trawl fisheries globally, there is relatively limited implementation of effective mitigation measures. Seabirds that are attracted to the stern of the trawl vessel to feed on fish-waste can be drowned or injured when they collide with warps/cables or when they become entangled in nets. Managing fish-waste discharge (processing offal and discards) and limiting access to it by scaring birds have been identified as the most effective measures to reduce seabird mortality from collisions with warps. New Zealand’s arrow squid (Nototodarus spp.) trawl fishery occurs during the austral summer and autumn when there is significant overlap with large numbers of foraging seabirds due to the proximity of breeding areas. Regulations introduced by the New Zealand government in 2007 requiring the use of devices to reduce warp strikes and operational procedures to manage fish-waste were independently implemented by the fishing industry in 2007 with the support of fishery regulators. The rate of capture of albatrosses by warps decreased from a mean of 2.9 birds per 100 tows during the period 2003 to 2006 to a mean of 0.7 birds per 100 tows after 2007. Long-term ownership of squid fishery quota catalysed the proactive engagement of the industry and has been reflected in a positive cultural shift in the attitude of fishers towards managing the risk of the capture of seabirds. Multi-sector collaboration and engagement allowed for the translation of experimental mitigation results into long-term, industrial-scale operational practices.

IntroductionSecond-line pharmacotherapy for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (‘diabetes’) is necessary for optimal glycaemic control and preventing longer-term complications. We aimed to describe temporal trends in, and associations of, Australian general practitioner (GP) registrars’ prescription, and initiation, of ‘new’ second-line oral agents (dipeptidyl peptidase 4 inhibitors, sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors, glucagon-like peptide 1 agonists) compared to sulphonylureas.Materials and methodsA longitudinal analysis (2010–2018) of data from the Registrar Clinical Encounters in Training project. Analysis included any diabetes problem/diagnosis that involved prescription of sulphonylureas or ‘new’ oral agents. Simple and multiple logistic regression models were fitted within the generalised estimating equations framework.Results2333 registrars recorded 6064 diabetes problems/diagnoses (1.4%). 835 problems/diagnoses involved sulphonylurea or ‘new’ medication prescription. Of these, 61.0% [95% CI:57.4–64.4] involved ‘new’ medication prescription. 230 problems/diagnoses involved sulphonylurea or ‘new’ medication initiation, with 77% [95%CI:70.8–82.1] involving a ‘new’ medication. There was a significant 52% per year increase in prescribing (OR = 1.52[95% CI:1.38–1.68],p<0.001), and a 77% per (two-to-three-year) time-interval increase in initiation (OR = 1.77,[95% CI:1.30–2.43],p = <0.001) of ‘new’ medications compared to sulphonylureas. ‘New’ medications were prescribed less for non-English-speaking patients. There was some regional variation in prescribing.ConclusionRegistrar uptake of ‘new’ oral agents compared to sulphonylureas has increased rapidly.

Abstract Pleistocene periglacial activity in eastern Australia was widespread and has been predicted to have extended along much of the east coast. This paper describes block deposits in the New England Tablelands, Australia, as far north as 30°S. These deposits are characterized by openwork blocks on slopes below the angle of repose. The deposits are positioned where frost cracking was significant and range in area up to 8 ha. Surface exposure dating using the cosmogenic nuclide36Cl from four block deposits indicate all sites were active late during the last glacial cycle, with a concentration of activity between 15–30 ka. Modern temperature measurements from block deposits highlight the importance of local topography for promoting freezing. Periglacial deposits are likely to have been more extensive than previously recognized at these northern limits, and mean annual temperature more than 8°C colder than today.