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Research School of Biology Forum - Big Questions in Biology

In this discussion forum, four internationally recognised researchers from ANU's Research School of Biology will present their own research on different aspects of Australian biodiversity.

They will look back at historical evidence to show how Australian plants and animals evolved and what factors have influenced them.

By analysing the variety of animals and plants in Australia today, the researchers will propose ways they can be managed, protected and used effectively.

The presenters will then come together to discuss the future of Australia's biodiversity and what factors, including climate change, are likely to influence it.

All welcome. Please register for catering purposes.

Big Questions in Biology - podcast now available

Assoc Prof Marcel Cardillo

Why do some parts of the world have many more species than others? It is well known that the tropics tend to be richer in biodiversity than high latitudes – a tropical rainforest in New Guinea, for example, will have many more species of trees, birds, mammals and insects, than a Tasmanian forest of equal size. But despite the generality of the latitudinal diversity gradient, we are still unsure of the explanation: is it climate, evolutionary history, or something else?

Perhaps an even more intriguing pattern of biodiversity is the amazing plant diversity of regions with a dry, Mediterranean-type climate, such as Australia’s southwest. Here we see large numbers of plant species jammed into relatively small areas, even in featureless landscapes with sandy, infertile soils. Testing hypotheses to explain large-scale geographic patterns of biodiversity requires large datasets of different kinds – spatial data on species distributions and environmental features, phylogenetic information on the evolutionary history and relationships among species, and ideally, fossil information to help estimate the timing of evolutionary events.

Discussion questions:
1. What are the major hypotheses to explain the high biodiversity of the tropics?
2. How general is the latitudinal diversity gradient? Are there exceptions and can we learn anything from these?

Prof Craig Moritz, CBA Director

Australia is globally recognized as having high and very unique biological diversity. Evolutionary biologists are leading the charge to discover and understand this rich heritage, which we as a nation must protect. Even for vertebrates – and reptiles and amphibians in particular – we are far from having a full inventory, and this “Linneaen shortfall” is becoming especially obvious in the tropical north.

Prof Moritz will present some recent research showing that the diversity of the vast Australian Monsoonal Tropics – from Cape York to the Kimberley – has been vast underestimated. This work is revealing new hotspots of unique diversity that need to considered to find the balance between conservation and development of the north. It also highlights the importance of Indigenous Protected Areas, and the ecological management done by Indigenous Rangers across the region.

Dr Carsten Kulheim

Surprised to see the Australian iconic eucalypt on your overseas trip? Not only are they the most planted hardwood trees worldwide and dominate most terrestrial ecosystems in Australia, with 800 species, Australia is also filled with eucalypt diversity. This diversity does not stop with species numbers as eucalypts have high levels of chemical diversity and can contain up to six chemotypes (groups that are dominated by one or several groups of chemicals). These chemical diversities have profound effects on ecosystems as eucalypts are often foundation species and therefore influence surrounding biodiversity of everything from bacteria to fungi and from insects to birds.

Many eucalypt species have a small geographic distribution and changes in the environment will endanger their continuing existence. Dr Kulheim will discuss what climate change means for eucalypt distributions in the future, the effects on the ecosystem if key players are eliminated and the use of chemotypes for novel applications such as the production of high-tech graphene and high energy biofuel production.

Prof Adrienne Nicotra

The world’s Mountains, the Himalaya, the Rockies, the Australian Alps, define the water catchments that drive our societies, sequester massive amounts of carbon in tall wet forests and organic soils, are biodiversity hotspots and hold tremendous socio-cultural significance.

In Australia, the Alps alone provide more than 35% of agricultural water valued at more than $10B to the national economy. Contribution to the conventional, hydro- and emerging energy industries represents an additional large economic input. The future of our High Mountain environments thus has pervasive implications for our society as well as the environment and biodiversity.

But mountain systems face an unprecedented ecological crisis from climate and land use change. The ongoing security of Australian agriculture and energy industries relies on ensuring a sustainable, functioning high mountain ecosystem.

Rapid climate change is threatening alpine regions in Australia and across the world more acutely than many other regions as alpine warming is accelerated and alpine species have little option for migration. These changes will affect the distribution of species and the community composition of our iconic alpine landscapes. Decisions about how to prepare for and manage these changes require not only sound science, but substantive discussions among researchers, managers, and society at large. Prof. Nicotra will discuss the impacts of climate change on alpine biodiversity and the steps being taken by alpine stakeholders to prepare for these.