Australian freshwater turtle populations have declined substantially, with consequent losses to aquatic ecosystem functions. A leading hypothesis is that turtles have declined through lost recruitment caused by high nest predation by invasive foxes. The ‘fox hypothesis’ is supported by experiments showing that nest predation rates exceed 95% in many regions. Furthermore, population surveys have repeatedly found absences of juvenile turtles, and headstarting experiments have successfully replaced those juveniles in some species. We are currently leading a nationwide citizen science program, ‘1 Million Turtles’ (1millionturtles.com), to engage local communities to protect turtles from threats like nest predation using a suite of novel approaches. Our key innovation is to leverage community passion and interest for turtles to create positive conservation impacts via a nationwide support network. We provide a data collection tool and framework (TurtleSAT) and self-guided training in conservation methods. We assist with guidance for gaining licencing and permission, and applying for grants. We are evaluating our approach through both the impacts on turtle populations as well as through surveys of our engaged citizen scientists. Ultimately, we aim to create a science-supported, national grassroots conservation model where community champions can lead their own evidence-based approaches to help wildlife.

Background:The Boran (Bos indicus), indigenous Zebu cattle breed from subSaharan Africa, is remarkably well adapted to harsh tropical environments. Due to financial constraints and low-quality forage, African livestock are rarely fed at 100% maintenance energy requirements (MER) and the effect of sub-optimal restricted feeding on the rumen microbiome of African Zebu cattle remains largely unexplored. We collected 24 rumen fluid samples from six Boran cattle fed at suboptimal and optimal MER levels and characterised their rumen microbial composition by performing shotgun metagenomics and de novo assembly of metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs). These MAGs were used as reference database to investigate the effect of diet restriction on the composition and functional potential of the rumen microbiome of African cattle.

Results: We report 1200 newly discovered MAGs from the rumen of Boran cattle. A total of 850 were dereplicated, and their uniqueness confirmed with pairwise comparisons (based on Mash distances) between African MAGs and other publicly available genomes from the rumen. A genome-centric investigation into sub-optimal diets highlighted a statistically significant effect on rumen microbial abundance profiles and a previously unobserved relationship between whole microbiome shifts in functional potential and taxon-level associations in metabolic pathways.

Conclusions: This study is the first to identify 1200 high-quality African rumen specific MAGs and provides further insight into the rumen function in harsh environments with food scarcity. The genomic information from the rumen microbiome of an indigenous African cattle breed sheds light on the microbiome contribution to rumen functionality and constitutes a vital resource in addressing food security in developing countries.

Sheep and goats have been produced in Fiji from as early as the 1840s and the country currently has the largest small ruminant production of all Pacific Island Countries. The first local research on small ruminants started in the 1950s. Over the decades the small ruminant production systems have been influenced by numerous challenges but remained an integral part of agricultural production systems in Fiji.

A database search was performed to better understand technologies tested and developed in local small ruminant research activities. Historic literature reviews and additional grey literature were considered additionally. The available published literature was systematically reviewed identifying technologies that have been adopted and persisted over time. Factors fostering or constraining their adoption were assessed. In addition, several key informant interviews revealed current challenges and developments of small ruminant research, and extension, in Fiji.

Four main drivers of the institutional environment for small ruminant research in Fiji have been identified. Among them, the Ministry of Agriculture of Fiji has traditionally been a proponent of small ruminant research to this day. Its efficiency in delivering research outcomes has fluctuated greatly over time.

Results revealed that key production system aspects have also been the focal areas of small ruminant research in Fiji with a strong focus on gastro-intestinal parasite management, breeding and forage development. The development of the Fiji Fantastic sheep breed has been a concerted success of the research and extension system and remains of great importance.

Conclusions from the literature review and key informant interviews include that many of the current challenges have remained unchanged since the beginning of small ruminant production in Fiji. The government is trying to find new ways to support the development of the local small ruminant sector. An aging farming population, the status of small ruminant production compared to other agricultural activities, low accessibility of small ruminant technologies and traditional land lease systems remain substantial impediments.

Crocodylians are among Earth’s most successful hyper-carnivores, with their crocodyliform ancestors persisting since the Triassic. The diets of extinct crocodyliforms are typically inferred from distinctive bite-marks on fossil bone, which indicate that some species fed on contemporaneous dinosaurs. Nevertheless, the most direct dietary evidence (i.e. preserved gut contents) of these interactions in fossil crocodyliforms has been elusive. Here we report on a new crocodyliform, Confractosuchus sauroktonos gen. et sp. nov., from the Cenomanian (92.5–104 Ma) of Australia, with exceptionally preserved abdominal contents comprising parts of a juvenile ornithopod dinosaur. A phylogenetic analysis recovered Confractosuchus as the sister taxon to a clade comprising susisuchids and hylaeochampsids. The ornithopod remains displayed clear evidence of oral processing, carcass reduction (dismemberment) and bone fragmentation, which are diagnostic hallmarks of some modern crocodylian feeding behaviour. Nevertheless, a macro-generalist feeding strategy for Confractosuchus similar to extant crocodylians is supported by a morphometric analysis of the skull and reveals that dietary versatility accompanied the modular assembly of the modern crocodylian bauplan. Of further interest, these ornithopod bones represent the first skeletal remains of the group from the Winton Formation, previously only known from shed teeth and tracks, and may represent a novel taxon.

In this paper, we discuss the theory behind calibration curve experiments and their application to a zinc (Zn) bioavailability study with broiler chickens. Seven replicates of 16 male commercial broiler chicks were fed starter diets for 14 days. Six diets had different levels of a potential Zn source and one was a positive control with standard industry levels of Zn for comparison. Four commonly used methods of calculating bioavailability means and confidence intervals (CI) from a calibration curve (standard curve) experiment to estimate the bioavailability of a new zinc source in broiler chickens were compared. The methods compared were the following: 1) the Counter-Intuitive Method uses a multiple-range test to compare unknown test and standard samples; 2) the Intuitive Method uses standard linear regression and inverts the equation to predict Zn bioavailability for each replicate of test samples; 3) the Abductive Method uses Graybill's Equation, based on theory and observation, to estimate CI's; and 4) the Sophistic Method uses reverse regression, and calculates Zn bioavailability values directly from the equation. The Counter-Intuitive Method only gives information about which standards the test samples are, or are not, significantly different from respectively (average available Zn not predicted). The Intuitive Method ignores error about the standard curve and theoretically cannot estimate the CI directly (X̄±SEM = 107.5 ± 15.8 mg Zn/kg). The Sophistic Method underestimates and overestimates the test sample mean values above and below the mean of the standards, respectively (X̄ = 96.6 mg Zn/kg). The Abductive Method has an advantage over the other methods: The mean prediction estimation is consistent with theory (107.5 ± 6.1 mg Zn/kg; X̄±SEM). When test or "unknown" samples are near the mean of the standard samples, the CI is smaller than when near the extremes of the calibration curve. When calibration curve error is small (R² > approximately 0.95), there is little advantage to using the Abductive Method, but when calibration curve error is larger, as in many bioassays with growing animals, the Abductive Method improves the accuracy of the CI calculations. The Abductive Method was used to demonstrate the influence of the number of replicate samples on experimental power and cost.

Aboriginal Communities are continuing to revitalise Aboriginal Burning to reinstate it in the broader landscape. While Aboriginal Burning Practices and the theoretical frameworks have the potential to assist in the management of bushfire and biodiversity threats, Western Scientists continue to misconstrue these Aboriginal practices and theory.

Using a Theory of Wiradjuri Knowledge (or Aboriginal Science) I apply it to an understanding of how Knowledge is emerged to ngadhuringa ‘Caring for’ the Land through Reciprocal Obligations. Through critically reviewing the concept of Cultural Loss I show how the concept of Cultural Change fits the evidence better. With the general preconception of what is termed ‘Traditional Knowledge’ which does not truly represent what is happening, Aboriginal Mob struggle to present our understandings of Cultural Burning in a way that meets the general template of this ‘traditional Knowledge’ and so is undervalued by land managers and related Scientists.

The three practical and theoretical problems this thesis addresses are: Western Science destabilises Aboriginal knowledge; how Aboriginal Mobs’ Land and Sea Management is impacted by past cultural change; and how cultural ways are required to intellectualise Aboriginal burning practices. In this way our Ancestors, particularly Brush Turkey guides our understandings. I have developed a research approach for creating change within Western models of Aboriginal Burning as an insurgent act of challenging existing paradigms.

From this way of understanding the Cultural Practice of Aboriginal Cultural Burning, I created a model of Aboriginal Cultural burning to inform the debate and inform the practice of Cultural Burning. The model is based on the nature of Aboriginal concepts of the cosmos and how the contributions of the Ancestors, including Brush Turkey, emerged from the landscape, Dhuruwirra.

By reenvisaging Aboriginal Cultural Practice as Aboriginal Science we can empower this Aboriginal Cultural Practice as an Alternative Knowledge Source for management of Country. My approach is that emergent methodologies provide a space for developing these ideas. In Aboriginal Societies, knowledge is emerged out of Country through sharing relationships with Human and NonHuman things.

Beneficial and pest invertebrates occur in irrigated cotton crops and in the surrounding landscape. Thus, farming and landscape management are inextricably linked in the challenge to encourage beneficial invertebrate survival and pest suppression. Cotton production has advanced recently in the cultivation of genetically modified cotton, areawide crop management and a reduction in reliance on insecticides. All these strategies contribute to enhancing the number of beneficial invertebrates and reducing the prevalence of pests in cotton crops. Beneficial and pest invertebrates also appear in other common winter crops such as wheat. However, only a small body of research has been conducted on the landscape-wide abundance of beneficial and pest invertebrates, and even less attention has been given to the non-crop habitat near to cotton crops that may play an essential role in beneficial and pest invertebrate abundance in cotton.

This study was undertaken in a cotton-growing area in the Namoi Valley near Boggabri, in northern New South Wales, and an a landscape matrix including riparian river red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) woodland, poplar box (E. populnea) woodland, and native grassland dominated by weeds such as Ammi majus, Aster subulatus, Avena fatua, Bromus catharticus, Cynodon dactylon, Urochloa panicoides and Rapistrum rugosum. Gaining an understanding of beneficial and pest invertebrate abundance and their response to different habitat types requires careful consideration of sampling strategy because of the variety of taxa and different habitats to be studied. With regard to sampling strategy, we compared two sampling methods (beat box and D-vacuum) for sampling key pest and beneficial invertebrates in different habitats. The aim of the first experiment was to evaluate the efficacy of the D-vac and beat box in sampling different invertebrate taxa in different vegetation types. The beat box sampling technique with four beats and six subsamples (the level of sampling effort required at each site in each vegetation type) were sufficient to capture the principal beneficial invertebrate taxa (ants, spiders, blue and red beetles, lady beetles and lacewings) and principal pest invertebrates (leafhoppers, apple dimpling bugs, red-shouldered leaf beetles, peanut scarab beetles, brown flea beetles, cotton seed bugs, flower beetles, mirids, Rutherglen bugs and aphids).

The aim of the second experiment was to examine invertebrate abundance and irrigated cotton yields associated with changing farm management over time. Five years of beatsheet sampling was conducted on three farms near Boggabri NSW, from the beginning to the end of each summer cotton growing season 2009 till 2014. Beneficial invertebrates were significantly more abundant in the 2013/14 season than in the 2009/10 season, while pest invertebrates were significantly more abundant in 2009/10 than 2013/14. In addition, cotton yields were significantly greater in 2013/14 than 2009/10. These changes were associated with avoidance of insecticide use in cotton over the 5 years, which was valuable for increasing beneficial numbers and suppressing pests in cotton and led to greater yield.

The aim of the next experiment was to determine the role of woody native vegetation and weedy native grassland in influencing the abundance of pests and beneficial invertebrates in irrigated cotton crops and the impact of farm management (conventional vs low-insecticide management) on these interactions. Beneficial invertebrates; ants (Hymenopteran), spiders (Araneae), blue and red beetles Tectocoris diophthalmus and lady beetles (Coccinellidae) and pest invertebrates; leafhoppers (Cicadellidae), apple dimpling bugs (Campylomma liebknechti), red-shouldered leaf beetles (Monolepta australis), peanut scarab beetles (Scarabaeidae), brown flea beetles (Chrysomelidae), cotton seed bugs (Oxycarenus hyalinipennis), flower beetles (Coleoptera), mirids (Miridae) and Rutherglen bugs (Lygaeidae) were sampled with beat box on two different types of farm (low-insecticide management vs conventional management) in different habitats (river red gum and poplar box woodland, weedy native grassland, irrigated cotton and refuge crops) in cotton crops stratified by distance to and amount of close by woody native vegetation. Cotton crops with a larger amount of woody native vegetation nearby on low-insecticide managed farms harboured more beneficial invertebrates than on conventionally managed farms. Cotton crops with a larger amount of woody native vegetation nearby on low-insecticide managed farms harboured less pest invertebrates than conventionally managed farms. Woodland harboured more beneficial invertebrates and less pest invertebrates than weedy native grassland, and woody native vegetation on low-insecticide farms harboured more beneficial than pest invertebrates. Cotton crops close to large amounts of native vegetation harboured more beneficials than pests on both types of farm. These results were due to minimal use of insecticides on three farms, which allowed significantly greater pest suppression by beneficial invertebrates.

The aim of the last experiment was to understand the role of woody native vegetation, weedy grassland and spring wheat crops in influencing the abundance of pest and beneficial invertebrates throughout the year in cotton landscapes in northern NSW characterised by two types of farm management: conventional vs low-insecticide management. Beneficial invertebrates (ants, spiders, blue and red beetles and lady beetles) and pest invertebrates (leafhoppers, apple dimpling bugs, peanut scarab beetles, brown flea beetles, flower beetles, mirids, Rutherglen bugs and aphids) were sampled with the beat box on two different types of farm (low-insecticide management vs conventional management) in different habitats (river red gum and poplar box woodland, weedy native grassland, and rotation wheat crops) over the summer and winter growing seasons. Rotation crops (winter growing season) were stratified by distance to and amount of nearby woody native vegetation. Blue and red beetles were absent from grassland, while aphids, Rutherglen bugs, mirids and red-shouldered beetles were abundant but only occurred in grassland. Generally, beneficial invertebrates in total were more abundant on low-insecticide managed farms than on conventionally managed farms, although not always significantly so. In contrast, pest invertebrates in total were less abundant on farms managed with a low-insecticide regime than on farms managed conventionally, although the difference were not always significant. Rotation crops with a higher amount of woody native vegetation nearby on low-insecticide farms harboured less aphids than conventionally managed farms, and this was similar to the pattern in ant abundance. The differences in pest and beneficial invertebrates among farms were related to the amount of woody native vegetation, grassland and reduced reliance on insecticides.

The results in this thesis will encourage researchers and cotton growers to use the beat box sampling technique to sample invertebrate taxa in different habitats (river red gum and poplar box woodland, weedy grassland, irrigated cotton, refuge crops and rotation wheat crops). However, landscape management through conservation and revegetation of woodland habitats e. g. river red gum and poplar box woodland close to cotton fields is also important for supporting beneficial invertebrate abundance in nearby cotton fields. To protect crops, growers can plant local eucalypt species into weedy grassland to restore woodland habitats, as weedy grassland harbours more pests than beneficial invertebrates. Weeds in grassland are a primary food resource for pest invertebrates, some feeding exclusively in weedy grasslands such as Rutherglen bugs and others preferring weeds when crops are absent, such as mirids. We assumed that pest abundance was high in weedy grassland due to the reduced abundance of beneficial invertebrates and lower predation of pests than in woody native vegetation, as well as due to the feeding preferences of pest invertebrates for weeds in grassland. To manage farms, a reduction in the reliance on insecticides to advantage beneficial invertebrate abundance should lead to environmental benefits as well as increased profit in irrigated cotton production.

Climate change and future warming will significantly affect crop yield. The capacity of crops to dynamically adjust physiological processes (i.e., acclimate) to warming might improve overall performance. Understanding and quantifying the degree of acclimation in field crops could ensure better parameterization of crop and Earth System models and predictions of crop performance. We hypothesized that for field-grown wheat, when measured at a common temperature (25^◦C), crops grown under warmer conditions would exhibit acclimation, leading to enhanced crop performance and yield. Acclimation was defined as (a) decreased rates of net photosynthesis at 25^◦C(A²⁵) coupled with lower maximum carboxylation capacity (V_cmax²⁵), (b) reduced leaf dark respiration at 25^◦C (both in terms of O₂ consumption R_dark_O₂²⁵ and CO₂ efflux R_dark_CO₂²⁵) and (c) lower R_dark_CO₂²⁵ to V_cmax²⁵ratio. Field experiments were conducted over two seasons with 20 wheat genotypes, sown at three different planting dates, to test these hypotheses. Leaf-level CO₂-based traits (A²⁵, R_dark_CO₂²⁵ and V_cmax²⁵) did not show the classic acclimation responses that we hypothesized; by contrast, the hypothesized changes in R_dark_O₂ were observed. These findings have implications for predictive crop models that assume similar temperature response among these physiological processes and for predictions of crop performance in a future warmer world.

Organo-mineral interactions control the stabilisation of soil organic matter (SOM) in mineral soils. Biochar can enhance these interactions via a range of mechanisms including Al-dominant cation bridging in acidic soils, ligand exchange, H-bonding, and π- π-bonding with polycyclic aromatics. But, field-based evidence of their magnitude is lacking. Here we assessed the role of organo-mineral interactions on the observed biochar-induced negative priming of native soil organic carbon (SOC) in a Ferralsol under annual ryegrass. Using repeated pulse labelling, the magnitude of production and fate of recently photosynthesised ¹³C was traced amongst: soil plus root respiration, root biomass, soil aggregates and aggregate-associated C fractions. Biochar (Eucalyptus saligna, 450 °C) amendment (30 Mg ha⁻¹ ) increased total belowground ¹³C recovery by 10% compared to the unamended control over the 12 month sampling period. We detected the greatest quantity of rhizodeposit in the mineral-protected SOM within macroaggregates (250–2000 μm). Through synchrotron-based spectroscopic analysis of bulk soils, we provide evidence of a mechanism for biochar-induced negative priming which is the accumulation of rhizodeposits in organo-mineral (i.e. aggregate-protected and silt/clay-bound) fractions.

Context. Genomic prediction is the use of genomic data in the estimation of genomic breeding values (GEBV) in animal breeding. In beef cattle breeding programs, genomic prediction increases the rates of genetic gain by increasing the accuracy of selection at earlier ages. Aims. The objectives of the study were to examine the effect of single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) density and to evaluate the effect of using SNPs preselected from imputed whole-genome sequence for genomic prediction. Methods. Genomic and phenotypic data from 2110 Hanwoo steers were used to predict GEBV for marbling score (MS), meat texture (MT), and meat colour (MC) traits. Three types of SNP densities including 50k, high-density (HD), and whole-genome sequence data and preselected SNPs from genome-wide association study (GWAS) were used for genomic prediction analyses. Two scenarios (independent and dependent discovery populations) were used to select top significant SNPs. The accuracy of GEBV was assessed using random cross-validation. Genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP) was used to predict the breeding values for each trait. Key results. Our result showed that very similar prediction accuracies were observed across all SNP densities used in the study. The prediction accuracy among traits ranged from 0.29 ± 0.05 for MC to 0.46 ± 0.04 for MS. Depending on the studied traits, up to 5% of prediction accuracy improvement was obtained when the preselected SNPs from GWAS analysis were included in the prediction analysis. Conclusions. High SNP density such as HD and the whole-genome sequence data yielded a similar prediction accuracy in Hanwoo beef cattle. Therefore, the 50K SNP chip panel is sufficient to capture the relationships in a breed with a small effective population size such as the Hanwoo cattle population. Preselected variants improved prediction accuracy when they were included in the genomic prediction model. Implications. The estimated genomic prediction accuracies are moderately accurate in Hanwoo cattle and for searching for SNPs that are more productive could increase the accuracy of estimated breeding values for the studied traits.

The objective of this study was to compare the accuracies of genomic prediction for milk yield, fat yield, and protein yield from Philippine dairy buffaloes using genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP) and single-step GBLUP (ssGBLUP) with the accuracies based on pedigree BLUP (pBLUP). To also assess the bias of the prediction, the regression coefficient (slope) of the adjusted phenotypes on the predicted breeding values (BVs) was also calculated. Two data sets were analyzed. The GENO data consisting of all female buffaloes that have both phenotypes and genotypes (n = 904 with 1,773,305-days lactation records) were analyzed using pBLUP and GBLUP. The ALL data, consisting of the GENO data plus females with phenotypes but not genotyped (n = 1,975 with 3,821,305-days lactation records), were analyzed using pBLUP and ssGBLUP. Animals were genotyped with the Affymetrix 90k buffalo genotyping array. After quality control, 60,827 single-nucleotide polymorphisms were used for downward analysis. A pedigree file containing 2,642 animals was used for pBLUP and ssGBLUP. Accuracy of prediction was calculated as the correlation between the predicted BVs of the test set and adjusted phenotypes, which were corrected for fixed effects, divided by the square root of the heritability of the trait, corrected for the number of lactations used in the test set. To assess the bias of the prediction, the regression coefficient (slope) of the adjusted phenotypes on the predicted BVs was also calculated. Results showed that genomic methods (GBLUP and ssGBLUP) provide more accurate predictions compared to pBLUP. Average GBLUP and ssGBLUP accuracies were 0.24 and 0.29, respectively, whereas average pBLUP accuracies (for GENO and ALL data) were 0.21 and 0.22, respectively. Slopes of the two genomic methods were also closer to one, indicating lesser bias, compared to pBLUP. Average GBLUP and ssGBLUP slopes were 0.89 and 0.84, respectively, whereas the average pBLUP (for GENO and ALL data) slopes were 0.80 and 0.54, respectively.

The accuracy and utility of low-cost PM_2.5 sensors was evaluated for measuring spatial variation and modeling population exposure to PM_2.5 pollution from domestic wood-heating (DWH) in Armidale, a regional town in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, to obtain estimates of health costs and mortality. Eleven 'PurpleAir' (PA) monitors were deployed, including five located part of the time at the NSW government station (NSWGov) to derive calibration equations. Calibrated PA PM_2.5 were almost identical to the NSWGov tapered element oscillating microbalance (TEOM) and Armidale Regional Council's 2017 DustTrak measurements. Spatial variation was substantial. National air quality standards were exceeded 32 times from May-August 2018 at NSWGov and 63 times in one residential area. Wood heater use by about 50% of households increased estimated annual PM_2.5 exposure by over eight micrograms per cubic meter, suggesting increased mortality of about 10% and health costs of thousands of dollars per wood heater per year. Accurate real-time community-based monitoring can improve estimates of exposure and avoid bias in estimating dose-response relationships. Efforts over the past decade to reduce wood smoke pollution proved ineffective, perhaps partly because some residents do not understand the health impacts or costs of wood-heating. Real-time Internet displays can increase awareness of DWH and bushfire pollution and encourage governments to develop effective policies to protect public health, as recommended by several recent studies in which wood smoke was identified as a major source of health-hazardous air pollution.