Ary Hoffman, Program Leader
"What CESAR
biomonitoring research is really doing is taking advantage of the massive
amounts of invertebrate biodiversity in environments and DNA techniques to
develop smarter ways of monitoring environmental stresses; this provides a much
more detailed picture of what is wrong with an environment and how it can be
fixed
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The Biomonitoring Program
The central aim of the biomonitoring program is to come up
with better indicators for monitoring environmental stress. Primarily, we focus
on invertebrates as indicators. Invertebrates make excellent environmental
indicators due to their diversity, abundance, diverse array of responses to
environmental change and the important role they play in many ecosystems. The biomonitoring
program has evolved into two components:
- Aquatic biomonitoring
- Terrestrial biomonitoring
Aquatic Biomonitoring
The aquatic biomonitoring program primarily targets
macroinvertebrates identified to species-level as indicators of pollution. The program
utilizes the broad range of pollution sensitivities found in aquatic
macroinvertebrates, notably chironomids, and uses these to assess whether
aquatic environments are impaired from pollution. A field based microcosm
method for pollution assessment and molecular approaches for chironomid species
identification represent some of our research achievements.
Other research in the aquatic program covers:
- Investigating the impact of exotic fish species
- Conservation strategies for endangered fish species
- Morphological trait variation of Egeria densa in response
to sediment pollution
Program Highlights for 2007
- Completion of a
large microcosm experiment examining sediment toxicity in several urban streams
and comparing this to rapid bioassessment approaches
- Conducted one of
the first studies on potential effects of sediment contaminants on waterway
health in the Yarra and Murray
Rivers
- Molecular studies
on introduced pest loach demonstrating the presence of at least three (3)
different species in Australia,
showing one of these species originated from China
- Completion of a
microsatellite characterisation of population structure of mosquito fish
Terrestrial Biomonitoring
The terrestrial biomonitoring group uses
invertebrates to measure current impacts and develop methods to monitor change
in response to changes in practice across a range of agricultural and natural
environments. We provide for a variety of end users such as GWRDC, GRDC,
various CMAs, wine companies such Fosters, Hardy’s and De Bortoli, and
individual grape and grain growers.
There is a widespread growing interest in reducing
the impact of contaminants while protecting and conserving our natural resource
base for future generations. This has led to a call for new indicators and
strategies to increase biodiversity on farms and in agricultural landscapes,
and for developing ways to decrease the effects of chemicals and increase sustainable
food production. To be useful in measuring change, indicators must provide
measurable and repeatable information in response to the question being asked
about the environment. Invertebrates are abundant and diverse, sensitive and
responsive to change and functionally important in that they facilitate soil
turnover, include many pests, and play an essential role in pest suppression. The
diversity of invertebrates in agricultural and natural environments and the
important roles they play combined with their responsiveness to change gives
them enormous potential to be used as indicators.
Program Highlights for 2007
- CESAR chemical information for
industry users has been extended to allow prediction of season long impact on
beneficials. The web page will now not only provide information but also allows
growers to calculate the index (“Collateral Management”) and will go live in
early 2008.
- Successful development of primers
for LBAM - now on to demonstrate field predation of light brown apple moth by
spiders!
- A team effort was required to
achieve successful exclusion of ants from a vineyard canopy. We are now looking
at effects of this exclusion on pests and beneficials.
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