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Predation by feral cats (Felis catus) has caused the extinction of many native species in Australia and globally. There is growing evidence that the impacts of feral cats can be amplified in post‐fire environments, as cats are drawn to hunt in or around recently burnt areas and are also more effective hunters in open habitats. In 2018–2019, we established arrays of camera traps to estimate the abundance of feral cats on Kangaroo Island, South Australia. Much of the island (including five of our seven survey sites) was subsequently burnt in a severe wildfire (December 2019–February 2020). We re‐sampled the sites 3–8 months post‐fire (seven sites) and 11–12 months post‐fire (three sites). At two unburnt sites sampled post‐fire, it was possible to produce density estimates of cats using a spatially explicit capture–recapture approach. Where estimating density was not possible (due to low detections or individual cats not being distinguishable), the number of individuals and percentage of trap nights with detections was compared between the sampling periods. Some low‐level cat control occurred within 2 km of three of the seven arrays (all within the burn scar) within 3 months of the fire. Across the five burnt sites, there was a decline in cat detections post‐fire (including those without post‐fire cat control). At 3–8 months post‐fire, there was, on average, a 57% reduction in the number of individual cats, and a 65% reduction in the number of nights with cat detections, relative to pre‐fire levels. Although cat detections declined following the fire, reduced population sizes of prey species and reduced cover as a result of the fire might still mean that cat predation is a threat to some surviving prey species. Management that reduces feral cat predation pressure on wildlife following wildfire should enhance the likelihood of post‐fire wildlife persistence and recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perhaps one of the central questions in ecology has been what limits the geographic distribution of species. The geographic distributions of the reptile‐ticks Amblyomma limbatum, Bothriocroton hydrosauri and Amblyomma albolimbatum are a classic example of this problem: where these ticks meet, narrow regions‐of‐overlap often occur. Despite studies of interactions among these ticks, and of these ticks and their environment, we still do not understand what limits their geographic distributions. Many hypotheses have been proposed and tested, but all have seemingly been rejected. Our aim was to account for the abundance and the geographic distributions of A. limbatum and B. hydrosauri at Bundey Bore Station, South Australia, where these species come in contact and have been studied for over 35 years, leading to over 55 000 records of reptiles and their ticks using a capture‐mark‐recapture approach. We constructed models which had combinations of temperature and moisture indices from different months of the year to determine the relationship between climate and tick abundance, and between climate and the shifting local geographic distribution of A. limbatum and B. hydrosauri at Bundey Bore Station. We found that climate together with the abundance of ticks in the previous year and the abundance of the lizard host, accounted for 54%–77% of the variation in the abundance of A. limbatum and B. hydrosauri among years. We also found that the climate in late autumn to winter, together with the abundance of ticks and their host, accounted for 18%–84% of the variation in the geographic distributions of these ticks among years. Climate was central to the abundance and the geographic distributions of A. limbatum and B. hydrosauri at Bundey Bore Station. We speculate that the same mechanisms account for the geographic distributions of A. limbatum, B. hydrosauri and A. albolimbatum elsewhere in Australia; so, climate may explain the three‐tick problem in Austral ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trilobites were notably flexible in the moulting behaviours they employed, producing a variety of moult configurations preserved in the fossil record. Investigations seeking to explain this moulting variability and its potential impacts are few, despite abundant material being available for study. We present the first quantitative study on moulting in a single trilobite species using a dataset of almost 500 moult specimens of Estaingia bilobata from the Cambrian (Series 2, Stage 4) Emu Bay Shale, South Australia. Specimens were categorized by moulting mode (Salter's or Sutural Gape) and their associated configurations, and their body proportions measured from both a museum collection (including a bycatch sample) and a randomly‐collected field sample. This enabled analysis of the proportion of E. bilobata specimens displaying the Sutural Gape and Salter's modes of moulting and their different configurations, and tests for association between moulting behaviour and body proportions. The results show a wide range of E. bilobata moulting configurations in all samples, suggesting that configurations represent definable instances in a largely continuous spectrum of variation. Analyses comparing body proportions of specimens showing the two modes of moulting were non‐significant, suggesting there is no true association between moulting behaviour and body proportion, except for a single significant result for body length. All results were relatively consistent between the museum and field samples. However, removing accessioned specimens from the museum sample brought results even further in line with the field sample, supporting the need for consideration of museum collection bias in palaeontological analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Orchids are potentially useful as ecological indicators because of their sensitivity to habitat fragmentation and anthropogenic disturbance. While many studies explore the effect of single factors on orchid diversity, few investigate how the extent, configuration, and condition of surrounding habitat affect whole orchid communities. Here, we unravel the effect of biological invasions, anthropogenic disturbance (i.e., grazing pressure, ecological condition), and habitat fragmentation on an Australian orchid community. We sampled 39 plots across nine sites in the Mount Lofty Ranges, Australia. We recorded the number of orchid species and number of individuals per species in mid‐winter, early‐spring, and late‐spring to account for the effect of season on species visibility, with 115 surveys in total. We ranked grazing intensity and ecological condition, and estimated cover of exotic species. We analyzed the response of richness and diversity through generalized linear mixed models, and differences in species composition through non‐metric multidimensional scaling. Habitat configuration in the surrounding landscape had different effects at increasing radii, explaining 29%–87% of variance. Patch‐level orchid diversity was positively correlated with habitat edges in the immediate area, and with habitat cohesion at medium scales, whereas diversity was negatively correlated with increasing mean patch habitat area across larger surrounding areas. Orchids co‐existed with exotic species but were negatively affected once exotic cover exceeded 20%. Species composition was correlated with exotic cover. Our findings reveal a complex relationship between orchid communities and their surrounding environments suggesting orchids benefit from a somewhat disturbed environment at patch and landscape scales. These idiosyncratic responses suggest orchid diversity may be unreliable as early‐warning indicators of habitat disturbance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Nature conservation in both theory and practice is increasingly looking to understand different knowledge systems, including Indigenous worldviews, to achieve complementary conservation and socio‐cultural goals. Here, we share stories from one of the longest running Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs), Walalkara IPA, by Langaliki Robin, daughter of the founders of the IPA, who reflected on her parents' lessons about how Tjukurpa (Dreaming Law) is essential for conservation. Grounded theory analysis of her interview identified the importance of Tjukurpa and the role of Langaliki's parents, particularly her father Tjilpi Robin Kankapankatja in the establishment of the IPA. Tjukurpa was asserted as a core cultural knowledge system that provides Indigenous people with motivation, strength and well‐being, allowing them to maintain access to Country and work cross‐culturally. Tjukurpa influenced the initial declaration, roads and physical layout of the protected area and continues to guide the daily work activities of IPA rangers. According to Langaliki, the key to maintaining strong people and Country is to pass on cultural knowledge and Tjukurpa from generation to generation, especially to younger people. This research suggested that by knowing who the key knowledge holders are, respecting that Tjukurpa exists without being privy to the details, and continuing multi‐generational access to Country, conservation programmes that embrace Indigenous ways of knowing and doing can achieve successful outcomes for nature conservation and Indigenous well‐being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trait‐based approaches are increasingly used as a proxy for understanding the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Macrobenthic fauna are considered one of the major providers of ecosystem functions in marine soft sediments; however, several gaps persist in the knowledge of their trait classification, limiting the potential use of functional assessments. While trait databases are available for the well‐studied North Atlantic benthic fauna, no such trait classification system exists for Australia. Here, we present the South Australian Macrobenthic Traits (SAMT) database, the first comprehensive assessment of macrobenthic fauna traits in temperate Australian waters. The SAMT database includes 13 traits and 54 trait‐modalities (e.g., life history, morphology, physiology, and behavior), and is based on records of macrobenthic fauna from South Australia. We provide trait information for more than 250 macrobenthic taxa, including outcomes from a fuzzy coding procedure, as well as an R package for using and analyzing the SAMT database. The establishment of the SAMT constitutes the foundation for a comprehensive macrobenthic trait database for the wider southern Australian region that could facilitate future research on functional perspectives, such as assessments of functional diversity and changes to ecosystem functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The koala's Phascolarctos cinereus distribution is currently restricted to eastern and south‐eastern Australia. However, fossil records dating from 70 ± 4 ka (ka = 103 yr) from south‐western Australia and the Nullarbor Plain are evidence of subpopulation extinctions in the southwest at least after the Last Interglacial (~128–116 ka). We hypothesize that koala sub‐population extinctions resulted from the eastward retraction of the koala's main browse species in response to unsuitable climatic conditions. We further posit a general reduction in the distribution of main koala‐browse trees in the near future in response climate change. We modelled 60 koala‐browse species and constructed a set of correlative species distribution models for five time periods: Last Interglacial (~128–116 ka), Last Glacial Maximum (~23–19 ka), Mid‐Holocene (~7–5 ka), present (interpolations of observed data, representative of 1960–1990), and 2070. We based our projections on five hindcasts and one forecast of climatic variables extracted from WorldClim based on two general circulation models (considering the most pessimistic scenario of high greenhouse‐gas emissions) and topsoil clay fraction. We used 17 dates of koala fossil specimens identified as reliable from 70 (± 4) to 535 (± 49) ka, with the last appearance of koalas at 70 ka in the southwest. The main simulated koala‐browse species were at their greatest modelled extent of suitability during the Last Glacial Maximum, with the greatest loss of koala habitat occurring between the Mid‐Holocene and the present. We predict a similar habitat loss between the present and 2070. The spatial patterns of habitat change support our hypothesis that koala extinctions in the southwest, Nullarbor Plain and central South Australia resulted from the eastward retraction of the dominant koala‐browse species in response to long‐term climate changes. Future climate patterns will likely increase the extinction risk of koalas in their remaining eastern ranges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Analysis of the distribution of allied dental practitioners relative to the socio-economic profile of the population, to develop a baseline of employment demographics at a time of proposed deregulation of practicing restrictions.Methods: A database of allied dental practitioners (ADP - oral health therapists, dental therapists and dental hygienists) was compiled from the public access register of the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency. The principal practice locations limited to suburb and postcode were geocoded by latitude and longitude and superimposed on a map of the Australian landmass using QGIS software. Using Australian Bureau of Statistics data, the number of ADPs for each Statistical Area 2 (SA2) was counted and apportioned according to proportion of the population within each SA2 for each quintile of the Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD). The results were reported according to oral health therapists, dental therapists and dental hygienists per 100 000 population for each IRSD quintile, by state and territory, and the Australian Regional Index for Areas (ARIA+).Results: The ADP to population ratio was not consistent for each professional class between states and territories, IRSD quintiles and (ARIA+) regional areas. Across major cities, South Australia was the state with the highest ratio of oral health therapists (10.6-12.9) and dental hygienists (14.6-24.5) for all IRSD quintiles. Western Australia had the highest ratio of dental therapists (9.3-16.0), CONCLUSION: There is no consistent pattern of distribution of ADPs relative to the socio-economic profile of the population across states and territories, and regional (ARIA+) areas of Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study evaluated the associations between oral and general health behaviours, self-reported health and quality of life of adults aged 75 years or older living independently in South Australia.Methods: A cross sectional study based on a self-report mailed questionnaire was conducted in 590 independently living adults aged 75 years or older. Self-ratings of oral health and general health were assessed using single-item global ratings. Quality of life was measured using the Oral Health Impact Profile and the EuroQol instrument for health utility.Results: The overall response rate was 78%. The current analyses were restricted to 354 dentate older adults. Increasing age and being female were negatively associated with EuroQol scores. Good self-rated oral and general health were more prevalent in participants with higher social status who also had lower oral health impact and higher EuroQol scores. Good self-rated oral and general health were less prevalent while oral health impact was greater in participants who ate few fruits, vegetables or dairy products.Conclusions: Self-rated health and quality of life were poor in older adults with inadequate fruit/vegetables/dairy intake and lower social status. These findings suggest that nutrition and socioeconomic factors may be important to the oral and general health of adults aged 75 years or older. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]