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Decades of industrial-scale logging have damaged the structure, function, and composition of Australia's forests; increased the threat from severe fires; and generated social distrust – all in a disrupted climate regime. As state agencies withdraw from logging, restoration of forest resilience becomes paramount. We critique two recent proposals for 'commercial timber operations' in two Australian states that have recently 'ceased logging native forests': (1) wind-throw removal via 'community forestry' in Victoria; and (2) 'ecological thinning' in Western Australia. Analysis suggests that ecological restoration will require: (1) scientifically valid and reliable projects; (2) integration across knowledge systems; (3) full cost-benefit accounting; (4) repair of forest legacy damage; (5) restoration of environmental resilience; (6) control of environmental weeds, pests and pathogens; (7) enhanced capacity for early detection of, and rapid response to disturbance; (8) generation of trust to enable a social licence; (9) fostering integrity in media and public relations; and (10) appropriate categorisation in land use. Neither case study demonstrate the application of these forest restoration principles nor provides a way to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposals. These case studies continue the resource-led exploitation of post-production forests, exacerbating damage through the continued depletion of the natural assets essential to generating resilience. Moving beyond resource-led to environment-led management is necessary to restore the ecological integrity of these forests. A shift from the resource-led focus to an environment-led focus guided by scientifically validated principles is likely to also require new administrative and governance arrangements for these forests. Two case studies of 'ecological forestry' ('community forestry' in Victoria, and 'ecological thinning' in Western Australia) demonstrate the urgency to transition from resource-led to environment-led management in the restoration of post-production forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context. The tall forests of Victoria, Australia, which are available for logging, are foreshadowed to be converted from mature forest to hostile environments for mature-forest dependent species by 2030. This has occurred within a 60-year time-frame since the advent of industrial-scale logging in the region. In this light, Protection Areas (PAs) of approximately 100 ha have been implemented to protect habitat with high density populations of Yellow-bellied Gliders (Petaurus australis) and Southern Greater Gliders (Petauroides volans). Aims and methods. Ten considerations are provided to guide location and design of PAs, and to provide set asides and other forms of protection for mature-forest dependent species in the context of the temporal and spatial scale of logging activity. Key results. Considerations are grouped into Overall approach (precautionary), Survey records and habitat attributes (occurrence, habitat, vegetation types), Size and shape considerations (edge and fragmentation effects); Management history (logging and fire), and Boundary considerations (context and conditions). In addition, set asides encompassing home ranges; and high levels of basal area retention, are also required in the remainder of planned logging coupes. Conclusions. Addressing these considerations in PAs, in set asides and in retention will provide some protection for mature-forest dependent species, but will be insufficient without ecologically sustainable forest management at the coupe level, forthe sustained yield of all habitat components of these forests. Implications. The conservation of mature-forest dependentspeciesin the context of an ongoing timber industry requires logging return times well beyond current expectations, resulting in a substantial reduction in resource commitment to industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Restoration interventions require knowledge on the suitability of seed sources. Provenance delineation for ecological restoration of degraded environments has begun to incorporate genome‐wide information on adaptive variation, but this has only been completed on a small number of plant species. Rarely is provenance delineation using a genomics approach applied to species occurring across different habitats, and in the context of future climate scenarios, despite their potential importance for successful long‐term restoration. Here, we use neutral genetic data to investigate patterns of genetic differentiation and a landscape genomics approach to model putatively adaptive genetic variation under multiple climate scenarios for two species co‐occurring in a predominantly mesic environment, and two species co‐occurring in a semi‐arid environment. We then determine the genetic similarity of seed sourcing locations to hypothetical restoration sites, both under current and future climate scenarios. We found that the geographical extent of provenances and the amount of genetic change required to track the projected climatic conditions over time differed within the pairs of co‐occurring species, and between habitats. Additionally, future climate scenarios had differing effects on provenance patterns between the two landscapes indicating a differential response to changing climate between species from mesic and arid habitats. This implies that provenance guidelines can be both species and habitat dependent. We discuss how these results can be utilized to design seed sourcing strategies for successful restoration, and how these methods could be more broadly applied to delineate provenances of other species and locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conservation practitioners require cost-effective and repeatable remotely sensed data for assistive monitoring. This paper tests the ability of standard remotely piloted aircraft (DJI Phantom 4 Pro) imagery to discriminate between plant species in a rangeland environment. Flights were performed over two 0.3–0.4 ha exclusion plot sites, established as controls to protect vegetation from translocated animal disturbance on Dirk Hartog Island, Western Australia. Comparisons of discriminatory variables, classification potential, and optimal flight height were made between plot sites with different plant species diversity. We found reflectance bands and height variables to have high differentiation potential, whilst measures of texture were less useful for multisegmented plant canopies. Discrimination between species varied with omission errors ranging from 13 to 93%. Purposely resampling c. 5 mm imagery as captured at 20–25 m above terrain identified that a flight height of 120 m would improve capture efficiency in future surveys without hindering accuracy. Overall accuracy at a site with low species diversity (n = 4) was 70%, which is an encouraging result given the imagery is limited to visible spectral bands. With higher species diversity (n = 10), the accuracy reduced to 53%, although it is expected to improve with additional bands or grouping like species. Findings suggest that in rangeland environments with low species diversity, monitoring using a standard RPA is viable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parasitism is a pervasive phenomenon in nature with the relationship between species driving evolution in both parasite and host. Due to their host‐dependent lifestyle, parasites may adapt to the abiotic environment in ways that differ from their hosts or from free‐living relatives; yet rarely has this been assessed. Here, we test two competing hypotheses related to whether putatively adaptive genetic variation in a specialist mistletoe associates with the same, or different, climatic variables as its host species. We sampled 11 populations of the specialist mistletoe Amyema gibberula var. tatei (n = 154) and 10 populations of its associated host Hakea recurva subsp. recurva (n = 160). Reduced‐representation sequencing was used to obtain genome‐wide markers and putatively adaptive variation detected using genome scan methods. Climate associations were identified using generalized dissimilarity modelling, and these were mapped geographically to visualize the spatial patterns of genetic composition. Our results supported the hypothesis of parasites and host species responding differently to climatic variables. Temperature was relatively more important in predicting allelic turnover in the specialist mistletoe while precipitation was more important for the host. This suggests that parasitic plants and host species may respond differently to selective pressures, potentially as a result of differing nutrient acquisition strategies. Specifically, mistletoes acquire water from hosts (rather than the abiotic environment), which may provide a buffer to precipitation as a selective pressure. This work deepens and complements the physiological and other ecological studies of adaptation and provides a window into the evolutionary processes that underlie previously observed phenomena. Applying these methods to a comparative study in a host–parasite system has also highlighted factors that affect the study of selection pressure on nonmodel organisms, such as differing adaptation rates and lack of reference genomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sympatric tree species are subject to similar climatic drivers, posing a question as to whether they display comparable adaptive responses. However, no study has explicitly examined local adaptation of co‐occurring parasitic and autotrophic plant species to the abiotic environment. Here we test the hypotheses that a generalist parasitic tree would display a weaker signal of selection and that genomic variation would associate with fewer climatic variables (particularly precipitation) but have similar spatial patterns to a sympatric autotrophic tree species. To test these hypotheses, we collected samples from 17 sites across the range of two tree species, the hemiparasite Nuytsia floribunda (n = 264) and sympatric autotroph Melaleuca rhaphiophylla (n = 272). We obtained 5,531 high‐quality genome‐wide single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for M. rhaphiophylla and 6,727 SNPs for N. floribunda using DArTseq genome scan technology. Population differentiation and environmental association approaches were used to identify signals of selection. Generalized dissimilarly modelling was used to detect climatic and spatial patterns of local adaptation across climatic gradients. Overall, 322 SNPs were identified as putatively adaptive for the autotroph, while only 57 SNPs were identified for the parasitic species. We found genomic variation to associate with different sets of bioclimatic variables for each species, with precipitation relatively less important for the parasite. Spatial patterns of predicted adaptive variability were different and indicate that co‐occurring species with disparate life history traits may not respond equally to selective pressures (i.e., temperature and precipitation). Together, these findings provide insight into local adaptation of sympatric parasitic and autotrophic tree species to abiotic environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complications related to laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) have led to an increased number of removals. An uncommon but potentially devastating complication is gastric band erosion into the gastric lumen, which can be managed by open surgical, laparoscopic, and endoscopic approaches. A wide array of management techniques has been reported for removal of LAGB that have eroded into the stomach. We describe the preferred method for successful endoscopic band removal at our institution. Community tertiary-care referral hospital accredited by the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program. A single-center, retrospective review of a prospectively maintained database was used to identify patients who underwent LAGB removal from 2009 to 2019. We identified the subset of patients with band erosion. We analyzed patient characteristics, presenting symptoms, diagnostic modalities, and method of band extraction. A total of 132 patients underwent LAGB removal, among whom 22 (16.7%) patients were diagnosed with erosion. Seven (32%) patients underwent laparoscopic removal, 14 (64%) patients underwent endoscopic removal, and 1 patient (4%) underwent combined laparoscopic and endoscopic approach. These latter patients had variable amounts of erosion and buckle visibility, but all underwent endoscopic retrieval. We found that using an endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography guidewire with an endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography mechanical lithotriptor for band transection and snare for retrieval have been effective. A standardized, multidisciplinary, and minimally invasive endoscopic approach for LAGB erosion has been found to be successful without the need for further surgical intervention and may be offered to patients upon discovery of erosion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem: Often spreadsheets are used as pseudo-databases for the storage of plot-based survey data, but they have major limitations in scalability, concurrent access and data retrieval. Paper-based surveys require timeconsuming data entry. They contain potential inconsistencies (e.g. miss-spellings, abbreviations, missing values), particularly if coming from different observers due to unenforceable data standards. Methods: We analysed more than 30 years of data collected in the Northern Jarrah Forest (NJF) of south-western Australia, comprising c. 31,000 plots (c. 550,000 species records) and associated environmental variables stored across multiple spreadsheets in the development of our free and open source floristic information management system (FIMS). Data dictionaries were developed for each spreadsheet before being combined into a unified standard. OpenRefine software was used to ensure adherence to the standard, including correcting inconsistent field order in different files, removal of redundant or irrelevant fields, abolishing synonyms and abbreviations, and deleting incomplete rows. Database design and normalisation rules ensured the removal of repeating groups and the provision of fields for each retained attribute. Geometry was stored using spatial objects available in PostGIS whilst maintaining an otherwise relational database using PostgreSQL. Results: FIMS provides a spatial database system for storing, accessing and retrieving floristic survey data. FIMS includes a mobile data collection module for use on tablet technology with autonomous database synchronisation and one-step data entry to eliminate transcription and associated errors. Spatial data types enable the retrieval of data for viewing and analysis within most Geographic Information Systems and statistical software. It promotes portability and adaption to other locations and studies via the provision of all necessary code. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The apparent use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime in Syria and the potential development of nuclear weapons hy Iran have brought "red lines" to the forefront of public discourse and policy-maldng. In the former, U.S. President Obama threatened retaliatory measures were Syria ever to use chemical weapons against rebels in its civil war. Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu literally drew a red line on a chart during his speech at the United Nations, indicating that Iran would not be permitted to move beyond a given stage of uranium enrichment with an implied threat of military action should that line he crossed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Species distribution models (SDMs) can provide useful information for managing biological invasions, such as identification of priority areas for early detection or for determining containment boundaries. However, prediction of invasive species using SDMs can be challenging because they typically violate the core assumption of being at equilibrium with their environment, which may lead to poorly guided management resulting from high levels of omission. Our goal was to provide a suite of potential decision strategies (DSs) that were not reliant on the equilibrium assumption but rather could be chosen to better match the management application, which in this case was to ensure containment through adequate surveillance. We used presence-only data and expert knowledge for model calibration and presence/absence data to evaluate the potential distribution of an introduced mesquite (Leguminoseae: Prosopis) invasion located in the Pilbara Region of northwest Western Australia. Five different DSs with varying levels of conservatism/risk were derived from a multi-criteria evaluation model using ordered weighted averaging. The performance of DSs over all possible thresholds was examined using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. DSs not on the convex hull of the ROC curves were discarded. Two threshold determination methods (TDMs) were compared on the two remaining DSs, one that assumed equilibrium (by maximizing overall prediction success) and another that assumed the invasion was ongoing (using a 95% threshold for true positives). The most conservative DS fitted the validation data most closely but could only predict 75% of the presence data. A more risk-taking DS could predict 95% of the presence data, which identified 8.5 times more area for surveillance, and better highlighted known populations that are still rapidly invading. This DS and TDM coupling was considered to be the most appropriate for our management application. Our results show that predictive niche modeling was highly sensitive to risk levels, but that these can be tailored to match specified management objectives. The methods implemented can be readily adapted to other invasive species or for conservation purposes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Feral cats are one of the most damaging predators on Earth. They can be found throughout most of Australia's mainland and many of its larger islands, where they are adaptable predators responsible for the decline and extinction of many species of native fauna. Managing feral cat populations to mitigate their impacts is a conservation priority. Control strategies can be better informed by knowledge of the locations that cats frequent the most. However, this information is rarely captured at the population level and therefore requires modelling based on observations of a sample of individuals. Here, we use movement data from collared feral cats to estimate home range sizes by gender and create species distribution models in the Pilbara bioregion of Western Australia. Home ranges were estimated using dynamic Brownian bridge movement models and split into 50% and 95% utilisation distribution contours. Species distribution models used points intersecting with the 50% utilisation contours and thinned by spacing points 500 m apart to remove sampling bias. Male cat home ranges were between 5 km2 (50% utilisation) and 34 km2 (95% utilisation), which were approximately twice the size of the female cats studied (2–17 km2). Species distribution modelling revealed a preference for low-lying riparian habitats with highly productive vegetation cover and a tendency to avoid newly burnt areas and topographically complex, rocky landscapes. Conservation management can benefit by targeting control effort in preferential habitat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]