Artificial water bodies in agricultural landscapes (hereafter ‘farm dams’) are established primarily to support livestock and crop production but also provide habitats for a wide range of native species. Managing water quality in farm dams is essential to animal production and biodiversity. Farm dam enhancement, which includes restricting direct access of stock to dams, can improve water quality in farm dams, by reducing soil erosion and direct faecal contamination, as well as reducing the trampling, grazing, and browsing of vegetation in the immediate catchment. We tested farm dam enhancement as a tool to improve and maintain water quality in 109 farm dams across 34 farms over three years in the sheep-wheat belt of southeast Australia. Using Bayesian Linear Mixed Models, we found that farm dam enhancement significantly reduced levels of phosphorus, nitrogen, turbidity, thermotolerant coliforms, Escherichia coli, and pH. Furthermore, our study revealed links between dam enhancement, increases in vegetation cover, and improved water quality. Our results show that restoration efforts in the surrounds of dams can have positive results on water quality. They highlight the importance of restoration in agricultural landscapes to both agricultural production and biodiversity.

The conversion of natural habitats to agricultural land has contributed considerably to global amphibian declines. Despite this, some amphibian species can utilise habitats within agricultural landscapes, such as farm dams. However, the suitability of farm dams for amphibians and how management interventions can enhance habitat values remain poorly understood. We aimed to quantify the impacts of management interventions on amphibian biodiversity in farm dams. Our study focused on the intensively farmed and cleared South West Slopes bioregion of south-eastern Australia, where 96 % of the area is freehold land, and over 80 % of the woody vegetation cover has been cleared. We conducted detailed surveys of adult frogs across 85 farm dams. These dams were either enhanced dams, having undergone management including fencing to exclude livestock and facilitate revegetation, or control dams, with no interventions, and management practices consistent with the paddocks in which they were embedded. We found enhanced dams had significantly greater total frog and Crinia parinsignifera abundance than control dams. Total abundance was also negatively associated with higher total dissolved solids concentration. Additionally, species abundance was greater at dams with higher topographic wetness and increased rainfall in the 30 days preceding surveys. Key variables positively associated with species richness were enhanced dams, littoral leaf litter and survey year, but only littoral ground vegetation was significant. The key variables for species-level analysis showed significant inter-specific variation. Our results indicate that that enhancing dams through excluding livestock and establishing vegetation can improve habitat for amphibians.

Agricultural landscapes are some of the most heavily modified systems globally, with populations of many species in these areas experiencing major declines. To arrest these declines, and to support agricultural sustainability, revegetation and other interventions that conserve and enhance natural assets on farms are increasingly common. To ensure the efficacy of management interventions, it is critical to evaluate their outcomes to determine how biodiversity gains can be maximised. One method to maximise the value of revegetation programs is co-locating actions in areas with other natural assets. Here, we examine bird species richness and breeding activity responses to restoration plantings surrounding pre-existing farm dams (enhanced farm dams) compared to restoration plantings distant from dams (shelterbelts), and pre-existing dams without restoration plantings (unfenced dams). We found significantly greater bird species richness and breeding activity at enhanced farm dams than at shelterbelts or unfenced dams. We also found significantly greater non-waterbird breeding activity at enhanced dams relative to shelterbelts and unfenced dams. Our research demonstrates that co-locating restoration activities adjacent to existing natural assets on farms can produce improved gains for biodiversity. We recommend that, where possible, restoration plantings are co-located with farm dams and other natural assets to maximise biodiversity gains.

Extensive areas spanning billions of hectares within the world’s arable landscapes are heavily degraded, have suffered losses of biodiversity, and require major restoration efforts. Indeed, the United Nations declared 2021-2030 to be the decade of restoration. The restoration challenges facing south-eastern Australia’s woodlands are not dissimilar to challenges which characterize many agricultural landscapes internationally, and thus form the basis of the case study featured in this chapter, incorporating research conducted since 1998. A key insight from our work is that factors operating at multiple scales are critical for informing effective restoration to maximize landscape-scale biodiversity values. We present a restoration hierarchy to highlight how factors ranging from the individual tree level to farm- and landscape- scales need to be considered in restoration efforts, then outline some key lessons from our research for effective translation into on-ground action.

The majority of the world's mammal biomass is domestic livestock. Intensive livestock grazing can negatively impact some elements of biodiversity. We quantified the effects of grazing management on bird occupancy over a 10-year period in patches of Australian endangered temperate woodland within paddocks subjected to one of three grazing regimes: continuous set stocking, rotational, and total livestock exclusion. Grazing may affect birds through altering resource availability, influencing vegetation structure, or affecting the occurrence of noisy miners (Manorina melanocephala), a native honeyeater that engages in interference competition with other birds. Using Bayesian generalized linear mixed models and multispecies occupancy modelling, we quantified relative and interactive effects on bird biodiversity of grazing, vegetation structure, and noisy miner occupancy. We found only muted grazing regime effects on woodland birds. However, many species responded to vegetation structure. Small invertivorous woodland birds responded positively to sapling abundance, and some (larger) species responded positively to the abundance of trees >50 cm. Furthermore, species richness increased with increased sapling abundance and trees >50 cm. The largest effects were associated with noisy miner occurrence, which drove reductions in small-bodied, invertivorous birds, effectively "swamping" the positive effects of vegetation attributes on these species. The profound impacts of noisy miners present challenges for bird conservation in woodland ecosystems, especially those subject to grazing. Management to reduce grazing pressure by domestic livestock may eventually help limit the impacts of the noisy miner, in part by facilitating natural regeneration of temperate woodlands to which small-bodied woodland birds respond positively.

Reptiles are an important part of the vertebrate fauna in the temperate woodlands of south-eastern Australia. However, compared to birds and mammals, the long-term occurrence of reptiles across woodland growth types–old growth, regrowth, and replantings–remains poorly understood. Here, using 18-years of data gathered at 218 sites across 1.5 million hectares in New South Wales South West Slopes bioregion, we sought to quantify patterns of temporal change in reptile occurrence and determine if such changes varied between woodland growth types. Despite extensive sampling, almost 75% of our 6341 surveys produced no detections of reptiles. Significant survey effort exceeding 2000 surveys was needed over a prolonged period of time to record detections of 26 reptile species in our study area. Our analyses showed a temporal increase in estimated reptile species richness and abundance over 18 years. Such increases characterized all three vegetation structural types we surveyed. At the individual species level, we had sufficient data to construct models for five of the 26 species recorded. Three of these species were least commonly detected in replantings, whereas the remaining two were most often detected in replantings relative to old growth and regrowth woodland. We found evidence of a temporal increase in two skink species, a decline in one gecko species, and no change in the remaining two skink species. Although detections were consistently low, active searches were the best survey method, and we suggest using this method in habitats known to be hotspots for reptiles, such as rocky outcrops, if the aim is to maximize the number of individuals and species detected. Our findings highlight the value of all three broad vegetation structure types in contributing to woodland reptile biodiversity.

Aim: Much research has quantified species responses to human-modified ecosystems. However, there is limited work on how human-modified ecosystems may reshape competitive interactions between species. Using a 19 -year study across 3 million ha, we aimed to answer the question: Are levels of interference competition between bird species context dependent and influenced by habitat structure and productivity? We focussed on the hyper-aggressive behaviour of the Noisy Miner (Manorina melanocephala), which is recognized as a key threatening process for other woodland bird species in Australia. Whether environmental conditions such as amount of forest cover and net primary productivity (NPP) mediate the Noisy Miners' impact remains untested at large spatiotemporal scales.Location: Temperate woodlands of south-eastern Australia.Methods: We gathered data on bird site occupancy from repeated surveys of field sites and assembled satellite data on tree cover and NPP. We constructed Bayesian multi-species occupancy/detection models of bird species in woodland patches and tested the fixed and interactive effects of Noisy Miner presence, the amount of tree cover, NPP, and time. We quantified the responses of 31 species, many with known interactions with the Noisy Miner documented previously at fine spatial scales.Results: We identified negative associations between the Noisy Miner and 18 bird species, including, unexpectedly, both small and large bodied taxa. Site occupancy in some species was influenced by interactions between Noisy Miner presence and increasing amounts of tree cover or productivity. For some species, interference competition by the Noisy Miner is context-dependent and mitigated by increasing tree cover and/or increasing NPP. MainConclusions: Our analyses revealed that woodland bird conservation in our study region will be promoted by protecting refugia characterized by areas of high NPP and high tree cover. Preventing vegetation clearing that reduces tree cover could reduce interference competition by the Noisy Miner on parts of the remaining woodland bird community, including species of conservation concern.

In many farming landscapes, aquatic features, such as wetlands, creeks, and dams, provide water for stock and irrigation, while also acting as habitat for a range of plants and animals. Indeed, some species threatened by land-use change may otherwise be considerably rarer-or even suffer extinction-in the absence of these habitats. Therefore, a critical issue for the maintenance of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes is the extent to which the management of aquatic systems can promote the integration of agricultural production and biodiversity conservation. We completed a cross-sectional study in southern New South Wales (southeastern Australia) to quantify the efficacy of two concurrently implemented management practices-partial revegetation and control of livestock grazing-aimed at enhancing the vegetation structure, biodiversity value, and water quality of farm dams. We found that excluding livestock for even short periods resulted in increased vegetation cover. Relative to unenhanced dams (such as those that remained unfenced), those that had been enhanced for several years were characterized by reduced levels of turbidity, nutrients, and fecal contamination. Enhanced dams also supported increased richness and abundance of macroinvertebrates. In contrast, unenhanced control dams tended to have high abundance of a few macroinvertebrate taxa. Notably, differences remained between the macroinvertebrate assemblages of enhanced dams and nearby "natural" waterbodies that we monitored as reference sites. While the biodiversity value of semilotic, natural waterbodies in the region cannot be replicated by artificial lentic systems, we consider the extensive system of farm dams in the region to represent a novel ecosystem that may nonetheless support some native macroinvertebrates. Our results show that management interventions such as fencing and grazing control can improve water quality in farm dams, improve vegetation structure around farm dams, and support greater abundance and diversity of aquatic macroinvertebrates.

In many farming landscapes, aquatic features such as wetlands, creeks and dams provide water needed for stock and irrigation, while also acting as habitat for a range of plants and animals. Indeed, some species threatened by land use change may otherwise be considerably rarer – or even extinct – in the absence of these habitats. Therefore, a critical issue for the maintenance of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes is the extent to which the management of aquatic systems can help promote the integration of agricultural production and biodiversity conservation. We completed a snapshot cross-sectional study in southern New South Wales (south-eastern Australia) to quantify the efficacy of simple management practices – partial revegetation and stock reduction via fencing – for improving vegetation structure, water quality, and macroinvertebrate assemblages. We found that even short-term livestock exclusion resulted in increased vegetation cover. Relative to dams that were unfenced, those that had been partially or completely fenced for many years were characterized by reduced turbidity and nutrient levels and contained fewer thermotolerant (faecal) coliforms. They also supported increased richness and abundance of macroinvertebrates. In contrast, control (unfenced) dams tended to have high abundance of a few macroinvertebrate taxa. Notably, differences remained between the macroinvertebrate assemblages of fenced dams and nearby ‘natural’ waterbodies. Our results show how management interventions can improve water quality in farm dams and provide a valuable reference and baseline for longer term studies of farm dam improvement.

Many studies have documented the individual effects of variables such as vegetation, long-term climate and short-term weather on biodiversity. Few, however, have explicitly explored how interactions among these major drivers can influence species abundance. We used data from a 15-year study (2002-2017) in the endangered temperate woodlands of south-eastern Australia to test hypotheses associated with the effects of vegetation type, long-term climate and short-term weather on population trajectories of seven species of (largely) nocturnal mammals and birds. Despite prolonged drought conditions, there was a significant increase in the abundance of some species over time (e.g. the Eastern Grey Kangaroo). It is possible that destocking of domestic livestock may have reduced competition with Kangaroos, thereby facilitating increases in abundance. The Common Brushtail Possum and Common Ringtail Possum were significantly less likely to occur in replanted woodlands, possibly because of the paucity of nesting sites. We found no evidence that replanted woodlands are refuges for exotic pest species like the European Rabbit and Red Fox. Short- and long-term rainfall and vegetation type had important independent and combined effects on animal abundance. That is, responses to periods of high short-term rainfall were dependent on vegetation type and whether sites occurred in long-term climatically wet versus climatically dry locations. For example, the Red Fox responded positively to high levels of short-term rainfall, but only at climatically dry sites. Our results highlight the complementary value of different vegetation types across the landscape and the context-specific responses of animals to short-term fluctuations in moisture availability. They also underscore the value of long-term monitoring at a landscape scale for examining how multiple interacting factors influence trends in animal abundance.

Abstract In recent years, passive acoustic monitoring has emerged as a reliable method for monitoring soniferous fauna, with numerous studies finding estimates of species richness and community composition are comparable with estimates derived from conventional field surveys. Most of these studies compare point counts of forest bird communities with contemporaneous short‐duration acoustic recordings, but several questions remain. How do these two methods compare in more open, arid ecosystems, how does applying methods optimally influence comparisons, and how do patterns in acoustically detectable species compare with overall patterns? Here we demonstrate techniques for improving sampling of acoustic data and conduct acoustic surveys to estimate species richness from ephemeral creek‐lines in the Australian arid zone using a long‐term passively derived acoustic dataset. We examine these results in the context of long‐term observer‐based transect surveys conducted along the same creek‐lines to define species within the avian assemblage that are acoustically detectable or acoustically undetectable/cryptic. Our data suggest that some species were consistently missed by acoustic surveys, but most belonged to groups that are typically excluded from inventories prior to analysis including rare species, raptors, waterbirds, swallows and nocturnal birds. Further, the relative diversities of sites were well estimated by acoustic surveys, with variations between sites reflecting those estimated by observer‐based field surveys. This suggests that in our study system, acoustically detectable species are reliable indicators of overall species richness. Field‐based surveys will remain an important component of sampling in arid ecosystems and we highlight the value of applying acoustic and conventional field‐based surveys in a complementary manner. This approach allows large, publishable datasets to be generated by exploiting the temporal reach of acoustic sensors, while also maximizing detections of acoustically cryptic species via field‐based surveys. We argue that acoustic monitoring has the potential to facilitate greater research effort in largely research‐deficient arid ecosystems.

The physical mechanism of lightning-induced energetic radiation has been considered to be caused by the relativistic runaway electron avalanche hypothesis proposed by Gurevich and his group. For further comprehensive understanding of the mechanism, we conducted the observation of lightning-induced energetic radiation and atmospheric electric field using field mills at Uchinada, Kanazawa, Japan during 2015-2016 winter. In general, taking into account the lightning position identified by lightning location system, the observed transient electric field changes (normally detected by slow antenna) at two observation points provide charge changes inside the thundercloud at the time of lightning and the charge height. Although field mill might not be suitable for such observation due to signal smoothing, we evaluated these two parameters using four field mills. Our estimation shows that errors of two parameters was within 20 %. In the presentation, we show these parameters at the time of lightning-induced energetic radiation.