Ecos articles from April 1998

Ecos archives from April 1998

Handfish back from the brink. (endangered Australian marine fish)
April 1, 1998... Research into the breeding and biology of the tiny spotted handfish may save from extinction the first Australian marine fish listed as endangered under the Federal Endangered Species Protection Act. The spotted handfish was one of the...

Seeds of an oil-based economy sown in PNG. (essential oil from local tree)(Papua New Guinea)(from Onwood newsletter)
April 1, 1998... Studies of leaf oils in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea by researchers from CSIRO's Australian Tree Seed Centre (ATSC) have led to successful pilot-scale production and marketing of an essential oil with valuable medicinal properties....

Where there's smoke, there may be rain.
April 1, 1998... An international experiment to study how thick smoke affects the formation of rain-bearing clouds has challenged the theory that increased aerosol particles in the atmosphere decrease the likelihood of precipitation. The experiment,...

Bugs beware: here comes the good fungus. (biopesticide)
April 1, 1998... Robin Taylor introduces a biopesticide being trained to control all manner of irksome insects. If insects have nightmares, one of their worst must involve being attacked by a fungus such as Metarhizium. But for farmers whose crops have been...

Old minesites meet their measure.(includes related articles on soil condition features and land rehabilitation)
April 1, 1998... A practical, low-cost technique for monitoring the health of landscapes is gaining favour among the rehabilitators of mined land. Alastair Sarre outlines the adaptation of an approach originally developed to assess rangeland degradation. ...

Deep discoveries. (deep-sea life on extinct volcanoes off Tasmania)
April 1, 1998... Mention coral reef's, and most people picture colourful fish darting between corals, sponges and shells in the tepid waters of the tropics. Few of us envision reefs where the sun never shines. A place where, amid an inky blackness, deep-sea...

Cunning contraceptions. (birth control for mice, fox and rabbits)(includes related article on poison baiting for foxes)
April 1, 1998... Australia has suffered massively since European settlers colonised the continent two centuries ago. Among the scores of introduced mammals that have gone wild, three in particular have caused enormous environmental and economic damage....

Calicivirus proves effective, but fickle. (rabbit disease for population control)
April 1, 1998... The escape of rabbit calicivirus disease (RCD) from Wardang Island in October 1995, and its subsequent release at more than 700 sites across Australia's rabbit population, which previously stood at 300 million. For pastoralists in the...

Rust busters. (genetic resistance to fungus in wheat)(includes related articles on resistance genes, experimental plant models and flax inducible sequence)
April 1, 1998... Plant geneticists are seeking to combat fungal pathogens by fortifying wheat with `designer' resistance genes borrowed from other species. Graeme O'Neill reports. Mankind's great leap forward, as far as archaeologists can determine,...

Ozone warrior. (campaign against methyl bromide by Dr. Jonathan Banks, CSIRO chemist)
April 1, 1998... Many times during the past year, CSIRO chemist Dr Jonathan Banks yearned for the peaceful vista of his high-country orchard near Canberra. The orchard offered a welcome sanctuary from the battle between the US chemicals and farm lobby and the...

Big-headed ants march on Darwin.
April 1, 1998... Imagine an alien ant species that dines on native ants and insects, lives in super-colonies with hundreds of queens, breeds all year round, and appears to rate Australia's monsoonal rainforests as the most agreeable in the world. On top of all...