Ecos articles from April 2001

Ecos archives from April 2001

Can't see sky for the trees.(air pollution)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... HOT summer days are synonymous with the smell of cut grass and air thick with the scent of Eucalyptus trees. But according to CSIRO scientists, these distinctly Australian aromas are a significant source of emissions that contribute to smog...

Wild game chase.(leucaena leucocephala)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... WHY would Australian scientists be interested in microbes that live in the stomachs of African game animals? The story starts in Queensland, where the exotic shrub leucaena (L. leucocephala) has been used as a nutritional feed for cattle...

Ebbe Nielson: a voice for the silent majority: Malcolm Robertson of CSIRO Entomology pays tribute to Dr Ebbe Nielson, director of the Australian National Insect Collection since 1990. (spectrum).(Brief Article)(Obituary)
April 1, 2001... Ebbe Nielsen had a passion for life, a passion that drove him to be the most successful advocate globally for the science of systematics, especially insect taxonomy. Thanks to his efforts, systematics, and the emerging discipline of...

Squirrelling the macadamia. (spectrum).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Australia's macadamia nut has been a great success story worldwide, but the rainforest trees that gave rise to this thriving industry are under threat from clearing and fragmentation of lowland rainforests on the eastern coast. The loss of...

Taming wild limes. (spectrum).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Most Australians would be surprised to learn that we have six native tree species that are true citrus, closely related to conventional oranges, lemons, limes and mandarins. These native limes, long collected in the wild by Aboriginal...

What's happening to India's vultures? (spectrum).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... A DRAMATIC decline in India's vulture populations has sparked an international investigation into its cause. According to the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), a recent survey found that more than 90% of Indian white-backed and...

Blowfly inspires novel cleansing.(enzymes and bioremediation)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... During the late 1980s, CSIRO entomologists Dr John Oakeshott and Dr Robyn Russell were immersed in studies of the sheep blowfly and associated mysteries of insecticide resistance. Little did they guess their work would lead to the use of...

Landscape architects: green fingers ... who needs 'em? Wendy Pyper discovers some plants can be grown more efficiently on screen.(computer simulation aids research)
April 1, 2001... Just as dinosaurs can be brought to life on film, the growth of plants and their responses to different internal and external stimuli can be simulated in computers. To do this, scientists from CSIRO and the University of Queensland have...

Taking water out of range: the artificial waterpoints that threaten native plants and animals in the rangelands can also be a tool for their protection.(Great Artesian Basin )
April 1, 2001... The provision of water from the Great Artesian Basin to many parts Australia's rangelands has brought mixed blessings for native plants and animals. Some species increase in abundance with closeness to water. Others -- some 10-15% of all...

Six-legged friends: Wendy Pyper investigates a wild but friendly backyard alternative. (Cover Story).(Stingless bees)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... I'm told that Australian Aborigines used to tie a feather to a wild bee in order to track it back to the hive and extract the honey. How such a tiny insect could be tagged eludes me, but CSIRO entomologist and wild-bee keeper, Dr Tim Heard,...

Princes of bees: urban development is the nemesis of native bees. Wendy Pyper learns the tricks of their sweet saviours.(Bee Rescue Service)
April 1, 2001... Five years ago, retired farmer and cable-jointer Bob Raabe had a little, more time on his hands and a desire to contribute towards the conservation of native flora and fauna. A long-held interest in native stingless bees spawned the idea of...

The sting: entomologists have canny plans to rob a likely invader of its chance to ravage our pollinator, the European honeybee.(controlling the varroa mite)
April 1, 2001... AUSTRALIA is the final frontier for a tiny mite that parasitises honeybees and threatens our $1.2 billion pollination industry. The mite is poised to enter the country after incursions in New Zealand and Indonesia. Scientists warn it's just a...

Channel vision: Wendy Pyper outlines a collaborative effort to understand the rhythm of life in Lake Eyre Basin.
April 1, 2001... Changes in the patterns of flow or `hydrology' of a river affect the resident flora and fauna. To understand how hydrology affects ecology, scientists are studying the flow of unregulated rivers in various stages of flood and drought, and the...

Dreamtime science: Brad Collis meets an ecologist imbued with the spirit of the desert.(Alan Newsome)
April 1, 2001... The journey starts at Ajaii, a place not found on maps, but which exists nonetheless near the western Macdonnell Range in central Australia. It is a journey begun by the Dreaming ancestor of the red kangaroo, a mythological creator who...

Grains of truth: wood fragments harbour tales of fortune, history and justice. Translating them is all in a day's work for this timber sleuth. (champions of science).(Jugo Ilic)
April 1, 2001... At first glance the identification of wood may appear a dull and mundane occupation. Murder, mystery and intrigue, however, are part and parcel of Jugo Ilic's job as CSIRO's leading authority in the field. His expertise has been called...

Evaluating fish taggers. (journal extracts).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... IN cooperative fish tagging programs, government agencies supply tags and equipment to anglers to voluntarily tag a range of fish species. It's a cost-effective way to study fish populations, but how valid and useful are the data obtained when...

Hosting the quandong. (journal extracts).(tree research)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... THE quandong is an unusual plant in more than one respect. Apart from being one of the few native trees that is now grown commercially for its edible fruit, it has the rare distinction of being a semi-parasitic tree that grows best when its...

Budding myth. (journal extracts).(eucalypts)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... EUCALYPTS are famous for their ability to sprout new shoots along their branches and stems after fire, insect attack, drought, lopping or wind damage. Anyone who has heard of these epicormic shoots knows that they sprout from small dormant buds...

Birds for profit? (journal extracts).(potential economic product)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... THROUGHOUT history, birds have been used for religious, decorative, sporting and tourism purposes, in traditional medicine, as currency, and of course, food. In many cases, the birds were and still are utilised in a sustainable way. But until...

Cool kangaroos. (journal extracts).(Australian flower)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... AUSTRALIAN native flowers are a popular product in the cut flower market. And what could be more Australian than the kangaroo paw? Getting these attractive flowers to distant markets in perfect condition however, requires suitable post-harvest...

Fire cues for seed germination. (journal extracts).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... MEMBERS of the family Epacridaceae are dominant heath plants that typically have a seed dormancy that needs to be broken by environmental cues before germination will occur. Knowing these requirements helps in propagation of seedlings for...

Tapping the tree of life.(coconut palm)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... To Pacific Islanders, the coconut palm is `the tree of life'. Its fronds furnish village roofs and walls, its wood supplies a furniture market and its fruit provides coconut milk, copra meal and coconut oil. Only one part of the tree -- the...