Ecos articles from October 2002

Ecos archives from October 2002

A combination of remotely sensed and physically measured data will be collected in the Victorian Geotraverse project.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... A combination of remotely sensed and physically measured data will be collected in the Victorian Geotraverse project. Top (brown layer): 3D surface topography with an image of surface features draped over the topographic shape. Middle (coloured...

An educated rush.(Victorian Geotraverse Project)
October 1, 2002... Cries of `there's gold in them there hills' may echo across the Victorian goldfields once again, as a new project designed to probe the state's subsurface geology gets under way. The Victorian Geotraverse will use state-of-the-art...

Euclid expands. (spectrum).(guide to southern Australian eucalypts)
October 1, 2002... AN enhanced edition of Euclid, the CD-based interactive identification and information system for all southern Australian eucalypts, has been released by CSIRO Publishing. Euclid Second Edition includes species in southern Western...

Talking textiles. (spectrum).(intelligent polymers)
October 1, 2002... Move over Volvo and BMW. The next time James Bond hits our screens, he could be fending off the bad guys and escaping death using nothing but his tuxedo. An intelligent tuxedo of course, born from the emerging revolution in textile and...

Medicinal roots. (spectrum).(commercial tissue culture)
October 1, 2002... A disease of plants could help scientists produce remedies for human ailments. `Hairy root', occurs when the soil bacterium, Agrobacterium rhizogenes, infects wounded plant cells, triggering the production of a malignant mass of fine roots. In...

Mystery owl gives two hoots.(Ninox sumbaensis, new owl species, discovered)
October 1, 2002... For 15 years, the identity of an owl on the island of Sumba, Indonesia, has remained a mystery. From torchlight glimpses, ornithologists speculated it was a Sumba boobook owl or the flores scops owl. But this year two Australian scientists...

Greeting Elliot the sauropod: Wendy Pyper has a dig at Australia's biggest dinosaur. (spectrum).
October 1, 2002... Queensland Museum palaeontologist Dr Steve Salisbury regards the mounds of black soil dotting the Mitchell grass plain. `It's all good, and it's all going to plan,' he enthuses to the disparate group of volunteers gathered around one of the...

Finding non-fish diets for prawns: Wendy Pyper finds that meat and lupin meals are showing promise as replacements for fish-based feeds in the aquaculture industry.
October 1, 2002... Aquaculture is the fastest expanding food producing sector in the world, with an annual growth rate of almost 12% a year since 1984. This rate of expansion must continue if the supply of aquaculture species, such as prawns, silver perch and...

Cattle and conservation can be a costly mix: what is the true cost of on-farm conservation, and who will pay?(economist Neil MacLeod)
October 1, 2002... Native biodiversity conservation and beef production may seem unlikely allies. But until recently, few studies on whether the two could coexist had been conducted. In a project just completed, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems economist, Neil...

A practical guide to conservation farming.(Managing and Conserving Grassy Woodlands)(Book Review)
October 1, 2002... WIDESPREAD changes to the grassy eucalypt woodlands of south-eastern Australia, mainly for agricultural production, highlight the need for landholders to consider conservation goals in their daily decisions about property management. A new...

Patch genetics; Steve Davidson finds genetic clues for conservation.
October 1, 2002... When CSIRO geneticist, Dr Andrew Young, sees a patch of native vegetation in are otherwise bare paddock, he ponders the invisible genetic threats to these increasingly rare communities of Australian native plants. The subtle threats arise...

Blue moves: blue whales travel faster and farther than once thought. Bob Beale joins a posse of scientists intent on catching up.
October 1, 2002... `It looks like a giant tadpole,' Peter Gill muses aloud as our light aircraft banks steeply to give us a better view of the extraordinary sight in the sea beneath us. Indeed it does: from 500 metres up, it's not just the distance between...

Facing extinction: the birds of southern Australia's agricultural zone running out of places to live and breed. Steve Davidson counts the losses.
October 1, 2002... Australia's bush birds are in trouble. Only one mainland Australian bird species has gone extinct since Europeans arrived, but bird faunas in many regions are in decline, and more species will vanish if trends continue. An essential first step...

Young turks: Steve Davidson reckons brush-turkey chicks are the solitary street kids of the rainforest.(animal behaviourist Ann Goth)
October 1, 2002... The Australian brush-turkey belongs to a family of birds--the megapodes--that has evolved a breeding strategy like no other bird group. No elaborate nests or tree hollows for these rainforest dwellers. Brush-turkeys don't even incubate...

Sleepy lizards guard mates. (journal extracts).
October 1, 2002... ALTHOUGH monogamy is common enough in birds and mammals, lizards tend to have more promiscuous or potygynous breeding systems in which males attempt to mate with several females in a defended territory. Only two lizard species are known to form...

Weedy wattles. (journal extracts).
October 1, 2002... A COOTAMUNDRA wattle draped in golden lowers is a magnificent sight, yet is now regarded as a weed in many parts of southeastern Australia and South Africa. While its natural range is restricted to the Cootamundra region of New South...

Wildlife in the firing line. (journal extracts).(savannah wildlife)
October 1, 2002... PASTORALISM is the dominant land use in Australia's vast tropical savannas, yet its impact on biological diversity is poorly understood. Scientists have noticed a perplexing decline in animal biodiversity in this relatively intact...

Tail loss in skinks. (journal extracts).
October 1, 2002... THE cunning manner in which some lizards can cast off their wriggling tail to escape a predator has an immediate survival benefit, but what about the undesirable consequences of this drastic self-amputation? Until regeneration is complete, tail...

Weevils worth millions. (journal extracts).(weed control by weevils)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... SCIENTISTS from Charles Sturt University and CSIRO Entomology have modelled the economic benefits of using the crown weevil to control the widespread agricultural weed, Paterson's curse. The crown weevil is the most successful of the six...

Being water wise in spaceship suburbia.
October 1, 2002... Imagine an urban development in which every house has a rainwater tank, a composting toilet and a garden sprinkler connected to a local wastewater treatment plant. Such waterwise developments may be the way of the future if various barriers to...