Christmas Edition
From the Source	I am a dump junkie!
SOBScript	Publications
Biology Today

 

 

From the Source

Well it appears that another year has come mostly to a close. For some it is the start of Holidays, for others it is finally time to do something useful and for others nothing has changed. I am firmly in the first group and intend to enjoy three blissful weeks away from our wonderful School.

Despite being in pre Christmas euphoria, I would like to thank everyone for making my job easier. Yes, despite my constant grizzling and barrage of wordy emails I have had tremendous fun in solving all the little problems that have arisen over the course of the year. I was truly amazed at the depth of feeling and solidarity that was displayed earlier in the year during the School meeting to discuss the proposed amalgamation of the Biological Sciences workshops. On behalf of the workshop team I would like to extend their thanks for your support and encouragement this year.

That's enough from me, so I hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas and a salubrious New Year and I won't be thinking of you until the 15th of January in the new millenium.

Cheers

Mark Ahern

 

The Hidden treasures of Central Australian Rubbish Dumps

 

Michael Kearney

In August this year I embarked on a three-week tour of the scrap-yards and rubbish dumps of outback Australia. Although these places have a charm and beauty all of their own , they also happen to be the best places to find the subject of my PhD research, Bynoe's Gecko , which thrives wherever there are piles of corrugated iron, old washing machines, etc. lying around. This small brown lizard is particularly interesting because it includes all-female lineages that can reproduce without males by the process of parthenogenesis, and I am using it to answer questions about climatic adaptation and the importance of sex. I was very lucky to have the help of Dave O'Connor and Ben Phillips , who were particularly interested in making physical contact with the large, scaley, legless creatures which thrive wherever there are lots of little lizards to eat.

Almost all of the collecting sites were on private property, mostly cattle stations, and this meant a lot of mixing with the locals. Although we were a little apprehensive of this it turned out to be one of the most rewarding and stimulating aspects of the trip. The first place we visited, Wirraminna Homestead in South Australia, was run by a couple who were our age. When we asked them where we could put our tent, they took us straight to the shearer's quarters which were equipped with beds, hot showers and even an electric heater. When we had unpacked and had started to think about cooking dinner, they came in and told us they had prepared some for us if we wanted it! In fact, this kind of hospitality proved to be the rule rather than the exception.
We were also pleasantly surprised by the environmental conscience of the station owners. Most of them had a detailed knowledge of the local fauna and flora, positive attitudes toward conservation, and encouraged scientific research on their property. Our fascination with their rubbish dumps wasn't so new to them either; people often dropped by and asked if they could poke around but usually for old bottles and the like (some of these dumps are over 100 years old). We did encounter a worrying trend, however, of neat and tidy rubbish dumps. Some of the most despicable behaviour involved piling sheets of iron OFF THE GROUND, making them absolutely useless as reptile habitat. Needless to say, we emphasised the conservation importance of maintaining a chaotic and messy rubbish dump to all of the station owners.

And although most people were genuinely interested in what we were doing and the fact that they had all-female lizards in their back yard (the women were particularly interested in this), some clearly though we were nuts. In an attempt to prove to one of the latter that what we were doing was actually interesting, I explain to him the Red Queen Hypothesis for the advantage of sex, using the higher burden of mites on parthenogenetic versus sexual Bynoe's geckos as an example. He replied, with a sardonic grin, "So if we stop having sex we will end up with lots of little red mites all over our faces". Hmmm, I think he was being faceious.

Overall, the trip was a great success. We collected over 200 lizards from 22 sites spread out along 1200 km of the Stuart Highway, between Woomera and Wauchope. Some of the many highlights included: the incredible scenery of the desert landscape after good rains; some magic encounters with almost 100 species of reptile including perenties, thorny devils and mulga snakes; helping an aboriginal community extract a large and venomous mulga snake from under a concrete slab with the aid of their ditch digger (we failed); and receiving some professorial help (insert Professors) with tin-lifting from Rick Shine and Craig Moritz in Alice Springs. The lizards we collected are now thriving in the basement of AO8 and are providing me with some fascinating data as well a large number of eggs (almost 400 to date). They should keep me very busy over the next couple of years.

 

Biology Today

Publications

Publications received by the School Database since the last Newsletter

Book Chapter

Baggen, L.R., Gurr, G.M. & A. Meats. (2000). Field observations on selective food plants in habitat manipulation for biological control of potato moth by Copidosoma koehleri Blanchard (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae). Hymenoptera: evolution, biodiversity and biological control. CSIRO. 388-395

Conference

Arthur, A., Pech, R. & C. Dickman. (2000). Does refuge protect prey from predation? Testing theory with a field experiment using a model prey system. Australasian Wildlife Management Society 13th Annual Conference. New Zealand

Dickman, C.R. (2000). Mammals as ecosystem engineers. Australasian Wildlife Management Society 13th Annual Conference. New Zealand

Dickman, C.R. (2000). Ecology and management of small mammals. Australasian Wildlife Management Society 13th Annual Conference. New Zealand

King, D., Dickman, C. & B. Green. (2000). The energetics of free-ranging Dibblers (Parantechinus apicalis). Australasian Wildlife Management Society 13th Annual Conference. New Zealand

Wanigasekara, Y., Armati, P.J. & B.D. Roufogalis. (2000). Role of the plasma membrane calcium ATPase in neuronal cells after a glutamate insult. 2nd Research Conference "From Cell to Society 2". Leura, Australia

Journal

Alibardi, L. & M.B. Thompson. (2000). Scale morphogenesis and ultrastructure of dermis during embryonic development in the alligator (Alligator mississippiensis, Crocodilia, Reptilia). Acta Zoologica. 81:325-338

Buck, K.R., Barry, J.P. & A.G.B. Simpson. (2000). Monterey Bay cold seep biota: Euglenozoa with chemautotrophic bacterial epibionts. Eur. J. Protistol. 36:117-126

Hume, I.D., Smith, C. & P.A. Woolley. (2000). Anatomy and physiology of the gastrointestinal tract of the Julia Creek dunnart, Sminthopsis douglasi (Marsupialia: Dasyuridae). Aust. J. Zool. 48:475-485

Mitakakis, T., Tovey, E.R., Xuan, W. & G.B. Marks (2000). Personal exposure to allergenic pollen and mould spores in inland New South Wales, Australia. Clin. Exp. Allergy. 30:1733-1739

 

SOBScript

 

Emily Mathey, Petra Kashi and Holly Small attended the Annual Nerve Research Foundation Dinner held at the Museum of Contemporary Art last month. The Foundation has provided a postgraduate studentship and equipment money for the Neuroscience Unit of the School for the last 13 years. Neil Perry food, a fund raising auction and lots of wild dancing. A night to remember!

Congratulations to Ricky Spencer on winning the student prize for best spoken paper at the Ecological Society of Australia's meeting held in Melbourne last week. Ricky's talk was judged best from an impressive field of high quality student talks and his win is a terrific achievement. Also Murray Henwood has been awarded a $60 000 Australian Biological Resources Survey Grant.

I think a special thanks should be extended to team behind the Christmas party as it was a smashing success. We know who they are and to mark the occasion the snap shots have been filed on Wallace under Everybody "Xmas party 2000". Jo Walker assures me that she put the camera away before the shots became too "seedy"!