Boris Lomov Room 408, Building A08 School of Biological Sciences The University of Sydney NSW 2006 Tel. 02 93515118, Fax 02 9351 4119 E-mail: blomov@bio.usyd.edu.au

Research I am interested in plant-insect interactions, restoration ecology, taxonomy of ants and bees as well as in behaviour of social Hymenoptera. My PhD thesis is titled: “Plant-insect interactions as indicators for restoration ecology” and below is the abstract.

Evaluations of ecological restoration typically focus on associating measures of structural properties of ecosystems such as species diversity with time since restoration efforts commenced. Such studies often conclude a failure to achieve restoration goals without examining the functional performance of the organism assemblages in question. I evaluated a recovery of structural and functional components in a restored ecosystem by examining processes such as pollination by bees, seed removal by ants and insect-mediated herbivory as well as recovery of lepidopteran assemblages in restored habitats. The model system for these experiments was an extensive revegetation program aimed to restore endangered Cumberland Plain Woodland (CPW), Sydney, Australia.

Pollination is critically important for the persistence of plants in restored habitats, however it is rarely taken in to account in restoration assessments. I evaluated a recovery of interactions between the shrub Dillwynia sieberi and its pollinator assemblages in five-year-old revegetated pastures and CPW remnants. I examined plant size, plant flower density, flower visitation rates by insects, fruit and seed set ratios and rates of pre-dispersal seed predation. Plants in restored areas and forest remnants were of similar size, while flower densities on plants in restored areas were significantly higher than in forest remnants. Plants in revegetated areas attracted significantly more flower visitors with visitor assemblages usually dominated by the European Honeybee. Plants in revegetated areas had similar numbers of flowers per inflorescence, while fruit and seed set per inflorescence was significantly higher in forest remnants. There was no significant difference in the rates of pre-dispersal seed predation. Plants in revegetated areas and forest remnants had similar seed output with no apparent negative effect of the European Honeybee on seed production. Native and exotic insect pollinators responded to availability of floral recourses rather than habitat type. Quick recovery of D. sieberi pollination in restored habitat could be attributed to both parties of this plant-insect interaction being generalists as far as pollination is concerned.

Ants are widely used as an indicator group for restoration monitoring in Australia. Here, I complemented the conventional data on ant community structure with quantitative information on the functional performance of ant communities in the ecosystem. I compared diversity and composition of ant assemblages as well as the rates of seed removal by ants in pastures, revegetated areas and CPW remnants. Ant assemblages of forest remnant sites had significantly higher species richness, significantly different species composition and a more complex functional group structure in comparison to ant assemblages of pasture and revegetated sites. However, the rates of seed removal by ants in revegetated sites were similar to those in forest remnants, with the rates in pasture sites being significantly lower. Approximately one third of all ant species were observed to remove seeds. Forest remnant sites had significantly different composition of seed removing species from the same in pasture and revegetated sites. Measurements of ant community structure combined with the data on one of the functions they perform, demonstrated that similar ant assemblages of unrestored pasture and revegetated areas functioned differently in the context of their habitats.

Herbivory is a dominant ecological interaction, driving a large proportion of nutrient cycling in the ecosystems with insect herbivores often being the key consumers of plant biomass. However, in the restoration context, herbivory is rarely viewed as an ecological indicator of functional integrity of restored ecosystems. I measured the levels of insect-mediated leaf damage on trees and seedlings of a dominant canopy tree Eucalyptus moluccana in five-year-old revegetated areas and CPW remnants. The proportion of missing leaf area and the percentage of leaves affected by chewing damage on 4-6m tall E. moluccana trees in revegetated areas were approximately twice higher than in forest remnants. During a twelve-month period, E. moluccana seedlings planted in the pasture grew significantly taller than their counterparts in forest remnants. In revegetated areas seedlings suffered extremely high mortality and could not be included in assessment of herbivory.  There was no significant difference in the proportion of missing leaf area among the seedlings in the pasture and forest remnants, although the percentage of leaves affected by surface damage in forest remnants was significantly higher than on seedlings in pastures. Higher levels of leaf damage in revegetated areas could be attributed to imbalance between high abundances of insect herbivores and low abundances of their natural enemies in the restored habitat. The lower levels of leaf surface damage on seedlings planted in the pasture are probably due to insufficient timeframe for insect herbivores to colonise this novel resource in unrestored habitat. Quantitative surveys of insect herbivory is a rapid, low-cost and informative tool, linking plant health with insect diversity, which could be used as part of broader monitoring programs by restoration practitioners.

Moths and butterflies are strongly associated with vegetation structure and composition, which makes them a suitable indicator taxon for various ecological studies. Despite a good knowledge of many Australian lepidopteran taxa, they have rarely been used for restoration assessment. To explore the feasibility of using Lepidoptera as an indicator taxon for restoration monitoring in Australia, I evaluated the success of a revegetation program by comparing moth and butterfly diversity and composition between unrestored pastures, revegetated pastures and CPW remnants. A light-trap survey of moth assemblages showed no significant differences in moth species richness and composition between any of the treatments with traps in revegetated areas producing most species rich samples. Butterfly surveys conducted over a one year period showed a considerable increase in butterfly species richness in revegetated areas compared to pastures, while forest remnants still had twice as many butterfly species compared to revegetated areas. Current revegetation practices employed to restore CPW increased the diversity of lepidopteran assemblages, however it is not clear whether they are on a trajectory towards the reference assemblages of forest remnants. Our study demonstrates that Lepidoptera has a potential for broader application as an indicator group in restoration monitoring in Australia.

My work suggests that if a particular assemblage of organisms can serve as an indicator of ecosystem diversity than a function performed by this assemblage may serve as an indicator of ecosystem function. The relationship between such indicators of diversity and function across different stages of restoration succession can be used as additional information about restoration trends. One of the outcomes of this approach was the recurrent indication that restored ecosystems can gain a high degree of functionality at the early stages of restoration, when their diversity is relatively low. Understanding how diversity-function relationships change in the course of restoration succession can significantly improve our ability to generate predictive models for future restoration efforts.

Publications

Hochuli, D. F., F. J. Christie, and B. Lomov. 2005. Invertebrate biodiversity in urban landscapes: Assessing remnant habitat and its restoration. Pages (in press) in M. J. McDonnell, J. Breuste, and A. K. Hahs, editors. Ecology of Cities and Towns: A Comparative Approach. Cambridge University Press, Australia.

Goh, D., Lomov, B. 2000. The Yellow Flower Mantis. Malaysian Naturalist 53(3):12-17

Nalini, S., Lomov, B. 1996. The Spot Puffin Butterfly Appias lalage lalage Doubleday (Pieridae) – a rare record for South India. Journal of Bombay Natural History Society 93(3): 596-597

Lomov, B., D. A. Keith, and D. F. Hochuli. Pollination ecology in restored landscapes: Does integrity of plant-insect interaction affect plant reproductive success? Ecological Applications (under review).

Lomov, B., D. A. Keith, and D. F. Hochuli. Linking ecological functions to species diversity in ecological restoration: seed removal by ants in recreated woodland. Journal of Applied Ecology (under review).

Lomov, B., D. R. Britton, D. A. Keith, and D. F. Hochuli. Butterflies and moths as indicators for
restoration monitoring: A case study in Cumberland Plain Woodland. Ecological Management &
Restoration (under review).

Lomov, B., D. A. Keith, and D. F. Hochuli. Elevated levels of insect herbivory on a dominant tree
species in restored habitat. Restoration Ecology (under review).

Conferences

Lomov, B., D. R. Britton, D. A. Keith, and D. F. Hochuli. 2005 Assessment of insect herbivory in restored landscapes: A rapid low-cost tool for monitoring. Oral presentation, Joint Conf. of Aust. Entomol. Soc., Invertebrate Biodiv. & Cons. Soc. and Soc. of Aust. Systematic Biologists. Canberra.

Lomov, B., Keith, D. A., Hochuli, D. F. 2005 Recovery of plant-insect interactions in Cumberland Plain Woodland restoration areas. Oral presentation, Cumberland Plain Symposium, University of Western Sydney.

Lomov, B., Keith, D. A., Hochuli, D. F. 2004 Pollinator assemblage dominated by Honey Bee provides adequate pollination to a shrub in restored habitat. Oral presentation, Ann. Conf. of Ecol. Soc. of Aust., Adeliade.

Lomov, B., Keith, D. A., Hochuli, D. F. 2004 Depauperate insect assemblages provide adequate ecological services to a shrub in restored habitat. Oral presentation, International Congress of Entomology, Brisbane.

Lomov, B., Keith, D. A., Hochuli, D. F. 2003 Effects of revegetation on ant fauna and seed removal by ants. Joint Conf. of Aust. Entomol. Soc. and Soc. for Invert. Biodiv. & Cons. Oral presentation, Hobart.

Lomov, B., Keith, D. A., Hochuli, D. F. 2003 Effects of revegetation on ant fauna and seed removal by ants. Oral presentation, Ann. Conf. of Ecol. Soc. of Aust., Armidale.

Lomov, B., Keith, D. A., Hochuli, D. F. 2002 Evaluating the success of ecological restoration: An invertebrate perspective. Poster. Joint Conf. of Ecol. Soc. of Aust. & Eclol. Soc. of N. Zeal., Cairns.

Grants & Awards

• Animal Navigation Summer School Scholarship, Australian National University (2005)
• Postgraduate Research Support Scheme, University of Sydney (2004)
• Royal Zoological Society of NSW Ethel Mary Read Research Grant (2003)
• Postgraduate Research Support Scheme, University of Sydney (2003)
• Ecological Society of Australia Student Travel Grant (2003)
• Postgraduate Research Support Scheme, University of Sydney (2002)
• Postgraduate Science Communication Course Scholarship, University of Sydney (2002)
• Australian Postgraduate Award (Industry), University of Sydney (2002)
• Integrated B.Sc and M.Sc Scholarship (tuition & stipend), Mechnikov State University (1988)