Biodiversity of the Kimberley

Transcription

1 Biodiversity of the Kimberley K I MBERLEY MARINE R ESEARCH P ROGRAM WA M S I P R OJ ECT M A R I NE T U R T L ES D r S c o t t W h i t i n g - D e p a r t m e n t o f P a r k s a n d W i l d l i f e D r To n y T u c k e r - D e p a r t m e n t o f P a r k s a n d W i l d l i f e D r N i c o l a M i t c h e l l U n i v e r s i t y o f W e s t e r n A u s t r a l i a D r O l i v e r B e r r y C S I R O D r K e l l i e P e n d o l e y P e n d o l e y E n v i r o n m e n t a l D r N a n c y F i t z S i m m o n s G r i f f i t h U n i v e r s i t y S T U D E N T S J e s s i c a S t u b b s ( H o n o u r s c o m p l e t e d ) B l a i r B e n t l e y ( P h D c u r r e n t )

2 Acknowledgments Traditional Owners omiriuwung Gajerrong obalanggarra Aboriginal Corporation owunambal Gaambera Aboriginal Corporation odambimangari Aboriginal Corporation obardi and Jawi Niimidiman Aboriginal Corporation onyul Nyul okarajarri PBC onyangumarta Warrarn Regional Parks and Wildlife Offices Kununurra Office contribution of $$ and logistic support Broome Office

3 Indigenous Land and Sea o Turtles are culturally important o Existing knowledge base o Jointly managed parks or proposed parks o Indigenous Protected Areas (IPA s) o Healthy Country Plans o Existing turtle work

4 Indigenous Engagement and Training $90K for wages and $30K communication

5 Why Turtles? Threatened Species Legislative responsibility (state, Commonwealth) Values cultural, food, economic, Values Iconic, accessible to people, rehabilitation Flagship for conservation (saleable) Links between most marine habitats Links between people and sea locations Data supplied by Common Global issues pollution, Col bycatch, Limpus, DERM, coastal Qld development Bob Prince, DEC, WA SPREP IOSEA

6 Generalised Life Cycle Foraging Ground Foraging Ground Foraging Ground Foraging Ground Foraging Ground Foraging Ground Foraging Ground Oceanic phase Mixed genetic stocks in foraging areas Long migration routes Fidelity to nesting areas

7 Genetics Stocks Hawksbill Turtles (stocks) Flatback Turtles? Green Turtles FitzSimmons unpublished?? Pittard 2010 Dethmers et al 2006

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9 WAMSI Turtle Questions: 1) Distribution and Abundance What species nest on Kimberley beaches? When/where are they nesting? Integration of Western Science and Traditional Knowledge 2) Genetics How are these turtles related to other groups? 3) Climate Change and Increasing Temperatures What are impacts of climate change? 4) Indigenous Knowledge How do traditional and scientific knowledge complement each other?

10 Distribution and Abundance Inaccessible convoluted coast with thousands of islands

11 Data Layers Final Outputs Ground Surveys Aerial Surveys Indigenous Knowledge Contemporary Studies Historical Observations Remote Sensing Base Maps

12 Knowledge Cross-sectional Longitudinal

13 Distribution and Abundance Broadscale Aerial Surveys Jan 2014 (22,000 images) Aug 2014 (22,000 images) 91% 2,633 islands and 1,375 mainland beaches.

14 Types of images

15 Types of images

16 All Turtles Summer tracks Winter tracks

17 Season Contrast: Lacepedes (Green) Summer( ) 261 m 3992 tracks, 6078 pits, Winter ( ) m 208 tracks, 6912 pits Conclusions: Green turtles, summer season surveys for best density estimates

18 Season Contrasts: Cape Domett Summer( ) 43 m 2 tracks, 1 pit Winter ( ) m 1361 tracks, 841 pits, 5 crocs

19 Ground Truthing

20 Genetics Define management units (including green turtles) Investigate flatback turtle winter /summer nesting behaviour Opportunistically pick up hawksbill and olive ridley nesting areas Flatback Turtles? Pittard 2010 So Far, Completed o Green and flatback samples collected Required o Analysis of samples

21 Thermal biology of Kimberley sea turtles How will anthropogenic climate change affect sexratios and embryonic mortality of Kimberley sea turtles? Determine pivotal temperatures (sex-ratio 1:1) Calculate upper thermal limits of embryos Collect environmental data (sand reflectance, weather) Feed into mechanistic model Are summer nesters at the same risk as winter nesters?

22 So far & what s next? Completed o Flatback eggs collected from winter and summer nesting populations o Incubated at UWA o Weather stations and sand temperature loggers deployed o One study published (Cape Domett) Still ahead o Central Kimberley summer and winter flatback rookeries o Two green turtle rookeries o Model outputs to identify most susceptible rookeries o Predict effects of nesting shifts (spatial or temporal)

23 Indigenous Knowledge Using meetings and paper GIS to ensure that we have a comprehensive understanding of the distribution, abundance and timing of nesting. Images taken from Greche et al. 2014

24 Outputs: Scientific Theses 1 x honours (Completed) 1 x PhD (Current) Conference Proceedings 1 completed 3 expected Peer Reviewed Scientific Papers 1 completed 4 others expected Outputs -Data Products o Images of the coast at two time periods (44, 000 images) o Summarised nesting distribution data, GIS layers o Weather station data (4 weather station locations) osand temperature data o Tissue sample collections

25 Communication: Engagement with councils and rangers oposters x 2 omeetings and presentations x 12 ofield Reports x 4 otraining opportunities

26 Benefits to management SHORT TERM oadvice to marine park planners oadvice for establishment of monitoring sites LONG TERM olong-term time-series monitoring data opredictive models for climate change impacts. oto groups to conduct monitoring oco-operation across TO groups and external organisations

27 The End

28 Data Layers Final Outputs Ground Surveys Aerial Surveys Indigenous Knowledge Contemporary Studies Historical Observations Remote Sensing Base Maps Complimentary picture, monitoring sites Dedicated surveys from this study Dedicated surveys from this study Local, contemporary and longitudinal data Inpex, Woodside Early explorers, Habitat, geology morphology Topos, charts

29 Summary 2015 On ground Surveys Weather station deployed Eggs collected

30 Data supplied by Col Limpus, DERM, Qld Bob Prince, DEC, WA SPREP IOSEA