Life and Environmental Sciences news
Visual illusion the key to mating success
Deakin University biologists have found that males with the best visual trickery techniques are more successful at mating, for great bowerbirds that is.
Researchers within Deakin’s Centre for Integrative Ecology Professor John Endler and Dr Laura Kelley, with significant support from James Cook University, have been studying the male great bowerbird’s use of visual illusions in constructing bowers. They have found that the quality of the visual illusion created within the bower promotes mating success. The results of their research are published in the latest issue of Science.
“Last year we revealed that male great bowerbirds use an optical illusion known as forced perspective to construct their bowers. The scene created only works from the female’s viewing angle and could trick the female by altering her perception of the male’s display. We have now found that the quality of the illusion ultimately predicts mating success,” Professor Endler said.
Taking on the night shift to avoid predators
Avoiding predators could be the reason a tiny shorebird divides incubation duties between males and females in a type of ‘shift work’ arrangement. This insight into the possible reason for the birds’ regimented behaviour is the result Deakin School of Life and Environmental Sciences international student Kasun Ekanayake’s honours project.
As its name implies, the Red-capped Plover boasts a bright red head, with males being more brightly coloured than females. This tiny shorebird - which weighs just 30 grams - nests on the ground and is exposed to a range of predators. These include the visually foraging little raven, which has been shown to eat a high proportion of Red-capped Plover eggs before they hatch.
Previous work has shown that the Red-capped Plover parents share incubation duties, with the male incubating by night and the female by day in what is effectively a shift work arrangement. This arrangement is remarkably regimented and features long shifts which are presumed to be onerous for the birds. Kasun was fascinated in the breeding ecology of this pint sized shorebird, and in particular wondered why such a shift work arrangement prevailed.
“I have long been interested in shorebirds where I grew up in Sri Lanka, and the ongoing study on Red-capped Plovers represented a great opportunity to test out some of my ideas about avian breeding ecology,” Kasun says. In his honours project, Kasun tested the possibility that the brightly coloured males may be more detectable by visually foraging predators, which generally locate prey by day.
“We deployed a series of colour-matched models of males and females by day and night, and measured when the nearby model eggs were eaten by predators. Colour matching was a very detailed process, involving spectrophotometry, image analysis as well as the talents of a sculptor.”
The results from Kasun’s work suggest that males are detected much more frequently by day than females, but at night the sexes are detected at about the same rates. These results tend to support the idea that the incubation scheduling serves to reduce depredation rates of eggs.
Other possible influences still remain to be tested and Kasun’s honours study has generated some hypotheses that could be tested across a range of birds. Project supervisors Dr Mike Weston and Professor John Endler agree that his project has been a great success.
“The broader significance of this work is that the study has helped us understand how predators in environments can change social organisation and behaviour,” explains Dr Weston. “It is conceivable that introduced or superabundant predators can alter the social behaviour of their prey. Thus, the impacts of predators may be subtle!”
Kasun has received a Deakin international scholarship to continue his studies as a PhD student in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences.
LES Science connection
A paper in a recent issue of the journal Science examining the end-Permian mass extinction - described as the most severe biodiversity crisis in Earth history - was of particular interest to some members of Deakin’s School of Life and Environmental Sciences, including Head of School, Professor Guang Shi.
The paper’s senior author Professor Shu-zhong Shen worked with Professor Shi as a postdoctoral fellow on an ARC grant for four years at Deakin from 1997 to 2000. Professor Shi describes him as now being a leader in his field in China.
Another of the authors, Wen-zhong Li, is now also at Deakin and is one of Professor Shi’s PhD students, currently working on fossils from Mongolia.
The paper, ‘Calibrating the End-Permian Mass Extinction’, was published in the 9 December 2011 issue of Science.
Photo: LES Head of School, Professor Guang Shi
Deakin chemists win RACI Awards
Two Deakin University chemists were honoured by the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) at a ceremony in Melbourne recently.
Associate Professor Kieran Lim was awarded the 2011 Fensham Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Chemical Education. The Medal is the RACI's highest award for chemical education and acknowledges teaching, contributions to teaching and learning, and chemical education research. Kieran was recognised for his work at primary, secondary and tertiary levels of education, in the continuing professional development of schoolteachers, and in the wider community.
His innovations and insights of the connections between the various chemistry sub-disciplines, and between chemistry and other disciplines, have been developed into study resources, lesson plans, and learning objects that been disseminated and adopted internationally. He has fostered interest in chemical science through his involvement in local community groups and schools, and most recently as a contestant in the Australian pilot of I'm a Scientist, Get Me Out of Here! His activities include: contributions to university and school education, to the RACI and the Science Teachers’ Association of Victoria (STAV), three recent Australian Learning and Teaching Council grants, membership of the Advisory Committee for the F-10 Australian Science Curriculum and a co-author of the RACI’s React to Chemistry: Resource Book for the 2011 National Science Week.
At the same ceremony, Ms Elizabeth Zammit was officially presented with Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Student Conference Travel Grant, in recognition of her PhD work on the synthesis and evaluation of transition metal complexes as analytical chemiluminescence reagents, specifically tris (2,2'-bipyridine)ruthenium(II) and its analogues. The grant enabled Elizabeth to attend and give a presentation at the Analytical Research Forum 2011 at the University of Manchester earlier this year.
More information about the RACI 2011 Awards
Research to improve understanding of a potentially devastating virus
A virus with the potential to cause the extinction of many of Australia’s endangered and threatened parrots is the focus of research by Deakin University PhD student Justin Eastwood.
“I am investigating a largely overlooked and potentially devastating virus called beak and feather disease virus (BFDV),” Justin, a student in Deakin’s Centre for Integrative Ecology, explains. “The virus can cause feather malformation and loss, sometimes beak and claw deformity and often death in parrots, lorikeets and cockatoos - psittacine birds.
“It is currently outlined as a key threatening process to biodiversity (Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act)) as it could potentially cause the extinction of many of our endangered and threatened species of parrots, such as the orange bellied parrot.”
Justin says the main emphasis of his project is investigating the pathogenicity and ecology of the virus and what causes higher or lower mortality in certain birds.
As part of investigating the host-virus relationship, Justin is looking at a number of different aspects, such as how the virus progresses in wild birds, how it is transmitted and how that might affect their ecology - for example their growth and survival - as well as genetic sequencing of the BFDV genome.
Justin has been highly successful raising funds for his research and earlier this year was a recipient of a Birds Australia-Stuart Leslie Bird Research Award.
“The Birds Australia-Stuart Leslie Bird Research Award is assisting us to look in greater depth at one of the hosts affected by this virus, the crimson rosella, and see genetically whether some individuals are more susceptible to BFDV than others. We will also look at whether female rosellas reduce the risk of offspring mortality due to the pathogen, by having a brood fathered by many genetically different males,” Justin says.
As well as his research into BFDV, Justin is examining the potential effect of climate change in nestling birds and has received two other grants for his work in this field: a Birds Australia Victoria Research Grant and a Holsworth Research Endowment.
“Another serious environmental concern is climate change and the effects this will have on biodiversity are not fully understood,” Justin says. “One potential possibility is that the extreme heat conditions predicted may cause higher mortality rates in nestling birds, particularly those confined to nest boxes, which are often used to address other environmental issues such as deforestation. Thanks to Birds Australia Victoria, and the Holsworth Research Endowment, we can now begin to look at whether higher temperatures do in fact increase nestling mortality, stress, and disease susceptibility. We will also be able to see if parent birds assess the temperature of nest sites and if the amount of parental care is reduced as a result of extreme heat conditions.
"Overall, I hope my research will provide new insights into host pathogen relationships and their evolution, I also hope that this will better enable conservationists to abate the potential devastating effects of disease and climate change on our native wildlife."
Justin’s PhD is titled "The ecology and evolution of beak and feather disease virus in platycercus elegans".
His supervisors are Professor Andy T.D. Bennett, Dr Mathew Berg, Dr Kate Buchanan (Deakin University, Centre for Integrative Ecology) and Professor Ken Walder (Deakin University, Metabolic Research Unit).
What it's like to be a scientist
School of Life and Environmental Sciences staff based at Deakin's Warrnambool Campus featured on ABC South West Victoria radio during Science Week recently, giving listeners an insight into what it is like to be a scientist.
Professor Gerry Quinn, Dr Rebecca Lester, Dr Giovanni Turchini and Dr Daniel Ierodiaconou spoke to the ABC about their research, what inspired them to be scientists and what a career in science is like.
Read Behind the Lab Coats and hear the interviews on the ABC South West Victoria website: www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/08/17/3295094.htm
ARC Future Fellowship awarded to Dr Paul Francis
Congratulations to Dr Paul Francis (School of Life and Environmental Sciences) who has been awarded an ARC Future Fellowship. Dr Francis's research is in the field of analytical chemistry and his project is entitled “New strategies for highly sensitive chemical detection based on luminescent ruthenium and iridium complexes”. Dr Francis did both his undergraduate and PhD studies at Deakin. Being awarded a Future Fellowship is a wonderful achievement for him personally, and also recognition of the quality of chemistry research and teaching in the School.
Dr Francis said he was delighted to have been selected for the Fellowship and that the new analytical approaches explored in the project offer great potential in fields requiring rapid and exceedingly sensitive chemical measurement, such as clinical diagnostics and illicit drug screening.
Temperate woodlands focus of new book
Professor Andrew F Bennett (School of Life and Environmental Sciences) is one of the co-editors of a new book which aims to provide a comprehensive summary of the state of Australia’s temperate woodlands as well as potential strategies for the future.
Temperate Woodland Conservation and Management is described as summarising the “main discoveries, management insights and policy initiatives ... associated with temperate woodlands in Australia”. Professor Bennett’s co-editors on the book were Professor David Lindenmayer (ANU) and Professor Richard Hobbs (UWA).
Professor Bennett said that up until about 20 years ago, relatively little attention was paid to southern Australia’s temperate woodlands. They have been heavily cleared and have become highly fragmented.
“The changes to our temperate woodlands - areas of grassy woodland more open than forests - have been profound in terms of the loss of species and loss of vegetation,” he said. “Generally they coincide with the wheat-sheep belt of southern Australia, where agricultural development has been concentrated.
“With this book we wanted to provide an up-to-date summary of temperate woodlands in Australia, the lessons that have been learned and strategies for the future.
“We invited contributions from a wide range of people with expertise in different fields associated with temperate woodlands - science, policy, and management - and asked them to share their key lessons with us,” Professor Bennett said.
“We hope this book proves to be a useful resource for scientists and land managers and makes a positive contribution to the conservation and management of our temperate woodlands.”
LES professor headed for Harvard
Professor Andrew F Bennett, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, has been awarded a Charles Bullard Fellowship in Forest Research from Harvard University.
The fellowship program supports “advanced research and study by individuals who show promise of making an important contribution, either as scholars or administrators, to forestry and forest-related subjects from biology to earth sciences, economics, politics, administration, philosophy, humanities, the arts or law”.
In offering his congratulations, Head of the School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Professor Guang Shi, said it was not only wonderful news for Professor Bennett, but also for the School and for Deakin.
Under the program, Fellows spend between six and 12 months at either Harvard Forest or the main Harvard campus, to carry out research in the broad area of forestry.
Harvard Forest is described as “one of the oldest and most intensively studied forests in North America”, with its land and facilities providing a comprehensive base for research and education in forest biology and ecology.
Professor Bennett said he was honoured to receive the fellowship and the opportunities it offered.
"This is a great opportunity to work in Harvard Forest and learn from the research that is going on there. As well as being intellectually appealing, the Forest is also an attractive location - a quiet, country environment I enjoy.”
During his fellowship, planned for the second half of 2012, Professor Bennett will study the way in which landscape structure mediates change in biodiversity at large scales and over long time frames. He will investigate ecological resilience in regional landscapes, using data from a study of change in woodland birds in the temperate woodlands of southern Australia, and from the wealth of knowledge at Harvard Forest on long-term change in land cover and land use in the New England region.
Deakin research selected as science success story
A research visit to Japan by Dr Alecia Bellgrove (School of Life and Environmental Sciences) is one of the case studies featured in the Australian Academy of Science publication: Success Stories of the International Science Linkages (ISL) Science Academies Program.
Dr Bellgrove was awarded a grant for a Scientific Visit to Japan in 2008-09, enabling her to conduct research into the dispersal ecology of algae at the Shimoda Marine Research Centre at the University of Tsukuba. The visit allowed Dr Bellgrove to build on findings from a previous Scientific Visit she made in 2004-05.
As well as ensuring the continuation of the research collaboration with the University of Tsukuba, the visit also enabled Dr Bellgrove to initiate collaborations with Ochanomizu University and the University of Yamanashi.
Dr Bellgrove said the results were exciting.
“The Scientific Visits program, supported by the Australian Academy of Science and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, has facilitated some very fruitful collaboration with Japanese researchers from a number of different institutions as well as access to state-of-the art equipment,” Dr Bellgrove said.
“The results we have gained from our collaborative research are very exciting for progressing our understanding of algal ecology and ecophysiology. This knowledge is important for a number of reasons, including furthering the understanding of how oceans and coastal environments may respond to climate change.
“These results have been made possible by the unique skills of the multidisciplinary team that I have been able to collaborate with through the supported visits to Japan.”
Success Stories of the International Science Linkages (ISL) Science Academies Program is available online at the Australian Academy of Science website: www.science.org.au/internat
Initiative helps research cross international borders
A European initiative called “Money Follows Researcher” is helping Dr Bernhard Dichtl (School of Life and Environmental Sciences) continue work here at Deakin on a research project he began in Switzerland.
Dr Dichtl, a molecular biologist, came to Deakin last November from the University of Zurich. Under the scheme he has been able to transfer a research grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) to Deakin. The grant is supporting a project investigating the basic mechanisms of gene expression.
“The idea of the scheme is to help ensure the continuation of ongoing research projects and to bridge funding gaps following the move of a researcher to a new organisation in another country,” Dr Dichtl said.
“By generously agreeing to this transfer, the SNF is continuing to support my project, even though it is now being carried out in Australia. The focus is on the research, not where it is done.”
Equipment as well as funding followed Dr Dichtl to Deakin in the transfer.
The title of Dr Dichtl’s project is “Regulation and assembly of the Set1C/COMPASS methyltransferase”.
“The DNA present in cells is not simply a naked thread of nucleic acid; it is tightly wrapped around histone proteins and this structural arrangement strongly influences whether or not the genetic information is in an active or silent state,” Dr Dichtl explained.
“Methyltransferases are modification enzymes which add biochemical tags on the histone proteins, regulating the activity state of a gene. One focus of our work is on how these methyltransferases work, how their activity is regulated and how they are assembled.”
“Money Follows Researcher” is an initiative of EUROHORCs (European Heads of Research Councils).
Further information about Dr Dichtl and his research
Bowerbird research in the Top 100
Professor John Endler (School of Life and Environmental Sciences and Centre for Integrative Ecology) was in the charts recently, with his research into male bowerbirds using visual perspective featuring at number 86 on Discover magazine’s list of Top 100 stories for 2010.
“I was completely delighted by the news,” Professor Endler said. Described as a “special report on the 100 most amazing discoveries from the past year”, the feature appeared in the January/February 2011 issue of the magazine.
The study by Professor Endler and his colleagues put forward the theory that male bowerbirds deliberately decorate their bowers to make themselves or their ornaments look larger or more conspicuous to females. The discovery makes bowerbirds the only animal known - in addition to humans - to create a scene with altered visual perspective, and one constructed for viewing at a particular angle. Their findings were published in Current Biology last year.
The research received international media coverage, with a number of interviews being done while Professor Endler was working in the field.
“It was a bit of a challenge for journalists to catch up with me, because my mobile phone would only work in some locations. But it’s a good thing to see people taking an interest in research and talking about science,” Professor Endler said.
“To illustrate what the bowerbirds are doing some articles described Michelangelo’s use of perspective in his Statue of David and I like the analogy. Depending on your definition of art, it raises the question: Given that Great Bowerbirds create scenes with forced perspective, is what they produce art?”
Professor Endler and his colleagues are now conducting further tests to see if the bowerbird’s visual tricks are related to success with mating.
