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International Collaboration
Our research benefits from collaboration with a wide range of overseas scientists and land managers, and such collaboration helps our work have an impact internationally. Our collaborations focus on South Africa, and particularly Kruger National Park, where landscapes and land management issues are similar to those in northern Australia.
Research Projects
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Fire modelling
The Flames model is currently being used to simulate the effect of fire in Kruger National Park, South Africa and develop intercontinental model comparisons.
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Soil Health
Termites and other soil macroinvertebrates play a major role in key soil processes and are known to respond negatively to disturbances (e.g. grazing) worldwide. Soil macrofauna are therefore potential indicators of landscape health, but only if the structure of macrofaunal assemblages can be reliably assessed. In collaboration with researchers from the Natural History Museum, London, we are testing the application of an international macroinverterbrate sampling protocol developed for tropical forests, to the savanna ecosystems of northern Australia.
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Landscape modelling
The Savanna.au model has been developed in collaboration with Mike Coughenour, Colorado State University, USA and is based on the Savanna model developed for African savannas.
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Ant biogeography and community ecology
Ant ecologists Alan Andersen, Ben Hoffmann and Kate Parr have a strong interest in the global ecology of ant communities, seeking to predict global patterns of ant diversity, community composition and behavioural dominance in relation to environmental stress and disturbance. The work has involved: (i) descriptions of patterns of ant community organization in Australia, North America and southern Africa in relation to climate, vegetation structure, and disturbance; and (ii) experimental studies of dynamic processes, especially in relation to interference competition and disturbance, within ant communities.
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Fire and invertebrate biodiversity
We have close links with scientists in Kruger National Park, South Africa and are collaborating on invertebrate and fire projects with Hendrik Sithole (Invertebrate research manager) and Navashni Govender (Program manager: fire ecology).
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Termite ecology
Termites play a critical role in maintaining the health of tropical savannas worldwide, as they are major players in key soil processes. In collaboration with researchers at Kruger National Park and Cape Town University, termites have been collected from a range of habitat types and locations across South Africa, including mammalian grazing exclosures and sites subjected to different land management fire regimes. This work will provide some interesting intercontinental research parallels to work conducted around Qld and the NT on the impacts of grazing and fire on termite assemblage structures and landscape health.
In collaboration with colleagues at the University of Bologna, Italy, an extensive taxonomic and phylogenetic analysis by molecular characterisation is currently in progress for the Northern Territory termite fauna.
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Image: NASA
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