David Paton

University of Adelaide · School of Earth and Environmental Sciences

Freshwater aquatic ecosystems can be considered sentinels of change as they integrate signals from catchment, hydrology and biogeochemistry to provide an indication of how the system fluctuates. The Coorong estuary acts as a sentinel for the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB), Australia. Its location at the terminus of the Murray-Darling River systems, whi...

Australia's arid shrublands have been impacted by a variety of threatening processes since European settlement, and changes to ecosystem structure and function have been observed at multiple levels. The lack of recruitment and regeneration of the perennial shrub and tree layer in these communities has implications for many shrubland birds, includin...

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This Statement on improving kangaroo management originates from the shared experience of many peak bodies and stakeholders that existing policy and practices related to kangaroo management cause perverse outcomes for animal welfare, conservation, productivity, waste, drought resilience, climate, and the health, culture and wellbeing of Australians....

Reintroductions of threatened species can fail due to a lack of site fidelity and dispersal of individuals away from the release site. Delayed-release techniques are commonly used in reintroduction programmes to acclimatise animals to novel sites to improve site fidelity and survival following release. However, some studies have found negative or l...

The Lower Lakes and Coorong system lies at the terminus of the River Murray and are an icon of the Australian landscape. This system is an incredibly important habitat for waterbirds, supporting more than 1% of the global populations of nine waterbird taxa and hosting up to 90% of waterbirds in the Murray–Darling Basin during drought. Modifications...

In South Australia, Swamps of the Fleurieu Peninsula are critically endangered due to past vegetation clearance and changes in hydrology, but still contain a high diversity of threatened plant species. This vegetation community provides habitat for 82 threatened ground‐stratum plant species, including the nationally critically endangered subshrub H...

An important component of reintroduction is acclimatization to the release site. Movement parameters and breeding are common metrics used to infer the end of the acclimatization period, but the time taken to locate preferred food items is another important measure. We studied the diet of a reintroduced population of brushtail possums Trichosurus vu...

Reintroduction has become an increasingly important conservation tool in Australia, yet the effects of stress on species during reintroduction programs have received little attention. The use of enzyme immunoassays to measure faecal glucocorticoid metabolites (FGM) is a useful non-invasive technique to monitor adrenal activity but requires validati...

The spatial arrangement of plants is a key determinant of pollination services in natural ecosystems. Despite this, plant arrangements are rarely considered an important characteristic of revegetated communities and this may be limiting successful pollination dynamics in these re‐created systems. We assessed if aggregated South Australian Blue Gum...

The arrangement of plants within revegetated sites is rarely considered an important characteristic of these communities. However, in natural systems, plant spatial arrangements can influence a range of ecological processes, including pollination and seed set. Pollinators tend to preferentially visit larger and/or more closely spaced populations, w...

When native herbivores are enclosed in fenced reserves without predators or dispersal options then overgrazing can occur, leading to damage to vegetation and co‐occurring fauna species. One‐way gates that allow medium‐sized herbivores to exit fenced reserves may be an effective management tool to address overabundance or facilitate population expan...

Release methods can influence the outcome of reintroductions. We tested the effect of delayed, immediate and supplementary food/shelter release treatments on the reintroduction of brushtail possums Trichosurus vulpecula to an environment in which introduced predators, particularly foxes, were subject to control. Monitoring of 48 radio-collared poss...

Summary The problem 1. Glossy black-cockatoos are highly vulnerable to predation by common brush-tailed possums when nesting. 2. They also suffer from a shortage of nest hollows, with strong competition for nest hollows from other cockatoos and feral bees. Actions taken to manage the problem 1. Ongoing protection of natural nest hollows from both p...

The spatial arrangement of plants, both within and between species, play a key role in natural systems and influence many fundamental ecological processes (e.g. survival, competition, facilitation, pollination and seed dispersal) and ecosystem functions (e.g. habitat value, erosion, water and nutrient capture). Despite this knowledge, fine-scale pl...

Restoration techniques that naturally accelerate regeneration by removing ecological barriers, such as limited seed dispersal, could reduce the need for expensive and labour-intensive methods. One potential method to overcome this barrier is the strategic placement of artificial perches in degraded areas. These perches encourage frugivorous birds t...

From analysis of results from 93 studies on the frequency of occurrence of birds in cat dietary samples, and a recently published assessment of the population size of feral cats in largely natural landscapes, we estimate and map the number of birds killed annually in Australia by feral cats. We show that average rates of predation on birds by cats...

We describe a community-run effort to cull Common Myna (Acridotheres tristis) in Melbourne undertaken with modest funding (overall: $30.14 per trap day, $5.17 per euthanized Common Myna). Trap success (overall, 0.04 birds per trap per day) peaked early in the effort and slowly declined. Trap specificity was high (83.8%) and similar between bait typ...

Burrowing bettongs (Bettongia lesueur) reached high densities within the fenced Arid Recovery reserve. Grazing pressure was assessed by comparing the vegetation inside and outside the reserve during April in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Mean numbers of bettong tracks crossing small 10 m 1 m plots overnight in the main exclosure were 20 in 2012, decreasing...

River flows and salinity are key factors structuring fish assemblages in estuaries. The osmoregulatory ability of a fish determines its capacity to tolerate rising salt levels when dispersal is unfeasible. Estuarine fishes can tolerate minor fluctuations in salinity, but a relatively small number of species in a few families can inhabit extreme hyp...

Anthropogenic modification of catchments and river flow can significantly alter estuarine habitats, hydrology and nutrient delivery with implications for fisheries productivity. The Coorong estuary at the terminus of Australia’s River Murray supports an economically important fishery as well as being recognised internationally as a critical site fo...

Summary Heathlands are major repositories of Australia's unique and iconic flora and also support a specialised fauna. Often situated within spectacular scenic landscapes, heathlands provide an important focus for a growing multi-million dollar ecotourism industry. Heathlands span a remarkably broad range of tropical and temperate climates acros...

1. Linked demographic-bioclimatic models are emerging tools for forecasting climate change impacts on well-studied species, but these methods have been used in few management applications, and species interactions have not been incorporated. We combined population and bioclimatic envelope models to estimate future risks to the viability of a cockat...

Cited By (since 1996):3, Export Date: 26 November 2013, Source: Scopus

Sex determination of individuals is often required for ecological and behavioural studies but is difficult to carry out in the field for species that are only slightly dimorphic. To address this issue, researchers may use a variety of methods that rely solely on morphological measurements for sex determination. There are two main groups of morpholo...

Ten reintroduction attempts were conducted in and around the Arid Recovery Reserve in northern South Australia between 1998 and 2008. Five locally-extinct mammal species and one reptile species were reintroduced into a fenced Reserve where cats, foxes and rabbits were excluded. Reintroductions of the nationally threatened greater stick-nest rat, bu...

Cited By (since 1996):7, Export Date: 26 November 2013, Source: Scopus

Musk Ducks (Biziura lobata) are endemic to Australia and occur as two geographically isolated populations separated by the Nullarbor Plain, a vast arid region in southern Australia. We studied genetic variation in Musk Duck populations at coarse (eastern versus western Australia) and fine scales (four sites within eastern Australia). We found signi...

Eucalypt woodlands have been extensively cleared in southern Australia for agricultural production and the scattered trees that remain (“paddock trees”) are at risk of extinction without conservation action to lift recruitment rates. Here we assessed the reproductive, demographic, and genetic structure of trees from two vegetation types (paddock vs...

The Coorong, South Australia, is a globally significant wetland system, listed in the Ramsar Convention under a number of different criteria, including its importance to waterbird populations. Based on annual waterbird censuses conducted between 2000 and 2007, spatiotemporal analyses revealed that significant differences in waterbird community stru...

We investigated ontogenetic, temporal and spatial patterns in the composition and size of prey in the diet of crested terns, Sterna bergii. Diet analyses indicated that crested terns are a generalist predator on surface-schooling clupeids (Australian anchovy Engraulis australis, sardine Sardinops sagax and blue sprat Spratelloides robustus), Degens...

Scattered trees are set to be lost from agricultural landscapes within the next century without sustained effort to increase recruitment. Thus, understanding the reproductive dynamics of scattered tree populations will be critical in determining how they can contribute to population restoration. The distance between conspecifics should be a key pre...

McLeay, L. J., Page, B., Goldsworthy, S. D., Ward, T. M., Paton, D. C., Waterman, M., and Murray, M. D. 2009. Demographic and morphological responses to prey depletion in a crested tern (Sterna bergii) population: can fish mortality events highlight performance indicators for fisheries management? – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 66: 237–247. Dise...

We examined sexual size dimorphism of a lek-displaying diving duck from Australia, the Musk Duck (Biziura lobata). Like other lek-displaying species, Musk Ducks exhibit extreme sexual size dimorphism in addition to structural dimorphism. Body mass ratios (male:female) for Musk Ducks are among the highest reported for birds (more than 3:1). Multivar...

The Coorong and Lower Lakes are listed as a Wetland of International Significance under the Ramsar Convention. This wetland system was nominated because of the diversity of wetlands that were supported: fresh, estuarine and hypermarine; and because of the importance of the area to vast numbers of water birds: ducks, swans, pelicans, terns, grebes,...

Plant communities on the River Murray floodplain, South Australia, are degraded by flow regulation and salinization, with up to 95% of eucalypt trees being dead or dying from water stress. This paper describes the floodplain seed bank and its capacity to respond to floods or managed ‘environmental flows’. The soil seed bank contained mainly annual...

Availability: <http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=588106192845597;res=IELENG> ISBN: 0858257351. Abstract Diversions and regulation have reduced the frequency of flooding on the River Murray floodplain, causing the decline and death of floodplain vegetation. Now, after seven years without their key water source from flooding, river r...

Thickets of tangled lignum, a drought-tolerant perennial shrub, occur in flood-prone areas throughout central and eastern Australia, including large areas of the River Murray floodplain. In dry periods, lignum appears dry and lifeless, without leaves, flowers or green stems, but it recovers rapidly in response to flooding or rainfall. Little is kno...

Abstract At the scale of an individual host, mistletoes are aggregated in space, resulting from the preferential perching of mistletoe dispersers on previously infected plants. We hypothesized that the landscape scale movement patterns of mistletoe dispersers will also promote the aggregation of mistletoes. This hypothesis was tested by predicting...

Trees on the River Murray floodplain in South Australia, particularly river red gum and black box (Myrtaceae: Eucalyptus camaldulensis, E. largiflorens), are increasingly water-stressed as the period since effective overbank flows extends to six years. As a result of declining health and dry conditions, recruitment rates in these species are insuff...

Allocasuarina verticillata is an important species for biodiversity conservation on Kangaroo Island (South Australia) because it is the primary food source for the endangered glossy black-cockatoo, Calyptorhynchus lathami halmaturinus. Two potentially limiting factors, pollen and soil nutrients, were studied in the context of A. verticillata as for...

Several methods have been used to remove nectar from banksia inflorescences to measure amounts of energy available, but these methods have been poorly described in the literature. Each method has advantages and disadvantages with respect to the proportion of nectar removed and the time taken to remove nectar. Power-driven aspirators probably remove...

New Holland honeyeaters collect nectar, manna or honeydew for energy and hawk small flying insects for protein. The insects taken were usually Diptera and Hymenoptera weighing 0.7 mg dry weight or less. Net rates of energy gain from hawking small flying insects were usually less than 20 J min−1 and sometimes negative and insufficient to meet the bi...

Nectar-feeding birds are prominent in many parts of the world, and vary with respect to body size. Despite the availability of considerable morphometric data, few concerted efforts have been made to assess the influence of attributes such as mass, wing length and leg morphology upon the speed, acceleration, mode and energetic cost of movement by bi...

The tongues of Australian honeyeaters (Meliphagidae) are broader and more fimbricated at the top than the bifurcated tongues of sunbirds (Nectariniidae) and hummingbirds (Trochilidae); the bills of hummingbirds are more uniformly narrow and taper less markedly towards their tips than those of sunbirds and honeyeaters; and bill curvatures are genera...

Glossy Black-Cockatoos on Kangaroo Island, South Australia, rely primarily on the kernels contained in the seed-cones of the Drooping Sheoak (Allocasuarina verticillata) as their food source. This study expands on previous studies of Glossy Black-Cockatoos foraging on Kangaroo Island by examining selection of patches, trees, branches and cones. The...

New Holland Honeyeaters (Phylidonyris novaehollandiae, Meliphagidae) were examined for tick and blood parasite prevalence and intensity during a single breeding season (June-November 2004) at four locations in South Australia. We examined 126 birds for ticks and 110 of these birds for blood parasites. Twenty-two birds (17.5%) were infested with one...

Rufous Bristlebirds (Dasyornis broadbenti), possess song repertoires of between 12 and 30 different song-types, only a proportion of which are shared between different individuals. As a result, the comparison of songs among individuals is complicated by the use of multiple song-types. Using both discriminant function analysis (DFA) and spectrograph...

Bush Stone-curlews (Burhinus grallarius) have suffered major declines and a contraction of their range across southern Australia. A total of 414 records of Bush Stone-curlews was obtained for South Australia, from the late 1880s through to 1995. Early records were widespread across the state. By 1940, however, the decline of Stone-curlews was evide...

Eucalyptus leucoxylon is a widespread woodland tree species found in southeastern Australia that has suffered from, and continues to be, threatened by the impacts of habitat clearance and degradation. Populations now consist predominantly of scattered individuals, and their conservation status is of increasing concern. We report the development and...

The endangered Kangaroo Island glossy black-cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus lathami halmaturinus) relies entirely on the seeds of the drooping sheoak (Allocasuarina verticillata) for food. The time budget of the glossy black-cockatoos and their foraging behaviour was recorded to provide an indication of whether their food supply was likely to be limiting...

The Slender-billed Thornbill, Acanthiza iredalei hedleyi , was studied in recently burnt, regenerating and mature heath (3, 10 and 22 years since fire respectively) in Ngarkat Conservation Park, South Australia. Data collected between 1991 and 2002 demonstrated that densities peaked seven years after fire at 0.26 birds ha -1 , while densities were...

The foraging behaviour of the Slender-billed Thornbill, Acanthiza iredalei hedleyi, and associated habitat structure and composition was studied in burnt, regenerating and mature heath (3, 10 and 22 years since fire, respectively) in Ngarkat Conservation Park, South Australia. In total, 80% of all behavioural observations were of Slender-billed Tho...

Abstract In many previous studies of the effects of introduced honeybees on Australian ecosystems, it has been assumed that floral morphology is a primary factor determining whether introduced honeybees will be effective in pollinating endemic plants. Although both honeybees and birds contacted stigmas and anthers of the small-flowered Brachyloma e...

Floristic and structural characteristics of vegetation inhabited by Southern Emu-wrens, Stipiturus malachurus , were examined for three geographically isolated subspecies in South Australia. Of the 47 plant species recorded in quadrats, 29 of these (61%) occurred in the habitat of a single subspecies. Structurally, there were no significant differe...

The Mount Lofty Ranges and adjacent plains support an isolated woodland and open forest system that has been extensively cleared such that only 7% of the pre-European vegetation remains. The vegetation has been disproportionately cleared from the good quality agricultural land on lower elevations where only 2% remains. Within this region floral res...

Using a combination of field study, published records covering the period 1984–2003 and vegetation data, the extent of occurrence of Dasyornis broadbenti broadbenti was estimated at 620 km2 and the area of occupancy at 205–245 km2. By mapping the location of calling birds the mean home range of paired adults in the Coorong National Park was estimat...