ScienceNetwork WA

AN AQUATIC ecology and water management scientist has highlighted the need for greater awareness and research on potential effects of personal care product residues contaminating WA lakes and rivers.

RESEARCH from the UWA steers the investigation of magnetic navigation by pigeons back on course, demonstrating that cells previously believed to be the basis of magnetosensation are instead non-magnetoreceptive white blood cells.

MURDOCH University PhD student So Thea is researching a number of different techniques to find ways to improve seedling success rates that will assist in reforestation programs.

A WESTERN Australian expert on retaining carbon in the soil in the agriculture sector has been appointed to a national committee to advise on the carbon offsets scheme.

ONE of WA's leading environmentalists has called for major improvements to the quality of public debate over environmental issues, warning a culture of adversarial views is stifling much needed action to protect the State’s ecosystems.

SOME corals may have the capacity to withstand gradual ocean acidification—a process previously thought of as having the potential to cause their extinction.

THE fate of feral horses (Equus caballus) in the Kimberley Lake Gregory (Paruku) region hangs in the balance of mixed opinion.

RESEARCH suggests tropical cyclones forming off WA could become more ferocious in the second half of the century due to climate change.

SAWFISH are not bottom feeders but rather predators that detect and slash at prey in the water, a new study has found.

QUEENSLAND Museum Icthyologist Jeff Johnson is describing a new species of Velvetfish found in waters off WA’s north west coast.

PHYCOLOGIST Dr John Huisman has discovered three new genera and up to 50 new species of marine algae, all endemic to waters off the North West coast.

ECOLOGISTS are working with Indigenous rangers to develop assessment protocols for the health of monsoon vine thickets.

A KINGS Park botanist is studying propagation viability of water lilies (Nymphaeacea), which occur in high-rainfall areas of Northern Australia.

A COMPREHENSIVE marine biodiversity survey of the Kimberley is continuing to reveal undescribed species.

RESEARCHERS have shown fiddler crabs make complex decisions—despite their basic physiology—as part of research to better understand how the natural environment affects the way the brain processes information.

RESEARCHERS at Ashmore Reef found shifts in coral diversity after recovery from bleaching events of 1998 and 2003.

NEW regulations on the possession of plastic bait straps will reduce waste and make the sea safer for marine life.

WA could do with more people and claims that the world has a population ‘crisis’ are irresponsible and sensationalist according to a Curtin University Professor.

THE Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) and Wungurr Indigenous rangers are working to eradicate an infestation of Taro (Colocasia esculenta var. aquatilis) from Mount Hart Station.

SYDNEY University biologists have discovered cane toad tadpoles (Bufo marinus) communicate using chemicals excreted into the water, a finding that may help to impede the Cane Toad invasion of the Kimberley.