Publications
Fire and cattle disturbance affects vegetation structure and rain forest expansion into savanna in the Australian monsoon tropics
June 2017 — Article in Journal of Biogeography 44(10)
DOI: 10.1111/jbi.13039
Stefania Ondei, Lynda D. Prior, Tom Vigilante, David M.J.S. Bowman
Aims To detect changes in area and vegetation dynamics of monsoon rain forests in relation to disturbance and an observed wetting trend. Location The Mitchell Plateau and the Bougainville Peninsula (north Kimberley, Australia). Methods Geo‐rectified aerial photographs acquired in 1949 and 1969 and a pre‐existing map from 2005 were used to detect…
The Uunguu Monitoring and Evaluation Committee: Intercultural Governance of a Land and Sea Management Programme in the Kimberley, Australia
May 2017 — Ecological Management & Restoration 18(2):124-133
DOI: 10.1111/emr.12257
Beau Austin, Tom Vigilante, Stuart Cowell, Zerika Clement
The importance of Indigenous peoples’ and their ancestral estates for the maintenance and protection of biodiversity, ecosystem function, threatened species and cultural diversity is clear. Due to their nature, processes and tools to measure the impact of intercultural Indigenous land and sea management partnerships need to be innovative and adapta…
Water, land, fire, and forest: Multi-scale determinants of rainforests in the Australian monsoon tropics
February 2017 — Ecology and Evolution 7(5)
DOI: 10.1002/ece3.2734
Stefania Ondei, Lynda D. Prior, Grant James Williamson, David M. J. S. Bowman
The small rainforest fragments found in savanna landscapes are powerful, yet often overlooked, model systems to understand the controls of these contrasting ecosystems. We analyzed the relative effect of climatic variables on rainforest density at a subcontinental level, and employed high-resolution, regional-level analyses to assess the importance…
Post-fire resprouting strategies of rainforest and savanna saplings along the rainforest–savanna boundary in the Australian monsoon tropics
Plant Ecology 217(6) · Oct 2015
Stefania Ondei, Lynda D. Prior, Tom Vigilante, David M. J. S. Bowman
Access the paper – DOI: 10.1007/s11258-015-0531-3
In tropical areas where climatic conditions support both rainforests and savannas, fire is considered one of the main factors determining their distribution, particularly in environments where growth rates are limited by water availability. The observed expansion of some rainforests into savannas suggests that rainforest saplings could have traits…
Mangguru (marine turtles) and Balguja (dugong)
Monitoring Project: Field Trip Report, Wunambal Gaambera country, WA, 21-28 August 2013.
Technical Report · Jan 2015
Micha Jackson, Peter Bayliss, Waina N, Rod Kennett
The Wunambal Gaambera Aboriginal Corporation, its Uunguu Rangers, NAILSMA and CSIRO are working together to develop a new method for monitoring marine turtles (Mangguru) and dugongs (Balguja). The collaborative research supports the Wunambal Gaambera Healthy Country Plan, which sets out the aspirations of Traditional Owners to manage and maintain t…
Marine Turtle Monitoring Project: A Collaborative Research Approach in the North Kimberley
Conferance paper · Aug 2014
Micha Jackson, Peter Bayliss, Rod Kennett, Tom Vigilante
Although boat-based surveys are not currently used to monitor the distribution and abundance of marine turtles over extensive areas in Australia, there are significant advantages in doing so at local and regional scales. For example, local feeding populations in Wunambal Gaambera country comprise primarily green turtles and, in contrast, most local…