Jennifer Marohasy

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White Possum Back from Extinction, but Now Possum Man Has Gone Bush

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LATE last year academic Stephen Williams, from James Cook University, reported that a rare species of white possum was possibly extinct and that this was likely the first recorded mammalian extinction due to global warming.   Not surprisingly his claims attracted much media interest. 

Now Professor Williams has rediscovered the white possum and the media is reporting “Extinct possum back from the dead”. 

This morning I tried to phone the Professor to get more information and temperature records.   The phone went to message back, and there was a reassuring message letting me know he wasn’t far away.   I then sent the following detailed email and got the following reply a little while later: “I will be away in the field until 7th April with limited email access.”

I think the questions in my email to Professor Williams are relevant and hopefully he can answer them on his return.

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Save the Snake, Graze Some Bush?

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WHILE some armchair environmentalists believe that burning bush is bad for biodiversity, there is a growing body of evidence suggesting otherwise.

Ongoing research at Sydney University by a group lead by Rick Shine suggests Australia’s most endangered snake would benefit from more controlled burns.

Researcher David Pike, at his Sydney University home page, goes as far as to suggest that:

“Following European settlement of Australia, the amount of vegetation (i.e., canopy shading) in many habitats has increased. The most likely causes for this change are the prevention of natural disturbance events, such as wildfires, and the cessation of aboriginal fire-stick farming, which aboriginal peoples used to effectively managed habitat for wildlife and food plants. In more recent times vegetation has encroached upon crucial habitat for the broad-headed snake, which is already restricted in distribution. This has caused a decrease in the amount of suitable overwintering habitat, and potentially has contributed to a range-wide decline.”

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Confirmation Bias at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology

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THROUGH his ongoing study of US weather stations, Anthony Watts has uncovered some remarkable examples of poor placement resulting in a warming bias.  I am increasingly of the opinion that the problem in Australia is not so much placement of weather stations, but rather how the data is manipulated post collection.  It is also difficult to reconcile the increasing interest in, and funding for, climate related research in Australia with the extraordinary deterioration in the actual recording of data.  The important official weather station at Willis Island, off the north east coast of Australia, is a case in point with no recordings made for long periods over recent years.

The following note from Steve Jones explains in some detail his concerns regarding the quality of data collection and processes at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.

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New Frogs

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Jumping spiders, a striped gecko and a chirping frog are among more than 50 new species discovered in Papua-New Guinea, the environmental group Conservation International reported on Tuesday.  Read more here.