Hello world! For my research on scavenging guilds in the Australian Alps, I tallied nearly 30,000 insects. To do so, I made a quick web-based tool that I could quickly tally what I found. Its easy to use including features to copy the tally in a table format to paste into MS Excel.
I know this is a tool taylored specifically for my project, but I think its functionality can be applied for others out there.
Australia lacks a robust vertebrate scavenger guild which allows insects to outcompete them at carrion. Insects are the primary decomposers in the Australian Alps
Hello world!
I’d like to share some maps I’ve made of my master’s project. I’ve conducted an ecological project looking at scavenging dynamics in the Australian Alps, specifically in Kosciuszko National Park in New South Wales. The maps show the Australian Alps (the highest region in mainland Australia) and my autumn replicate transect. The transect runs along Island Bend Fire Trail and Guthega road. Each site is roughly 1km distance from each other with treatments approximately 50m from one another.
Each site consists of three treatments 1) Open / No Exclusion, 2) Vertebrate Exclusion, and 3) Vertebrate + Insect Exclusion.
These maps were produced with QGIS version 3.2+.
Record snowfall in the Snowies and these fellas are loving it! Benefits of data collection in Kosciuszko
It’s wintertime and time for another data collection session!
It’s hovering around 0 Celsius with some periodic snow showers here in Kosciuszko NP. This cold weather may suppress invertebrate scavengers and microbes but allows us to look at the direct contribution vertebrates have on carrion.
I have started a Masters level research project into characterizing scavenger guilds in Australia’s rare Alpine environment. This truly unique and valuable ecosystem is home to some incredibly rare flora and fauna which makes this all the more exciting.
Curious about the research then head on over to the research page to find out more. You can also follow on Twitter too @ChrisEFust
It was a lovely day at Wolgan Valley in the Blue Mountains seeing some site setups for my upcoming research in Kosciusko NP. Got lucky with this display from an Eastern Bearded Dragon
