The Institute for Conservation Biology

Founded in 2001, the Institute for Conservation Biology (ICB) grew out of the Australian Flora and Fauna Research Centre and the Centre for Natural Resource Law and Policy. Today it is composed largely of biologists combined with a group of lawyers who are concerned with environmental and natural resource issues.

Research at the ICB has three main themes. The first is fundamental biology, which is mostly in the areas of ecology, physiology and genetics. While much of this research is driven by the desire to test questions of larger biological issues, the work inevitably feeds into conservation biology. For the lawyers, the interest is in legislation as it relates to natural resource management, such as water rights, and hence to conservation. Then there is the interface, where conservation biology and the law meet in an attempt to influence policy and legislation by better informing the debate.

Projects within the ICB span marine and terrestrial ecosystems, with some freshwater systems, as well as a considerable selection of plants and animals and a wide range of organisms. Most of the research undertaken at the ICB requires a variety of approaches even when the question may appear quite simple and fundamental. For example, experimental ecology, behaviour, physiology and genetics may all be employed when looking at the requirements of an organism to exist in a particular place. However, while there is collaboration to some extent, most of the researchers have their own identifiably separate research interests and each of the biologists runs a laboratory with postgraduate students.

ALIEN INVASION: CAULERPA TAXIFOLIA IN AUSTRALIAN WATERS

The eradication or control of introduced marine pests represents a real challenge. By the time the pests are discovered, they are usually well established and almost impossible to remove. Sometimes their impact is minor, but occasionally the results are devastating.

Biologists have been doing battle in the Mediterranean with the marine invader, Caulerpa taxifolia , for almost 20 years without success. A green seaweed with a hardy disposition which grows profusely, it is now found in five countries and covers an estimated 50,000 hectares of sea floor.

Caulerpa taxifolia was discovered in southern Australian waters in 2000 and its presence has been confirmed in eight locations within New South Wales . It seems likely that infestations are the result of dumping the contents of aquaria into shallow coastal sites, with subsequent dissemination to other locations via commercial or recreational activities such as boating and fishing.

ICB biologist, Associate Professor Andy Davis, says that another difficulty in controlling the spread of Caulerpa taxifolia is that it propagates asexually.
"When pieces break off they can disperse, reattach and form a new infestation away from the original population - the tiniest fragments are capable of developing," he says.
"Manual or mechanical removal of the pest is likely to further its spread. Furthermore, the fronds are capable of surviving out of water for a period of time - such as on the nets of commercial fishers or the anchor lockers of recreational fishermen."

New South Wales Fisheries, in collaboration with research groups at several universities in the state, are working on reducing the spread of Caulerpa taxifolia and investigating how to control it. Experiments at the ICB confirm that several large and common herbivores - particularly large molluscs and common sea urchins - consumed extracts of the alga in feeding trials.

"Unfortunately those species which do consume it readily, generally avoid it if other algae are available," Davis says. "However we are investigating an additional avenue which is the use of specialist herbivores as potential biological control agents."

"Specialist herbivorous insects have already been used successfully with some invasive terrestrial plants and small, saccoglossan molluscs are specialist feeders on Caulerpa

Taxifolia for example. NSW Fisheries have adopted another control mechanism to halt the invader - the application of a thick layer of granulated pool salt which delivers an osmotic shock that usually proves fatal to the alga."

"It's recognised that there are still significant gaps in our understanding of the biology of this invader, including its ecological impacts on native species and they are a focus of our ongoing research at the ICB," says Associate Professor Davis.

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Last reviewed: 16 February, 2007