By principal researcher Robert Kooyman

Rainforest Rescue supporters will be pleased to hear that several of the Research to the Rescue projects have recently reached important milestones, and several others are building momentum and delivering some fabulous data that will culminate in a series of published papers over the next few years.

Maina Kariuki completed the write up and presentation of his PHd dissertation on the integration of ecological parameters into rainforest ‘growth and yield’ modelling to achieve sustainable forestry management. This project also included the updating and re-activation of >20 long-term (up to 47 years) permanent rainforest research plots in North Eastern NSW. These included the Border Ranges plots established by G. Baur. Maina’s thesis has been accepted, and he hopes to publish several papers with myself and other collaborators in the not too distant future. Maina is currently applying for post-doc research positions and jobs in tropical forest management. He and I are very grateful to Rainforest Rescue (and supporters, Andrew Hall, Tree Friends, Elaine Sieler and others) for the support received as research funding, and we are delighted to notify you and the Board of the great success of the study. Without that support we would not have been able to allocate the time and resources necessary to measure the many tens of thousands of trees in these plots over the 3 years of field work. The project and study was innovative, and the general results relevant and transferable to other contexts in the tropics where rainforest logging continues.

My own study of the Population Biology and Ecology of Uromyrtus australis is now complete, and I am waiting on the examiners reports. This study has proved particularly exciting and has already stimulated a series of related studies on other ‘relictual’ rainforest species in collaboration with my colleagues at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Sydney (RBGSyd). These are proving to be innovative and potentially fruitful interactions in the various fields of population biology, ecology, genetics, and phylogeny and systematics, and will provide improved insights into these (often rare and endangered) species, and communities. They will also provide improved tools and understanding for management and recovery planning at the species, multi-species and community levels. You will hear much more of these efforts over the next months and years.

Several other related projects are running as collaborations with the RBGSyd and DEC (NSW), including a study of the tropical rainforest family Elaeocarpaceae. This includes studies of fruit and seed production, frugivory and dispersal, genetics, ecology, and population biology……. and systematics. Again, some exciting results that will have broader implications for management, re-vegetation planning, and recovery planning. I am currently in the field on these studies and after 12 months we have made great progress.

We are expanding the projects through a variety of means and hope that Rainforest Rescue and donors will continue to provide the much needed support for these (and other) research initiatives. The assistance to date has allowed us to continue the work and projects, and we are very grateful for that, and excited by the prospect of contributing to improved conservation outcomes for rainforests and rainforest species through the strategic research approach we have developed, and the collaboration with Rainforest Rescue.

All the best for the new year

Regards

Robert Kooyman

For more information visit http://www.rainforestrescue.org.au/ourprojects/rainforest-research-projects.html