Ms Tessa Smith1,2, Professor Barry Brook1,2, Professor Christopher Johnson1,2, Dr Lynne Forster1, Dr Nicholas Porch3

1University of Tasmania, Australia, 2ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH), 3Centre for Intergrative Ecology, Deakin University, Australia

Biography:

Tessa is a PhD Candidate at the University of Tasmania and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH). Her research interests include biogeography and palaeocology of terrestrial invertebrates as well as urban ecology and invasive species management.

Abstract:

Leaf-litter inhabiting taxa provide essential ecosystem services in forests, but knowledge of their diversity, ecology and conservation status is generally poor. The lack of knowledge on spatial and temporal distributions, as well as distributions of species at different scales limits conservation decision-making for invertebrates in relation to increasing threats from climate change, increased fire severity and habitat loss. This study sampled leaf-litter beetle assemblages from 70 cool temperate rainforest and wet sclerophyll forest sites (across 8 IBRA Bioregions) in southern Australia by litter sifting/Berlese funnel extraction. The project collected over 650 beetle morphospecies, including many undescribed species (especially in the megadiverse families of Curculionidae and Staphylinidae). Compositional differences between beetle assemblages across sites were tested using multivariate generalized linear models and ordination methods. Patterns of leaf-litter beetles are compared to those in other previously studied taxa, including land snails and millipedes, as well as bioregionalisation schemes utilised by management organisation.