Monitoring Australia’s endangered species
while logging their habitats

Scent dogs are being replaced by cost-effective biomonitoring of threatened species. Technology will detection chemical signals of wildlife assemblages in the environment. " Little did we know that traces of wildlife presence float in the air and can be detected through traces of DNA."

Will the air sampling techniques operate with the pollution of heavy logging machinery to detect the scent of a koala or a glider? Will it cut through the thick smoke from (bush) fires that follow? Will traffic pollution allow allow the technology to pick up the airborne eDNA?
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Frère, C., et.al (2023). Koalas, friends, and foes -- the application of airborne edna for the biomonitoring of threatened species.
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.14784
#Koalas #glider #platypus #wildlife #conservation #BioMonitoring #dogs #ScentDogs #UAVs #eDNA #technosphere #olfaction #MoreData #NSWLogging #IndustrialLogging

"The increasing severity of #wildfires and #drought highlights that reforming #ForestStewardship – taking better care of the forests, including safeguarding #OldGrowthForests – is one of our best hopes to protect communities across B.C.

Harmful #forestry practices like #clearcutting and #unsustainable #IndustrialLogging make extreme heat and wildfires worse. #Clearcuts are #tinderboxes, more prone to creating embers because dead trees and branches dry out in the hot sun and become more #flammable. Tree plantations and improperly tended young forests also increase wildfire risk: Younger trees have thinner bark and low-hanging branches that can act as ladder fuels, and the trees are often planted too close together, making it easy for fire to spread.

Fortunately, intact and properly managed #forests are more resilient to the worsening wildfires and heatwaves. For example, #OldGrowth #rainforests have dense canopies which provide cooling shade that resists fire. They are cooler and wetter than young forests, acting as giant sponges. Old-growth trees in the drier interior have thick bark, high branches and are widely spaced which all reduce #WildfireRisk.