Publications database

Southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) migrate between Austral-winter calving and socialising grounds to offshore mid- to high latitude Austral-summer feeding grounds. In Australasia…

An automated algorithm for passive acoustic detection of blue whale D-calls is developed based on established deep learning methods for image recognition via the DenseNet architecture. Koogu—an open-source Python package—was used for developing the detector.

Knowledge about the movement ecology of endangered species is needed to identify biologically important areas and the spatio-temporal scale of potential human impacts on species. Blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus)…

Identification of species' Biologically Important Areas (BIAs) is fundamental to conservation planning and species distribution models (SDMs) are a powerful tool commonly used to do this.

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are a commonly used management tool to safeguard marine life from anthropogenic impacts, yet their efficacy often remains untested.

The East Antarctic krill fisheries are spread across two Divisions of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), Division 58.4.1 between 80-150°E and Division 58.4.2 between 30-80°E.

Baseline characterisation of the acoustic underwater environment is integral to understanding changes in the soundscape of a location. We used passive acoustic monitoring to investigate the soundscape of a seasonally ice-covered…

The distribution of New Zealand sea lions is typically localised to New Zealand and its remote subantarctic islands. However, non-resident male sea lions were seen on Macquarie Island, 650 km from their nearest natal islands, in all months of all years from 1965 to 1980.

Antarctica harbors many distinctive features of life, yet much about the diversity and functioning of Antarctica's life remains unknown. Evolutionary histories and functional ecology are well understood only for vertebrates…

The globally significant communities of terrestrial Antarctica face an uncertain future amid growing threats in the region. Emerging data-driven approaches must be leveraged to predict and understand patterns of biodiversity across the continent.

Antarctica is one of Earth's most untouched, inhospitable, and poorly known regions. Although knowledge of its biodiversity has increased over recent decades, a diverse, wide-ranging…

Antarctica, Earth's least understood and most remote continent, is threatened by human disturbances and climate-related changes, underscoring the imperative for biodiversity inventories to inform conservation. Antarctic ecosystems support unique species and genetic diversity…

Conserving landscapes used by multiple stakeholder groups requires understanding of what each stakeholder values. Here we employed a semi-structured, participatory approach to identify features of value in the terrestrial Antarctic Peninsula related to biodiversity, science and tourism.

During the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT), ca. 1200–800?000 years ago (ka), the Earth's glacial cycles changed from 41 to 100?kyr periodicity.

Background … The Antarctic is an extreme environment for plants. Several invasive plant species, however, have invaded the sub-Antarctic Southern Ocean islands and increasingly threaten the vulnerability of maritime and continental Antarctica, particularly with changes in climate.

The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is a listed endangered species under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. A distinct population of blue whales, the eastern Indian Ocean pygmy blue (EIOPB) whale…

Since 2001, hundreds of thousands of hours of underwater acoustic recordings have been made throughout the Southern Ocean south of 60° S. Detailed analysis of the occurrence of marine mammal sounds in these circumpolar recordings could provide novel insights into their ecology…

Hundreds of large whales have been tracked using consolidated (Type-C) satellite tags, yet there have been few studies on their impacts on whale health. In 2011, we initiated the first study designed to evaluate the effects of these tags on a baleen whale. Between 2011 and 2018…

There is growing interest from research and conservation groups in the potential for using small unoccupied aerial vehicles (UAVs; <2 kg) to conduct wildlife surveys because they are affordable, easy to use, readily available and reliable. However, limitations such as short flight endurance…

Aerial surveys are frequently used to estimate the abundance of marine mammals, but their accuracy is dependent upon obtaining a measure of the avail?ability of animals to visual detection.

Photo-identifications of Antarctic blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus intermedia) collected from 2003/2004 to 2018/2019 were used in a capture-recapture analysis to estimate abundance and population growth rate for the circumpolar Antarctic. Two capture-recapture models, POPAN and Pradel…

Under the recently adopted Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, 196 Parties committed to reporting the status of genetic diversity for all species. To facilitate reporting, three genetic diversity indicators were developed…