CAREER: Effect of the matrix on extinction risk: a large scale experiment at Wog Wog

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Global habitat loss accounts for most biodiversity loss. A critical consequence of this loss is that the only remnants of many ecosystems are small fragments of once continuous habitat, and so the fate of biodiversity, globally, depends on the survival of species in fragments of habitat. Therefore, understanding the fate of species in habitat fragments is imperative. Experimental studies of extinction are extremely rare outside of the laboratory. Thus, long term and large scale habitat fragmentation experiments provide real world understanding of extinction that cannot be uncovered in any other way. The Wog Wog experiment in southeastern Australia is the longest running, large scale experiment in temperate forest, fragmented since 1987. The experiment has provided major insights about which kinds of species are at greatest risk of extinction when their habitat is fragmented. The site is composed of original native eucalypt forest fragments now set within managed commercial pine plantation. These commercial pines are scheduled to be harvested, creating an unprecedented opportunity to discover, in an experimental setting, how extinction risk changes when fragments are re-fragmented, something that occurs commonly in practice. The researchers will determine how re-fragmentation impacts the extinction risk of species on fragments through changes to the environment and the ecosystem function of fragments. Many university students will only take one science class, and often that class is Introductory Biology. Dr. Davies co-teaches 1400 Introductory Biology students every year and so has a great opportunity to inspire and increase STEM participation. She will transform the teaching of her large undergraduate biology class by focusing learning around her research at Wog Wog by: 1) focusing on established learning goals, developing mini case studies around video shot by graduate students in the field, and 2) bringing an undergraduate into the field every year to collect habitat structure data through digital photos that will be analysed by the whole class, and used by the PI to model changes to the environment. Dr. Davies hypothesizes that having real-world, real-time biology embedded in class will increase engagement and learning gains.