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Chapter Eighteen - Australian birds in a changing landscape: 220 years of European colonisation
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- By Tara G. Martin, CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, Queensland, Carla P. Catterall, Griffith University, Queensland, Adrian D. Manning, The Australian National University, Canberra, Judit K. Szabo, University of Queensland
- Edited by Robert J. Fuller, British Trust for Ornithology, Norfolk
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- Book:
- Birds and Habitat
- Published online:
- 05 December 2012
- Print publication:
- 08 November 2012, pp 453-480
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Summary
European colonisation of the Australian continent has caused immense changes in birds and their habitats during a timespan of just 220 years. A diverse and unique range of ecosystems and avifaunas is today in a state of flux as some species manage to exploit new and modified environments, while others fail to adapt, decline in abundance and become regionally uncommon or extinct (Barnard, 1925; Barnard, 1934; Blakers et al., 1984; Saunders and Curry, 1990; Recher, 1999; Barrett et al., 2003). In this chapter we consider the history of human occupation and scale of landscape change in Australia, the distinctively evolved life-history characteristics and habitat relationships of Australian birds, the type of contemporary landscape variation within Australia, and the nature of bird species and community responses to landscape change. This chapter is by no means an exhaustive review of the bird ecology literature in Australia, but rather provides an insight into the major landscape changes throughout Australia as a result of European colonisation, with a focus primarily on its impact on terrestrial birds. We examine potential reasons for differences and similarities in avifaunal responses to landscape change between Australia and Europe. We also highlight recent approaches to developing unifying conceptual frameworks for the complex range of species’ responses to landscape change within Australia, and outline their broad relevance to guiding efforts to conserve and restore bird populations and their habitats in Europe and elsewhere.
History of habitat change and human occupation: Australia vs. Europe
The history of anthropogenic landscape change in Australia differs substantially from that of Europe (Fig. 18.1). Australia is estimated to have been occupied by humans for as long as 60 000–70 000 years (Briscoe and Smith, 2002). By the late Holocene the native vegetation of large areas had been transformed as a result of ‘fire stick farming’, a technique used by Aboriginal people to burn vegetation to facilitate hunting, food gathering and movement through the landscape (Archer et al., 1991; Bowman, 2000). The practice of fire stick farming over thousands of years altered the composition of plants and animals and has been linked with megafaunal extinctions in the Pleistocene (Miller et al., 2005). By the time European ships were regularly sighted along the horizon (c. 1700s), most Australian vegetation and fauna were well adapted to fire.
Dietary sources of inorganic microparticles and their intake in healthy subjects and patients with Crohn's disease
- Miranda C. E. Lomer, Carol Hutchinson, Sara Volkert, Simon M. Greenfield, Adrian Catterall, Richard P. H. Thompson, Jonathan J. Powell
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- Journal:
- British Journal of Nutrition / Volume 92 / Issue 6 / December 2004
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 09 March 2007, pp. 947-955
- Print publication:
- December 2004
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- Article
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Dietary microparticles are non-biological, bacterial-sized particles. Endogenous sources are derived from intestinal Ca and phosphate secretion. Exogenous sources are mainly titanium dioxide (TiO2) and mixed silicates (Psil); they are resistant to degradation and accumulate in human Peyer's patch macrophages and there is some evidence that they exacerbate inflammation in Crohn's disease (CD). However, whether their intake differs between those with and without CD has not been studied. We aimed to identify dietary microparticle sources and intakes in subjects with and without CD. Patients with inactive CD and matched general practice-based controls (ninety-one per group) completed 7d food diaries. Intake data for dietary fibre and sucrose were compared as positive controls. All foods, pharmaceuticals and toothpastes were examined for microparticle content, and intakes of Ca and exogenous microparticles were compared between the two groups. Dietary intakes were significantly different between cases and controls for dietary fibre (12 (SD 5) v. 14 (sd 5) g/d; P=0.001) and sucrose (52 (sd 27) v. 45 (sd 18) g/d; P=0·04) but not for Ca. Estimated median TiO2 and Psil intakes (2·5 and 35mg/individual per d respectively, totalling 1012–1013 microparticles/individual per d) were broadly similar to per capita estimates and while there was wide variation in intakes between individuals there was no significant difference between subjects with CD and controls. Hence, if exposure to microparticles is associated with the inflammation of CD, then the present study rules out excess intake as the problem. Nonetheless, microparticle-containing foods have now been identified which allows a low-microparticle diet to be further assessed in CD.