Want to get a taste of our research and/or do some volunteering work?

The Friends of Bass Strait Islands from Tassie (FoBSI) are seeking volunteers to assist with Boxthorn control at a number of sites in the Furneaux Group (i.e. Flinders and nearby islands) during 2014.

Please see below some more information regarding this volunteering opportunity, and if you are interested, make direct contact with Tuesday Phelan from FoBSI (Mobile: 0499-118-997, Eamil: tuesdayphelan@gmail.com).

Friends of Bass Strait Islands (FOBSI) is a Tasmanian Wildcare group with a mission to rid the outer Furneaux Islands of African Boxthorn. For the past decade, the group has run several working bees a year to the urneaux Islands (on and around Flinders Island). We have completed primary treatment on quite a number of islands, and are currently focussing our efforts on Roydon Island, a 35 hectare island just off the north west coast of Flinders Island. We also regularly revisit treated islands, working in with the local landcare group to make sure our good work is not undone by poor follow up.
This year we have been mighty successful in getting grants to run working bees. In fact we have enough funding for three trips in 2014 and we are looking for more people join us on the trips.

Trips Information:

• 12-25 May – Roydon Island primary treatment and follow up on several mall outer islands.
• 5-18 July – Roydon Island burning heads from autumn, primary treatment.
• late September (probably 19-29) – Wybalenna / Settlement Point Flinders Island) and follow up on several small nearby islands.

FOBSI working bees usually have 10 volunteers. All meals, transport (including airfares) and equipment is provided. Accommodation is camping, BYO tent and sleeping gear. We work in closely with Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service and Wildcare Tasmania to make sure everyone is insured, safe and doing the right thing by the precious and spectacular Furneaux Island environment.

Read about the group’s work on abc.net.au.

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Interested in small invertebrates?  I could use one or more volunteers to take censuses of small invertebrates living in my 12 mesocosms and give me approximate densities of Rotifers, Planaria, Nematodes, Oligochaetes, Copepods and other tiny animals, as well as diatoms.

I have 12 mesocosms (3m x 1.5m by 0.5m deep) with guppies in them under 3 light conditions.  A preliminary study indicates divergence in the meiofauna living on and in the gravel.  I would like to know just how much divergence has occurred in the meiofauna and meioflora communities at random (within

replicates) and as a result of living in different light conditions, which would favour different algae species and hence divergent “trophic cascades”.  The different communities would also have interesting effects on the guppies, particularly carotenoids and colour patterns.

This would require taking some gravel (with water) out of each tank and examining it in a petri dish under a dissecting microscope and perhaps a regular microscope as well.  This is for someone who loves invertebrates and would enjoy this sort of thing.  Watch out, it is sometimes addicting!

 If you are interested, please email  John.Endler@deakin.edu.au

 [for context, I will be teaching SLE372 Evolutionary Ecology in T1].

If you are interested in the work of other CIE members and wonder if they might have something available for you, please feel free to contact us.