Royal
Botanic Gardens, Museum Victoria and University
of Melbourne share in $226, 000 of federal funds
for biodiversity research
23 May 2006 - The Hon. Greg
Hunt MP, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister
for Environment and Heritage and Senator the Hon.
Judith Troeth, Senator for Victoria today announced
that researchers from the Royal Botanic Gardens,
Museum Victoria and the University of Melbourne
have been awarded $226,063 in research grants
as part of the Australian Government's Australian
Biological Resources Study (ABRS) research agency.
The grants will enable the scientists
to continue vital plant, animal and marine biodiversity
research.
"Australia is home to two million species
of plants and animals, with 80 per cent found
nowhere else in the world," Mr Hunt said.
"But we have huge gaps in our scientific
knowledge of these species -and Victorian researchers
are leading the way to further the scientific
world's understanding of many of these plants
and animals."
"This national grants programme
provides critical support for taxonomists to describe
and classify little-known plants, animals and
micro-organisms."
Mr Hunt said the new funding would support many
exciting research projects in Victoria, including
research by the Royal Botanic Gardens that contribute
a great deal to our understanding of Australian
animal and plant biodiversity.
"Melbourne's Royal Botanic
Gardens has secured a total of $133,063 for four
critical plant biodiversity projects," he
said.
"Scientists are embarking on a groundbreaking
project to re-examine the classification of one
of the largest plant families in Australia - the
Rhamnaceae.
"The last time this species
was treated was in 1863 and the Botanic Gardens
researchers will be the first in the world to
update the classification of this plant family."
"Researchers will also
be undertaking a comprehensive revision of the
Boletales - a truffle like macrofungal flora species
that has 23 species. Many new species of the fungi
have been discovered since the last major taxonomy
of the family was described over 20 years ago."
"The fungi attaches itself
to the roots of native plants and is a staple
of the diet of insects and small mammals."
Senator Troeth said Museum Victoria
has also received $66,000 for two unique research
projects.
"Researchers have been granted $35,000 to
develop an online interactive illustrative guide
to the Isopoda species - a crustacean that has
over 800 species catalogued in Australia including
herbivorous sea centipedes, parasitic fish lice
and sea lice and numerous algal species."
"Scientists currently have no convenient
way to identify these species and it is hoped
the guide will provide crustacean researchers
from all over the world assistance in further
researching this species."
"A second team of Museum
researchers have been granted $31,000 to revise
the species classification of Australia's Dragon
lizards."
"It is surprising to learn that the Dragon
Lizard, as one of Australia's most recognised
reptiles, is in need of a species reclassification."
"The Museum's researcher's
believe, based on increasing evidence, that the
species diversity has been overestimated and this
project will use DNA sequencing to review this
species - which is of particular importance to
many ecological environments around Australia."
Mr Hunt said while the research
work undertaken by scientists at the Royal Botanic
Gardens and Museum Victoria contributed to Australia
gaining a reputation as a world leader in biodiversity,
research by the University of Melbourne had a
direct impact on the Australian economy.
"Researchers at Melbourne
University have been granted $27,000 to review
the distribution of environmental weeds Coprosma
and Galium," he said.
"The documenting of these
weed species, including identification keys, descriptions
and distribution maps, will ultimately assist
farmers in the management of these weeds."
The Australian Biological Resources
Study research agency leads the world in providing
species information for biodiversity management.
The grants are awarded annually under the ABRS
Participatory Programme to private researchers
and to scientists in universities, museums and
herbaria.
ABRS Grants for 2006/07 totalled $1.87 million
over 57 projects around Australia.
