Research Project
Researchers: Dale Nimmo (Principal investigator, Investigation, Principal or Chief Investigator) , Mitchell Cowan (Principal investigator, Investigation, Principal or Chief Investigator)
Full description Camera trap data package from the Wildlife Observatory of Australia's Wildlife Camera Database. Dataset ID: WA_Pilbara_Cowan_2022-2023_WildObsID_0012. Anthropogenic disturbances, such as mining, significantly modify landscapes which can have negative effects on ecosystems and the wildlife therein. Here, we investigate the ecological impacts of mining camps (semi-urban accommodation areas in mining landscapes) on wildlife communities, including species composition and diversity, ecosystem function, predator-prey networks, and temporal activity. Using a distributed control-impact design, we deployed camera traps at mining camps and ecologically similar reference landscapes across Western Australia’s Pilbara region. We found a marked difference in species composition at mining camps, suggesting the formation of novel assemblages. Lower functional dispersion at mining camps suggests that the ecological functions being performed by species here are less varied, although ecosystems at mining
