The history of peat and the secret lives of the crayfish that burrow into the mud. These are two topics that will feature at the upcoming University of the Sunshine Coast symposium Voices of K’gari: Research, Respect and Responsibility on Monday 10 and Tuesday 11 November.
The two-day conference will bring together Traditional Owners, researchers, citizen scientists, conservationists, and community leaders.
Available for interview ahead of the conference is UniSC Professor of Ecology Cathy Yule who has extensively researched peat: poorly decomposed plant matter that builds up over millennia in waterlogged environments.
“Peatland plants are tough and toxic to prevent them being eaten by animals and this slows down microbial decomposition. So instead of completely breaking down, they form the brown mushy substance we call peat,” Professor Yule wrote in The Conversation earlier this year.
Also available for interview is PhD student Grace Smith. “We've found a huge diversity of invertebrates, which are key to how the ecosystem functions in such extreme conditions, as well as interesting patterns of evolution and adaptation in the threatened crayfish,” she says.
More information available in this article.
The conference is supported by the Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation, the Butchulla Native Title Aboriginal Corporation, the Fraser Island Defenders Organisation for K’gari (FIDO), FINIA – the Natural Integrity Alliance for K’gari – and other key partners.
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