@article{912481e847ff4f309de9ff3c7daa5caf,
title = "Saving the endangered Mary River turtle: Enhancing conservation outcomes through community engagement",
abstract = "Australian biodiversity is facing an extinction crisis; yet, government spending on conservation is wholly inadequate. The involvement of local communities in fundraising, direct actions, and habitat restoration is becoming vital in the fate of threatened species. Here, we review the research outputs and impact generated from 22 years of conservation-driven collaboration between researchers and a local community focused on saving the endangered Mary River turtle (Elusor macrurus). The study found that this collaboration generated a significant body of research that advanced the ecological knowledge of the species and ensured the findings were being applied towards the conservation of the turtle, locally and nationally. While the national listing status of E. macrurus as endangered has not changed over the past 22 years, the knowledge gained about the turtle's biology and its use to better advise development and water resources in the catchment suggests that the species' future is brighter than when it was first discovered in 1994. This review demonstrates the potential of local communities in driving and supporting conservation initiatives and provides a blueprint for scientific endeavours that inform adaptive community conservation programmes for threatened species.",
keywords = "Australia, citizen science, conservation, Elusor macrurus, freshwater turtle, management, threatened species",
author = "Campbell, {Mariana A.} and Connell, {Marilyn J.} and Clark, {Natalie J.} and Tom Espinoza and Flakus, {Samantha P.} and Collett, {Sydney J.} and John Cann and Franklin, {Craig E.} and Campbell, {Hamish A.}",
note = "Funding Information: The research outputs supported by the community have been incorporated within infrastructure development and water resource planning at the local, state, and Commonwealth levels of government. A {\textquoteleft}now infamous{\textquoteright} infrastructure development that was thwarted by the presence of the Mary River turtle was the Queensland Government's Traveston Crossing Dam Project (QWI, 2009 ). The Federal Government rejected the go‐ahead for the dam construction on the grounds that it would irreversibly harm and other threatened species (press release Garrett, 2009 ). The scientific data to support this decision was generated from the research funded by a scholarship provided by the local community (Clark, 2008 ; Clark et al., 2008a , 2008b , 2009 ). The research found that hatchlings collected a significant amount of oxygen from the water through a specialized aquatic respiratory system in its cloaca. The damming of the river would have significantly affected their survivorship by reducing water quality (aquatic oxygen levels and water temperatures) within and downstream of the dam leading to alterations in turtle diving physiology and behaviour. Further research (also supported through another community‐sponsored HDR‐candidate scholarship) revealed that the turtles were highly selective to the physical and biological properties of the river stream and sandy riverbanks, which would likely be inundated or altered through changes in river flows caused by impoundments (Micheli‐Campbell, 2012 ; Micheli‐Campbell et al., 2011 , 2012 ; Micheli‐Campbell et al., 2013a ; Micheli‐Campbell et al., 2013b ). E. macrurus E. macrurus Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023 The Authors. Austral Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Ecological Society of Australia.",
year = "2023",
month = jun,
day = "6",
doi = "10.1111/aec.13382",
language = "English",
pages = "1--14",
journal = "Austral Ecology",
issn = "1442-9985",
publisher = "Blackwell Publishing",
}