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Listed under:  Science  >  Life  >  Ecosystems  >  Food webs
Video

Catalyst: Aboriginal fire knowledge reduces greenhouse gases

Come on an eye-opening trip to Western Arnhem Land in northern Australia to find out how Aboriginal fire-control techniques are used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by thousands of tonnes.On the trip you will also find out how exploding ping-pong balls are used to create low greenhouse gas firebreaks at the right time ...

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Sciencey: Will Australia have the last bees on Earth?

Bee populations around the world have started vanishing, in a process known as colony collapse disorder. Scientists have many ideas about what causes colony collapse, including one possible culprit: the varroa mite. Australia is one of the last places on Earth unaffected by varroa. Could this mean that Australia could have ...

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Engineering clean rivers

Figuring out how to clean up contaminated rivers is a big challenge. It's also tricky to work out where the most contaminated parts of a river system are and whether its fish are safe to eat. Watch this video and learn how engineering has helped to solve these problems. Why do you think engineers looked to the bottom of ...

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Foreign Correspondent: Siberian tigers

Imagine a world where the only place Siberian tigers lived was in captivity. Watch this clip to learn more about the natural habitat of Siberian tigers and the things that threaten their survival in the wild. Chinese scientists are breeding this endangered species in captivity and zoologist, Liu Dan, explains his hope that ...

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The Invisible War: A tale on two scales

The Invisible War is a graphic novel set on the Western Front in 1916. The novel is an interdisciplinary text that includes a large science-history reference section (hyper-linked within the novel). Told from two points of view – human and microbial – the story describes a deadly infection by dysentery-causing Shigella ...

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Animal survivor

This resource provides a scaffold for students to analyse the features of a Queensland animal and relate them to its survival success. Students then conduct the animal design challenge: Engineering new features for their animal to increase its chance of survival and future success. Students also make predictions about how ...

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Atoms Alive: Cells and energy

Cells are like chemical factories. Discover the different ways cells get energy to carry out their daily operations. Learn about the different types of metabolic processes inside cells, such as those that break down molecules to release energy and those that assemble building blocks to make more complex components.

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Watering the largest river red gum forest

This nine minute video explores the importance of environmental flows to maintain the ecological health of the Barmah-Millewa Forest in the Murray Darling Basin. This forest is a RAMSAR site and an icon site of the Living Murray with great social, economic, cultural, environmental and spiritual significance. While the forest ...

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Downloading data from animal tags

This is a colour photograph of a scientist in a laboratory using a laptop computer to download data from electronic animal tags. To the right of the computer is a specialised communication box into which the electronic tag is placed. The scientist in the image is Dr Miles Lamare, a marine biologist involved in sea star ...

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ABC News: Disease threatens fish

Imagine what would happen if a deadly fish disease found its way into Australia's biggest river system. Watch this clip to learn more about a disease threatening the ecology of the Murray-Darling River. Scientist, Professor Richard Whittington, explains that the disease could be the final straw for an endangered Australian ...

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Understanding food webs

This is a colour video clip in which ecologist Associate Professor Stephen Wing of the University of Otago talks about the importance of understanding food webs, particularly in marine ecosystems. He gives examples of how such understanding has been applied in Fiordland, New Zealand. Still images shown include marine organisms, ...

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Indigenous Science: shell middens and fish traps

This is an article about Aboriginal shell middens along the Queensland coast and the information they provide about Aboriginal food collection practices. Written by Kudjala/Kalkadoon Elder from Queensland Letitia Murgha and intended mainly for teachers, it describes how shell middens were created over thousands of years ...

Interactive

Old Bernie's Pond

Clean up Old Bernie's Pond. See how it has become polluted and invaded by introduced species. Restore the pond by choosing actions such as planting native species and removing sources of pollution. Look at the effects of each change. Earn points to get a certificate.

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Concept cartoon: producers

This image is a concept cartoon. It shows a boy and a girl discussing food chains. One character is stating that producers are always at the start of a food chain, while the other character is refuting this. The cartoon is intended as a stimulus for further discussion of the concept.