The Australian Threatened Species Index

Forget the ASX, Australia now has its Threatened Species Index!

The new index is the first of its kind in the world. It was developed by the Threatened Species Recovery Hub with collaborations from over 40 research partners from government agencies and non-government organisations.

The TSX combines data from 400,000 surveys at more than 18,000 locations to tell us how our threatened species are faring. Overall, it shows that Australia’s threatened birds have declined by 59% while our mammals at sites without conservation management are down by 60% on average between 1985 and 2016.

While the birds do not show any signs recovery, trends of mammals living in predator-safe havens give us reasons for hope. Indices for threatened plants are also currently being developed.

This month at BrisScience, learn how these indices are vital to measuring the success of conservation investments and for identifying the regions and groupings of threatened species that most need help.

Watch the recording

Recording of "The Australian Threatened Species Index" talk (YouTube, 43min)

Meet the presenter

Dr Elisa Bayraktarov is an ecologist with a background in environmental monitoring who mobilises and questions data to craft solutions for problems related to threatened species and marine coastal ecosystems.

Elisa's research puts her ecology expertise in an applied setting that has policy-impact. She leads research with real-world impact through close engagement with businesses, non-governmental organisations and policy makers.

In her current job as EcoCommons’ Program Manager, Elisa works with a team of agile software developers (DevOps) to build the go-to platform for environmental and ecological modelling.