Gaia Resources has a strong commitment to supporting environmental research in Western Australia. In addition to charging lower rates to organisations that undertake environmental research as their primary business, we've also supported a range of projects and researchers by providing them with free asssitance, or volunteered for various projects.

These are listed below with some details.

2005

• Provided free GIS and mapping assistance to Dr. Terry Finston, a researcher in stygofauna at the University of Western Australia. This involved obtaining data and producing maps for Terry to use in her presentations and papers. One of these papers was:
  
  Finston T. L., M.S. Johnson, W.F. Humphreys, S. Eberhard, and S. Halse (2007) Cryptic speciation in two widespread subterranean amphipod genera reflects historical drainage patterns in an ancient landscape. Molecular Ecology 16: 355-365.

• Provided some general advice and assistance to Dr. Mark Harvey and Dr. Ric How from the Western Australian Museum in regards to databases and GIS mapping.

2006

• Assisted Norah Cooper from the Western Australian Museum by producing various maps for a paper she co-authored on the Desert Mouse, Pseudomys desertor. The reference for this paper is:
  
  Cooper, N.K., Teale, R.J. and Kendrick, P.G. (2007). A recently observed increase in distribution of the Desert Mouse, Pseudomys desertor, in Western Australia. The Western Australian Naturalist, 25 (3): 169-186.

• Provided Mark Salotti from the Western Australian Museum with some base maps to use in distribution mapping for an upcoming book on marine invertebrates.

• Provided free technical testing to Paul Gioia from the Department of Conservation and Environment to assist in the development of the Max fauna version.

• Attended the joint Rio Tinto/Birdlife International birdwatching event at Karratha Station in November, 2006. This weekend trip involved leading a group of volunteers and supporting them in their birdwatching. This also involved some logistical support, as well as preparing the final data and reports to deliver to Birdlife International. You can read about the trip through the internal Rio Tinto "Features" magazine article found here, and an extract from the final report can be found here.

• Developed and hosted a prototype snail taxonomy and identification database on the web for an ARC Linkage grant project undertaken by Biota Environmental Sciences and other partners.