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Theme 3: Threats
Threats: Building Resilience for Evolving Threats
This theme aims to make the concept of resilience to threat operational using a combination of field research, decision theory, population and climate impact modelling, collaborative syntheses, systematic reviews, expert elicitation, fore-sighting and integration of dynamic threat data, biodiversity data and socio-economic data into planning processes.
Projects
- Project 3.1 Operational definitions and measures of resilience in conservation (9)
- Project 3.2 Building Resilient (lasting) Biodiversity Assets (10)
- Project 3.3a The role of large scale connectivity projects in conserving biodiversity under multiple threats including habitat loss and climate change (13)
- Project 3.3b Conserving migratory species that move beyond Australia's borders (9)
- Project 3.4 Evaluating the role of fine scale habitat connectivity in resilient populations (2)
- Project 3.5 The role and management of refugial habitats (7)
- Project 3.6 Horizon scanning (7)
- Project 3.7 National Reserve System (NRS) efficiency analysis (10)
"I undertake research to leverage decisions that will result in better on ground outcomes, ensuring the best outcomes for the amazing flora and fauna around the world"
Megan is the lead researcher for a national emerging priorities research project to prioritise monitoring for national surveillance in Australia, where she applies technical and monitoring expertise in her work to inform cost-effective national environmental investment strategies. Megan's research focuses on cost-effective decisions, monitoring and evaluation, and global protected areas policy. She has a diverse background in behavioral ecology and both theoretical and applied conservation science, with expertise in both marine and terrestrial ecosystems, global vertebrate fauna, tropical ecology, dec ...
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I work at the interface between disease, movement and population ecology. Spatial and social structure in host populations has a profound influence on disease transmission, prevalence, persistence and, therefore, the evolution of pathogens. My focus is on understanding how environment shapes the distribution and dispersal of hosts, trade-offs between connectivity and transmission, and the implications of metapopulation dynamics for control. Advancing our understanding of disease transmission in the context of host ecology is fundamental to improving our ability to respond effectively to emerging infectious disease, which is a critical human health and conservation threat.
I am collaborating with fellow Hub Researchers Read More...
Duan is from South Africa and completed his PhD at the Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University, Australia in 2011 on the resilience of coral reef tourism to global change and crises. Duan holds an MsC in Conservation Biology from the University of Cape Town and has a trans-disciplinary undergraduate training with majors in Economics, Development Studies and Environmental Science. Duan has developed, coordinated and consulted to projects for BirdLife International, Conservational International and WWF among others. Subsequent to his PhD developed a tourism research program for South African National Parks to support decision-making and management of the trade-offs and synergies between conservation and tourism.
In March 2012, Duan started a postdoctoral research fellowship at the ...
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Mady has just joined the NERP Environmental Decisions Hub, and with Dr Pia Lentini and Dr Brendan Wintle as her supervisors.
Mark Burgman is the Adrienne Clarke Chair of Botany and Director of the Australian Centre of Excellence for Risk Analysis (ACERA) at the University of Melbourne since it was founded in 2006. Mark's involvement with ACERA brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the 6 Environmental Decisions Hub projects he is involved in (see below). The aim of ACERA's establishment was, and remains, to develop the practice of risk analysis by creating and testing methods, protocols, analytical tools and procedures to benefit both Government and the broader Australian community. ACERA is a research network, drawing on the expertise of its other research partners throughout Australia and overseas. It maintains close working relationships with Australian Government Federal and State Departments, Australian and international univ ...
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My research focuses on the interaction of climate/climate change and biodiversity, previously mainly applied to forest ecosystems. Currently I am combining species distribution modelling and ecosystem vulnerability for tree species and communities in Australian vegetation groups to predict which treed ecosystems may be most threatened by climate change, and where conservation efforts should focus.
Specific research areas I am working on with Hub Researchers Prof Hugh Possingham and Assoc Prof Clive McAlpine are:
Potential changes in Eucalyptus species' climate space under future climate, related to Projects 1.4 & Read More...
Josie is a joint post-doctoral fellow with the Conservation Decisions Lab at CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences and the NERP Environmental Decisions Hub at the University of Queensland Node. Her research focuses on conservation planning and decision making for biodiversity conservation under a changing climate and a carbon economy. She endeavours to draw together key ecological and socio-economic information to support better decision outcomes for biodiversity and people.
Josie's current projects include both national and state-wide analyses of priority areas for restoration to achieve carbon and biodiversity benefits, which relates to NERP Project 5.6. Further, she is building upon her pioneering work on prioritising threat management for biodiversity conservation in the Kimberley, to undertake regional scale analyses o ...
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My research interests are in fire ecology, habitat fragmentation, dispersal and connectivity. I continue to explore ways that ecological theory related to those fields can be used to predict effects and to communicate findings. Key NERP-related research includes projects examining dispersal and connectivity in fragmented landscapes, and fire decision theory.
With colleagues at ANU I am exploring the role of the matrix (modified, cleared or urbanized land) on species that depend on small patches of native vegetation (Project 2.2). We have developed a conceptual model of the matrix that will provide new-comers to the field with a rapid and comprehensive understanding of how the matrix works. The conceptual model and asso ...
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Rich is lecturer in conservation and biodiversity at the University of Queensland. He heads a research group that focuse on the impact of urbanistion on biodiversity, and urban growth. Rich's team are also involved in studying threats to international bird migrations. These are spectacular wild events which are seeing an enormous decline in recent decades. Their research hopes to understand why and what can be done to halt and reverse this decline.
Please also see this video for more information.
Pia is a postdoc working with the Quantitative and Applied Ecology Group at the University of Melbourne, focusing on conservation planning and management in heavily modified systems. In particular, she is aiming to determine how we should prioritise where funds for connectivity conservation are spent, and the kinds of actions they are spent on, to ensure an effective increase in dispersal within and across landscapes. In addition, with others at the Australian Centre for Urban Ecology (ARCUE), she is also focussing on how we can plan for urban growth in a way which minimises impact on the species that inhabit our cities, particularly microbats."
My research revolves around decision theory and decision science. While I am interested in all forms of environmental decision-making my recent work falls into two key areas – monitoring and adaptive management and the management of multiple interacting species (see below for more details). As a NERP researcher I am keen on infusing a structured and explicit approach to decision-making into environmental problems. NERP colleagues and I run workshops on structured decision-making, and I also facilitate the decision process for individual problems within SEWPAC. Email me to discuss getting assistance with a particular decisions problem, or you are interested in my work on monitoring, adaptive management or the management of multiple species and threats.
Monitoring and Adaptive management...
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Melinda's research is focused primarily on invertebrates and their management. She has interests in coextinction (extinction of host-dependent taxa with or before their host species), restoration, threatened taxa, refugia, biogeography and taxonomy. Melinda is also interested in the consequences for Australia's invertebrates in a changing climate, and possible management strategies.
Most of my work is focused on the impact of habitat loss and fragmentation on vertebrate populations. I have carried out both pattern based (e.g. presence/absence) and process based (e.g. demography) studies with great emphasis on the role of habitat quality and its interaction with landscape structure. I am currently working on time-series data gathered by Professor David Lindenmayer's group, focusing on the effect of climate, dispersal and habitat connectivity on the synchrony and population dynamics of vertebrate populations.
Sam is broadly interested in how we make decisions to allocate resources to conservation projects. He uses mathematical optimization tools to figure out the best way to manage resources over time to achieve a conservation goal. Sam uses solution techniques drawn from operations research and artificial intelligence to solve these problems. Within the NERP hub, Sam’s postdoc fits into two projects: building lasting biodiversity assets, and monitoring for adaptive management. The postdoc is focussed on the adaptive management of dynamic networks. This means he is developing new methods to apply cutting-edge optimization tools to manage ecological networks that change over time. His current project is to determine how to manage migratory birds using the East Asia-Australasia flyway under uncertainty about the extent of fut ...
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My role in the Hub is to bring economics strongly into the research program. I lead the Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy at UWA, which has broad expertise and experience in applying economics to environmental problems. We specialise in approaches that integrate scientific, social and policy information within an economic framework to provide information that supports sound decision making about environmental issues. Our work encompasses both financial and intangible environmental outcomes of environmental changes, and risks as well as benefits.
I am directly involved in several projects in the NERP hub. Project 5.3 is attempting to develop a new approa ...
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Claire's work revolves around improving the way we manage migratory and nomadic species in Australia. In collaboration with SEWPaC, she is exploring the effects of current and potential legislation on the management of migratory species. In addition to this she is discovering ways to prioritise conservation actions for nomadic species, using outback Australia as a case study.
Ayesha is a conservation biologist interested in monitoring and management of threats to biodiversity. She integrates disciplinary perspectives (economic, social, political and environmental) to evaluate approaches for prioritising conservation investments in multiple stakeholder landscapes. Ayesha has a particular interest in invasive and mobile predators, network theory, return on investment, migratory species and bird ecology.
Ayesha is currently working on tools and approaches for prioritising investment in management and monitoring of multiple species and threats, with a focus on applying decision-making software for systematic conservation planning and cost-effectiveness analysis to choose between actions for species recovery, and incorporating uncertainty in management outcomes and risk aversion into ...
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Leonie is a wildlife biologist with broad interests in conservation biology and ecology, particularly focussed around the link between the environment, fauna and human-mediated disturbances. Her research seeks to understand how and why fauna respond to disturbances; the role of fauna in ecosystem function; and, adaptive management strategies available for land managers. Leonie is a post-doctoral research fellow with Prof. Richard Hobbs in the Ecosystem Restoration and Intervention Ecology lab at the University of Western Australia as part of the NERP Environmental Decisions Hub and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions (CEED). Her current research examines aspects of fire management and conservation, the role of fauna in restoration ecology, including the ecosystem dynamics of digging mammals and ...
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Kerrie Wilson is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow (and UQ Node Leader for CEED and The NERP Environmental Decisions Hub). Kerrie is interested in applied conservation resource allocation problems, such as where to invest limited resources to protect biodiversity, to restore habitat, or manage systems. Her research program also focuses on the analysis of uncertainty (with a particular focus on the impact of climate change and other institutional and socio-political factors that influence the likelihood of investment success), landscape dynamics (e.g. the evaluation of land use scenarios and threatening processes), and biodiversity benefit (e.g. how to maximise biodiversity outcomes in restoration and ways to account for multiple benefits such a ...
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Wintle is Associate Professor of Conservation Ecology and ARC Future Fellow at the University of Melbourne, Deputy Director of the National Environment Research Program Hub Environmental Decisions, and theme leader in the ARC Centre of Excellence in Environmental Decisions.
He specializes in uncertainty and environmental decision making and publishes on technical and policy issues around conservation and natural resource management, including optimal conservation investment, optimal monitoring and adaptive management, systematic conservation planning, population viability analysis, habitat modelling and mapping, and decision theory.
Wintle works at the interface between policy and science, serving on the Forest Stewardship Council and Australian Forestry Standard reference committees, the Australian Govern ...
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I completed a PhD in Environment from the Australian National University in 2010 and a MSc in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation from the University of Florida in 2004. My main interests are in applied ecological research to inform and improve wildlife management and conservation decisions. I am also a big fan of science communication. My current project for the NERP Environmental Decisions Hub involves investigating how forage quality might influence landscape use by koalas and other leaf-eating animals. I am also developing tools to map the quality of forage for browsing herbivores using airborne hyperspectral remote sensing data. In addition, I contribute to the development of derived remote sensing products, such as forest canopy ...
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