Research

My research has broadly focused on evaluating and improving the effectiveness of conservation management decisions. I have had the opportunity to work on aspects of planning and management of invasive species, threatened species, protected areas, fisheries and aquatic habitat restoration.

My current research is evaluating the effectiveness of conservation actions for Australian woodland birds, and evaluating the costs and benefits of biodiversity offsets for threatened species. I’m also interested in recovery and conservation planning of threatened ecosystems. I aim to work with conservation decision makers to ensure my research is relevant and applicable to real conservation problems.

My previous projects have included:

If you are interested in my work, please get in touch.

Salmon conservation

My past work with Prof. John Reynolds looks at the influence Pacific salmon have on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems in the Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. I collated evidence about the relationships between Pacific salmon and a diverse range of ecosystem components, such as the diversity and abundance of insects, birds and plants. I…

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Evidence-based conservation

How can we bridge the gap between scientific research and conservation practice? What are the barriers and solutions to implementing evidence-based conservation? These are the questions I asked for my PhD, at the University of Cambridge, England. I determined how to improve conservation practitioners’ use of scientific research in their management decisions in the UK, South…

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Data-limited fisheries management

How do we determine sustainable levels of harvest for fish stocks that are data-limited? Approximately 80% of fisheries around the world are unassessed. They have limited information about their population status and trends, making it difficult to manage these stocks sustainably. Often the only data available for many of these species are time series of…

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Return on investment

Fox baiting is one of the main management actions to conserve malleefowl – an endemic threatened Australian ground-dwelling, mound-building bird. By analysing data from 20 years across Australia I found that current intensities of fox baiting were not effective at improving malleefowl population growth rates. The return on investment of fox baiting for malleefowl conservation…

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Biogeography of island invasives

We found that the impact of exotic species is more severe on islands with more exotic species and a greater proportion of native species that are endemic. Unexpectedly, the level of anthropogenic disturbance did not influence an island’s susceptibility to the impacts of exotic species. This research was conducted as part of my undergraduate research…

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Threatened species recovery planning

Do recovery plans actualy work at saving threatened species? Many countries develop recovery plans for their threatened flora, fauna and ecosystems. My colleagues and I investigated whether these management plans have a positive effect on the threatened status of Australian species. I also summarised overall trends and biases in the threatened species listing process, concluding that it…

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Horizon scanning

Research agendas are often lagging behind the current needs of society. National environmental policies are being made while the relevant science is only half complete. While research grant agencies attempt to fund novel, innovative and applicable science, they try to guess what the future research needs are. Horizon scanning and research prioritization exercises help to bring…

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