Adam Canning

I am an ecologist focused on using ecologically informed strategies to regenerate agricultural landscapes and restore ecosystem health from paddock to coast. A key pillar of my research includes examining how vegetation influences ecosystem function across agricultural, freshwater, and coastal systems. My work develops practical tools and indicators that link food production with soil, water and biodiversity health to guide evidence-based decisions toward resilient and sustainable landscapes.

Examples of work

On farms:

• Trialling multi-species cover crops in sugarcane to support bird and insect biodiversity, improve soil microbial function, and reduce nutrient runoff to downstream ecosystems
• Developing ecological, soil, agronomic, and social indicators to enable farmers to track regenerative outcomes and participate in ecosystem service restoration schemes.
• Testing aquatic-weed mulch and vermicompost as soil amendments to alter soil microbial communities and reduce nutrient losses contributing to downstream eutrophication.
•  Developing a pesticide risk-assessment tool to reduce chemical stressors on ecosystems
• Distribution modelling of 177 bush food plant species to identify opportunities for restoring agricultural landscape diversity

Across catchments and landscapes:

• Distribution modelling of 120 water tolerant plants to identify restoration opportunities across Australian floodplains and wetlands.
• Assessing how floodplain Melaleuca reforestation reduces nutrient flows and improves water quality in Great Barrier Reef catchments.
• Assessing how riparian vegetation, nutrient enrichment and introduce predators affect food web structure and function.
• Demonstrating that constructed wetlands integrated into agricultural catchments support significant native fish biodiversity while providing flood mitigation and agricultural benefits.
• Deriving catchment nutrient targets and assessing land use scenarios to achieve desired nutrient limits, supporting restoration of eutrophic aquatic ecosystems.

Along coastlines:

• Investigating impacts and recovery of mangrove dieback from La Niña driven sea level oscillations in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
• Assessing recovery options and restoration potential following Cyclone Jasper in the Daintree and Bloomfield catchments.
• Developing an alert-to-action framework using remote sensing to monitor mangrove impacts near ports.
•  Using lidar to assess mangrove health and blue carbon storage at landscape scale
•  Assessing restoration opportunities and blue carbon sequestration potential across 52 sites in the southern Great Barrier Reef
  
•  Quantifying mangrove recovery trajectories following disturbance to inform realistic restoration timelines and success criteria.