Zoology & Ecology
Saul Chemonges
- Adjunct Associate Professor
- saul.chemonges@jcu.edu.au
Daniel Montesinos Torres
- Senior Research Fellow
- daniel.montesinos@jcu.edu.au
Claire Gely
- Lecturer, Zoology and Ecology
- claire.gely@jcu.edu.au
Ben Hirsch
- Adjunct Senior Lecturer
- ben.hirsch@jcu.edu.au
Stephen Williams
- Adjunct Professor
- stephen.williams@jcu.edu.au
Myles Menz
- Senior Lecturer, Zoology and Ecology
- myles.menz@jcu.edu.au
Martijn van de Pol
- Associate Professor, Mathematical Modelling
- martijn.vandepol@jcu.edu.au
Slade Allen-Ankins
- Research Fellow
- slade.allenankins@jcu.edu.au
Noel Preece
- Adjunct Associate Professor
- noel.preece@jcu.edu.au
Conrad Hoskin
- Professor
- conrad.hoskin@jcu.edu.au
Investigating the effects of insecticide exposure, pathogens, and heat stress on bee diversity, abundance, and health (Old ID 28974)
Bees are threatened by multiple stressors including insecticide exposure, disease, loss of habitat, and climate change. Studies investigating stressors facing Australian bees are becoming more common, but many knowledge gaps still exist and while some studies document the effects of stressors in isolation, they stop short of investigating the effects of stressors in combination. My project will investigate how the stressors of insecticide exposure, pathogens and heat stress affect native bee diversity, abundance, and health, as well as investigate whether bee hotels cause increased pathogen and parasitism prevalence, and predation rates in native bees.
Understanding fine-scale distribution and climate resilience in microhylid frogs - the Wet Tropics' most threatened vertebrates (Old ID 27600)
This grant will help fund field trip and equipment costs (e.g., acoustic monitoring devices) for my PhD project. My research aims to resolve current elevational ranges of threatened Cophixalus frog species in the Wet Tropics and determine what factors drive distributions and breeding activity, ultimately contributing to future management actions.
Ecoregional planting guide: Powerful Pollinators (Townsville region) (Old ID 28934)
I will develop an ecoregional planting guide for pollinators covering the Townsville bioregions. The guide will include a list of common native plants including forbs, shrubs and trees, that are available for purchase from local nurseries and that provide resources (nectar and/or pollen) for local pollinators. A list of local nurseries will also be provided. The Wheen Bee Foundation will use this, along with photos supplied by myself to develop a planting guide for the Townsville area.
Using pheremones to understand Australia's hyper-diverse lizard fauna (Old ID 26232)
I am to test if contempoary gene flow (reproductive isolation) corelates with the degree of pheremone divergence among eight genetic lineages of Heteronotia geckos in north-eastern Australia. In doing so, I aim to assess the utility of integrating pheremone data into taxonomic revisions of cryptic lizard groups.
Using pheremones to understand Australia's hyper-diverse lizard fauna (Old ID 26232)
I am to test if contempoary gene flow (reproductive isolation) corelates with the degree of pheremone divergence among eight genetic lineages of Heteronotia geckos in north-eastern Australia. In doing so, I aim to assess the utility of integrating pheremone data into taxonomic revisions of cryptic lizard groups.
Species interactions and plasticity in female mate assessment (Old ID 25016)
This project will investigate the effect of species interactions on female mate preference through presence/absence of a heterospecific. The questions I am interested in is "do females plastically change their mate preferences when heterospecifics are present?" To do this, I will be conducting two-choice mate trials in allopatric-c context situations (2 conspecifics only) and in sympatric-context situations (2 conspecific males plus 1 heterospecific). No previous mate preference study has put a heterospecific into the mating arena with the conspecifics. This project is the first to look at mate preference in the presence of a heterospecific.
Ecoregional planting guide: Powerful Pollinators (Atherton Tablelands region) (Old ID 31093)
It will develop an ecoregional planting guide for pollinators covering the Atherton Tablelands bioregions. The guide will include a list of common and native plants including forbs, shrubs and trees, that are available for purchase from local nurseries and that provide resources (nectarand/or pollen) for local pollinators. A list of local nurseries will also be provided. The Wheen Bee Foundation will use this, along with photos supplied by myself to develop a planting guide for the Atherton Tablelands.
Developmental and labile plasticity in mating displays (Old ID 26296)
Species interactions can alter the direction of evolution of sexual traits through reproductive interference. This project will look at how male pheromone displays in the presence and absence of reproductive interference may differ after being reared under experimental sympatry and allopatry conditions. I predict that being reared in a sympatric environment will influence differing mate display pheromones and will improve the ability plastically alter pheromones when reproductive interference is present. The ability to plastically alter mate displays to avoid the negative effects of reproductive interference is highly beneficial for population viability in a changing world.
Predicting habitat vulnerable to invasion: Diet and body condition of introduced chital deer (Axis axis) in the Australian dry tropics (Old ID 27884)
This project aims to detail the dietary richness of chital deer diet, and explore the association between individual dietary quality and body condition. This will be achieved utilising faecal sample DNA metabarcoding techniques to sequence and analyse the dietary items consumed by chital deer, in combination with faecal chromatography techniques to estimate dietary quality, and exploration of animal morphometric data to investigate the variance in body condition among individuals. My results will detail the dietary items that are associated with chital deer of higher body condition, and more importantly, the dominant vegetation communities that chital deer may utilise to facilitate further range expansion.
Research to inform yellow crazy ant management in the Wet Tropics (Old ID 26714)
Continuation and consolidation of four years of scientific activities to support yellow crazy ant eradication in the Wet Tropics (data analysis, monitoring non-target effects of baiting, probability of detection).
A new combination in Clematicissus Planch (Vitaceae)
- 2006
- National Herbarium of New South Wales
- Researchers:Betsy Jackes
Evaluation of offspring size–number invariants in 12 species of lizard
- 2009
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Researchers:Lin Schwarzkopf
Identification and dynamics of a cryptic suture zone in tropical rainforest
- 2009
- Royal Society Publishing
- Researchers:Conrad Hoskin
Is optimal foraging a realistic expectation in orb-web spiders?
- 2009
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Researchers:Will Edwards
Start Date:
01 Jan 2014
Start Date:
01 Jan 2003
Start Date:
01 Jan 2018
Start Date:
01 Jan 2013
End Date:
01 Jan 2018
Start Date:
01 Jan 2009
End Date:
01 Jan 2013
Start Date:
01 Jan 2006
End Date:
01 Jan 2008
Start Date:
01 Jan 2000
End Date:
01 Jan 2003
Start Date:
01 Jan 2004
End Date:
01 Jan 2009
Start Date:
01 Jan 2024
End Date:
01 Jan 2025
Start Date:
01 Jan 2003
End Date:
01 Jan 2004