Zoology & Ecology

Saul Chemonges

Saul Chemonges

Daniel Montesinos Torres

Daniel Montesinos Torres

Claire Gely

Claire Gely

Ben Hirsch

Ben Hirsch

Stephen Williams

Stephen Williams

Myles Menz

Myles Menz

Martijn van de Pol

Martijn van de Pol

Slade Allen-Ankins

Slade Allen-Ankins

Noel Preece

Noel Preece

Conrad Hoskin

Conrad Hoskin

Listening for Chital Deer
Lin Schwarzkopf
11 Feb 2025 - 30 Sep 2025
Chital Deer Audio Recording devices
The role of drought-stress and insect attack on rainforest plant health (Old ID 26337)
Susan Laurance
01 Jan 2020 - 31 May 2025
This project aims to examine the vulnerability of tropical plants to drought and insect attack in a large-scale field experiment. We will pioneer a new research approach that focuses on the causes and stages of decline in plant health prior to death, in order to identify the characteristics of plant species that make them more susceptible to drought and insect attack. Expected outcomes of this project include an improved capacity to predict the function and composition of future forests. This project will provide significant benefits to communities concerned with the direct and indirect effects of droughts in protected areas, forestry reserves and agriculture.
An Outstanding Opportunity: Using Solar Farms for Biodiversity Preservation
Lin Schwarzkopf
01 Mar 2025 - 01 Mar 2026
Renewable energy projects are growing at a remarkable rate in Australia In north Queensland alone, existing commercial solar plants supply 585MW of generation, and other, proposed plants will provide more than twice as much (QLD Gov Generation Map). As each megawatt requires 2-3 ha (QLD Gov Solar Farm Guidelines) this represents a very significant land area, and up to 70% of Queensland is suitable for solar development (Islam et al. REEE 2022). While this trend constitutes outstanding potential for energy generation, development of solar farms also will impose a significant impact on much of the land area. There is strong awareness of the social contract that such broadscale expansion must navigate, and a particular community concern is the scale of land development and modification (QLD Gov Solar Farm Guidelines). The community and the QLD Biodiversity Conservation Strategy expresses concern about the major loss of biodiversity occurring at unprecedented rates and scales, and identifies a need to manage broad-scale impacts on land area, as well as climate change. Nowhere is this so critical as in the tropics, which are both highly biodiverse and well suited to solar farms. The confluence of broad-scale solar development and the need for biodiversity conservation on large scales provides an unprecedented opportunity to combine the two. Solar farms present an opening for enhanced delivery of ecosystem services (Norberg et al. 2021 Solar Energy; Nordberg, Schwarzkopf 2023 Austral Ecology). Solar farms have long operational lifespans, experience low levels of disturbance during operation and can be managed for ecosystem services beyond low-carbon electricity generation, including biodiversity conservation (Carvalho et al. 2024 J Anim Ecol). In the UK, Europe and North America, appropriate management of solar farms can lead to increased plant, invertebrate, pollinator and bird diversity and abundance (reviewed by Boscarino-Gaetano et al. 2024 Biological Reviews),
Enhancing Frog Resilience to Natural Disasters: Determining Captive Husbandry Techniques for the Conservation of Threatened Frogs of the Wet Tropics.
Conrad Hoskin
21 May 2025 - 30 Jun 2027
This two- and half-year project aims to increase the resilience and drastically lower the risk of extinction of eight threatened frog species of north Queensland. The project will achieve this through: (1) Continued monitoring of long-term transects for these species. (2) Increasing our understanding around breeding ecology, environmental needs for survival and breeding, and better understanding the full extent of the impact by continuing to build on the long-term monitoring data. (3) Trialing captive husbandry and breeding with Least Concern, ecologically similar congeners, to greatly improving our ability to rapidly establish captive assurance colonies should the need arise under future environmental stochastic events.
Enhancing Frog Resilience to Natural Disasters: Determining Captive Husbandry Techniques for the Conservation of Threatened Frogs of the Wet Tropics.
Conrad Hoskin
21 May 2025 - 30 Jun 2027
This two- and half-year project aims to increase the resilience and drastically lower the risk of extinction of eight threatened frog species of north Queensland. The project will achieve this through: (1) Continued monitoring of long-term transects for these species. (2) Increasing our understanding around breeding ecology, environmental needs for survival and breeding, and better understanding the full extent of the impact by continuing to build on the long-term monitoring data. (3) Trialing captive husbandry and breeding with Least Concern, ecologically similar congeners, to greatly improving our ability to rapidly establish captive assurance colonies should the need arise under future environmental stochastic events.
Audio & Environmental Monitoring Equipment for Biodiversity
Conrad Hoskin
01 Jul 2025 - 31 Dec 2025
Proposed Use of Funds: To purchase a number of audio and environmental temperature monitoring units, to facilitate monitoring of animals and their environment for a range of collaborative projects in our group.
Audio & Environmental Monitoring Equipment for Biodiversity
Lyanne Brouwer
01 Jul 2025 - 31 Dec 2025
Proposed Use of Funds: To purchase a number of audio and environmental temperature monitoring units, to facilitate monitoring of animals and their environment for a range of collaborative projects in our group.
Audio & Environmental Monitoring Equipment for Biodiversity
Lin Schwarzkopf
01 Jul 2025 - 31 Dec 2025
Proposed Use of Funds: To purchase a number of audio and environmental temperature monitoring units, to facilitate monitoring of animals and their environment for a range of collaborative projects in our group.
Audio & Environmental Monitoring Equipment for Biodiversity
Megan Higgie
01 Jul 2025 - 31 Dec 2025
Proposed Use of Funds: To purchase a number of audio and environmental temperature monitoring units, to facilitate monitoring of animals and their environment for a range of collaborative projects in our group.
Large leaf gas exchange chamber and light source
Daniel Montesinos Torres
01 Jun 2025 - 31 Dec 2025
We propose to purchase a large leaf chamber and accompanying light source (6800-13L, Licor Inc.) for use with a recently purchased Licor 6800 portable photosynthesis system. The large leaf chamber and light source will significantly increase the range of applications for which the portable photosynthesis system can be used.
Title: ARC Future Fellow ($680,000), Global Change: Rainforest responses to experimental drought
Reseracher: Susan Laurance (Professor, Personal Chair)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2014
Title: American Society of Naturalists
Reseracher: Megan Higgie (Associate Professor)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2003
Title: European Research Council Advanced Grant 2018, ($2.5 million Euros). Role: collaborator, Lead Investigator: Dr Lourens Poorter
Reseracher: Susan Laurance (Professor, Personal Chair)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2018
Title: Habilitation (Venia Docendi), University of Bern
Reseracher: Myles Menz (Senior Lecturer, Zoology and Ecology)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2013
End Date: 01 Jan 2018
Title: PhD, The University of Western Australia
Reseracher: Myles Menz (Senior Lecturer, Zoology and Ecology)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2009
End Date: 01 Jan 2013
Title: MSc in Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern
Reseracher: Myles Menz (Senior Lecturer, Zoology and Ecology)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2006
End Date: 01 Jan 2008
Title: Bachelor of Science , The University of Western Australia
Reseracher: Myles Menz (Senior Lecturer, Zoology and Ecology)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2000
End Date: 01 Jan 2003
Title: Doctor of Philosophy, University of the Witwatersrand
Reseracher: Tasmin Rymer (Associate Professor)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2004
End Date: 01 Jan 2009
Title: Minibeast Wildlife, I partnered with Minibeast Wildlife to support an Honour's student's project focusing on subsociality in tarantulas. That work is in the process of being published.
Reseracher: Tasmin Rymer (Associate Professor)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2024
End Date: 01 Jan 2025
Title: Master of Science, University of Pretoria
Reseracher: Tasmin Rymer (Associate Professor)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2003
End Date: 01 Jan 2004