People
Lead Investigator
Professor Anthony Richardson
The Principal Investigator, Professor Anthony J. Richardson, is a 2018 highly cited researcher in Ecology. He has a joint research position between the School of the Environment at the University of Queensland and CSIRO Environment, Australia’s national science provider.
Anthony runs a dynamic lab at the nexus between mathematics/statistics/computation and marine ecology. His focus is on using mathematical tools to better conserve biodiversity, predict impacts of climate change, and understand the functioning of marine ecosystems. There is a collegial atmosphere in the lab and a critical mass of researchers working on similar problems.
If you have a background in mathematics/statistics and want to apply your skills to real-world problems, of if you have a background in ecology and are interested in developing your quantitative skills, then this could be the lab for you. If you are interested in joining the Mathematical Marine Ecology Lab, then feel free to contact Anthony directly.
Senior Research Fellow
Dr Jason Everett
Jason is a biological oceanographer, with an interest in how oceanographic processes structure planktonic ecosystems.
His research has focused on how flow regimes, boundary currents, eddies and upwelling events drive changes in the biomass, species distribution and size structure of zooplankton communities. In addition, he have extensive experience working with satellite data and numerical model output.
Jason’s current research focus is to quantify how the size, abundance and biomass of zooplankton and fish change across local, regional and global scales. By quantifying the size-based ecosystem through modelling and observations, we can better understand processes such as metabolism, predation or movement, which constrain the role of an individual in its food web. In particular, the biomass and size distribution of zooplankton is poorly understood relative to phytoplankton and fish in our oceans, yet it is critical to understanding the efficiency of energy transfer through to fisheries.
PhD Students
Kristine (Tin) Buenafe
Kristine, better known as Tin, is a quantitative marine ecologist from the Philippines. Although most of her colleagues in her undergraduate degree chose to go into medicine, she took the road less travelled — a path in research… and while most of her colleagues in marine science studied coastal ecosystems, she was more interested in the high seas. Tin has a Master’s degree in Tropical Biodiversity and Ecosystems (TROPIMUNDO), an Eramus Mundus Joint Master’s Degree program, where she finished first in her batch (Plus Grande Distinction). Tin has developed methods used by conservation practitioners to transition to more climate-smart spatial planning approaches. She’s done this by prioritising protection on climate refugia. In her PhD research, Tin wishes to continue her work on climate change and spatial planning by taking it a step further and developing ways of designing more connected, climate-smart protected area networks.
Sandra Neubert
Sandra is a marine data scientist with an interest in marine spatial planning and ecosystem modelling. She holds a BSc (Hons) in Marine Biology from the University of Plymouth and a MSc in Bioinformatics from the University of Leipzig. Sandra previous experience includes writing R packages and Shiny apps to facilitate stakeholder engagement with time-efficient and reproducible marine spatial planning apps. Her research focuses on designing marine protected areas and assessing their costs and benefits from an ecological and economic perspective. Her PhD will address multiple-use spatial planning in the Global South in a joint project by the University of Queensland and the University of Exeter.
Alvise Dabala
Alvise is a PhD student at the Mathematical Marine Ecology Lab and the Applied Marine Biogeography Lab, supervised by Prof. Anthony Richardson and A/Prof. Daniel Dunn. His research focuses on developing climate-smart and connected spatial prioritisations for mangrove conservation to protect mangrove biodiversity and ecosystem services. He holds an Erasmus Mundus Master’s degree in tropical ecology (TROPIMUNDO). During his thesis, he developed a global study which identifies priority areas for mangrove conservation that maximise ecosystem services. Before starting his PhD at The University of Queensland, he joined the iAtlantic project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, developing spatial prioritisations for the conservation of the Atlantic Ocean at the University of Azores.
Sharad Bayyana
Sharad is a marine biologist who has joined the School of Environment as a PhD candidate. He comes from India, where he was engaged in several marine and wildlife research projects, after completing his master’s in marine biology. He also holds a post-graduate diploma in Remote Sensing and GIS. Back in India, he conducted research at the Wildlife Institute of India, in understanding the spatial ecology of Dugongs, mangroves succession in the Nicobar group of islands after the tsunami of 2004, and coral reef biodiversity assessment of Malvan Marine Sanctuary, along the west coast of India. He has previously worked at the Horniman Museum, London as a visiting researcher, to conduct research on coral reproductive biology and restoration practices. Lately, at Wildlife Conservation Society-India, he was involved in developing data-driven strategies for management practices of Marine Protected Areas along the west coast of India, before moving to Brisbane. For his PhD, he will pursue the implications of climate-driven risks on the biodiversity dynamics under the project “Portfolio projection of biodiversity responses under climate change”. The project aims to quantify adaptive and migration responses as vulnerability metrics, providing resource managers with novel tools to formulate flexible management strategies.
Aharon Fleury
Aharon Fleury completed his Master of Science Biology (Fisheries) program at University of Victoria, Canada in 2016 where he evaluated the reproductive ecology of hagfish off the coast of Vancouver Island. He has since worked five years as an environmental consultant performing ecological and human health risk assessments and modelling the movement of contaminants to humans, plants, and animals via biotic transport pathways. The aim of Aharon’s PhD research is to develop and apply a framework, built on an individual-based model, for environmental impact assessments of marine species that explicitly incorporates connectivity across a migratory cycle and facilitates decision-making by incorporating stakeholder values.
Diego Bezerra
Diego is an interdisciplinary marine ecologist interested in understanding the ecological mechanisms that drive ecosystem health. He foremost focuses on delivering scientific information to improve marine protected areas’ conservation outcomes. He is currently investigating elasmobranch migratory connectivity across reefs, and multispecies network models in conservation planning. He is also researching elasmobranch movement using network analysis as a tool to estimate population structures. Finally, his project aims to provide a baseline for shark migratory movement in Australia, strengthening understanding of connectivity within and beyond national jurisdictions.
Tropimundo Students
We regularly supervise students from the Tropimundo Program for their final year thesis.
Kris Jypson Esturas
Kris is a budding marine ecologist with a strong interest in marine conservation, especially within the context of global climate change. He has recently finished an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s Degree in Tropical Biodiversity and Ecosystems (TROPIMUNDO), where he graduated as the top student of his cohort and received the Best Student Award. For his masters, he has studied in different institutions across different countries in Europe: Université Libre de Bruxelles/Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Semester 1); Université de La Réunion (Semester 2); and Università degli Studi di Firenze (Semester 3). For his final semester, which is completely allocated to thesis work, he worked on a marine spatial planning project using quantitative tools with The University of Queensland.