Integrative Ecology Lab current projects
Current lab members
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Caitlyn Drayton-Taylor Position: Masters Student |
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Joanna Haddock Position: PhD Candidate |
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Matthew Hall Position: PhD Candidate |
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Jayne Hanford Position: PhD Candidate |
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Daniel Jin Position: Honours Student |
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Ryan Keith Position: PhD Candidate |
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Margot Law Position: Research Assistant Email: margot.law@sydney.edu.au |
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Heather Lee-Kiorgaard Position: Honours Student |
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Ryan Leonard Position: PhD Candidate Urban environments and the roads bisecting them contribute significantly to the high ambient levels of harmful pollutants, including particulate matter and oxides of nitrogen. These pollutants are detrimental to human health and, principal factors influencing the physiology and development of flora and fauna in urban centers. My research explores the effects urban pollutants have on invertebrate behaviour, with particular emphasis on invertebrate memory and cognitive ability. Using the European honey bee (Apis mellifera) as a model species, I principally investigate the effects of urban pollutants, including those associated with roads and vehicle exhaust, on the recognition and memory of floral-odours by honey bees. |
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Manuel Eduardo Lequerica Tamara Position: MSc Candidate I am interested in ecosystem services and ecology, particularly pollination services within urban areas. Because pollination is a decisive element in most fruit-bearing crops and as urban agriculture will keep on the rise as efficient food repositories, it is important to understand how urbanization can affect insect pollinators, and plant-pollinator interactions. The product of this research project should help us identify the roles of native and introduced pollinators in community gardens throughout Sydney, in order to assist present recommendations that might enhance urban pollination services. |
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Henry Lydecker Position: MSc Candidate |
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'Spider' Man Position: Lab manager |
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Rodrigo Roman Position: PhD candidate |
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Lucy Taylor Position: Phd Candidate |
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Helen Smith Position: Research Associate |
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Caragh Threlfall Position: Research Associate |
Lab alumni
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Research: Habitat use and feeding ecology of the redback spider, Latrodectus hasselti (Co-supervised with Dr Mike Gray, Australian Museum). |
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De-anne Attard Research: Delving beneath the surface: thermal ecology of a fossorial skink, Saiphos equalis. |
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Georgina Barron Research: Do invasive plants in degraded urban ecosystems facilitate ecological interactions? |
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Sarah Beaumont Research: Diversity, function and invasion in a revegetated urban landscape |
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Francesca van den Berg Research: Thermal ecology of Flat Rock Spiders Morebilus plagusius Research: Hot and hungry: thermal biology of sit-and-wait predator in a thermally extreme/nutrient poor environment. |
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Robert Blackburn Research: Ecosystem degradation along an urban-rural gradient: linking diversity to ecosystem processes. |
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Sean Blamires Research: The ecological and physiological costs of orb weaving spider foraging.
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Beatrice Brennan Research: Habitat use by the Major Pancake spider (Hemicloea major). |
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Susan Burrows Research: Dieback of Eucalyptus botryoides in urban forest remnants in the Sydney Basin.
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Tony Chen Position: Honours Student
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Evelyn Chia Research: Habitat use by koalas in a restored landscape (Co-supervised with Prof Ian Hume). |
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Fiona Christie Research: Urban bushland remnants in the Sydney region: biodiversity in Australia's biggest backyard (Co-supervised with Dr Gerry Cassis, Australian Museum, funded by an ARC SPIRT grant). |
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Madeleine De Montfort Research: Surviving the urban matrix: can small-scale replanting promote insect pollinator communities? |
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Suzanne Dobbie Research: Ecological communities as a unit of conservation.
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Elisha Duxbury Research: Ecosystem services provided by urban exploiters.
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Heloise Gibb Research: The role of small mammals in regulating trophic relationships in leaf litter assemblages.
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Sue Giles Research: The role of small mammals in regulating trophic relationships in leaf litter assemblages. |
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Claire Goldsbrough Research: The ecology of rock-dwelling fauna of the Hawkesbury sandstone (Co-supervised with Prof Rick Shine). |
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Kristin Graham Research: Faunal responses to hard and soft edges in Eucalypt forests (Co-supervised with Dr Grant Blackwell).
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Teresa Gustowski Research: Impacts of urbanisation on plant-insect interactions.
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Matthew Hall Research: Does repairing habitat restore ecological function? Ants and seed dispersal in an endangered ecological community
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Jayne Hanford Research: Biodiversity Banking Surrogates: are they effective?
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Lisa Harvey Research: Habitat use by the Powerful Owl (Ninox strenua) in urban ecosystems
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Matilda Hughes Research: Behavioural traits and dominance hierarchies of ants in urban environments
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Ryan Keith Research: Wrack and Ruin: Impacts of coastal development on trophic interactions at the land-sea interface
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Scott Lassau Research: The influence of natural barriers, habitat complexity and spatial proximity on arthropod assemblages in the Sydney sandstone area (Co-supervised with Dr Gerry Cassis, Australian Museum, funded by an ARC SPIRT grant).
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Margot Law Research: Urbanisation and the Ecology of Arthropod Plant Interactions: The Role of Spatial Scale and Species Identity |
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Ryan Leonard Research: Blowing in the wind; the influence of wind energy and dust accumulation on leaf traits and consequences for leaf palatability and insect herbivore performance. |
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Boris Lomov Research: Does ecological restoration work? Bush regeneration in western Sydney (Co-supervised with Dr David Keith, NSW NPWS, funded by an ARC linkage grant). |
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Petah Low Project: The ecology and behavior of eucalypt-feeding caterpillars in relation to avoiding attack from natural enemies |
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Elizabeth Lowe Research: The effect of urbanization on the diversity, abundance and condition of spiders |
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Claire MacAlpine Research: The effects of exotic plants on the distribution and prey capture of Australian crab spiders (Thomisidae)
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Miguel Matias Research: Effects of structure of habitat on diversity of benthic assemblages.
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David McElroy Research: Historical contingencies in marine eco-toxicology.
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Lauren McIntosh Research: Nutrient enrichment in urban bushland fragments of Sydney: Effects on the native Angophora costata and the native environmental weed Pittosporum undulatum
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Fiona Powell Research: Co-extinction on endangered plants: threatened acacias and their affiliate communities (Co-supervised with Dr Gerry Cassis, Australian Museum).
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Adele Reid Research: Effect of grazing and nutrient inputs on the grassland arthropod diversity and the implications for sustainability (Co-supervised with Dr Gerry Cassis, Australian Museum, funded by Meat and Livestock Australia). |
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Lachlan Robinson Research: The effect of Asparagus aethiopicus on ant assemblages and seed removal in urban dry sclerophyll fragments.
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Tom Reader Research: Gregariousness in larval lepidopterans (Royal Society Banks-Alecto Fellow).
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Brendan Ryan Research: The influence of roads on small mammal ecology in the north-west of Sydney (Co-supervised with Dr Chris Dickman). |
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James Schlunke Research: Ant assemblages and their environment Research: Responses of ant assemblages to revegetation |
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Michelle Sutherland Research: The nutritional and behavioural ecology of Doratifera casta and Mnesampela privata |
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Bonita Siu Research: Nutrient turnover in urban ecosystems: linking belowground biodiversity and plant decomposition in degraded landscapes |
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Celia Symonds Research: Cospeciation of Plantbugs and Native Cypress Pines (Co-supervised with Dr Gerry Cassis, Australian Museum, partially funded by an NSF Planetary Biodiversity initiative grant).
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Nik Tartanic Research: Systematics and Sexual Selection in the Phylinae and Orthotylinae (Co-supervised with Dr Gerry Cassis, Australian Museum, funded by an NSF Planetary Biodiversity initiative grant).
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Luke Tilly Research: Should I stay or should I go? Foraging strategies of orb weaving spiders.
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Jun Tong Research: The evolution of Australian burrowing cockroaches |
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Scott van Barneveld Research: Ecology behaviour and physiology of the highly invasive lizard |
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Amelie Vanderstock Research: Determining the Effects of Coal Dust Pollution on Insect Pollinators and Herbivores |
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Dan Watts Research: The effect of artificial night lighting on the ecology of nocturnal insects |