School of Geography - Research Publications
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ItemUsing fractal dimension to capture ecologically-relevant physical variation in streams( 2017)Abstract of the oral presentation at the Annual General Meeting of the Australian Society for Limnology in 2017.
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ItemExplaining species diversity in a fractal world( 2019)Conference presentation at the Ecological Society of America annual meeting, 2019 Also given at the Australian Freshwater Sciences Society annual meeting in 2019
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ItemEgg masses of some stream-dwelling caddisflies (Trichoptera: Hydrobiosidae) from Victoria, Australia(Wiley, 2019-08-01)Eggs are a largely neglected life stage in most ecological studies of aquatic insects, despite the importance of oviposition behaviour and fecundity estimates for many research questions. Incorporating egg stages into ecological research requires that ecologists can identify and quantify eggs, but descriptions of eggs and egg masses are scarce for many groups and particularly for Australian taxa. This paper focusses on stream-dwelling caddisflies in the family Hydrobiosidae and provides species-level identifications, morphological descriptions and images of egg masses of some species that commonly occur in south-eastern Australia. All the species we identified laid plaque-shaped egg masses attached to the underside of river rocks that protrude above the water surface. These egg masses can be identified in the field with the naked eye or the aid of a low-magnification hand lens. Interspecific variations in egg mass morphology were primarily thickness and firmness of the spumaline layer, egg mass size and arrangement of eggs within the mass. We also provide some ecological information on clutch sizes and the physical characteristics of oviposition sites, and we discuss various ways in which these taxa could be exploited as model systems for ecological research.
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ItemCelebrating women conducting research in freshwater ecology ... and how the citation game is damaging them(CSIRO Publishing, 2019-01-01)We highlight women's contributions to freshwater ecology by firstly considering the historical context and gender-based barriers faced by women attempting to gain an education and secure research jobs in science over the past 100+ years. The stories of four remarkable, pioneering women in freshwater ecology (Kathleen Carpenter, Ann Chapman, Rosemary Lowe-McConnell and Ruth Patrick) illustrate the impact of barriers, emphasise the significance of their contributions and provide inspiration for the challenges ahead. Women still face barriers to participation in science, and the second part of the paper focuses on a current form of discrimination, which is citation metrics used to measure the 'quality' or 'impact' of research. We show that arguments that citation metrics reflect research quality are logically flawed, and that women are directly disadvantaged by this practice. Women are also indirectly disadvantaged in ecology because they are more likely to carry out empirical than theoretical research, and publications are generated more slowly from empirical research. Surveys of citation patterns in ecology reveal also that women are less likely to be authors of review papers, which receive three times more citations than do original articles. Unless unfettered use of citation metrics is stopped, research will be damaged, and women will be prominent casualties.
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ItemEvaluating the role of dispersal constraints: from one field experiment to a multi-site restoration programme(Australian Society for Limnology, 2017)
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ItemAquatic versus Terrestrial Insects: Real or Presumed Differences in Population Dynamics?(MDPI, 2018-12)The study of insect populations is dominated by research on terrestrial insects. Are aquatic insect populations different or are they just presumed to be different? We explore the evidence across several topics. (1) Populations of terrestrial herbivorous insects are constrained most often by enemies, whereas aquatic herbivorous insects are constrained more by food supplies, a real difference related to the different plants that dominate in each ecosystem. (2) Population outbreaks are presumed not to occur in aquatic insects. We report three examples of cyclical patterns; there may be more. (3) Aquatic insects, like terrestrial insects, show strong oviposition site selection even though they oviposit on surfaces that are not necessarily food for their larvae. A novel outcome is that density of oviposition habitat can determine larval densities. (4) Aquatic habitats are often largely 1-dimensional shapes and this is presumed to influence dispersal. In rivers, drift by insects is presumed to create downstream dispersal that has to be countered by upstream flight by adults. This idea has persisted for decades but supporting evidence is scarce. Few researchers are currently working on the dynamics of aquatic insect populations; there is scope for many more studies and potentially enlightening contrasts with terrestrial insects.