Fields of Research

Ecological impacts of climate change and ecological adaptation
Forestry management and environment
Terrestrial ecology
Genetics
Tree improvement (incl. selection and breeding)
Biological adaptation
Community ecology (excl. invasive species ecology)
Forestry product quality assessment
Biogeography and phylogeography
Conservation and biodiversity
Evolutionary impacts of climate change
Evolutionary ecology
Agroforestry
Speciation and extinction
Gene mapping
Photogrammetry and remote sensing
Palaeoecology
Genomics and transcriptomics
Other biological sciences
Information systems development methodologies and practice
Forest ecosystems
Plant physiology
Environmental rehabilitation and restoration
Timber, pulp and paper
Ecological physiology

Research Objectives

Hardwood plantations
Terrestrial biodiversity
Rehabilitation or conservation of terrestrial environments
Native forests
Ecosystem adaptation to climate change
Climate change adaptation measures (excl. ecosystem)
Expanding knowledge in the biological sciences
Other environmental management
Environmentally sustainable information and communication services
Integration of farm and forestry
Climate change mitigation strategies
Expanding knowledge in the agricultural, food and veterinary sciences

Career Best Publications

Research Publications

A decade of restoring a temperate woodland: Lessons learned and future directions; Ecological Management & Restoration
Application of resistance drilling to genetic studies of growth, wood basic density and bark thickness in Eucalyptus globulus; Australian Forestry
Climate adaptation and ecological restoration in eucalypts; Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria
Climate adaptation, drought susceptibility, and genomic-informed predictions of future climate refugia for the Australian forest tree Eucalyptus globulus; Forests
Climate change and the suitability of local and non-local species for ecosystem restoration; Ecological Management and Restoration
Drivers of seedling establishment success in dryland restoration efforts; Nature Ecology and Evolution
Embedding genetics experiments in restoration to guide plant choice for a degraded landscape with a changing climate; Ecological Management & Restoration
Evidence that divergent selection shapes a developmental cline in a forest tree species complex; Annals of Botany
Expansion of the rare Eucalyptus risdonii under climate change through hybridization with a closely related species despite hybrid inferiority; Annals of Botany
From communities to individuals: using remote sensing to inform and monitor woodland restoration; Ecological Management and Restoration
From drones to phenotype: Using UAV-LiDAR to detect species and provenance variation in tree productivity and structure; Remote Sensing
Genetic correlations among pulpwood and solid-wood selection traits in Eucalyptus globulus; New Forests
Genetic distinctiveness but low diversity characterizes rear-edge Thuja standishii (Gordon) Carr. (Cupressaceae) populations in southwest Japan; Diversity
Genetic variation of microfibril angle and its relationship with solid wood and pulpwood traits in two progeny trials of Eucalyptus nitens in Tasmania; Holzforschung
Handheld laser scanning detects spatiotemporal differences in the development of structural traits among species in restoration plantings; Remote Sensing
Inbreeding depression and differential maladaptation shape the fitness trajectory of two co-occurring Eucalyptus species; Annals of Forest Science
Independent genetic control of drought resistance, recovery, and growth of Eucalyptus globulus seedlings; Plant, Cell and Environment
Integrating climate change and habitat fragmentation to identify candidate seed sources for ecological restoration; Restoration Ecology
Investigating constraints on direct seeding for native revegetation in the Tasmanian Midlands; Ecological Management & Restoration
Leaf economic and hydraulic traits signal disparate climate adaptation patterns in two co-occurring woodland eucalypts; Plants
Modelling wood property variation among Tasmanian Eucalyptus nitens plantations; Forest Ecology and Management
Monitoring forest structure to guide adaptive management of forest restoration: a review of remote sensing approaches; New Forests
Palaeoendemic plants provide evidence for persistence of open, well-watered vegetation since the Cretaceous; Global Ecology and Biogeography
Past, present and future refugia for Tasmania's palaeoendemic flora; Journal of Biogeography
Pleistocene divergence of two disjunct conifers in the eastern Australian temperate zone; Biological Journal of the Linnean Society
Population divergence along a genetic line of least resistance in the tree species Eucalyptus globulus; Genes
Priority actions to improve provenance decision-making; BioScience
Provenance and seed mass determines the seed germination success of Eucalyptus ovata (Myrtaceae); Seed Science and Technology
R-based image analysis to quantify checking and shrinkage from wood wedges; European Journal of Wood and Wood Products
Radial variation in modulus of elasticity, microfibril angle and wood density of veneer logs from plantation-grown Eucalyptus nitens; Annals of Forest Science
Regarding the F-word: The effects of data filtering on inferred genotype-environment associations; Molecular Ecology Resources
Replanting agricultural landscapes: how well do plants survive after habitat restoration?; Restoration Ecology
Stability of species and provenance performance when translocated into different community assemblages; Restoration Ecology
Temperature and rainfall are separate agents of selection shaping population differentiation in a forest tree; Forests
The palaeoendemic conifer Pherosphaera hookeriana (Podocarpaceae) exhibits high genetic diversity despite Quaternary range contraction and post glacial bottlenecking; Conservation Genetics
The potential of genomics for restoring ecosystems and biodiversity; Nature Reviews Genetics
Thinning influences wood properties of plantation-grown Eucalyptus nitens at three sites in Tasmania; Forests
Unravelling the evolutionary history of Eucalyptus cordata (Myrtaceae) using molecular markers; Australian Journal of Botany
Using ensemble learning to model climate associated variation in wood properties of planted Eucalyptus nitens in north‑western Tasmania; New Forests
Whole range and regional-based ecological niche models predict differing exposure to 21st century climate change in the key cool temperate rainforest tree southern beech (Nothofagus cunninghamii); Austral Ecology

Research Projects

Developing climate adaptation models to guide climate-resilient forest revegetation; Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPAC)
Disentangling the genetic drivers of manna quality in E. viminalis and its consequences for native ecosystem function; Australian Flora Foundation (AFF)
Forty-spotted Pardalote and manna gum: joining the spots to save an Australian endangered bird species.; Tasmanian Land Conservancy (TLC)
Saving Morrisbyi's gum - one of Australia's most threatened Eucalypts; Department of Environment and Energy (Cwth) (DoEE)
To move or not to move, that is the climate change question: understanding climate adaptation to inform management options; Australian Flora Foundation (AFF)
Using semi-autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to assess below-canopy breeding traits within eucalypt production forests; University of Tasmania (UTAS)

Research Candidate Supervision