Further Enquiries:

DIATOMA
c/o Geographical & Environmental Studies
The University of Adelaide
SA 5005
AUSTRALIA
Email

For further contact information, please see our team page.

Team

Dr. Peter Gell (Director)

peter.gell@adelaide.edu.au

URL: http://www.arts.adelaide.edu.au/Geogenvst/pgell.html

Phone:+61 8 8303 4774 Mobile: +61 (0)427 870 280

Peter commenced his PhD work on Australian salt lake diatoms in 1989 in Paris under the guidance of Prof. Françoise Gasse. There he commenced his analyses of stream diatoms working on a C16th sequence of fossil Seine River diatoms under Le Musée de Louvre. Also in Europe he undertook studies on the impact of, amongst a range of contributors, sewage treatment plants and coal mines on the water quality and diatom assemblages of the River Erewash in England. Other diatoms projects also under the management of Prof. Geoff Petts included the impact of abstraction on the Ouse Washes, the impact of straw bales on algal growth and pollution studies in the Rivers Wissey and Babbingly, and Test & Itchen.

In Australia he has established diatom species-water quality calibration sets (or 'transfer functions') on salt lakes in Western Victoria and streams in South Australia. He has been convener of numerous diatom taxonomy workshops leading to the initiation of The National Algal Workshops. As part of these he has published two diatom identification guides for use by the water industry. He has undertaken numerous projects in South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and more recently Queensland and the Northern Territory, and with Craig McVeigh, is establishing diatom studies in north-east Brazil.

Dr. John Tibby (Research Fellow)

john.tibby@adelaide.edu.au

John has developed diatom-based transfer functions for inferring pH, conductivity and total phosphorus, in southeast Australian lakes and reservoirs. He has worked at Loughborough University UK and at the Environmental Change Research Centre, University College London. He has published on climate change and human impact on lakes from Turkey, Kenya, Indonesia and Australia.

In 2003, he moved from Monash University to the University of Adelaide. His most recent research at Monash focussed on diatom response to rapid climate change near the end of the last ice age and long term water quality-vegetation-climate relationships at Lake Euramoo, north east Queensland.

John is currently employed on an ARC Linkage project to assess the sources and sinks of sediment and phosphorus in the Torrens River catchment, South Australia. Part of this work will involve using his diatom model to reconstruct total phosphorus in storages on the Torrens.

Other current projects include:

assessing pH change in the Goulburn River catchment, Victoria (with Michael Reid, Jennie Fluin, Barry Hart and Peter Kershaw),
evaluating human impact on water quality on Lake Ainsworth, northern New South Wales,
documenting the influence of Holocene climate change on water quality in Lake Purrumbete (with Dan Penny),
diatom phytoplankton dynamics in the Murray River (with Michael Reid)

Dr. Aline Philibert (Statistician)

aline.philibert@adelaide.edu.au

Aline’s Ph.D. quantified, compared and predicted the long-term response of lakes to ecosystem-wide perturbations, contributing to the sustainable management of the Canadian Boreal Forest Biome with respect to wildfires, forest harvesting and climate.

In achieving this goal, Aline:

Examined some of the fundamental underpinnings approach such as the inter-relationships between species and environmental variables.
Developed new diatom-based transfer functions for the fraction of incident light and lake water CO2 concentration.
Examined whether certain characteristics of the species assemblages influence the model performance such as the planktonic versus benthic, the number of taxa, the optima and the tolerance (to improve the predictive power of models, not just in regard to palaeolimnology, but other ecological issues as well)
Participated in the development of new powerful tools in palaeolimnology such as Artificial Neural Networks (ANN).
Has also participated in arctic limnological research on the effect of UV and temperature on bacteria, algae and on macro-invertebrates.

Aline is presently a Research Assistant and Statistician for bio-monitoring programs within DIATOMA.

Dr. Jennie Fluin (Laboratory Manager)

jennie.fluin@adelaide.edu.au

Jennie’s recently completed PhD research focused on understanding the long and short term history of the middle and lower Murray river through diatom analysis of cores from Lakes Alexandrina and Cullulleraine. A major focus of Jennie’s work was an attempt to gain a better understanding of the ecology of Australian diatom taxa, through the analysis of a large number of modern samples. While at the Environmental Change Research Centre (London), Jennie was involved in a project assessing more than 30 Scottish lochs, using various palaeolimnological techniques, including those appropriate specifically for both acid and alkaline sites. She has also analysed diatoms from sediment cores and modern environments from Java and Sulawesi.

Craig McVeigh

craig.mcveigh@adelaide.edu.au

Craig is a Research Assistant within DIATOMA. For his Ph.D. work he is developing a transfer function from Brazilian wetlands to infer century to annual-scale changes to the water quality of two urban wetlands in Salvador, the first capital of Brazil. He is part of the team undertaking analyses for the Environmental Protection Authority in Melbourne on a project developing stream nutrient guidelines as well as on an impacted streams research program for the Department of Land and Water Conservation in New South Wales.

Gus MacGregor

angus.macgregor@adelaide.edu.au

Gus is a Ph.D. Research Scholar who completed his first class B.Env.St. (Hons) in 2001 with a thesis entitled 'A Palaeoecological Reconstruiction of the Lower Snowy River, East Gippsland, Victoria: Environmental Response to Climate Change, Land Use and River Regulation' which produced a 7000 year salinity history of the floodplain.

Within DIATOMA, he has since been involved in bio-monitoring consultancies from across Victoria, inland Queensland and coastal New South Wales, and is now finalising a diatom-based calibration set for inferring nutient levels in 'Adelaide' streams.

For his Ph.D. he is extending his earlier research, and with the identification of additional wetland sites continues to quantitatively and independently reconstruct the environmental history of the Lower Snowy River region of East Gippsland with respect to its climate, flow regime, water quality and vegetation. This will aid in the determination of what proportion of changes in the natural archives are due to human activity and climate variability, and constitute the only direct means of gauging the magnitude of impact, or ecological opportunity costs, of changing land-use and the inter-basin water diversions from, and subsequent riparian ecosystem degradation of, one of Australia’s hallmark river systems.

Cameron Barr

cameron.barr@adelaide.edu.au

Cameron is a specialist on brackish diatoms within DIATOMA. He completed his B.Env.St. (Hons.) in 2001 with a thesis entitled The effects of European landuse practices on the hydrology of a wetland in the Upper South East of South Australia and its implications for wetland management. As part of this, he applied a diatom-based transfer function to the fossil diatom assemblage from a wetland in the Upper South East of South Australia which enabled a quantitative reconstruction of past salinity and ionic ratios of the wetland. This demonstrated the effects that European landuse practices on the hydrology of the wetland system.

Currently, Cameron is enrolled in a Ph.D. where he is aiming to reconstruct, in fine resolution, the climate of southeastern Australia throughout the last 1000 years. This period includes the Little Ice Age (LIA) and it is hoped that the results may demonstrate the impact of the LIA on the climate of the region.

Sorell Bulpin

sorell.bulpin@adelaide.edu.au

Sorell is a Research Assistant for DIATOMA working on the salinity impacted wetlands of north-western Victoria for Ogyris Pty Ltd and the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (Vic). She is also examining the 5000 year ecological history of Tareena Billabong for her Ph.D., in which a salinisation record and a fine resolution flood history of the lower Murray River are being determined.

Greg Smith

gregory.smith@student.adelaide.edu.au

Mr Greg Smith is presently a consulting diatomist and ornithological surveyer. He has worked on fossil diatom assemblages from Adelaide reservoirs and biomonitoring studies from various parts of Australia. His ornithological experience includes publishing Where to find Birds in Australia's Northern Territory and surveys in the Northern Territory and South Australia.

Paul Leahy

Paul has worked on the bioassessment of diatoms in various streams throughout Victoria. His particular focus has been in the assessment of the impact sewage effluent discharge into streams. This has included the design and sampling of streams in the alpine area, as part of his research work. More recently Paul has carried out diatom-based bioassessment for WSL Consultants Pty. Ltd. In addition to diatom taxonomy this involved statistical analysis and reporting of stream condition. Paul's most recent research has involved sampling and counting diatoms from the Yarra River and its billabongs, for his Ph.D. work on the palaeoecology of Yarra River.