Professor Barry Brook

Biography/ Background

• Director of Climate Science, Environment Institute
• Climate and Energy blog/website: BraveNewClimate

Professor Barry Brook holds the Foundation Sir Hubert Wilkins Chair of Climate Change at the University of Adelaide. He has published two books and over 150 peer-reviewed scientific papers (Nature, Science, PNAS, etc.), and regularly writes opinion pieces and popular articles for the media. He has received a number of distinguished awards in recognition of his research excellence, which addresses the topics of climate change, computational and statistical modelling, sustainable energy, and the synergies between human impacts on Earth systems. 

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Prof Brook's research methods focus primarily on the statistical analysis, interpretation and computational modelling of complex systems, long-term data, and meta-analysis of large-scale databases. Scenarios for future impacts are modelled at global, regional and local scales, to provide a robust scientific underpinning for scientific management and government policy.

His current work is aimed at determining the extent to which climate change might amplify other major anthropogenic threats to biodiversity (e.g., demographic and genetic stress, habitat degradation, introduced predator and competitor species), and developing new modelling systems which realistically captures this information and so can be used for the purposes of prediction, adaptation and ecosystem management and restoration. He is also undertaking systems modelling for sustainable energy, including scenario modelling of future low-carbon energy mixes (nuclear power and renewables) and the critical evalatuion of large-scale deployment options, energy backup, and variability control.

Effective communication of the science of climate change is fundamental to providing policy makers with the type of evidence required to institute meaningful mitigation policy and to understand available adaptation options. It is this imperative that has Professor Brook to take an active leadership role in the communication of the science of global change to government, industry and the community (directly, via public lectures and workshops and advisory committees, and indirectly via the media - including television, radio, the print media and popular science articles). It is his belief that presenting hard-won technical scientific evidence to a broad audience in an intelligible way is the surest path to provoking meaningful societal change towards long-term sustainability.

Qualifications

B.Sc. (Hons I), Ph.D., Macquarie University www.bio.mq.edu.au

Awards and Prizes:

• 2007: Cosmos Bright Sparks Award: One of the top 10 young scientists in Australia www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/1632

• 2007: H.G. Andrewartha Medal: Royal Society of SA. Awarded for outstanding research by a scientist under 40 years (any discipline) www.adelaide.edu.au/rssa/awards

• 2006: Fenner Medal: Australian Academy of Science. Awarded for distinguished research in biology by a scientist under 40 years www.science.org.au/awards/fenmed.htm

• 2006: Edgeworth David Medal: Royal Society of NSW. Awarded for outstanding research by a scientist under 35 years (any discipline) www.nsw.royalsoc.org.au/awards/edgeworth.html

• 2006: Who's Who in Australia? (Crown Content Publishing) bibliographic entry www.crowncontent.com.au/whoswho.html

• 2005: 2000 Outstanding Scientists of the 21st Century, bibliographic entry (International Biographical Centre, Cambridge) www.internationalbiographicalcentre.com/2000_outstanding_scientists_of_the_21st_c.php

• 1999: Australian Flora Foundation Prize, Australian Flora Foundation www.aff.org.au

Teaching Interests

Opportunities are available for Ph.D., Masters and Honours students for specific on-going research projects with existing funding. General inquiries for student projects on topics such as climate change impacts on biodiversity and extinctions are also welcome. 

Current Research Staff: Dr Damien Fordham, Dr Jeremy Austin, Mr Lochran Traill, Dr Steve Delean, Dr Danny Spring, Dr Francis Clark, Dr Clive McMahon.

Current Students:

• Ms Siobhan de Little (PhD, 2007-). Supervisors: Bradshaw, C., Brook, B.W., Bowman, D. Demography and control of disease-carrying tropical mosquitoes in northern Australia.

• Mr Salvador Herrando-Perez (PhD, 2007-). Supervisors: Bradshaw, C., Brook, B.W. Factors controlling population size and extinction risk.

• Mr Tony Griffiths. (PhD, 2005-). Supervisors: Brook B.W. & Bradshaw, C. Population dynamics of small mammals in Kakadu National Park.

• Ms Nerissa Haby. (PhD, 2008-). Supervisors: Brook, B.W., Foulkes, J. Does the inclusion of fine scale information to coarse parameter models improve population viability forecasts for small coastal and arid mammals?

• Ms Julie Hagen. (PhD, 2007-). Supervisors: Bull, M., Donnellan, S. & Brook, B.W. Conservation status of Corucia zebrata in the Solomon Islands.

• Mr Bert Harris. (PhD, 2008-). Supervisors: Brook B.W. & Sodhi, N.S. The interactive effects of habitat degradation and climate change on Southeast Asian and Australian birds.

• Mr Thomas Wanger. (PhD, 2008-). Supervisors: Brook B.W. & Sodhi, N.S. Impact of climate change and habitat fragmentation on the herpetofauna of Southeast Asia.

• Mr Dandong Zheng. (PhD, commenced 2007). Supervisors: Brook, B.W. & Hugo, G. Demographic impacts of future sea-level rise on Adelaide: a case study for Australian populations.

Research Interests

My research focuses on global environmental change: human impacts on natural systems, in all its manifold forms. Past threats have predominantly involved the so-called 'evil quartet': overkill, habitat destruction, introduced species, and chains of extinctions. I have made a range of fundamental contributions to research on extinctions, biodiversity management and conservation ecology. In recent years I have concentrated particularly on the feedbacks between different threatening processes and how these interact with the looming risks posed by a new and rapidly accelerating hazard of climate change and global warming.

I have recently become interested in systems modelling for sustainable energy, including scenario modelling of future low-carbon energy mixes (nuclear power and renewables) and the critical evalatuion of large-scale deployment options, energy backup, and variability control.

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POTENTIAL STUDENT PROJECTS

• Linking population viability models to bioclimatic projections: Develop bioclimatic projections for a range of well-studied species and compare these projections of geographic range shifts to those generated via population viability assessments.

• Sustainable energy systems modelling - deployment scenarios and energy mix options.

• Climate change impacts on Adelaide's biodiversity (e.g., analysis of DEH biosurvey data, computational modelling of landscape and community change)

• Development of numerical simulation models for wildlife management and conservation recovery programmes

• Statistical/simulation modelling of long-term time series databases

Publications

BOOKS

Sodhi, N.S., Brook, B.W. & Bradshaw, C.J.A. (2007) Tropical Conservation Biology. Blackwell Science, Oxford, UK. ISBN 978-1-4051-5073-6.336, 344 p.

 Sodhi, N.S. & Brook, B.W. (2006) Southeast Asian Biodiversity in Crisis. Tropical Biology Series, Cambridge University Press, London, UK. ISBN 978-0-521-83930-3, 212 p.

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30 SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

(email: barry.brook@adelaide.edu.au for a PDF reprint; for a full PDF list of >150 publications and an Endnote Library, see bottom of page)

1.   Roberts, R.G. & Brook, B.W. (2010) And then there were none? Science, 327, 420-422. doi: 10.1126/science.1185517

2.   Brook, B.W. (2009) Global warming tugs at trophic interactions.Journal of Animal Ecology, 78, 1-3. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2656.2008.01490.x

4.   Brook, B.W., Akçakaya, H.R., Keith, D.A., Mace, G.M., Pearson, R.G. & Araújo, M.B. (2009) Integrating bioclimate with population models to improve forecasts of species extinctions under climate change. Biology Letters doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2009.0480

5.   Anderson, B.J., Akçakaya, H.R., Araujo, M.B., Fordham, D.A., Martinez-Meyer, E., Thuiller, W. & Brook, B.W. (2009) Dynamics of range margins for metapopulations under climate change. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London – Series B, 276, 1415-1420. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2008.1681

6.    Traill, L.W., Whitehead, P.J. & Brook, B.W. (2009) How will climate change affect plant-herbivore interactions? A tropical waterbird case study. Emu – Austral Ornithology, 109, 126-134. doi: 10.1071/MU09003

7.   Brook, B.W. (2008) The allure of the few. PLoS Biology, 6, e127. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0060127

8.   Brook, B.W. (2008) Synergies between climate change, extinctions and invasive vertebrates. Wildlife Research, 35, 249-252. doi: 10.1071/WR07116

9.   Brook, B.W., Sodhi, N.S. & Bradshaw, C.J.A. (2008) Synergies among extinction drivers under global change. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 23, 453-460. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2008.03.011

10.   Sodhi, N.S., Bickford, D., Diesmos, A.C., Lee, T.M., Koh, L.P., Brook, B.W., Sekercioglu, C.H. & Bradshaw, C.J.A. (2008) Measuring the meltdown: drivers of global amphibian extinction and decline. PLoS One, 3, e1636. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0001636

11.    Brook, B.W., Rowley, N., & Flannery, T.F. (2007) Kyoto: doing our best is no longer enough. Nature, 450, 478. doi: 10.1038/450478d

12.  Brook, B. W., Bowman, D.M.J.S., Burney, D.A., Flannery, T.F., Gagan, M.K., Gillespie, R., Johnson, C.N., Kershaw, A.P., Magee, J.W., Martin, P.S., Miller, G.H., Peiser, B., & Roberts, R.G. (2007) Would the Australian megafauna have become extinct if humans had never colonised the continent? Quaternary Science Reviews, 26, 560-564. doi: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2006.10.008

13.  Bradshaw, C.J.A., Sodhi, N.S., Peh, K.S.-H., & Brook, B.W. (2007) Global evidence that deforestation amplifies flood risk and severity in the developing world. Global Change Biology, 13, 2379-2395. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2007.01446.x

14.  Elliott, L.P. & Brook, B.W. (2007) Revisiting Chamberlin: multiple working hypotheses for the 21st century. BioScience, 57, 608-614. doi: 10.1641/B570708

15.  Garnett, S.T. & Brook, B.W. (2007) Modelling to forestall extinction of Australian tropical birds. Journal of Ornithology, 148, S311-S320. doi: 10.1007/s10336-007-0202-9

16.  Traill, L.W., Bradshaw, C.J.A., & Brook, B.W. (2007) Minimum viable population size: a meta-analysis of 30 years of published estimates. Biological Conservation, 139, 159-166, doi: 10.1016/j.biocon.2007.06.011

17.  Brook, B.W. & Sodhi, N.S. (2006) Rarity bites. Nature, 444, 555-557. doi: 10.1038/444555a

18.  Brook, B.W. & Bradshaw, C.J.A. (2006) Strength of evidence for density dependence in abundance time series of 1198 species. Ecology, 87, 1445-1451. doi: 10.1890/0012-9658(2006)87[1445:SOEFDD]2.0.CO;2

18.  Brook, B.W. & Johnson, C.N. (2006) Selective hunting of juveniles as a cause of the imperceptible overkill of the Australian Pleistocene megafauna. Alcheringa Special Issue, 1, 39-48. doi: 10.1080/03115510608619573

19.  Brook, B.W., Bradshaw, C.J.A., & Traill, L.W. (2006) Minimum viable populations and global extinction risk are unrelated. Ecology Letters, 9, 375-382. doi: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2006.00883.x

20.  Brook, B.W., Bradshaw, C.J.A., Koh, L.P., & Sodhi, N.S. (2006) Momentum drives the crash: mass extinction in the tropics. Biotropica, 38, 302-305. doi: 10.1111/j.1744-7429.2006.00141.x

21.  Brook, B.W. & Bowman, D.M.J.S. (2005) One equation fits overkill: why allometry underpins both prehistoric and modern body size-biased extinctions. Population Ecology, 42, 147-151. doi: 10.1007/s10144-005-0213-4

22.  Brook, B.W. & Whitehead, P.J. (2005) Sustainable harvest regimes for magpie geese (Anseranas semipalmata) under spatial and temporal heterogeneity. Wildlife Research, 32, 459-464. doi: 10.1071/WR02104

23.  Brook, B.W. (2004) Australasian bird invasions: accidents of history? Ornithological Science, 3, 33-42. doi: 10.2326/osj.3.33

24.  Brook, B.W. & Bowman, D.M.J.S. (2004) The uncertain blitzkrieg of Pleistocene megafauna. Journal of Biogeography, 31, 517-523. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2699.2003.01028.x

25.  Sodhi, N.S., Koh, L.P., Brook, B.W., & Ng, P.K.L. (2004) Southeast Asian biodiversity: an impending disaster. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 19, 654-660. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2004.09.006

26.  Spielman, D., Brook, B.W., & Frankham, R. (2004) Most species are not driven to extinction before genetic factors impact them. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 101, 15261-15264. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0403809101

27.  Brook, B.W., Sodhi, N.S., & Ng, P.K.L. (2003) Catastrophic extinctions follow deforestation in Singapore. Nature, 424, 420-423. doi: 10.1038/nature01795

28.  Brook, B.W. & Bowman, D.M.J.S. (2002) Explaining the Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions: Models, chronologies, and assumptions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 99, 14624-14627. doi: 10.1073/pnas.232126899

29.  Brook, B.W., Tonkyn, D.W., O'Grady, J.J., & Frankham, R. (2002) Contribution of inbreeding to extinction risk in threatened species. Conservation Ecology, 6, 16. [online] URL: http://www.consecol.org/vol6/iss1/art16

30.  Brook, B.W., O'Grady, J.J., Chapman, A.P., Burgman, M.A., Akçakaya, H.R., & Frankham, R. (2000) Predictive accuracy of population viability analysis in conservation biology. Nature, 404, 385-387. doi: 10.1038/35006050

Professional Associations

Executive

• Science Council for Global Initiatives [founding member] www.thesciencecouncil.com
• Premier's Climate Change Council [ex-officio member] www.climatechange.sa.gov.au/news/news_8.htm
• Premier's Science and Research Council www.innovation.sa.gov.au/psrc/about_the_council
• Australian Research Council College of Experts Member, Biological Sciences & Biotechnology Panel www.arc.gov.au/about_arc/CoE_BSB.htm
• Sea Level Rise Advisory Committee, Coastal Protection Board of SA www.environment.sa.gov.au/coasts

Editorial Board/Panel

• Faculty of 1000 Biology [Theoretical Ecology section] (2005-present) www.f1000biology.com
• Biological Conservation (2009-present) www.elsevier.com/locate/biocon 
• Ecological Research (2004-present) www.springer.com/life+sci/ecology/journal/11284
• Raffles Bulletin of Zoology (2003-present) rmbr.nus.edu.sg/rbz/

Professional Societies

• Fellow of the Royal Society of South Australia www.adelaide.edu.au/rssa/
• Society for Conservation Biology www.conbio.org

Files

• Brook full publication list (updated October 2009) - BWBrook_Pub_List_Oct09.pdf [282.7K] (application/pdf)
• Endnote XI Library: Barry Brook's publications to Oct 2009 - BWBrook_Publications_Oct2009.enl [228.9K] (text/plain)
• 10 steps to kicking the CO2 habit - Professor Brook's lift-out poster in The Advertiser, 5 June 2008 - Brook_10_ways_to_kick_carbon_habit_Advertiser_World_Env_Day08.pdf [2.3MB] (application/pdf)

Expertise for Media Contact

Categories	Environment, Sustainability
Expertise	climate change; global change biology; ecology; tropical biology; extinction; habitat loss; invasive species; palaeontology; modelling; conservation biology; endangered species; climate policy; sustainability; conservation genetics
Notes	B.Sc. (Hons I), Ph.D., Macquarie University 2007: Cosmos Bright Sparks Award: One of the top 10 young scientists in Australia 2007: H.G. Andrewartha Medal: Royal Society of SA. 2006: Fenner Medal: Australian Academy of Science. 2006: Edgeworth David Medal: Royal Society of NSW. 2006: Who's Who in Australia? 2005: 2000 Outstanding Scientists of the 21st Century
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Entry last updated: Sunday, 7 Feb 2010