Dr Bayden Russell

Telephone	+61 8 8303 6587
Position	Research Associate
Email	bayden.russell@adelaide.edu.au
Fax	+61 8 8303 6224
Building	Darling
Floor/Room	1 18
Campus	North Terrace
Org Unit	Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (Sch Earth & Environ Sci)

To link to this page, please use the following URL:
http://www.adelaide.edu.au/directory/bayden.russell

Biography/ Background

Global climate change is inevitable. Even if we maintain CO2 emissions at current levels (an unlikely scenario!) CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere will increase by over 50 % in coming years. Although there is an increasing body of information about the effects of climate change in tropical systems, the impacts will be greater in colder waters (i.e. southern Australia). Furthermore, human driven climate change will not occur in isolation of local disturbances, but will probably exacerbate them. I am currently investigating the combined effects of global (i.e. climate change) and local (e.g. elevated nutrients) disturbances in South Australian waters. Information from this research is directly applicable to policies of government agencies (e.g. Department for Environment and Heritage). For example, identifying the effects of climate change on marine communities will aid in decisions about the placement of Marine Protected Areas, ensuring the best possible outcomes from these areas in the future.

My past (and ongoing) research investigated the role of bottom-up processes (i.e. elevated nutrients) in South Australian waters. It seems that the waters of South Australia are generally quite oligotrophic (nutrient poor), and that small increases in nutrient levels can have disproportionately large effects on habitats. If there is a substantial amount of nutrient run-off from the land (e.g. urban catchments), it is likely that marine habitats will be unhealthy. Therefore, in collaboration with Department for Environment and Heritage (DEH), I am assessing whether type of land use (e.g. urban, agricultural, national park), and the associated nutrient run-off, should be part of the information used for decisions about the placement of Marine Protected Areas.

Research Interests

Research Funding

2008: ARC Linkage ($371,112)

2007: Wildlife Conservation Fund South Australia ($11,000)

2006: Mark Mitchell Foundation - Tower Trust ($6,071)

2006: Field Naturalists of South Australia ($1,500)

2004: The Nature Foundation of South Australia ($1,500)

2004: Wildlife Conservation Fund South Australia ($3,830)

2003: Wildlife Conservation Fund South Australia ($3,250)

2003: The Mark Mitchell Foundation - Tower Trust ($915)

Publications

Connell SD, Russell BD, Turner DJ, Shepherd SA, Kildea T, Miller D, Airoldi L, Cheshire A. (2008) Recovering a lost baseline: missing kelp forests from a metropolitan coast. Marine Ecology Progress Series (in press).

Russell BD and Connell SD (2007) Response of grazers to sudden nutrient pulses in oligotrophic v. eutrophic conditions. Marine Ecology Progress Series 349:73-80.

Russell BD (2007) Effects of canopy-mediated abrasion and water flow on the early colonisation of turf-forming algae. Marine and Freshwater Research 58:657-665

Russell BD, Gillanders BM, Connell SD (2005) Proximity and size of neighbouring habitat affects invertebrate diversity. Marine Ecology Progress Series 296:30-38

Russell BD, Elsdon TE, Gillanders BM, Connell SD (2005) Nutrients increase epiphyte loads: broad scale observations and an experimental assessment. Marine Biology 147:551-558

Russell BD, Connell SD (2005) A novel interaction between nutrients and grazers alters relative dominance of marine habitats. Marine Ecology Progress Series 289:5-11

Skilleter GA, Russell BD, Degnan BM, Garson MJ (2005) Living in a potentially toxic environment: comparisons of endofauna in two congeneric sponges from the Great Barrier Reef. Marine Ecology Progress Series 304:67-75

Russell BD, Degnan BM, Garson MJ and Skilleter GA (2003) Distribution of a nematocyst-bearing sponge in relation to potential coral donors. Coral Reefs 22:11-16

Green KM, Russell BD, Clark RJ, Jones MK, Garson MJ, Skilleter GA and Degnan BM (2002) A sponge allelochemical induces ascidian settlement but inhibits metamorphosis. Marine Biology 140:355-363

Expertise for Media Contact

Categories	Environment, Beach, reef and marine issues
Expertise	Climate Change; Marine Ecology; Marine Biology; Marine Biodiversity; Ecology; Temperate Reef; Kelp Forests; Nutrient; Human Impact; Marine Protected Area; Global Warming; Ocean Acidification
Mobile	0404845919

Entry last updated: Sunday, 16 Nov 2008