Dr Damien Fordham is Postdoctoral Research Fellow working in the Environment Institute at the University of Adelaide. Damien’s research interests are diverse, and include ecological modelling, climate science, population ecology, wildlife management, conservation planning, invasive ecology and indigenous land management. His particular speciality is developing complex population models that integrate multiple human impacts to aid management and guide recovery efforts for threatened species.
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.
PhD Students
Miss Guanfang Su,(PHD commenced 2010) Supervisors Brook B.W., Bradhsaw, C.J.A. & Fordham D.A Model-averaged global climate model predictions of sea surface temperature and implications for Australian marine life.
Miss Jessica Wadley (PhD commenced 2010) Supervisors: Austin J., Fordham D.A. & Taggart, D. Phylogeography and conservation genetics of Australian marsupials.
Mr Michael Stead (PhD commenced 2009) Supervisors: Brook B.W., Bradshaw C.J.S. and Fordham D.A. Predicting biodiversity responses to climate change.
Mr Bert Harris. (PhD, commenced 2008). Supervisors: Brook B.W., Sodhi, N.S. & Fordham, D.A. Synergistic effects of climate change and habitat loss on the range and abundance of birds in Southern Australia and Southeast Asia.
Miss Deb Bower (PhD, commenced 2006) Supervisors: Georges, A., Hutchinson, M. & Fordham, D.A. Conservation biology and management of the broad-shelled turtle Chelodina expansa
Research Interests
Global extinction rates have soared over the past century, due predominantly to the resource demands of a burgeoning human population. Shifting land-use and wildlife exploitation, and elevated rates of competition and predation by invasive organisms, have reduced the range and abundance of many species, directly causing severe biodiversity loss at local scales, and indirectly limiting the scope for sufficient ecological and evolutionary adaptation to future environmental change. Managing these human-mediated impacts continues to be a clear focus for conservation biology, but with an increasing acknowledgement that extinction drivers are usually interacting and self-reinforcing. Understanding how biodiversity will respond to future human impacts requires innovative new approaches which explicitly couple ecological and climatic-geophysical processes. Delivering the predictive tools required to anticipate ecological responses to climate change in the context of other human-driven threatening processes is a central theme of my research. Present projects include, modelling the impact of:
predation by feral pigs, exploitation and climate change on the persistence of freshwater turtles in Northern Australia
climate and land-use change on biodiversity in South Australia
climate change and species interactions on the range and abundance of Iberian lynx and lagomorphs in Europe
climate change, exploitation and disease outbreaks on green and black lip abalone stocks in Southern Australia
habitat degradation, climate change and sea-level rise on orang-utan abundance in Sabah, Malaysia; and
climate change and habitat fragmentation on the pygmy blue tongue lizard.
climate and land use change on the range dynamics of invasive vertebrates
Other ongoing projects include:
Developing techniques to better deal with many of the uncertainties associated with modelling future species range shifts in response to projected global climate change.
The influence of climatic and environmental factors on lizard recruitment, survival and abundance in arid Australia.
Feral pig management in Northern tropical Australia.
Science education, training and employment opportunities in the development of sustainable wildlife enterprises in remote Indigenous communities.
Research Funding
Ongoing grants:
2010-2013 Fordham and Brook. Range dynamics and demographics of spatially structured populations under global change. Australian Research Council Discovery Project ($390 000 Aus)
2009-2012 Brook, Fordham, Araújo, and Foulkes. Planning for a transformed future: Modelling synergistic climate change and land use impacts on biodiversity. Australian Research Council Linkage Project ($636 000 Aus)
2009-2011 Corey and Fordham. Conserving turtles in Arnhem Land by managing an exotic species. Australian Government Caring for our Country ($134 637 Aus)
Postdoctoral Research Staff
Dr Michael Watts: Developing novel model architectures to better predict biodiversity responses to climate and land-use change.
Dr Stephen Gregory: Range dynamics and demographics of spatially structured populations under global change
Dr Donna Harris: Population dynamics and persistence of macropods in rapidly changing landscapes
Dr Steve Delean: Modelling synergistic climate change and land use impacts on biodiversity (to start October 2010)
Publications
Fordham DA, Sinclair RG, Peacock DE, Mutze GJ, Cassey P,
Kovaliski J, Capucci L, Brook BW. (2012) European rabbit survival and
recruitment are linked to epidemiological and environmental conditions
in their exotic range. Austral Ecology. Accepted
Fordham DA ,Akçakaya HR, Araújo MB et al. (2012) Plant
extinction risk under climate change: are forecast range shifts alone a good indicator of species vulnerability to global warming? Global
Change Biology. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02614.x
Harris JBC, Scheffers BR, Leighton R, Wanger TC, Sodhi NS, Fordham DA and Brook BW (2012) Conserving threatened birds under the United States Endangered Species Act. Conservation Letters. doi: 10.1111/j.1755-263X.2011.00205.x
Read JL, Kovack K-J, Brook BW and Fordham DA. (2012) Booming during a bust. Asynchronous populations responses of arid zone lizards to climate variables. Acta Oecologia. doi:10.1016/j.actao.2011.09.006
Bradshaw CJA, McMahon CR, Miller PS, Lacy RC, Watts MJ, Verant ML, Pollack JP, Fordham DA,
Prowse TA and Brook BW (2012) Novel coupling of individual-based
epidemiological and demographic models predicts realistic dynamics of
tuberculosis in alien buffalo. Journal of Applied Ecology. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2664.2011.02081.x
Fordham DA, Wigley TML, Watts MJ, Brook BW (2012) Strengthening forecasts
of climate change impacts with multi-model ensemble averaged
projections using MAGICC/SCENGEN 5.3. Ecography. 35, 4-8.
Fordham DA, Wigley TML and Brook BW (2011) Multi-model climate projections for biodiversity risk assessments. Ecological Applications. 21, 3317–3331.
Mellin C, Russell BR, Connell SD, Brook BW & Fordham DA (2011) Geographic range determinants of two commercially important marine molluscs. Diversity and Distributions. 18, 133-146
Watts MJ, Li Y, Russel BD, Mellin C, Connell SD, and Fordham DA (2011) A novel method for mapping reefs and subtidal rocky habitats using artificial neural networks. Ecological Modelling. 222, 2606-2614
Harris JBC, Sekercioglu CH, Sodhi NS, Fordham DA, Paton DC, and Brook BW (2011) The tropical frontier in avian climate impact research. Ibis. 153, 877-882
Firth RS, Brook BW, Woinarski JCZ and Fordham DA. (2010) Decline and likely extinction of a northern Australian native rodent, the brush-tailed rabbit-rat Conilurus penicillatus. Biological Conservation. 143, 1193-1201
Fordham DA & Brook BW (2010) Why tropical island endemics are
acutely susceptible to global change. Biodiversity and Conservation. 19, 329-342
Fordham DA, Georges A, Brook BW (2009) Experimental evidence for density dependent responses to mortality of snake-necked turtles. Oecologia. 159, 271-278
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
Fordham DA, Georges A, Brook BW (2008) Indigenous harvest, exotic pig predation and local persistence of a long-lived vertebrate: managing a tropical freshwater turtle for sustainability and conservation. Journal of Applied Ecology 45, 52-62.
Fordham DA, Georges A, Brook BW (2007) Demographic response of snake-necked turtles correlates with indigenous harvest and feral pig predation in tropical northern Australia. Journal of Animal Ecology 76, 1231-1243.
Fordham DA, Georges A, Corey B (2007) Optimal conditions for egg storage,incubation and post-hatching growth for the freshwater turtle, Chelodina rugosa: Science in support of an indigenous enterprise. Aquaculture 270, 105-114.
Fordham DA, Georges A, Corey B (2006) Compensation for inundation-induced embryonic diapause in a freshwater turtle: Achieving predictability in the face of environmental stochasticity. Functional Ecology 20, 670-677.
Fordham DA, Georges A, Corey B, Brook BW (2006) Feral pig predation threatens the indigenous harvest and local persistence of snake-necked turtles in northern Australia. Biological Conservation 133, 379-388.
Submitted
Russell BR, Connell SD,Mellin C, Brook BW, Burnell OW & Fordham DA Predicting the distribution of commercially viable invertebrate stocks under future climate. Fish and Fisheries
Watts MJ, Fordham DA, Akcakaya H.R., Aiello-Lammens M and Brook BW Tracking range margin changes using geographical centroids of metapopulations weighted by population size and density. Methods in Ecology and Evolution
Harris JBC, Fordham DA et al. Managing the long-term persistence of a rare cockatoo under climate change. Journal of Applied Ecology
Fordham DA, Watts MJ, Delean S, Brook BW, Heard LMB and Bull CM. Managed relocation as an adaptation strategy for mitigating climate change threats to the persistence of an endangered lizard. Global Change Biology
Book Chapters
Fordham DA, Akçakaya HR, Araujo M and Brook BW (2011) Modelling range shifts for invasive vertebrates in response to climate change. In Wildlife Conservation in a Changing Climate. Eds. Brodie J, Post E, Doak D, University of Chicago Press. In press
Fordham DA and Brook BW (2010) Why tropical island endemics are acutely susceptible to global change. Tropical Islands Biodiversity Crisis: The Indo-west Pacific. Eds. Lane DJW Springer Verlag pp 17-30
Other
Fordham A, Fogerty B, Corey B and Fordham D. (2010) Knowledge foundations for the development of sustainable wildlife enterprises in remote indigenous communities of Australia. Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research Report. http://www.anu.edu.au/caepr/Publications/WP/2010WP62.php
Fordham A, Fogerty B, and Fordham D. (2010) The viability of wildlife enterprises in remote Indigenous communities of
Australia: A case study. Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research Report. http://www.anu.edu.au/caepr/Publications/WP/2010WP63.php
Fordham DA (2007) Population regulation in snake-necked turtles in northern tropical Australia: modelling turtle population dynamics in support of Aboriginal harvests PhD. University of Canberra, Canberra
Fordham D, Hall R, Georges A (2004) Aboriginal harvest of long-necked turtles in Arnhem Land, Australia. Turtle and Tortoise Newsletter, 7, 20-21
Professional Associations
Australasian Wildlife Management Society http://www.awms.org.nz
Ecological Society of Australia http://www.ecolsoc.org.au
Society for Conservation Biology http://www.conbio.org
IUCN Turtle and Tortoise Specialist Group http://www.iucn-tftsg.org
Entry last updated: Thursday, 12 Jan 2012
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