• Home
  • Publications
    • Automated monitoring
    • Blue carbon
    • Coastal wetlands
    • Ecosystem resilience
    • Restoration ecology
    • Isotope ecology
    • Coral reefs
    • Oyster reefs
  • Team
  • Opportunities
  • News & Blog
  • Contact

Resilience and connectivity

Videography by Bodhi Connolly & Andrew Olds

Ecosystems offer many services that humans depend on, but unfortunately these same ecosystems are damaged by some of our own actions. We ask the question: what we can do to build the resilience of ecosystems? 

First we need to understand what confers resilience on ecosystems resilient. We’re specifically interested in how connectivity among different components of ecosystems influences resilience. We have a series of projects from innovative, small-scale lab experiments to field tests of resilience of seagrass meadows and coral reefs using genetics, underwater survey techniques and mathematical network analysis.

Collaborators

These projects are collaborative with students and many colleagues, including: Chris Brown (GU), Emma Jackson (CQU), Gary Kendrick (UWA), Paul Maxwell (Healthy Land & Water), Ivan Nagelkerken (U Adel), Andrew Olds (USC/GU), David Schoeman (USC), Thomas Schlacher (USC), Marcus Sheaves (JCU), Craig Sherman (Deakin).
Key papers:
Prioritizing seascape connectivity in conservation network analysis
Engelhard SL ... Connolly RM  2017. Journal Applied Ecology

Identifying habitats at risk: simple models can reveal complex ecosystem dynamics
Maxwell PS, ... Connolly RM  2015. Ecological Applications

Phenotypic plasticity promotes persistence following severe events: physiological and morphological responses of seagrass to flooding
Maxwell PS, ... Connolly RM ... et al. 2014. Journal of Ecology

Synergistic effects of reserves and connectivity on ecological resilience
Olds AD, Pitt KA, Maxwell PS, Connolly RM 2012. Journal Applied Ecology

Combining stable isotope enrichment, compartmental modelling and ecological network analysis for quantitative measurement of food web dynamics

Lee KM, Lee SY, Connolly RM  2011. Methods in Ecology and Evolution

Picture
© 2022 Rod Connolly
Home                     Contact