Student Research Awards – Past Winners

Chaminda Alahakoon (PhD at Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University) - Influence of microhabitat factors on seedling recruitment in the Cumberland Plain woodland.

Genavieve Jurd (Master of Research - Environmental Science at University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ)) - Fire intensity versus time-since fire effects on soil microbial and plant community diversity and post-fire recovery of southern Jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) and Marri (Corymbia calophylla) forests of south-west Western Australia.

Oakleigh Wilson (PhD at University of the Sunshine Coast) - From Noise to Normal: Accounting for Device, Orientation, and Individual Variation in Kangaroo Accelerometer Data.

Jack Williams (Bachelor of Science (Honours) at Monash University) - Floral Rivalries: Exploring the Impact of European Honeybee Competition on Australian Native Bee Foraging.

Charlotte Billinghurst (Bachelor of Science (Honours) at University of New South Wales, Sydney (UNSW Sydney)) - Heavy metal hyperaccumulators, who does it best? An insight into which Australian plants enhance mine remediation efforts.

Monique Webb (PhD at University of Sydney) - Impact of decreased salinity on the barrens forming sea urchin Centrostephanus rodgersii in context with freshening events from flooding.

Imogen Dumville (PhD at University of the Sunshine Coast) - Untangling the contributing factors of Chlamydial disease in koala using populations with differing pathogen prevalence.

Andrea Bueno Pedraz (PhD at La Trobe University) - Identifying predictors of reproductive success in endangered sandhill dunnarts.

Zoe Webber (PhD - Environmental Science at Curtin University) - The socio-ecological impacts of prescribed burning and cultural burning practices in the south-west of Australia.

James Douch (PhD at Macquarie University) - Evolution in the Phylum Onychophora.

Molly-Mae Baker (PhD at UWA) - Identifying the fine-scale habitats that facilitate successful coral recruitment across Ningaloo Reef

Nora Campbell (PhD at UNSW) - The psychological and social impacts of culling on a highly social, iconic andwidespread Australian marsupial, the eastern grey kangaroo.

Aaranya Gayathri Sekaran (PhD at WSU) - The Future of Australia’s Arid Zone with Mulga

Christina Gee (Master of Environment at ANU) - Detecting behavioural and other trait differences between reintroduced eastern quoll populations

Natalie Grassi (PhD at Murdoch) – Can revegetation support the same faunal assemblages as remnant habitat?

Amanda Hewes (PhD at University of Washington) - Floral nectar chemistry and its role in honeyeater-plant interactions

Charlotte Patterson (PhD at QUT) - The Future Habitat Suitability of Antarctica’s Ice-Free Landscapes

Paola Raupp (PhD at WSU) – Native understorey restoration: the role of soil properties, plant diversity, and water availability in exotic invasion resistance

Corinne Schlierenzauer (PhD at QUT) - Unravelling the role of tree density and small-scale topographical features when mapping native and invasive grass species within endangered grassy woodlands

Camille Sicangco (PhD at WSU) - Incorporating physiological temperature responses in a model of Australian vegetation to improve predictions of tree growth under warming

Lillian Stewart (PhD at UTAS) - Fishy business - Microplastics in wild-caught Fish in Tasmania

Stan Wawrzyczek (PhD at La Trobe) - Oily pollen and fruity-scented flowers: are the unusual floral traits of Banksia attenuata (Proteaceae) adaptations to pollination by beetles?

Philippa Bell (PhD at the University of Melbourne) - Building streetscape habitat to enrich biodiversity

Lorenzo Bertola (PhD at James Cook University) - Evolutionary and Conservation Genomics of the Kuranda Treefrog (Litoria myola)

Eli Bieri (Masters at University of NSW and the Australian Museum) - Frogs, Fires, & Fungus: Interacting Threats to Biodiversity in a Changing World

Jessi Drew-Smythe (Bachelor of Science (Hons) at University of Technology Sydney) - Plant-pollinator interactions and diversity within mine site rehabilitation areas of the Illawarra region, NSW.

Jess Evans (Bachelor of Science (Honours) at University of Sunshine Coast)

Stephen Molan (PhD at Queensland University of Technology) - Measuring ecological responses to prescribed burns using acoustic monitoring and remote sensing

Jaelen Myers (PhD at James Cook University) - Investigating fine-scale habitat use of rays in high-value intertidal nurseries

Inna Osmolovsky (PhD at University of NSW) - The role of belowground competition in enabling latitudinal shift in Australian plants

Michelle Spadavecchia (Master of Philosophy at Western Sydney University) - Urbanization effects on Endemic Dung Beetle Species in Western Sydney

Deanne Trewartha (PhD at Flinders University) - Heat, water and lizards- are the responses of different source populations important in a translocation?

Celina Burkholz (PhD at the University of Western Australia) - Future-proofing declining kelp forests with Green Gravel

Melissa Christi (Bachelor of Environmental Science with Honours at Griffith University) - Investigating links between climate change and finch numbers at Bowra Wildlife Sanctuary over eight years

Lisa Danzey (Bachelor of Science with Honours at University of Technology Sydney) - The relationship between genetic diversity and thermal tolerance breadth of alpine plants

Jaclyn Harris (PhD at Monash University) - Are artificial shelter sites a beneficial management strategy for reptiles after a prescribed burn?

Shae Jones (PhD at the University of Wollongong) - Hidden facilitators: Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi's role in Grassland survival under extreme climate stress

Katrina Kaposi (PhD at James Cook University) - Bleaching tolerance and recovery of Anemonia sp. to thermal and saline stress

Shawn Scott (PhD at the University of South Australia) - Fire and health of herpetofauna in the Adelaide Mount Lofty Ranges, South Australia

Jarrod Sopniewski (PhD at the University of Western Australia) - Exploring climate adaptation in Litoria rubella, one of Australia’s most climate generalist frog species

Courtney Taylor (Bachelor of Science with Honours at La Trobe University) - Long-term changes in the vegetation of endangered semi-arid native grasslands

Mateo Carol Villavedra (Masters of Research at Macquarie University) - Identifying adaptation to climate change in the butterfly, Tisiphone abeona, through morphology and landscape genetics

Taylor Whitman (PhD at James Cook University) - Quantifying the role of grazing fishes on the growth and survival of coral recruits deployed across a hydrodynamic gradient