The Ecological Society of Australia congratulates Dr Heather Neilly on being awarded the 2021 Wiley Next Generation Ecologist Award. Dr Neilly is a postdoctoral researcher with the Australian Landscape Trust.

“This kind of opportunity is unapparelled for an early career researcher.”

As a terrestrial ecologist, Dr Neilly’s work has focused on how disturbances alter vegetation structure and affects fauna.

“Human land-use impacts have drastically altered natural disturbance regimes,” said Dr Neilly.

Natural fire disturbance patterns have been modified through fire suppression, increasing fire frequency and intensity, and changes to grazing pressures such as the introduction of herbivores like cattle, sheep and goats, or increasing abundance of herbivores due to the removal of a predator.

“The manipulation of fire and grazing as a restoration tool has implications for the structure of vegetation and for the animals that rely on that structure to find food, shelter and thermoregulate,” said Dr Neilly.

With the added impacts of climate change, such as more frequent fires and extreme heat events, animals will increasingly require thermal refuges.

However, there is uncertainty about how best to manage prescribed fire and grazing to maximise outcomes for biodiversity. Further, the creation or maintenance of thermal refuges for animals is not usually considered.

To address this knowledge gap, Dr Neilly and her colleagues are running a project to identify how spinifex (and other features) perform as a thermal refuge for small reptiles and mammals under different fire and grazing treatments in a semi-arid mallee woodland.

This project will provide clear direction to land managers about how to use disturbance as a tool to facilitate functioning and resilient ecosystems.

“It will indicate the best way to implement disturbance regimes to ensure that thermal refuges are maintained or even increased to help mitigate the impacts of climate change on small reptiles and mammals,” said Dr Neilly.

The project is a collaboration between Australian Landscape Trust, the South Australian Department of Environment and Water and Dr Eric Nordberg at The University of New England.

“Building partnerships like this is integral to making real changes,” said Dr Neilly.

“Using science to inform land management is frequently the goal of ecologists but there is often a disconnect between scientists and the end user. Working with these organisations is essential to being able to implement effective changes across the vast scales that we’re working across.”

“It can be challenging, and in some instances managing for biodiversity is sometimes seen as being as conflict with other land uses. However, when we all realise that we are working towards the same outcomes and goals it is really satisfying.”

For example, Dr Neilly’s PhD research tested the effect of four different cattle grazing strategies on fauna communities at a 20-year grazing trial in a tropical savanna. The response of fauna was complex and nuanced but overall, the most conservatively stocked treatment was best for biodiversity as well as being the most profitable over the long-term. She found that profitable and economically sustainable red meat production and biodiversity conservation on rangelands are not necessarily opposing goals.

Dr Neilly will present a plenary on her research at the Ecological Society of Australia annual conference in November.

“The opportunity to present a plenary at the primary ecological conference in Australia…is unapparelled for an early career researcher,” said Dr Neilly.

“Not only is there prestige associated with such an address, but it is a rare opportunity to communicate with a large number of ecologists across multiple disciplines.”

The funding that Dr Neilly will receive as part of the Wiley Next Generation Ecologist Award will be used to purchase an iButton system to measure the thermal properties of refuges.

This award is presented in partnership with our publishing partners, Wiley Publishing.