Staff | Current Students

Environmental Science - staff research interests

Associate Professor John Bailey

The environmental impact assessment of government policies as an extension of the EIA of development projects and plans. Environmental policy and law. Relating legal instruments and the legal process to the science of environmental management.

Dr Catherine Baudains

Environmental education and behavioural change

Professor Lynnath Beckley

Biological oceanography (especially ichthyoplankton), fisheries biology, coastal zone management, assessment of marine resource use, marine protected areas and marine ecology.

Professor Richard Bell

Land rehabilitation; plant nutrition, soil fertility and nutrient cycling; land and catchment management, rehabilitation and restoration of remnant vegetation.

Dr Jane Chambers

Wetland ecology and rehabilitation: aquatic plants, wetland creation, nutrient dynamics, wetland management

Professor Neal Enright

Ecology and management of fire-prone ecosystems; Restoration of plant communities to post-mined landscapes. High biodiversity shrublands of SW Australia. Ecophysiology, molecular ecology and simulation modeling. Population ecology of conifers and palms.

Dr Joe Fontaine

My research interests lie in the investigation of the effects of disturbance, primarily fire and urbanisation, on a range of taxa including both plants and animals. In general I use field-based ecological data to address these questions. Much of my work is in collaboration with other members of the Terrestrial Ecology Research Group (Prof Neal Enright, Dr Phil Ladd, Dr Jane Chambers, and others).

Research effort for me is driven by posing questions that are both management relevant and of ecological interest. Application of science to real-world management issues is extremely important and we must strive to do this as we also further our understanding of how ecosystems function in response to a range of disturbances.

Dr Halina Kobryn

Applications of geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing in environmental science and natural resource management. Environmental monitoring, especially change detection techniques using GIS and remote sensing. Land use changes and their effects on properties of stormwater. Shore and coastal erosion.

Dr Philip Ladd

Plant community ecology, population biology and pollination ecology; palaeobotany - mainly palynology past vegetation history; paleaoclimates based on vegetation reconstruction

Professor Thomas Lyons

Air-surface interaction; applied boundary-layer meteorology, air pollution.

Dr Kuruvilla Mathew

Wastewater treatment, water pollution control, technologies for remote Aboriginal communities, appropriate technology, bacteriological testing of drinking water.

Associate Professor Susan Moore

Environmental policy; environmental decision-making, especially dispute resolution; public involvement in planning; social aspects of nature conservation; sense of place in agricultural landscapes; social aspects of salinity management; and using local knowledge in environmental management and visitor use of protected areas (natural area tourism).

Dr Angus Morrison-Saunders

The effectiveness of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). Specific interests include EIA audits, utility of environmental monitoring and management programmes, and the role of science in EIA.

Associate Professor Francis Murray

Air pollution effects on ecosystems and plants; environmental indicators; allergens in air.

Dr Jaya Nair

Drinking water Microbiology and water test kits ; Wastewater reuse ; On-site Wastewater Treatment ; Vermicomposting ; Pathogen inactivation during composting and Anaerobic digestion ; H2S method as an on-site test for microbial quality of drinking water ; Efficiency of silver oxide for disinfecting Legionella sp, E.coli and Salmonella typhimurium ; Evaluation of the microbial quality of rainwater stored in tanks ; Testing borewater using the H2S method ; Aquaponics as a method for treatment and reuse of domestic wastewater

Associate Professor David Newsome

Ecotourism embracing environmental impacts and sustainability of tourism in national parks and nature reserves; biological and physical impacts of recreation and nature based tourism; land management including pedology, land capability and geomorphology.

Dr Belinda Robson

Associate Professor Belinda Robson is a freshwater ecologist with particular interests in the sustainability of biodiversity in agricultural and conservation landscapes, especially freshwater ecosystems and riparian zones. Her current research focuses on refuges from disturbance for biodiversity in landscapes especially refuges from drought and anthropogenic refuges. She is also working on the resistance and resilience to climate change impacts of freshwater species and recovery pathways after extreme events: in particular drought and wildfire. She has published extensively on the restoration of freshwater ecosystems, including revegetation, re-snagging and environmental flow allocation.

Dr William Scott

Environmental modelling; computer-aided learning; groundwater hydrology. Bill Scott has put together a book that may help with data structures, modelling, or the generation of manuscripts. The book is active and can evolve and be revised by the reader; it starts at a lowest level and builds into mathematics. The book is written for use with the symbolic manipulator Maple® but could be useful in any scientific or lay context. Free supplimentary programs, data and software are available at Home Page.