Seminar Series

The School of Marine and Tropical Biology holds a seminar series given by staff, students, and visitors to the school, at James Cook University. These seminars provide a key forum both for intellectual interaction as well as connecting with colleagues.

There are two main seminar series:

The Marine and Tropical Biology seminar in Townsville (Tuesdays at midday), and

The ‘TESS’ seminar in Cairns (Wednesdays at 4 PM).

The seminars are always videolinked to the other campus.

The MTB Seminar series in Townsville is a collaboration between several major Research Centres in Townsville:

The Centre for Tropical Biodiversity and Climate Change (CTBCC);
The Centre for Sustainable Tropical Fisheries and Aquaculture (CSTFA);
The Centre for Tropical Water & Aquatic Ecosystem Research (TropWATER); and
CSIRO/JCU's Tropical Landscape Joint Venture.

TESS is our nascent Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science at JCU-Cairns and is designed for EVERYONE interested in the terrestrial environment. Our weekly talks are great opportunity to meet and interact with your colleagues, and they are also video-linked to Townsville.

Contacts

For more information contact the seminar organisers:

Bill Laurance (Cairns)	Ben Phillips (Townsville)
Email: bill.laurance@jcu.edu.au	Email: ben.phillips1@jcu.edu.au

Latest Seminars 2013

TESS Seminar - Cairns	4pm Wednesday, 22^nd May 2013
*Dr Oscar Venter, ARC Postdoctoral Fellow Mapping conservation and habitat degradation at the planetary scale* Presented from: JCU Cairns A21.002, Videolink to Townsville Audiovisual Services Room 002

TESS Seminar - Cairns	15^th May 2013
*Professor William F. Laurance, Distinguished Research Professor & Australian Laureate The perils of roads in tropical frontiers* Watch the Video of this Seminar

Sizzle Seminar - Townsville	12noon Tuesday, 14^th May 2013
Professor Lucy Wyatt, Director of the Australian Coastal Ocean Radar Network (ACORN) Applications of HF radar to Marine Biology Presented from: JCU Townsville - DB23-038, Videolink to Cairns - E2.111.

TESS Seminar - Cairns	8^th May 2013
*Dr Justin Welbergen, Senior Research Fellow, JCU Centre for Tropical Biodiversity and Climate Change Research The impacts of extreme events on biodiversity – lessons from die-offs in flying foxes* Watch the Video of this Seminar

Sizzle Seminar - Townsville	7^th May 2013
Professor Rob Magrath, ANU Ecological information webs: alarm calls and interspecific eavesdropping

TESS Seminar - Cairns	1^st May 2013
*Dr David Gaveau, The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Bogor, Java, Indonesia Can logging and forest conservation be reconciled? The case of Borneo* Watch the Video of this Seminar

Sizzle Seminar - Townsville	30^th April 2013
Atte Moilanen, Conservation Biology Informatics Group (C-BIG), University of Helsinki. Target-based systematic conservation planning and alternative strategies for conservation

TESS Seminar - Cairns	24^th April 2013
Dr Carly Cook, Research Fellow University of Melbourne Does evidence contribute to environmental decisions? Watch the Video of this Seminar

Sizzle Seminar - Townsville	23^rd April 2013
Dr Bob O'Hara, Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BIK-F), Frankfurt, Germany Ecological Statistics: how to make the most of a typical mess.

TESS Seminar - Cairns	17^th April 2013
*Shawn Wilder, DECRA Fellow & Lecturer, University of Sydney Nutrition, mutualisms, and the invasion of imported red fire ants in the USA*

Sizzle Seminar - Townsville	16^th April 2013
Professor Craig Moritz, ARC Laureate Fellow Prevalence and relevance of deep phylogeographic structure in the tropics.

TESS Seminar - Cairns	10^th April 2013
*Damian Morrant, TESS & JCU School of Marine and Tropical Biology Land use by wild dogs in coastal lowlands of the Wet Tropics* Watch the Video of this Seminar

Sizzle Seminar - Townsville	9^th April 2013
Dr. Andrew Brooks, Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University Sediment budget modelling in the northern Great Barrier Reef, Australia; the critical importance of empirical data

TESS Seminar - Cairns	27^th March 2013
*Professor Rick Shine, Australian Laureate University of Sydney Invasive cane toads in Australia: the ecological and evolutionary impacts of a big frog in a strange land*

Sizzle Seminar - Townsville	26^th March 2013
Dr Anastasia Dalziell, The Australian National University Why lyrebirds mimic

TESS Seminar - Cairns	20^th March 2013
*Professor Pieter Zuidema, Wageningen University, Netherlands Global change and tropical forests: new approaches for new insights* Watch the Video of this Seminar

TESS Seminar - Cairns	13^th March 2013
William F. Laurance, TESS & Marine and Tropical Biology JCU The hottest of the biodiversity hotspots Watch the Video of this Seminar

Sizzle Seminar - Townsville	12^th March 2013
*Dr. Luis O. Tedeschi, Texas A&M University The Role of Models to Support Research in Animal Science: A Sustainable Perspective* Watch the Video of this Seminar

TESS Seminar - Cairns	6^th March 2013
Sean Ulm, Future Fellow, Deputy Director of TESS, JCU School of Arts and Social Sciences Culture, Climate, Change: The Wellesley Archipelago, Southern Gulf of Carpentaria Watch the Video of this Seminar

Sizzle Seminar - Townsville	5^th March 2013
Ben Phillips, Centre for Tropical Biodiversity and Climate Change, JCU Townsville The evolutionary ecology of range shift

TESS Seminar - Cairns	27^th February 2013
Ben Phillips, Centre for Tropical Biodiversity and Climate Change, JCU Townsville Fire and toads: models for management in northern Australia Watch the Video of this Seminar

Sizzle Seminar - Townsville	26^th February 2013
Dr Moran Segoli, CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences Ecohydrology in semi-arid landscapes: the effect of landscape patchiness along a rainfall gradient Watch the Video of this Seminar

Sizzle Seminar - Townsville	13^th February 2013
*Dr Corrie Moreau, Chicago Field Museum of natural History Ants, Plants, and Bacteria: A Tale of Evolutionary Diversification* Presented From: Townsville ATSIP Conference Room 026 and Video linked to: *Cairns A21.001*

Seminar Recordings 2012

Cairns - TESS Seminar	24^th October 2012
*Professor Richard J. Hobbs, School of Plant Biology, University of Western Australia Novel ecosystems, invasive species and restoration: a slippery slope or common ground?* Watch the Video of this Seminar

Cairns - TESS Seminar

17^th October 2012

Dr David P. Edwards, TESS & School of Marine and Tropical Biology, JCU Cairns

Biodiversity conservation, carbon restoration and carbon-friendly farming in the Tropical Andes
Watch the Video of this Seminar

Cairns - TESS Seminar

10^th October 2012

Dr Sean Sloan, James Cook University, Australia

Indonesia's moratorium on new forest licences: Farce or work-in-progress?

Watch the Video of this Seminar

Cairns - TESS Seminar

3^rd October 2012

Umesh Srinivasan, National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, India

Demographic responses of understorey birds to logging-induced habitat degradation

Watch the Video of this Seminar

Cairns - TESS Seminar

26^th September 2012

Dr Frederieke Kroon, Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences

Reducing land-based sources of pollution to the Great Barrier Reef

Watch the Video of this Seminar

Cairns - TESS Seminar

19^th September 2012

Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald, Distinguished Professor and Tropical Leader, Australian Laureate Fellow, Director of Language and Culture Research Centre, JCU-Cairns

Language, diversity and change: a view from north-west Amazonia

Watch the Video of this Seminar

Cairns - TESS Seminar

12^th September 2012

Dr Richard Fuller, University of Queensland & CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences Climate Adaptation Flagship

Dynamic conservation for a dynamic world

Watch the Video of this Seminar

Cairns - TESS Seminar

5^th September 2012

Dr Philip Shearman, Director, Centre for Remote Sensing, University of Papua New Guinea

Conservation Challenges in Papua New Guinea

Watch the Video of this Seminar

Cairns - TESS Seminar

29^th August 2012

Dr Paul Nelson, Earth & Environmental Science, Cairns JCU

Oil palm in Papua New Guinea: actual, ‘possible’ and ‘virtual’ expansion of the industry

Watch the Video of this Seminar

Cairns - TESS Seminar

22^nd August 2012

Dr Ainhoa Magrach, Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science (TESS) & School of Marine and Tropical Biology, JCU Cairns

The impacts of habitat fragmentation on plant-animal interactions

Watch the Video of this Seminar

Cairns - TESS Seminar

15^th August 2012

Professor David Greenwood, Brandon University, Canada

Leaf size tracks seasonal precipitation, not annual totals in Australian seasonal tropical forests

Watch the Video of this Seminar

Cairns - TESS Seminar

23^rd May 2012

Professor Marc Hockings, Director of Environmental Management, University of Queensland.

The State of the World’s Parks? Assessing the Effectiveness of Protected Areas

Watch the Video of this Seminar

Cairns - TESS Seminar

16^th May 2012

Prof. Jaboury Ghazoul, ETH-Zurich, Switzerland

The resilience and rescue of critically endangered plants

Watch the Video of this Seminar

Cairns - TESS Seminar

9^th May 2012

Professor Bob Pressey, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville

The mismeasure of conservation

Watch the Video of this Seminar

Townsville - MTB Seminar

8^th May 2012

AJAY NARENDRA, ARC Centre of Excellence in Vision Science Research School of Biology, The Australian National University

Moving between day and night

Cairns - TESS Seminar

2^nd May 2012

Dr Rosemary Hill, CSIRO

Indigenous peoples' biocultural diversity and World Heritage cultural landscapes: A study from the Wet Tropics

Watch the Video of this Seminar

Townsville - MTB Seminar

1^st May 2012

Dr Cynthia Riginos, School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland

Reproductive strategies of reef fishes predict both within-species genetic differentiation and within-family species richness

Cairns - TESS Seminar	11^th April 2012
*Betsy Yaap, TESS & School of Marine and Tropical Biology, JCU-Cairns Mammals and Acacia Plantations: Making the most of a rapidly changing landscape in Sumatra*
Cairns - TESS Seminar	4^th April 2012
*Professor Steve Turton, James Cook University Likely Effects of Climate Change on Australian Native Forests and Plantations: Can We Adapt?* Watch the Video of this Seminar
Cairns - TESS Seminar	28^th March 2012
*Dr Chris Margules, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, JCU Sustainable development and biodiversity conservation* Watch the Video of this Seminar
Cairns - TESS Seminar	21^st March 2012
*Brett Scheffers, Department of Biological Science, National University of Singapore A frog’s eye view of forest canopies* Watch the Video of this Seminar
Cairns - TESS Seminar	14^th March 2012
*Professor Barry Brook, One of Australia’s most eminent ecologists and a global expert on climate change and energy issues Systems modelling for synergistic ecological climate dynamics* Watch the Video of this Seminar
Cairns - TESS Seminar	7^th March 2012
*William F. Laurance, Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science (TESS) & School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Cairns Assaulting avarice: Combating World Growth International and its anti-environmental allies?* Watch the Video of this Seminar
Cairns - TESS Seminar	29^th February 2012
*Ian Craigie, ARC Centre for Coral Reef Excellence How effective are Africa's protected areas for conservation?* Watch the Video of this Seminar
Cairns - TESS Seminar	22^nd February 2012
*Gopalasamy Reuben Clements, Centre of Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science and School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Cairns Center for Malaysian Indigenous Studies, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia The road half-travelled* Watch the Video of this Seminar

Seminar Recordings 2011

Cairns - TESS Seminar	26^th October 2011
Dr Michael Zimmerman, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, JCU Soil carbon decomposition along tropical forest gradients Watch the Video of this Seminar
Cairns - TESS Seminar	19^th October 2011
Wouter Dieleman and Michelle Venter, JCU School of Earth and Environmental Sciences Digging dirt and hugging trees: Carbon stocks in Papua New Guinea and implications for future C stock management Watch the Video of this Seminar
Cairns - TESS Seminar	12^th October 2011
Dr Tony Lynam, Wildlife Conservation Society Securing a future for tigers in Indochina Watch the Video of this Seminar
Cairns - TESS Seminar	5^th October 2011
Dennis P Garrity, Director General, World Agroforestry Centre Creating an Evergreen Double-Story Agriculture in Africa for Food Security with Environmental Resilience Watch the Video of this Seminar
Cairns - TESS Seminar	28^th September 2011
Dr Dave Westcott, CSIRO Tropical Landscapes Why are flying-foxes so successful, so difficult, so interesting... why oh why oh why oh why... Watch the Video of this Seminar
Cairns - TESS Seminar	21^st September 2011
Dr Susan Laurance, School of Marine and Tropical Biology JCU Climate impacts on tropical rainforests Watch the Video of this Seminar
Cairns - TESS Seminar	14^th September 2011
Professor Bob Stevenson, The Cairns Institute, JCU Relationships between educational experiences and environmental sensibilities: Insights from new research Watch the Video of this Seminar
Cairns - TESS Seminar	7^th September 2011
Professor Jon Lloyd, Professorial Research Fellow, James Cook University. Soils as important modulators of tropical vegetation structure and function Watch the Video of this Seminar
Cairns - TESS Seminar	31^st August 2011
Dr Daniel J Metcalfe, Principal Research Scientist at CSIRO Atherton. Fragment futures – what is the future for lowland forest fragments, and can their past and the present help us understand it? Watch the Video of this Seminar
Cairns - TESS Seminar	24^th August 2011
Penny van Oosterzee Biodiversity and Climate Change: The Sad Saga of Carbon Offsets Watch the Video of this Seminar
18^th May 2011 Noel Preece, Ecologist, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow JCU Earth & Environmental Sciences; 25+ years in environmental management, and biodiversity, conservation and carbon sequestration research in tropical and arid regions. Restoring rainforests cheaply for Carbon and Biodiversity – the Thiaki experiment Watch the Video of this Seminar
27^th April 2011 Sarah Fann, Fullbright Statistics for fish abundance and diversity on several coral reef systems. Watch the Video of this Seminar
20^th April 2011 Dr Keith Brander, Technical University of Denmark Reconciling biodiversity conservation and marine capture fisheries production. Watch the Video of this Seminar
13^th April 2011 Associate Professor Andrew Krockenberger, James Cook University Conservation of tree kangaroos in New Guinea. Watch the Video of this Seminar
SPECIAL SEMINAR	28^th March 2011
Claudia Faustino, Scottish Oceans Institute Bio-logging science into management policy. Watch the Video of this Seminar
23^rd March 2011 Professor Bob Pressey, James Cook University Towards effective protected areas: the imperative of linking regional-scale design and local-scale action. Watch the Video of this Seminar
16^th March 2011 Professor Bill Laurance, James Cook University The Environmental Impacts of Roads, Hunting, and Logging on African Tropical Wildlife. Watch the Video of this Seminar
9^th March 2011 Associate Professor Kirsten Heimann, James Cook University Microalgal Carbon Sequestration and Recycling Potential – a Carbon Emission Reduction Tool for Coal-Fired Power Stations. Watch the Video of this Seminar