Luke Shoo

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

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Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Tropical Biodiversity and Climate Change (2007-present) Postdoctoral Researcher, Museum Victoria (2006-2007) PhD awarded 2005.

Research Interests

• Contemporary and historical climate change

• Potential rainforest refugia for tropical fauna with climate change

• Vertebrate phylogeography, evolution and systematics

• Biodiversity conservation

Recent and Current Research Projects Include

a. Impacts of contemporary climate change on montane fauna in Australian tropical rainforests
I have a strong interest in developing a better understanding of the potential impacts of contemporary climate change on tropical rainforest biodiversity. In particular I am interested in determining: (1) what prospects the many unique, cool adapted mountain-top species of the tropics have in a warming world (population size, resilience, plasticity, role of refugia); and (2) what data we need to collect now if we want to be able to document and understand species responses to climate change in the future. Both issues are concerned with species' distribution limits and the underlying historical and contemporary processes responsible for them. This work is being undertaken in collaboration with Dr Stephen Williams and other researchers in the recently established Centre for Tropical Biodiversity & Climate Change Research, James Cook University.

b. Historical aridification of Australia and its influence on the phylogeography, diversification and molecular systematics of Australian arid and semi-arid dragon lizards
I am also interested in using molecular techniques to investigate historical climate factors underpinning patterns of species differentiation and persistence in Australia with a particular focus on arid and semi-arid environments. Species within the Australian agamid lizard genre Tympanocryptis and Diporiphora provide ideal candidate taxa in this regard and have been the subject of my molecular research while based at Museum Victoria in collaboration with Dr Jane Melville (http://researchdata.museum.vic.gov.au/herpetology/index.htm). Along the way detailed findings from molecular work will help resolve long-standing taxonomic uncertainty and clarify distribution limits for these species.

Selected Publications

Hero, J.-M., Hamada, N. and Shoo, L.P. Reproductive and population ecology of four species of Phyllomedusa in Central Amazonian Rainforest. Acta Amazonica - in press.

Shoo, L.P., Williams, Y., Hero, J.-M. (2006) Predicting and detecting the impacts of climate change on montane birds in Australian tropical rainforests. In: Global Change in Mountain Regions (ed. M.F Price), Sapiens Publishing, UK.

Hero, J.-M., Morrison, C., Gillespie, G., Roberts, J.D., Newell, D., Meyer, E., McDonald, K., Lemckert, F., Mahony, M., Osborne, W., Hines, H., Richards, S., Hoskin, C., Clarke, J., Doak, N. and Shoo, L.P. (2006). Overview of the conservation status of Australian Frogs. Pacific Conservation Biology 12, 313-320.

Shoo, L.P., Williams, S.E. and Hero, J.-M. (2006). Detecting climate change induced range shifts: where and how should we be looking? Austral Ecology 31, 22-29. (Austral Ecology 5^th top article accessed on Synergy website Jan-Nov 2006)

Shoo, L.P., Williams, S.E. and Hero, J.-M. (2005a). Potential decoupling of trends in distribution area and population size of species with climate change. Global Change Biology 11, 1469-1476.

Shoo, L.P., Williams, S.E. and Hero, J.-M. (2005b). Climate warming and rainforest birds of the Wet Tropics: using abundance data as a sensitive predictor of change in total population size. Biological Conservation 125, 335-343.

Shoo, L.P. and Williams, Y. (2004). Altitudinal distribution and abundance of microhylid frogs (Cophixalus and Austrochaperina) of north-eastern Australia: baseline data for detecting biological responses to future climate change. Australian Journal of Zoology 52, 667-676.

Hero, J-M., Morrison, C., Gillespie, G., Roberts, D., Horner, P., Newell, D., Meyer, E., McDonald, K., Lemckert, F., Mahony, M., Tyler, M., Osborne, W., Hines, H., Richards, S., Hoskin, C., Doak, N. and Shoo, L. (2004). Conservation status of Australian frogs. Froglog 65, 2-3.

Hero, J-M. and Shoo, L.P. (2003). Conservation of amphibians in the old world tropics: defining unique problems associated with a regional fauna. In: Amphibian Conservation (ed. R.D. Semlitsch). Smithsonian Books, Washington.

Contact Details

Luke P. Shoo, PhD

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Centre for Tropical Biodiversity & Climate Change Research

School of Marine & Tropical Biology

James Cook University

Townsville, QLD 4811

Australia

Email: luke.shoo@jcu.edu.au