Research Seminar - Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment

This talk describes the population and community dynamics of small mammals over 20+ years in the Simpson Desert, central Australia. In this extreme environment, rodents increase during short but spectacular boom periods after heavy rainfall and crash during prolonged droughts. Dasyurid marsupials, by contrast, show the opposite pattern, and appear to suffer mass mortality after heavy rains. Populations are also affected by wildfire, introduced predators and by competitive and facilitatory interactions among themselves.

These varied processes are seldom reported as drivers of the population and community dynamics of desert mammals, and suggest that Australian systems differ markedly from those elsewhere. I propose some simple conceptual models that attempt to describe and predict the dynamics of small desert mammals, and will also discuss the likely effects of climate change on inland environments.

Chris Dickman has long been fascinated by patterns in the distribution of living things, and by factors such as invasive pest species that affect biological diversity. His current work focuses on populations and communities of small vertebrates in arid environments, and on a range of projects in applied conservation and management. As part of his ‘day job’ as an ARC Professorial Fellow, Chris has been a prolific trainer of postgraduates, supervising more than 40 Honours, 30 Masters and 50 PhD students over the last 25 years. He has written or edited 20 books and monographs and >200 journal articles and book chapters, and also serves on several scientific advisory panels for conservation/research organizations.