B Science (Hons), GCert Higher Education, PhD

Lecturer, Australian School of Environmental Studies, Nathan
Research Member, Australian Rivers Institute, Nathan

Contact details for Doctor Fran Sheldon

Research Expertise

• Aquatic Ecosystem Health
• Arid stream and river ecology
• Freshwater invertebrate ecology
• Urban Streams

Teaching Areas

• Aquatic Ecosystem Health Assessment and Restoration
• Aquatic Ecology
• Ecology and Conservation of Communities
• Ecological Theory and Practice
• Biology and Biological Diversity 

Selected Publications 

• Sheldon, F. and Thoms, M.C. (2006) Relationships between flow variability and invertebrate community composition: data from four Australian dryland rivers. River Research and Applications 22: 219-238
• Marshall, J.C., Sheldon, F., Thoms, M.C. and Choy, S. (2006) The macroinvertebrate fauna of an Australian dryland river system: spatial and temporal patterns and environmental relationships. Marine and Freshwater Research. 57: 61-74
• Sheldon, F. (2005) Incorporating natural variability into the assessment of ecological health in dryland rivers. Hydrobiologia 552: 45-56
• Baker, A.M., Sheldon, F ., Somerville, J., Walker, K.F. and Hughes, J.M. (2004) Mitochondrial DNA phylogenies suggest similarity between two morphologically plastic genera of Australia freshwater mussels (Unionoida: Hyriidae). Molecular Phylogeny and Evolution 32:902-912.
• Thoms, M.C. and Sheldon, F . (2002) An ecosystem approach for determining environmental water allocations in Australian dryland river systems: the role of geomorphology. Geomorphology 47 (2-4): 153-168.
• Sheldon, F ., Boulton, A.J. and Puckridge, J.T. (2002) Conservation value of variable connectedness: Aquatic invertebrate assemblages of channel and floodplain habitats of a central Australian arid-zone river, Cooper Creek. Biological Conservation 103 :13-31
• Sheldon, F ., Thoms, M.C., Berry, O. and Puckridge, J.T. (2000) Using disaster to prevent catastrophe: Referencing the impacts of flow changes in large rivers. Regulated Rivers: Research and Management 16 : 403-420
• Thoms, M.C. and F. Sheldon (2000) Water resource development and hydrological change in a large dryland river: The Barwon-Darling River, Australia. Journal of Hydrology 228 : 10-21
• Sheldon, F . and K.F. Walker (1998) Spatial distribution of littoral invertebrates in the lower Murray-Darling River system, Australia, Marine and Freshwater Research 49: 171-182
• Puckridge, J.T., F. Sheldon, K.F. Walker and A.J. Boulton (1998) Flow variability and the ecology of large rivers, Marine and Freshwater Research 49: 55-72