Research to understand and improve biological environments

Our research brings together a team of highly motivated and dedicated researchers committed to advancing the knowledge of patterns, causes and measurement of changes in ecosystems.

Through the convenor, our members seek to better understand our biological environment and improve its management to ensure that human health and wellbeing is maintained in the future.

Research themes

    • Polar ecology and cycling of pollutants
    • Emerging infectious diseases and environmental change
    • Social and environmental justice
    • Biodiversity conservation and restoration in the Anthropocene
    • Response and adaptation to climate change
    • Sustainable use of wild populations and natural environments
    • Environmental toxicology and pollution
    • Urban and peri-urban ecology

Coordinator

Professor Hamish McCallum

Areas of expertise:

  • Disease ecology
  • Conservation biology
  • Quantitative population dynamics

Bat OneHealth

Global team of experts across multiple scales investigating spillover searching for solutions that protect future generations

Griffith wildlife disease ecology group

This research team studies the dynamics of diseases such as Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumour Disease, avian malaria, chytridiomycosis and Hendra virus in wildlife populations.

Griffith wildlife disease ecology website

The Frog Research Team

We're a team of researchers based around eastern Australia (with collaborators overseas), studying the population dynamics of frogs and the infection dynamics of their devastating fungal disease, chytridiomycosis. We aim to improve understanding of the factors permitting recovery of frog populations in the face of disease, to assist with global amphibian conservation efforts.

The Frog Research Team webpage

Southern oceans persistent organic pollutants group

This program addresses the transport mechanisms of persistent organic pollutants to polar regions, the behaviour of these chemicals once incorporated into high latitude environments, and the impacts on polar biota and ecosystems.

Discover more

Environmental Chemistry Research Group

The Environmental Chemistry Research Group applies advanced sampling and analysis techniques to study the behaviour of trace metals in waters, sediments and soils. We operate a specialised cleanroom and ICP-MS facility for ultra-trace metal analysis of environmental samples and our research regularly utilises the Australian Synchrotron to study the speciation of trace metals in geological materials. For more information, please contact Dr. William Bennett

Contact us

Current research

  • Program for Planned Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research (PPBio)
  • Studies of biodiversity decline
  • DNA bar coding of life on Earth
  • Current distribution and function of biodiversity
  • Ecological processes that underlie resilience and recovery
  • Ecology of wildlife disease
  • The mixes of land-users within a landscape that can both sustain desired elements of biodiversity and support production and human occupancy
  • Modelling impacts on individual species, communities and ecosystems
  • Conservation and management of threatened species
  • Long-term ecological research and monitoring

Get in touch

Contact the Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security