Dr Adam Liedloff works on a range of projects to improve our understanding of tropical savanna ecology.

Dr Adam Liedloff: modelling the ecology of the tropical savannas

Dr Adam Liedloff is an ecologist developing computer models to help us better understand and manage the landscapes of northern Australia’s tropical savannas.

• 21 May 2008 | Updated 14 October 2011

Overview

• Current activities
• Background
• Academic qualifications
• Achievements 

Current activities

Dr Liedloff’s major work has centred around fire and landscape modelling. He has developed two landmark ecological models with the Tropical Savanna Cooperative Research Centre (CRC).

Dr Liedloff is working with CSIRO colleagues, Dr Tracy Dawes-Gromadzki and Mr Austin Brandis, on a project investigating the influence of macroinvertebrates and spatial arrangement of vegetation patches on soil health in grazed landscapes.

Working with research scientists from the Northern Territory Government’s Department of Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts, Dr Liedloff is developing a Gouldian Finch habitat suitability model.

Dr Liedloff, in collaboration with other CSIRO colleagues, has developed the Mantel non-parametric test Calculator and the Landscape Leakiness Index Calculator.

‘I am particularly interested in the role graphics and animation play in modelling: they allow the communication of complex science to a broad audience’ Dr Liedloff says.

Background

Prior to joining CSIRO in 1999, Dr Liedloff was an associate lecturer in ecology at the Queensland University of Technology, Australia.

Dr Adam Liedloff’s passions for ecology, technology and imagery have driven a natural progression to his role of research scientist in ecological modelling with CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems Division in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.

His skills and experience are highly applicable to the various areas of research undertaken in Darwin lab and is reflected by the number of current projects he is involved with.

He has also helped produce graphical communication material and web pages for the Darwin Lab and provides photographic expertise.

Academic qualifications

Dr Adam Liedloff is a graduate of the Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia where he completed a Bachelor of Applied Science with Honours in Ecology.

He was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy for research on native rodent habitat requirements in a coastal heathland of south-east Queensland, Australia, in 2000.

He has also undertaken studies predicting the amount of rat damage to Queensland sugar cane crops.

Achievements

Flames is a simulation model designed to track the fate of a stand of savanna trees over time. The model, which was developed by Dr Liedloff and Dr Garry Cook, follows the recruitment, growth and mortality of individual trees and considers competition for water with the grass understory.

Dr Liedloff and Dr John Ludwig, in collaboration with Dr Mike Coughenour (Colorado State University, USA), have developed Savanna.au, an Australian version of the Savanna ecological computer model, to study the impacts of fire and grazing on tropical savannas. Savanna.au is a detailed process based model that tracks plant production from photosynthesis.

To grow plants also requires water. Therefore, the model also has a soil water and eco-hydrology component which is also able infiltrate and store water in the soil for plants and to move excess water across the landscape to produce runoff with sediment loads.

Read about Flames: a fire and landscape tree model for tropical savannas.