Dr Erik Doerr researches animal dispersal and social behaviour to understand how and why habitat fragmentation and landscape change impact biodiversity.
Current activities
Dr Erik Doerr holds a joint position of Research Scientist with his wife Dr Veronica Doerr with CSIRO's Sustainable Ecosystems Division.
Dr Erik Doerr researches the problem of habitat fragmentation. He uses both genetic and behavioural data to identify the precise landscape elements that animals use during dispersal, and applies that information to help design more effective habitat restoration plans.
Dr Doerr's overall approach is to research ecological processes at the level of the individual, and then develop better models of those processes to improve understanding and more accurately predict resulting ecosystem patterns.
Dr Doerr is currently developing projects that will use this approach to provide solutions to other issues in ecology and conservation, including:
Dr Doerr collaborates with a range of scientists, such as:
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Dr Veronica Doerr, with whom he holds a joint position at CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems.
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the team from the Better Knowledge Better Bush project, a large multi-faceted collaboration designed to provide the science to underpin native vegetation management and restoration in New South Wales, Australia
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sensor network expert Dr Peter Corke to refine new technologies for the collection of biotic environmental data
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economists Dr Andrew Reeson and Dr Stuart Whitten to find solutions to environmental problems that are biologically effective, economically efficient, and socially acceptable
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Dr David Roshier of Charles Sturt University, New South Wales, Australia, to understand the relationships between animal movement and resource distributions in dynamic landscapes like Australia’s desert wetlands
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Dr Rebecca Safran of Princeton University, USA, and Drs Paul Sherman and David Winkler of Cornell University, USA, to elucidate the behavioural decisions underlying the evolution of social systems.
Background
Dr Doerr joined CSIRO in 2005 after completing his dissertation research in Australia and serving as an Honorary Fellow at the University of New England in Armidale, New South Wales, Australia.
The ecological research of Dr Doerr aims to provide solutions to several important issues in ecology and conservation such as how to decide on priorities in habitat restoration plans.
He has always been fascinated by animal behaviour because the behavioural decisions made by individual animals represent the ultimate causes of most population and ecosystem patterns.
Prior to his work at CSIRO, Dr Doerr used this approach to gain new insights into dispersal and metapopulations, coloniality, cooperation and the impacts of invasive species.
Academic qualifications
Dr Erik Doerr was awarded his Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude from Carleton College in Minnesota, USA, in 1991.
He was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology from the University of Nevada, Reno, USA, in 2004.
Achievements
While still an early-career scientist, Dr Doerr has published over 10 scientific papers and has been awarded over 20 research grants.
Dr Doerr was awarded a prestigious fellowship from the National Science Foundation (USA) to pursue his doctoral research.
Dr Doerr has also been a Visiting Fellow in the School of Botany and Zoology at the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, since 1995.
Find out about the Better Knowledge Better Bush project [external link].
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