Dr Tara Martin, solving complex ecological problems.

Dr Tara Martin: making good ecological predictions and conservation decisions

Dr Tara Martin uses empirical data, expert knowledge, and ecological theory to build statistical and mathematical models to solve complex ecological problems.

• 10 March 2011 | Updated 14 October 2011

Overview

• Current activities
• Academic qualifications
• Achievements
• Graduate Students

Current activities

Dr Tara Martin is a Research Scientist with CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems and adjunct Professor at the University of Queensland (UQ), Australia and University of British Columbia, Canada.

Dr Martin's research investigates how to make better ecological predictions through the use of ‘prior’ knowledge from experts and data and translate these models into conservation decision-making tools using decision theory.

In doing so, she is finding ways to get the most out of conservation investments with respect to managing ecological impacts of climate change, recovering endangered species, managing invasive species, conserving migratory species and designating Critical Habitat for endangered species and ecosystems.

Her research interests include:

• combining ecological and socio-economic modelling with decision theory to solve complex environmental problems
• multi-objective conservation planning
• optimal conservation resource allocation
• expert elicitation and use of priors in Bayesian models
• plant, bird and herbivore dynamics
• applied population ecology and management of weeds, harvested and threatened species.

Dr Martin is a principle investigator in the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence in Environmental Decisions (CEED) and maintains strong and active links with: 

• The Ecology Centre, University of Queensland
• Centre for Applied Conservation Research, University of British Columbia, Canada
• National Centre for Agronomic Research (INRA), France
• National Centre for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), Santa Barbara, United States.

Academic qualifications

After completing a Bachelor of Science with First Class Honours in Ecology at Griffith University, Queensland, Australia, Dr Martin was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology in 2005 from the University of Queensland for her research on predicting the impact of livestock grazing on Australia's woodland birds, supervised by CSIRO’s Dr Sue McIntyre and the University of Queensland’s Professor Hugh Possingham.

In 2006, she was awarded a National Science and Engineering Council of Canada (NSERC) Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to investigate the optimal allocation of conservation resources for Species at Risk at the University of British Columbia, Canada.

Achievements

Dr Martin has been the recipient of:

• Julius Career Award, 2009
• CSIRO Office of the Chief Executive (OCE) Postdoctoral Fellowship grant, 2009
• University of Queensland Dean's award for her thesis 'predicting the impact of livestock grazing on woodland birds'. This award is presented to the top 10 per cent of theses examined each year
• National Science and Engineering Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2006–08
• Best student paper presented at the Society for Conservation Biology meeting in New York, 2004 and Ecological Society of Australia meetings in Cairns, 2002 and Armidale, 2003.

She is also a:

• Member of the Ministerial Science Advisory Panel for the Lake Eyre Basin
• Associate Editor for Conservation Biology.

Graduate Students

Dr Martin is currently co-supervising the following Postdoctoral staff and Doctoral students:

Postdoctoral students

• Dr Eve McDonald-Madden [external link] – Assisted colonisation and climate change: when do benefits of translocation outweigh the risks (2009–12)
• Dr Josie Carwardine – Implications of a carbon economy on conservation planning and livelihoods (2009–11)
• Dr Jean-Baptist Pichancourt - Optimal management of invasive species (2010 - 2011)

Doctoral students

• Ms Jenny Silcock – Predicting forms of rarity for arid land plants (2009 – University of Queensland supervisor, Dr Rod Fensham [external link])
• Mr Tyler Flockhart – Conservation decision-making for migratory species (2009 – University of Guelph supervisor, Dr Ryan Norris [external link])
• Ms Pia Lentini – Value of travelling stock routes for biodiversity conservation (2009 – Australian National University supervisor, Dr Joern Fischer [external link])
• Mrs Chrystal Mantyka-Pringle – Interactions between climate change and habitat loss (2009 – University of Queensland supervisor, Dr Jonathan Rhodes [external link])
• Ms Fei Ng – Optimal Translocation Strategy for endangered species due to Climate Change (2009 – University of Queensland supervisor, Professor Hugh Possingham [external link])
• Mr Richard Schuster - Predicting distribution of forest dependent birds in Coastal Douglas Fir (2010 – University of British Columbia supervisor, Professor Peter Arcese [external link])

Read more about the research of CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences.