Our researchers find solutions to complex environmental problems, with science spanning meteorology, geology, biology, chemistry, hydrology and more.
We investigate key issues in biodiversity, sustainability, carbon capture, and emissions management—particularly in the context of tropical ecosystems and arid landscapes. We collaborate with government, environmental agencies, consultancies and others for results that make a difference to the world.
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Associate Professor Christine Schlesinger
Associate Professor Schlesinger is an Arid Zone Ecologist at the Faculty of Science and Technology. She is based at Charles Darwin University’s desert campus in Alice Springs.
Research interests:
- desert ecosystems
- contemporary threats to desert fauna.
Dr Keller Kopf
Research opportunities in:
- river flows and trophic ecology of predators in tropical river-floodplains
- effects of warming water temperature on fish and fisheries recruitment in northern Australia
Associate Professor Kamaljit K Sangha
Associate Professor Sangha has worked in the trans-disciplinary field of Ecological Economics since she finished her Master of Science (MSc) at Panjab University in India 20 years ago.
Kamaljit is available to supervise research students who are interested in the trans-disciplinary area of Ecological Economics—intersecting ecological, economic, and social sciences.
Meet Kamaljit
Professor Hamish Campbell
Professor Hamish Campbell is a Professor of Spatial Science, leads The Movement and Landscape Ecology Lab, and is the Director of the North Australia Centre for Autonomous Systems.
Research interests:
- spatiotemporal relationship between animals and their environment
- movement and migration of birds, reptiles, mammals, and fish across Northern Australia.
Professor Karen Gibb
I am an environmental microbiologist with expertise in aquatic and marine systems and the impact of environmental change and industrial pollution on water quality and marine harvest, especially oysters. Our team’s research supports shellfish food safety, safe drinking water and animal health, and we use microbial signatures to monitor the footprint of pollution in the environment. My scientific output includes 165 refereed papers, over 5,000 citations and an h-index of 41.
Research Interests:
- Microbial DNA detection & diagnosis
- Emerging pathogens
- Opportunistic pathogens in water
- Microbial source tracking
- Monitoring impact
Professor Sam Banks
Professor Banks is currently Director of the Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods and a molecular ecologist at Charles Darwin University, (CDU), having moved to Darwin in Australia’s Top End from the Australian National University in Canberra in 2018.
Research interests:
- animal and plant populations dynamics
- influence of fire on animal population dynamics and genetic diversity in natural populations
- using genetics to understand movement patterns in saltwater crocodiles.
Professor Natasha Stacey
Professor Natasha Stacey is an environmental anthropologist. She leads a group researching sustainable resource management, food security and coastal livelihood projects in northern Australia, Indonesia and Timor Leste.
Research interests:
- small-scale fisheries, aquaculture, Indigenous sea rights
- Indigenous and rural coastal livelihoods and enhancement
- gender, women and food security
- community-based natural resource management
- social impact assessment, participatory monitoring and evaluation.
Professor Keith Christian
Professor Keith Christian did his PhD on the determinants of space use by Galapagos Land Iguanas at Colorado State University.
Research opportunities:
- Seasonal patterns of evaporative water loss in the fauna of the wet-dry tropics.
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Microbiomes of the Black Jewfish: spatiotemporal variation and the influence of environmental change
Professor Brett Murphy
Originally from Western Australia, Professor Brett Murphy completed his PhD studies into the fire ecology of kangaroos at Charles Darwin University.
Research interests:
- fire science and management
- small mammal and fire-sensitive vegetation communities
Dr Andrew Edwards
Dr Andrew Edwards is looking for prospective students who have an interest in mapping, ecology and developing tools to assist natural resource management. Prospective students who have an interest in these areas are encouraged to contact Dr Andrew Edwards for further information.
Meet Andrew
Professor Stephen Garnett
Professor Stephen Garnett is an environmental scientist with an interest in the knowledge needed to live sustainably in the tropics.
Research interests:
- threatened species conservation, ecology, management and economics
- natural resource management
- biology of tropical systems.
Dr Penny Wurm
Dr Penny Wurm is an ecologist with a research background in wetland and invasive species ecology.
Research interests:
- invasion ecology of para grass
- integration of ecology and livelihoods
- commercialisation of native plants.
Dr Sean Bellairs
Dr Bellairs has research specialisations in the areas of restoration ecology, seed biology and commercialisation of native plants.
Research interests:
- restoration of native vegetation on mine sites and other disturbed lands
- ecosystem development
- development of success criteria for ecological restoration and commercial use of native plants.
Prof Lindsay B. Hutley
Prof Lindsay Hutley is a plant physiologist with expertise in plant ecology, ecophysiology, ecohydrology, land-atmosphere exchange and soil science.
Prof Lindsay's recent work has focused on quantifying fluxes of carbon, water and energy balance from a range of ecosystems, including mangroves, temperate old-growth forests and Eucalypt-dominated tropical savanna ecosystems of north Australia. Understanding impacts of fire, land use change and climate change on these ecosystem processes is required to underpin natural resource management in north Australia and research programs are focussed on this goal.
Meet Lindsay
Dr Peter Kyne
Peter is a conservation biologist with interests in marine and freshwater systems. He has a background in fish biology, fisheries bycatch mitigation, and fish conservation, particularly in relation to the chondrichthyan fishes (sharks, batoids, and ghost sharks), from freshwater systems to the deep-sea. He has delivered a number of projects under the Australian Government's National Environmental Research Program (NERP) and National Environmental Science Program (NESP) aimed at driving conservation action and policy. He also has an interest in monitoring and managing threatened shorebird and terrestrial bird species.
Meet Peter
Dr Dylan Irvine
Dylan has supervised students in coastal hydrogeology, groundwater management, and the impact of mining on groundwater springs.
Potential projects include groundwater-surface water interactions relating to many of the Territory’s major rivers (e.g. Adelaide, Flora, Daly), analyses and application of isotopic tracers, the impact of sea level rise on coastal water resources and wetlands, amongst others.
Meet Dylan
Dr Clément Duvert
Clem is starting an exciting 3-year project that will quantify the greenhouse gas emissions from streams across the Australian tropics. Prospective students who have an interest in hydrology or aquatic biogeochemistry are encouraged to contact Clem for further information.
Meet Clément
Professor Alan Andersen
Prof Andersen is the author of five books and >250 scientific publications, with an h-index of 76 and >20,000 career citations. In 2018 he was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, and in 2022 was elected to the Academy’s governing Council. He is Chair of the Academy’s National Committee for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation. He is also inaugural Chair of the Territory Science Forum, whose mission to promote an effective enabling environment for science-based innovation in the NT.
Research Interests:
- Ant ecology
- Invertebrate bio-indicators
- Fire ecology and management
- Ecology and management of tropical savannas
- Biogeography
Dr Erica Garcia
Dr Erica Garcia is an aquatic ecologist at CDU’s Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods and is a lecturer in the Faculty of Science and Technology. Erica is starting an exciting 3-year project called the Northern Australian Community Groundwater Security Project, it is a citizen science program that aims to better understand groundwater resources in Northern Australia. She has supervised students in wetland ecology and management, food web ecology, ecology of aquatic invertebrates and ecology of threatened fish. Prospective students with an interest in aquatic ecology and management, and/or freshwater food webs are encouraged to contact Dr Garcia for further information.
Research Interests:
- river and wetland ecology and management
- food web ecology
- groundwater ecology and resources
Dr Kaline de Mello
Dr Kaline de Mello is a postdoctoral researcher at Charles Darwin University (CDU), affiliated with the Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods (RIEL). Kaline currently supervises PhD and master's students working on wetland monitoring and management and welcomes expressions of interest from those interested in applied, interdisciplinary research on freshwater ecosystems, land use change, and conservation.
Research Interests:
- Wetland ecology and condition assessment
- Land use and land cover change
- Remote sensing and geospatial analysis
- Hydrological connectivity and water resource management
- Impacts of water extraction on freshwater ecosystems
- Ecosystem services and landscape ecology
- Conservation planning and environmental policy
- Community-based research
- Indigenous knowledge integration
Dr Richard Crabbe
My research focuses on applying Earth observation satellites and unoccupied aerial vehicles for environmental and agricultural studies. I lead the Remote Sensing and Earth Observation research group. My lab collaborates with many Indigenous organisations, such as the Yawuru, Karajarri, Bardi Jawi, and Nyangumarta in the Kimberley region, training country managers to collect, pre-process and analyse remote sensing imagery. My lab has or can co-develop research projects with potential honours, master's, or PhD candidates interested in remote sensing and AI for environmental or agricultural topics.
Research Interests
- Carbon accounting and GHG emissions modelling
- Aboveground biomass modelling
- Weed detection and rangelands mapping
- Bush fire monitoring
- Land surface phenology
- Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) remote sensing for land applications
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