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Conservation and Sustainable Livelihoods

Climate Change impact and adaptation

Cracking soil of a dry lake bed, with water in the distance and hills behind. Sun low in the sky behind hills

The influence of climate change is accelerating and both human society and ecological systems must change or fail. Much of our research in this field is about people – their behaviours, mobility, adaptations and energy supply. People can do much to help themselves to adapt to the inevitable acceleration in climate change that is already starting to become apparent. They can also help ecological systems adapt. Our research on renewable energy, air conditioning, housing, climate-related natural hazards and equitable energy policy all aims to help reduce the detrimental impacts of climate change on both society and the natural world, while emphasising that with change also comes opportunities.

Meet the team

Publications

Legge, S., Woinarski, J. C., Scheele, B. C., Garnett, S. T., Lintermans, M., Nimmo, D. G., ... & Tingley, R. 2022. Rapid assessment of the biodiversity impacts of the 2019–2020 Australian megafires to guide urgent management intervention and recovery and lessons for other regions Diversity and Distributions 28(3): 571-591. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.13428

Legge, S., Rumpff, L., Woinarski, J. C., Whiterod, N. S., Ward, M., Southwell, D. G., ... & Zukowski, S. 2022. The conservation impacts of ecological disturbance: Time‐bound estimates of population loss and recovery for fauna affected by the 2019–2020 Australian megafires Global Ecology and Biogeography 31(10): https:/doi.org/10.1111/geb.13473

Zander, Kerstin K & Garnett, Stephen T 2020. The importance of climate to emigration intentions from a tropical city in Australia Sustainable Cities and Society 63: . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2020.102465

Zander K. K., Moss S. and Garnett S. T. 2019. Climate Change–Related Heat Stress and Subjective Well-Being in Australia. Weather, Climate, and Society 11: 505-520. No DOI https://www.jstor.org/stable/26753223

Zander K. K., Richerzhagen C. and Garnett S. T. 2019. Human mobility intentions in response to heat in urban South East Asia. Global Environmental Change 56: 18-28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2019.03.004

Zander K. K., Simpson G., Mathew S., Nepal R. and Garnett S. T. 2019. Preferences for and potential impacts of financial incentives to install residential rooftop solar photovoltaic systems in Australia. Journal of Cleaner Production 230: 328-338. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.05.133

Zander K.K., Mathew, S. and Garnett, S. 2018. Exploring Heat Stress Relief Measures among the Australian Labour Force. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 15: 401. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15030401

Zander K.K., Cadag J.R., Escarcha J. and Garnett S.T. 2018. Perceived heat stress increases with population density in urban Philippines. Environmental Research Letters 13: . https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aad2e5

Garnett, S.T., Zander, K.K., Hagerman, S., Satterfield, T. and Meyerhoff, J. 2018. Social preferences for adaptation measures to conserve Australian birds threatened by climate change. Oryx 52: 325-335. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605316001058

Zander, K.K., Surjan, A., and Garnett, S.T. 2016. Exploring the effect of heat on stated intentions to move. Climatic Change 138: 297-308. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-016-1727-9

April E. Reside,Jeremy VanDerWal,Stephen Garnett,Alex S. Kutt 2016. Vulnerability of Australian tropical savanna birds to climate change Austral Ecology 41(1): 106-116. https://doi.org/10.1111/aec.12304

Zander, K.K., Botzen, W.J.W., Oppermann, E., Kjellstrom, T. and Garnett, S.T. 2015. Heat stress causes substantial labour productivity loss in Australia Nature Climate Change 5: 647-651. https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2623

Shoo, L.P., Hoffmann, A.A., Garnett, S.T., Scott, J.K., & Williams, S.E. 2015. Quantitative tools and simultaneous actions needed for species conservation under climate change-Reply to Shoo et al.(2013) Climatic Change 129: 9-11. https://doi.​org/​10.​1007/​s10584-014-1311-0.

Zander, K., Moss, S. and Garnett, S.T. 2017. Drivers of self-reported heat stress in the Australian labour force. Environmental research 152: 272-279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2016.10.029

Singh, R.K., Zander, K.K., Kumar, S., Singh, A., Sheoran, P., Kumar, A., Hussain, S.M., Riba, T., Rallen, O., Lego, Y.J., Padung, E. and Garnett, S.T. 2017. Perceptions of climate variability and livelihood adaptations relating to gender and wealth among the Adi community of the Eastern Indian Himalayas. Applied Geography 86: 41-52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2017.06.018

Reside, A., VanDerWal, J., Garnett, S., and Kutt, A. 2015. The vulnerability of the Australian tropical savanna birds to climate change Austral Ecology 41: 106-116. https://doi.org/10.1111/aec.12304

Foden, W. B., Butchart, S. H. M., Stuart, S. N., Vié, J-C., Akçakaya, H. R., Angulo, A., DeVantier, L. M., Gutsche, A., Turak, E., Cao, L., Donner, S. D., Katariya, V., Bernard, R., Holland, R. A., Hughes, A. F., O’Hanlon, S. E., Garnett, S. T., Şekercioğlu, Ç. H. and Mace, G. M. 2013. Identifying the World's Most Climate Change Vulnerable Species: A Systematic Trait-Based Assessment of all Birds, Amphibians and Corals PLoS ONE 8(6): e65427. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0065427

Shoo, L.P., Hoffmann, A.A., Garnett, S.T., Pressey, R.L., Williams, Y.M., Taylor, M., Falconi, L., Yates, C.J., Scott, J.K., Alagador, D., Williams, S.E. 2013. Making decisions to conserve biodiversity under climate change Climatic Change 119: 239-246. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-013-0699-2

Lunt, I.D., Hellmann, J.J., Mitchell, N.J., Byrne, M., Garnett, S.T., Hayward, M.W., Martin, T.G., McDonald-Madden, E., Williams, S. and Zander, K.K. 2013. Managed relocation to restore ecosystem function and conserve biodiversity under climate change. Biological Conservation 157: 172-177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2012.08.034

Zander, K.K., Garnett, S.T. and Petheram, L. 2013. Stay or leave? - Potential climate change adaptation strategies among Aboriginal people in coastal communities in northern Australia. Natural Hazards 67: 591-609. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-013-0591-4

Albrecht, G., Brooke, C., Bennett, D. and Garnett, S.T 2012. The ethics of assisted colonization in the age of anthropogenic climate change Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 26: 827-845. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-012-9411-1

Perry, J.J., Kutt, A.S., Garnett, S.T., Crowley, G.M., Vanderduys, E.P. and Perkins, G.C. 2011. Changes in the avifauna of Cape York Peninsula over a period of 9 years: the relative effects of fire, vegetation type and climate. Emu 111: 120-131 . https://doi.org/10.1071/MU10009

Burbidge, A.A., Byrne, B., Coates, C., Garnett, S.T., Harris, S., Hayward, M.W. Martin, T.G., Mcdonald-Madden, E., Mitchell, N.J., Nally, S. and Setterfield, S.A 2011. Is Australia ready for assisted colonization?: Policy changes required to facilitate translocations under climate change. Pacific Conservation Biology 17: 259-269. No DOI @ http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=663906694324810;res=IELNZC

Law, R. and Garnett, S.T. 2011. Mapping carbon in tropical Australia: estimates of carbon stocks and fluxes in the Northern Territory using the national carbon accounting toolbox Ecological Management & Restoration 12: 61-68. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1442-8903.2011.00566.x

Hutchinson, M.F., McIntyre, S., Hobbs, R. J., Stein, J.L., Garnett, S.T. and Kinloch, J. 2005. Integrating a global agro-climatic classification with bioregional boundaries in Australia. Global Ecology and Biogeography 14: 197-212. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1466-822X.2005.00154.x

Kerstin K. Zander, Joost van Hoof, Saah Carter, Stephen T. Garnett. 2023. Living comfortably with heat in Australia - preferred indoor temperatures and climate zones Sustainable Cities and Society 96: . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2023.104706

Garnett, S. T., and Zander, K. K. 2023. A responsible energy transition Nature Sustainability 6: 124-125. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-01007-2

Kerstin K. Zander, Joost van Hoff, Sarah Carter, Stephen T. Garnett. 2023. Living Comfortably with Heat in Australia – Preferred Temperatures and Climate Zones Sustainable Cities and Society 96: . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2023.104706

Kerstin K. Zander, Hunter S. Baggen and Stephen T. Garnett 2023. Topic modelling the mobility response to heat and drought Climatic Change 176(42): . https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-023-03524-1

Zander, K.K., Garnett, S.T. and Petheram, L. 2013. Stay or leave? - Potential climate change adaptation strategies among Aboriginal people in coastal communities in northern Australia. Natural Hazards 67: 591-609. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-013-0591-4

Garnett, S.T. and Williamson, G. 2010. Spatial and temporal variation in precipitation at the start of the rainy season in tropical Australia. The Rangeland Journal 32: 215-226. https://doi.org/10.1071/RJ09083

Leppitt, R., Evans, J., Einoder, L., Kyne, P. M., Woinarski, J. C. Z., and Garnett, S. T. 2023. Fire on a tropical floodplain: a fine-scale fire history of coastal floodplains in the Northern Territory, Australia International Journal of Wildland Fire 32(8): 1200-1211. https://doi.org/10.1071/WF22173

Woinarski, J. C. Z., McCormack, P. C., McDonald, J., Legge, S., Garnett, S. T., WintleB., and Rumpff, L 2023. Making choices: priortising the protection of biodiversity in wildfires International Journal of Wildland Fire 32(7): 1031-1038. https://doi.org/10.1071/WF22229

Michelle Ensbey, Sarah Legge, Chris J. Jolly, Stephen T. Garnett, Rachael V. Gallagher, Mark Lintermans, Dale G. Nimmo, Libby Rumpff, Ben C. Scheele, Nick S. Whiterod, John C.Z. Woinarski, Shane T. Ahyong, Caroline J. Blackmore, Deborah S. Bower, Allan H. Burbidge, Phoebe A. Burns, Gavin Butler, Renee Catullo, David G. Chapple, Christopher R. Dickman, Katie E. Doyle, Jason Ferris, Diana O. Fisher, Hayley M. Geyle, Graeme R. Gillespie, Matt J. Greenlees, Rosemary Hohnen, Conrad J. Hoskin, Mark Kennard, Alison J. King, Diana Kuchinke, Brad Law, Ivan Lawler, Susan Lawler, Richard Loyn, Daniel Lunney, Jarod Lyon, Josephine MacHunter, Michael Mahony, Stephen Mahony, Rob McCormack, Jane Melville, Peter Menkhorst, Damian Michael, Nicola Mitchell, Eridani Mulder, David Newell, Luke Pearce, Tarmo A. Raadik, Jodi J.L. Rowley, Holly Sitters, Darren G. Southwell, Ricky Spencer, Matt West, Sylvia Zukowski 2023. Animal population decline and recovery after severe fire: Relating ecological and life history traits with expert estimates of population impacts from the Australian 2019-20 megafires Biological Conservation 283: 110-021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2023.110021

Zander, K. K., Sibarani,R., Abunyewah,M., Erdiaw-Kwasie,M. O., Moss,S. A., Lassa,J., Garnett, S. T. 2023. Community resilience across Australia towards natural hazards: an application of the Conjoint Community Resiliency Assessment Measurement Wiley Online Library : . https://doi.org/10.1111/disa.12590

Zander, K.K., Nguyen, D., Mirbabaie, M., Garnett, S. T. 2023. Aware but not prepared: understanding situational awareness during the century flood in Germany in 2021 International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 96: . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2023.103936

Fischer, S., Edwards, A. C., Garnett, S. T., Whiteside, T. G., Weber, P. 2023. The interaction between land-use change and fire regimes, directly and indirectly, affects the urban avian assemblages of Darwin, Australia Ecology and Evolution 13(7): . https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10239

Zander, K. K., Garnett, S. T., Ogie, R., Alazab, M., Nguyen, D. 2023. Trends in bushfire related tweets during the Australian ‘Black Summer’ of 2019/20 Forest Ecology and Management 545: . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2023.121274

Stobo‐Wilson, A. M., Murphy, B. P., Legge, S. M., Caceres‐Escobar, H., Chapple, D. G., Crawford, H. M., ... & Woinarski, J. C. 2022. Counting the bodies: Estimating the numbers and spatial variation of Australian reptiles, birds and mammals killed by two invasive mesopredators Diversity and Distributions 28(5): 976-991. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.13497

Zander, K. K., Garnett, S. T., Sterly, H., Ayeb-Karlsson, S., Šedová, B., Lotze-Campen, H., ... & Baggen, H. S. 2022. Topic modelling exposes disciplinary divergence in research on the nexus between human mobility and the environment Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 9(1): 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-022-01038-2

Zander, K. K.,Garnett, S. T. 2021. Trade-offs in destination choices among the urban populations in three Southeast Asian countries Population, Space and Place 27(8): e2460. https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2460

Ward, M., Tulloch, A. I. T., Radford, J. Q., Williams, B. A., & Reside, A. E., et al. 2020. Impact of 2019–(2020) mega-fires on Australian fauna habitat Nature Ecology & Evolution 4(10): 1321--1326. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-1251-1

Zander, K. K., & Garnett, S. T. 2020. Risk and experience drive the importance of natural hazards for peoples mobility decisions Climatic Change 162(3): 1639--1654. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-020-02846-8

Zander, K. K., Wilson, T., & Garnett, S. T. 2020. Understanding the role of natural hazards in internal labour mobility in Australia Weather and Climate Extremes 29: . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wace.2020.100261

Bowman, D.M., Garnett, S.T., Barlow, S., Bekessy, S.A., Bellairs, S.M., Bishop, M.J., Bradstock, R.A., Jones, D.N., Maxwell, S.L., Pittock, J., Toral‐Granda, M.V., Watson, J.E.M., Wilson, T., Zander, K.K., Hughes, L. 2017. Renewal ecology: conservation for the Anthropocene Restoration Ecology 25: 674-680. https://doi.org/10.1111/rec.12560

Abdullah, A., Zander, K.K., Stacey, N., Meyers, B. and Garnett, S.T. 2016. A short term decrease in household income inequality in the Sundarbans, Bangladesh, following Cyclone Aila. Natiural Hazards 83: 1103-1123. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-016-2358-1

Harris, S., Arnall, S., Byrne, M., Coates, D., Garnett, S.T., Hayward, M., Martin, T., and Mitchell, N. 2013. Whose backyard? Choosing sites for assisted colonisation. Ecosystem Management and Restoration 14: 106-111. https://doi.org/10.1111/emr.12041

van Oosterzee, P. and Garnett, S.T. 2008. Seeing REDD: principles and possible opportunities in northern Australia. Public Administration and Development 28: 1-7.

Contact Conservation and Sustainable Livelihoods group

Stephen Garnett
stephen.garnett@cdu.edu.au

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