Our projects

Ensuring resilience for future ecosystems

Our research focuses on preserving the immense heritage value of species by exploring how we can retain as much biodiversity as possible in some form, even under challenging conditions.

Explore some of our research projects below.

Plant-pollinator interactions for effective restoration of Australian ecosystems

Maintaining the health of existing and restored ecosystems relies on the persistence of self-sustaining plant populations. However, many plant species depend on animal pollinators for reproduction, and pollinator communities vary across:

• geographic regions
• ecosystems
• environmental gradients.

As a result, mismatches between plants and their pollinators can reduce reproductive success, limiting population viability and ecosystem resilience.

Despite this importance, our understanding of plant–pollinator interactions across Australia remains fragmented, with limited accessible, standardised data. This lack of synthesis constrains both large-scale ecological restoration and broader efforts to understand how biodiversity and ecosystem function are structured across landscapes.

This project will:

1. create Australia’s first integrated plant–pollinator interaction database
2. use it to identify broad patterns in species interactions across taxa, ecosystems and geographic regions
3. provide a foundation for both applied restoration and fundamental ecological research.

• Dr David Field
• Katarina Stuart
• Clara Schmidt

Integrating sensory ecology into the design of functional artificial habitat

Artificial habitats are increasingly used as a response to habitat loss and ecosystem degradation, yet their design has largely focused on structural features while overlooking how organisms actually locate and select suitable habitats.

Many species – including vertebrates, invertebrates and even algae – rely on sensory cues such as sound, light and chemical signals, often in combination, to identify appropriate environments. Recent technological advances now make it possible to artificially reproduce these cues at relatively low cost.

This project brings together experts in artificial habitat design, sensory ecology and neurobiology to develop a conceptual framework for integrating sensory cues into artificial habitats, with the aim of improving their ecological functionality.

However, it also critically evaluates the risks, including the potential creation of ecological traps or ineffective 'greenwashing' interventions in noisy or polluted environments where sensory signals may be masked.

The outcome will be:

• a high-impact synthesis outlining guidelines, opportunities and limitations for incorporating sensory ecology into habitat design
• the formation of a collaborative network to guide future research and applied development in this emerging field.

• Dr Alex Carthey
• Professor Melanie Bishop