Current Member - Damien Farine
DPhil. Student
Damien Farine
Details
Name: Damien Farine
Position: DPhil. Student
Email: damien.farine@zoo.ox.ac.uk
Autobiography
I obtained degrees in Microelectronic Engineering and Computer Science from Griffith University in 2004. This was followed by a stint with Computer Science Corporation, whilst I undertook a Masters of Wildlife Management (Macquarie University) and spent time at sea studying Albatross where I discovered zoological research and bird ringing. In 2007 I started working as an ecologist with CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems in Canberra, Australia, investigating the potential for production of sustainable biomass for bioenergy in Australia. This involved determining energy use, greenhouse gas emissions and soil carbon flows in agricultural and forestry systems, and I participated on several projects investigating options for climate change mitigation at regional to national scales. One of my interests during this time was in developing methods and techniques for better enabling transdisciplinary science using ontologies and semantics. My spare time was spent at Mulligan's Flat Nature Reserve in Canberra, where I co-operated with the Australian National University to investigate changes in structure of the avian population as a result of a large-scale landscape manipulation experiment (work is still on-going). Finally, I have conducted numerous field trips across Australia for CSIRO, including aerial surveys of breeding waterbirds in the flooded central Australian deserts and biodiversity surveys on Cape York peninsula.
Research Activities
A consistent feature of many bird communities throughout the world is the existence of mixed feeding flocks. Whilst costs, benefits, and ecological structure of mixed feeding flocks have been reasonably well researched, there are few examples attempting to quantify the roles that individuals play in their specific component of the flock, and none that use social network analysis across both spatial and temporal scales to investigate how individuals can influence the social organisation of populations. I will be using data on individual participation in wild Tit (Parus) dominated flocks in Wytham and Bagley woods, and other mixed flock data such as the Thornbill (Acanthiza) dominated flocks in Mulligan's Nature Reserve in Australia that led me to this project. This project aims to contribute to research into the social roles that individuals and species play in interspecific feeding flocks, the influence of environmental conditions on mixed-species social networks, and the feedback these networks might have on the ecological conditions influencing evolutionary change in micro- and macro-populations.
Selected Recent Papers
O'Connell, D, Farine, D, O'Connor, M., Dunlop, M. (2010) Integration and implementation sciences - the next Big Science Project. Edited by G. Bammer.
Farine, D.R., O'Connell, D., Grant, T. and Poole, M.L (2010). Opportunities for energy efficiency and biofuel production in Australian wheat farming systems. Biofuels 1(4), 547-561.
Farine D.R., O'Connell D, Grant T, Thorburn P.J. (2008) Investigating variation and uncertainty in agricultural production systems: examples for Australia. Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on LCA in the Agri-Food sector pp.100-107, November 12-14, Zurich.
