Rob's research group (The SalGo Team) carries out research in the following areas:
Drivers of life history strategies
The evolution of and escape from senescence
Functional trait demography
Species distributions and habitat suitability
Life history oddities and gaps of knowledge
Conservation biology and population forecast
Comparative demography
Population modelling
Rob's ultimate goal is to develop an integrative academic research programme bringing together biochemical, anatomic and physiological approaches to examine demographic aspects of an organism' life cycle through a combination angles including field and lab work, as well as ecological modeling and comparative biology.
Center of Excellence in Environmental Decisions, University of Queensland, Australia
Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Germany
University of Sheffield, UK
Publications
Bridging gaps in demographic analysis using phylogenetic imputation
October 2020
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Journal article
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Conservation Biology
The projected degradation of subtropical coral assemblages by recurrent thermal stress.
September 2020
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Journal article
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The Journal of animal ecology
Subtropical coral assemblages are threatened by similar extreme thermal stress events to their tropical counterparts. Yet, the mid- and long-term thermal stress responses of corals in subtropical environments remain largely unquantified, limiting our capacity to predict their future viability. The annual survival, growth and recruitment of 311 individual corals within the Solitary Islands Marine Park (Australia) was recorded over a 3-year period (2016-2018), including the 2015/2016 thermal stress event. These data were used to parameterise integral projection models quantifying the effect of thermal stress within a subtropical coral assemblage. Stochastic simulations were also applied to evaluate the implications of recurrent thermal stress scenarios predicted by four different Representative Concentration Pathways. We report differential shifts in population growth rates (λ) among coral populations during both stress and non-stress periods, confirming contrasting bleaching responses among taxa. However, even during non-stress periods, the observed dynamics for all taxa were unable to maintain current community composition, highlighting the need for external recruitment sources to support the community structure. Across all coral taxa, projected stochastic growth rates (λs ) were found to be lowest under higher emissions scenarios. Correspondingly, predicted increases in recurrent thermal stress regimes may accelerate the loss of coral coverage, species diversity and structural complexity within subtropical regions. We suggest that these trends are primarily due to the susceptibility of subtropical specialists and endemic species, such as Pocillopora aliciae, to thermal stress. Similarly, the viability of many tropical coral populations at higher latitudes is highly dependent on the persistence of up-current tropical systems. As such, the inherent dynamics of subtropical coral populations appear unable to support their future persistence under unprecedented thermal disturbance scenarios.
Towards a comparative framework of demographic resilience
September 2020
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Journal article
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Trends in Ecology and Evolution
How I ran a virtual research retreat during a pandemic.
August 2020
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Journal article
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Nature
Longevity, body dimension and reproductive mode drive differences in aquatic versus terrestrial life-history strategies
Publisher Correction: Open Science principles for accelerating trait-based science across the Tree of Life.
April 2020
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Journal article
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Nature ecology & evolution
An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.
Open Science principles for accelerating trait-based science across the Tree of Life.
March 2020
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Journal article
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Nature ecology & evolution
Synthesizing trait observations and knowledge across the Tree of Life remains a grand challenge for biodiversity science. Species traits are widely used in ecological and evolutionary science, and new data and methods have proliferated rapidly. Yet accessing and integrating disparate data sources remains a considerable challenge, slowing progress toward a global synthesis to integrate trait data across organisms. Trait science needs a vision for achieving global integration across all organisms. Here, we outline how the adoption of key Open Science principles-open data, open source and open methods-is transforming trait science, increasing transparency, democratizing access and accelerating global synthesis. To enhance widespread adoption of these principles, we introduce the Open Traits Network (OTN), a global, decentralized community welcoming all researchers and institutions pursuing the collaborative goal of standardizing and integrating trait data across organisms. We demonstrate how adherence to Open Science principles is key to the OTN community and outline five activities that can accelerate the synthesis of trait data across the Tree of Life, thereby facilitating rapid advances to address scientific inquiries and environmental issues. Lessons learned along the path to a global synthesis of trait data will provide a framework for addressing similarly complex data science and informatics challenges.
Global gene flow releases invasive plants from environmental constraints on genetic diversity.
February 2020
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Journal article
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
When plants establish outside their native range, their ability to adapt to the new environment is influenced by both demography and dispersal. However, the relative importance of these two factors is poorly understood. To quantify the influence of demography and dispersal on patterns of genetic diversity underlying adaptation, we used data from a globally distributed demographic research network comprising 35 native and 18 nonnative populations of Plantago lanceolata Species-specific simulation experiments showed that dispersal would dilute demographic influences on genetic diversity at local scales. Populations in the native European range had strong spatial genetic structure associated with geographic distance and precipitation seasonality. In contrast, nonnative populations had weaker spatial genetic structure that was not associated with environmental gradients but with higher within-population genetic diversity. Our findings show that dispersal caused by repeated, long-distance, human-mediated introductions has allowed invasive plant populations to overcome environmental constraints on genetic diversity, even without strong demographic changes. The impact of invasive plants may, therefore, increase with repeated introductions, highlighting the need to constrain future introductions of species even if they already exist in an area.
population genetics, global change, demography, plant invasion, adaptation
