Thursday 10 April, 8pm
ANBG Theatrette, Clunies Ross St, Black Mountain
Guest Speaker: Associate Professor David Watson, Charles Sturt University
Topic: Of Mistletoes and Mechanisms: Advances in Understanding Their Ecological Role in Australian Woodlands
We have something very special for members at our April meeting. Our guest speaker is the leading authority on mistletoe ecology worldwide. David is an ecologist interested in the factors affecting diversity patterns. He has conducted numerous empirical and theoretical studies of the determinants of diversity, ranging from cloud-forests of southern Mexico to arid shrublands in central Australia. He has a particular interest in mistletoe and has suggested that it operates as a keystone resource in forests throughout the world. Recent projects on Barro Colorado Island, Panama and in Washington state complement ongoing studies in south-eastern Australia. David was born and grew up in Melbourne, completed a BSc (Hons) degree at Monash University, with a double major in Botany and Zoology, then earned his PhD in ecology at the University of Kansas USA.
He became interested in mistletoes during Honours research in Wimmera, kept an eye out for them during fieldwork for his PhD in southern Mexico and Costa Rica. He began undertaking research on mistletoes after he joined Charles Sturt University in 2000. He has ongoing studies in eastern and central Australia and central America, as well as collaborations with researchers in the USA, Canada, Brazil and Europe. In addition to mistletoe, his research program has two other main themes: developing solutions to habitat fragmentation and managing biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. For the students at Burrumbuttock Public School though, where David lives, he is known simply as "Doctor Dave"
Rosemary
