David Watson

Biography

For the past 20 years or so, I have been engaged in ecological research, both within Australia and in various parts of the Neotropics. My current research interests fall into four broad areas: the biological consequences of habitat fragmentation' ecological interactions between plants and animals with an emphasis on parasitic plants, biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes, and biodiversity survey methods. Combining community-scale descriptive work with species-specific studies, most of my work is restricted to vertebrates, although I recognize the central role that arthropod and microbial assemblages play in these systems. I have complemented this community-level descriptive approach with a resource-based experimental approach, treating mistletoe and other parasitic plants as model systems. Some of my research has been conducted in national parks, travelling stock reserves and other public lands, but most of my field sites are on private land and I work closely with natural resource agencies, regional bodies and individual landholders to convert my findings into practical on-ground outcomes.

Research Interest

Ecology