Research in ecology and evolution

Research groups and labs

• Adaptive Evolution Lab

  Combining experimental and computational approaches to study the effect of environmental variation and stress on natural population.

• Andrianopoulos Lab - Microbial and Developmental Genetics

  Using an array of genetic and genomic approaches, the research in the lab aims to understand how fungi infect humans, get around the immune defence systems and cause disease.

• Baxter Group - Biology of Insect Pests

  We analyse and manipulate insect genomes using molecular genetics to better understand the biology of economically important pests.

• BEAM Lab - Behavioural Ecology and Macroevolution

  Behavioural Ecology and Macroevolution studies of behavioural ecology from a broad evolutionary perspective. We use comparative analyses and field and lab experiments to answer different questions about nature.

• Biodiversity Dynamics Research Group (biodynamos)

  Undertaking research on plant evolution and global change, fire management, animal ecology and conservation decision making.

• Birch Lab: Plant and Fungi Systematics

  Reconstructing branches of the plant and fungal trees of life, investigating the evolution of morphological and ecological traits, and quantifying and describing new taxa.

• Brumley Lab

  Our research group uses mathematical modelling and quantitative video-microscopy to study a range of dynamic processes in biology – crucially at the scale of individual cells – with specific applications in bacterial motility, symbioses, nutrient cycling and flows around coral reefs.

• Centre for Environmental and Economic Research

  A multidisciplinary research group of ecologists, data analysts, economists and animal and plant health specialists that focuses on environmental and economic outcomes.

• Coastal and Estuarine Adaptation Lab

  Coastal and Estuarine Adaptation Lab (CEA Lab) research natural, restored and artificial coastal and estuarine habitats.

• CAMEL (Climatic and Metabolic Ecology Lab)

  The research focus in the Climatic and Metabolic Ecology Lab is on how physical constraints on heat, water and nutritional balances limit the behaviour, distribution and abundance of species.

• Ecophysiology and Flux

  Ecophysiology and flux focuses on the interactions of plants with their environment and the processes that control the functioning of ecosystems.

• Environmental Social Science

  Solutions to environmental and sustainability challenges require an understanding of their economic, social and psychological dimensions. Research disciplines in the group include environmental sociology, environmental psychology, economics, forest management and policy.

• Frankenberg Lab – Synthetic Biology for Conservation

  Researching evolution, development and reproduction (Evo-Devo-Repro) and genomics of vertebrates, especially marsupials, and synthetic biology with ecologically therapeutic applications.

• Golz Group - Plant Developmental Genetics

  Understanding how complex patterns of gene expression are generated and maintained during cell-type specification and differentiation in multicellular organisms.

• Landscape and Forest Dynamics (LaForDy)

  LaForDy focuses on understanding how forest ecosystems and forested landscapes develop and respond to climate and natural and anthropogenic disturbances.

• Mayfield Community Ecology Lab

  Research focuses on community ecology and the conservation of plant and insect communities in human altered environments. We work in tropical and subtropical rain forests and Mediterranean, temperate and tropical grasslands on a diversity of plant and insect species.

• Melbourne Analytical Geochemistry

  Melbourne Analytical Geochemistry—MAG—builds on over 20 years of field-leading trace element and isotope geochemistry.

• Mulder Lab - Evolutionary Ecology of Birds

  Researching the causes and consequences of variability in mating systems, particularly the relative importance of sexual and natural selection, the role of visual and acoustic signals, and the way in which cooperation and conflict interact in complex social groups.

• One Health Research Group

  The One Health Research Group (OHRG) provides solutions for wildlife health issues through research, training and extension that benefit humans, animals and the environment, as well as national and international leadership, communication and coordination.

• Nabity Lab - Plant and Insect Ecology

  Research in the lab broadly addresses questions on species interactions and adaptation. We also continue longstanding interests to understand plant growth, defense, and other functional traits as they change under biotic and abiotic stress.

• PEARG Lab - Pest and Environmental Adaptation

  Research on adaptation of organisms (particularly invertebrates) to environmental stresses including climate change and chemical pollutants, using field sites in the Victorian mountains, in tropical rainforests and in wetlands around Melbourne.

• Plant Systematics Group - Herbarium / Systematics and Biogeography

  We study the phylogeny, classification and biogeography of Australasian plants, including eucalypts, acacias, Eremophila, Nicotiana, Dianella, Grevillea, the family Rutaceae, ferns and bryophytes.

• Quantitative and Applied Ecology

  QAEco work on a range of topics, species and locations related to ecosystem management. We are committed to research regarding conservation and management decisions and passionate about modelling using a range of methods to understand more about the natural world.

• Quantitative Aquatic Ecology and Evolution Lab

  Researching the impacts of, and adaptations to, natural and human-induced flow variability, fishery activity, and environmental change.

• Rafferty Pollination Ecology Lab

  Focusing on the community ecology of plants and pollinators in a changing climate. We use experiments, long-term and historical data, and observations of natural variation to understand how climate change is affecting plants, pollinators, and their interactions.

• Rural Innovation Research Group

  The Rural Innovation Research Group (RIRG) is a social science group that researches and designs innovative pathways for facilitating change and enabling social-ecological resilience.

• Shai Meiri Lab - vertebrate evolution, biogeography and conservation

  The interests of the Shai Meiri Lab lie at an intersection of evolutionary biology, biogeography, conservation biology, macroecology and zoology.

• Soil Molecular Ecology

  Soil Molecular Ecology Group employs advanced bio-molecular and physicochemical approaches to understand the distribution and diversity of microbial and faunal communities in soils, and the processes and mechanisms of soil organisms-mediated carbon, nitrogen and other elemental cycling.

• Stuart-Fox Lab - Animal Behaviour and Evolution

  The Stuart-Fox Lab studies the biology of light and colour, tackling questions at different scales of biological organisation – from optical properties at the nanometre scale to global patterns of colour diversity.

• Urban Ecology and Conservation

  Focusing on the ecology of urban environments, and practical ways to conserve native species and their habitats in cities.

• Urban Light Lab

  The Urban Light Lab addresses questions related to the evolution and maintenance of fitness traits in the face of urban light pollution.

• Verbruggen Laboratory - Algal Biology and Coral Environmental Microbiology

  The lab carries out research on algal biology and coral holobiont functioning. Our eclectic range of work includes biodiversity, genome biology, photophysiology, molecular phylogenetics and evolutionary biology.

• Waterway Ecosystem Research Group (WERG)

  Studying the interactions between landscapes and running waters. We aim to generate knowledge and tools for achieving healthy streams and rivers in urban and rural landscapes.

• Wedell Group - Evolutionary insect lab

  Researching the role of genomic parasites in generating intragenomic conflict, predominantly working with insects, by elucidating the consequences for mating systems, the evolution of new traits, the creation of biological novelty, and the survival of populations.