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Dr Simon Hart

Lecturer in Quantitative Biology

School of the Environment
Faculty of Science
s.hart@uq.edu.au
+61 7 344 31074

Overview

The goal of our research is to understand the processes driving the rise and fall of populations of species within communities.

Our research has helped to quantify the influence of demographic stochasticity, individual variation, phenotypic plasticity, rapid evolution, and spatial environmental heterogeneity on population and community dynamics. We are also interested in the role of non-stationary environments, fluctuating environments, and ‘extreme events’ on dynamics and distributions.

We focus on the biology of flowing freshwater ecosystems — streams, rivers, and associated wetlands. These systems provide wonderfully challenging opportunities for combining theory, observations, and experiments to discover how nature works.

More importantly, freshwater ecosystems are, per unit area, the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet, and yet they remain underexplored, underappreciated, and under threat.

We hope our work can help to redress these issues.

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland

Publications

View all Publications

Grants

View all Grants

Supervision

  • Rapid evolution and the dynamics and stability of ecological communities.

    Doctor Philosophy

  • The effects of rapid evolution and phenotypic plasticity on ecological dynamics in fluctuating environments

    Doctor Philosophy

  • The effects of rapid evolution on ecological dynamics and stability in variable environments

    Doctor Philosophy

View all Supervision

Available Projects

  • How does rapid evolution affect ecological dynamics era global environmental change

    Our international team of ecologists and evolutionary biologists based at prestigious universities in Australia, the USA, and Canada has a fully-funded (including both salary and research funds) PhD project exploring how rapid evolution influences population dynamics in an era of global environmental change.

    Understanding why population sizes of plants and animals rise and fall is a fundamental problem in ecology, and underpins our ability to predict environmental impacts, and to manage threatened, harvested and pest species. Dominant explanations for the rise and fall of species have focused on environmental impacts and species interactions but have typically excluded the ability of species to rapidly evolve to changing conditions. This project will combine theory, lab and field experiments, and molecular tools to understand when and how rapid evolution affects the dynamics of plants and animals in an era of global environmental change.

    The project will focus on species in subtropical freshwater ecosystems in Southeast Queensland, Australia. These systems provide wonderfully challenging opportunities for combining theory, observations, and experiments to discover how nature works. And importantly, freshwater ecosystems are, per unit area, the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet, yet they remain under explored, underappreciated, and under threat.

    Students on this project will receive world class training at the cutting edge of eco-evolutionary biology, will have the opportunity to develop strong professional networks nationally and internationally, and will be ideally placed to pursue a career in the university, government, or private sectors.

    The successful candidate will join a young but experienced team of ecologists and evolutionary biologists to work on a funded Australian Research Council Discovery Project “How does rapid evolution affect the dynamics and stability of ecological communities?” The student will be based in the School of Biological Sciences at The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia and will be supervised by Dr Simon Hart and Dr Masato Yamamichi. Students will be co-advised by scientists at MIT (Assoc. Prof Serguei Saavedra), the University of British Columbia (Assist. Prof Rachel Germain), and the University of Arkansas (Prof. Adam Siepielski), and will have opportunities for international travel.

View all Available Projects

Publications

Featured Publications

Book Chapter

  • The dimensions of species coexistence

    Levine, Jonathan M. and Hart, Simon P. (2020). The dimensions of species coexistence. Unsolved problems in ecology. (pp. 145-159) edited by Andrew Dobson, Robert D. Holt and David Tilman. Princeton, NJ, United States: Princeton University Press. doi: 10.1515/9780691195322-014

  • Incorporating historical perspectives into systematic marine conservation planning

    Ban, Natalie C., Kittinger, John N., Pandolfi, John M., Pressey, Robert L., Thurstan, Ruth H., Lybolt, Matt J. and Hart, Simon (2014). Incorporating historical perspectives into systematic marine conservation planning. Marine historical ecology in conservation. (pp. 207-233) Santa Barbara, CA, United States: University of California Press. doi: 10.1525/california/9780520276949.003.0010

Journal Article

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

  • Rapid evolution and the dynamics and stability of ecological communities.

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • The effects of rapid evolution and phenotypic plasticity on ecological dynamics in fluctuating environments

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • The effects of rapid evolution on ecological dynamics and stability in variable environments

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Modelling population dynamics and trophic interactions in freshwater ecosystems, with platypus as a model species

    Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

Possible Research Projects

Note for students: The possible research projects listed on this page may not be comprehensive or up to date. Always feel free to contact the staff for more information, and also with your own research ideas.

  • How does rapid evolution affect ecological dynamics era global environmental change

    Our international team of ecologists and evolutionary biologists based at prestigious universities in Australia, the USA, and Canada has a fully-funded (including both salary and research funds) PhD project exploring how rapid evolution influences population dynamics in an era of global environmental change.

    Understanding why population sizes of plants and animals rise and fall is a fundamental problem in ecology, and underpins our ability to predict environmental impacts, and to manage threatened, harvested and pest species. Dominant explanations for the rise and fall of species have focused on environmental impacts and species interactions but have typically excluded the ability of species to rapidly evolve to changing conditions. This project will combine theory, lab and field experiments, and molecular tools to understand when and how rapid evolution affects the dynamics of plants and animals in an era of global environmental change.

    The project will focus on species in subtropical freshwater ecosystems in Southeast Queensland, Australia. These systems provide wonderfully challenging opportunities for combining theory, observations, and experiments to discover how nature works. And importantly, freshwater ecosystems are, per unit area, the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet, yet they remain under explored, underappreciated, and under threat.

    Students on this project will receive world class training at the cutting edge of eco-evolutionary biology, will have the opportunity to develop strong professional networks nationally and internationally, and will be ideally placed to pursue a career in the university, government, or private sectors.

    The successful candidate will join a young but experienced team of ecologists and evolutionary biologists to work on a funded Australian Research Council Discovery Project “How does rapid evolution affect the dynamics and stability of ecological communities?” The student will be based in the School of Biological Sciences at The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia and will be supervised by Dr Simon Hart and Dr Masato Yamamichi. Students will be co-advised by scientists at MIT (Assoc. Prof Serguei Saavedra), the University of British Columbia (Assist. Prof Rachel Germain), and the University of Arkansas (Prof. Adam Siepielski), and will have opportunities for international travel.

This staff member is a UQ Expert for media in the following fields:

climate change, biodiversity, freshwater, conservation, ecology, evolution

They are happy to lend their expertise to your articles or broadcasts and share their research discoveries and insights with the community via media channels.

For additional assistance with story ideas, general advice and information or help with seeking further experts, please email the UQ Media Team or telephone (07) 3365 1120.

Links

ResearcherID: B-6492-2013

ORCID: 0000-0001-7957-8689

Scopus ID: 36055602500

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