Dr Ayesha Tulloch
Faculty of Science,
School of Biology & Environmental Science
Biography
Dr Ayesha Tulloch is a conservation decision scientist with a background in ecology and a passion for building knowledge and tools to address the world’s most pressing challenges of recovering biodiversity whilst maintaining human well-being in landscapes undergoing change due to climate and human activities. It is important to Ayesha that her research is applicable and accessible to the people and organisations that make conservation decisions, and she takes a transdisciplinary approach to her research, drawing on a range of field and analytical skills, collaborations and professional experience to address the global biodiversity crisis we are facing. Ayesha's research team at QUT comprises ecologists, mathematicians, social scientists, food and nutrition scientists, computer scientists, agronomists and conservation biologists who have a common goal of developing resilient interventions and policy that improve both biodiversity and people's livelihoods in human-modified landscapes.To learn more about Ayesha, see her personal website, and to read her publications, please check out Google Scholar.
Research
Despite many efforts to monitor and manage declining species and ecosystems around the world, biodiversity is still not routinely included in mainstream decision-making and continues to decline at the highest rate in human history. Added to this is the problem that both natural and agri-food systems are changing all the time, with climate change likely to increase the impacts of extreme events like drought, fire and economic shocks. Ayesha's goal is to build approaches and tools that can help predict the effectiveness of different kinds of interventions in agri-food systems, and learn how we can best manage dynamic systems to have the best outcomes for people and for nature. She has worked on many conservation problems, including recovering threatened native mammals from the impacts of introduced cats and foxes, working with farmers, conservation organisations and government agencies to restore degraded land, and recovering ecosystems from the Australian megafires of 2019/2020.
Ayesha is a strong supporter of diversity and inclusion and believes that everyone has their own unique path to follow and should be helped through that journey, wherever it takes them. She is a proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community and co-founded the Queensland Chapter of Queers in Science, a national initiative to support LGBTQIA+ people in STEMM.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Personal details
Positions
- Future Fellow
Faculty of Science,
School of Biology & Environmental Science
Keywords
Decision Science, Social-ecological Systems, Biodiversity Conservation, People and Nature, Human Well-being, Environmental Monitoring, Climate Adaptation, Ecosystem Services, Bird Ecology
Research field
Environmental management, Agriculture, land and farm management, Ecological applications
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2020
Qualifications
- Doctor of Philsophy (University of Queensland)
Professional memberships and associations
- Ecological Society of Australia (ESA) - Vice President (Policy and Outreach)
- Australian Threatened Species Index - Advisory Board
- IUCN Conservation Planning Specialist Group - Decision Science Working Group (co-founder)
- National Gang-gang Cockatoo Working Group
- Journal of Applied Ecology - Associate Editor
- Ecological Forecasting Initiative (EFI) - Australia Chapter Member
- Queers in Science - Queensland Chapter co-founder
- BirdLife Australia - Research and Conservation Committee
- Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group (ABCG) - Land-Use Planning Working Group
Teaching
Prospective Honours and PhD students who are interested in biodiversity conservation, sustainable agricultural management, responsible food production and consumption, dealing with extreme events and uncertainty, and science-policy research are encouraged to contact Dr Tulloch-- especially those from groups traditionally underrepresented in STEMM. There are opportunities for competitive funding for domestic and international students through university schemes. Postdoctoral researchers pursuing their own funding are also encouraged to contact Dr Tulloch.
Lecturing:
- BVB311 Conservation Biology - Decision science, conservation prioritisation and optimal monitoring
- Decision Science and Spatial Conservation Prioritisation for Land-Use Planning - Training for non-academic audiences (French and English)
Experience
Dr Tulloch has a large global research network, having led research projects in Australia, New Zealand, Africa, and Europe to help deliver effective policy and on-ground actions for sustainable land management and recovery of species and ecosystems. She works closely with both government agencies and non-government conservation organisations including Bush Heritage Australia, the Wildlife Conservation Society, BirdLife Australia, the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust and the Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group to answer questions related to how, when and where biodiversity conservation actions might be implemented in landscapes where people's livelihoods and well-being must be maintained.
Ayesha has leadership positions in a number of national and international working groups and projects aimed at delivering policy and biodiversity management advice to practitioners and parliamentarians, including being Vice President of Policy and Outreach for the Ecological Society of Australia since 2019. In 2021 Ayesha received the prestigious NSW Tall Poppy of the Year Award from the Australian Institute of Policy and Science for her achievements in science and public outreach, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales (RZSNSW).
Ayesha is particularly interested in research that has direct influence on policy and management. She is a co-creator of the national Threatened Species Index, which has more than 40 partners including all State and Territory governments, and provides an online interactive tool allowing people to interrogate how threatened plants, mammals and birds are faring anywhere in Australia.
Publications
- Tulloch, A., Borthwick, F., Bogueva, D., Eltholth, M., Grech, A., Edgar, D., Boylan, S. & McNeill, G. (2023). How the EAT-Lancet Commission on food in the Anthropocene influenced discourse and research on food systems: a systematic review covering the first 2 years post-publication. The Lancet Global Health, 11(7). https://eprints.qut.edu.au/240826
- Tulloch, A., Oh, R. & Gallegos, D. (2022). Environmental and public health co-benefits of consumer switches to immunity-supporting food. Ambio, 51(7), 1658–1672. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/228585
- Tulloch, A., Miller, A. & Dean, A. (2021). Does scientific interest in the nature impacts of food align with consumer information-seeking behavior? Sustainability Science, 16(3), 1029–1043. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/232186
- Lloyd, T., Fuller, R., Oliver, J., Tulloch, A., Barnes, M. & Steven, R. (2020). Estimating the spatial coverage of citizen science for monitoring threatened species. Global Ecology and Conservation, 23. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/232187
- Ward, M., Tulloch, A., Radford, J., Williams, B., Reside, A., Macdonald, S., Mayfield, H., Maron, M., Possingham, H., Vine, S., O’Connor, J., Massingham, E., Greenville, A., Woinarski, J., Garnett, S., Lintermans, M., Scheele, B., Carwardine, J., Nimmo, D., Lindenmayer, D., Kooyman, R., Simmonds, J., Sonter, L. & Watson, J. (2020). Impact of 2019-2020 mega-fires on Australian fauna habitat. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 4(10), 1321–1326. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/233194
- Tulloch, A., Sutcliffe, P., Naujokaitis-Lewis, I., Tingley, R., Brotons, L., Ferraz, K., Possingham, H., Guisan, A. & Rhodes, J. (2016). Conservation planners tend to ignore improved accuracy of modelled species distributions to focus on multiple threats and ecological processes. Biological Conservation, 199, 157–171. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/233243
- Tulloch, A., Barnes, M., Ringma, J., Fuller, R. & Watson, J. (2016). Understanding the importance of small patches of habitat for conservation. Journal of Applied Ecology, 53(2), 418–429. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/233246
- Tulloch, V., Tulloch, A., Visconti, P., Halpern, B., Watson, J., Evans, M., Auerbach, N., Barnes, M., Beger, M., Chadès, I., Giakoumi, S., McDonald-Madden, E., Murray, N., Ringma, J. & Possingham, H. (2015). Why do we map threats? Linking threat mapping with actions to make better conservation decisions. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 13(2), 91–99. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/233599
- Guisan, A., Tingley, R., Baumgartner, J., Naujokaitis-Lewis, I., Sutcliffe, P., Tulloch, A., Regan, T., Brotons, L., Mcdonald-Madden, E., Mantyka-Pringle, C., Martin, T., Rhodes, J., Maggini, R. & other, a. (2013). Predicting species distributions for conservation decisions. Ecology Letters, 16(12), 1424–1435. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/107414
- Tulloch, A., Possingham, H., Joseph, L., Szabo, J. & Martin, T. (2013). Realising the full potential of citizen science monitoring programs. Biological Conservation, 165, 128–138. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/240816
QUT ePrints
For more publications by Ayesha, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).
Filter publications:
A complete list of publications is available at: https://www.qut.edu.au/about/our-people/academic-profiles/ayesha.tulloch
Awards
- Type
- Visiting Professorships/Fellowships
- Reference year
- 2025
- Details
- Distinguished international academic visitors are selected in a competitive process for a Visiting Erskine Fellowship based on their advances in research and teaching of subjects taught in Business, Engineering, Science, and Health. Dr Tulloch was invited to conduct collaborative research and teaching in the School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science at the University of Canterbury from 15 August to 17 October 2025.
- Type
- Fellowship of a Learned Academy or Membership of AIATSIS
- Reference year
- 2019
- Details
- Lifetime Fellow of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales based on Dr Tulloch's lifetime contribution to the study of zoology and ecology, particularly the ecology of terrestrial birds and mammals, in Australia.
Selected research projects
- Title
- Pathways to Agri-Food Supply Chains That Co-Benefit People and Nature
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- FT210100655
- Start year
- 2021
- Keywords
Projects listed above are funded by Australian Competitive Grants. Projects funded from other sources are not listed due to confidentiality agreements.
Supervision
Current supervisions
- Eavesdropping on vineyards: Machine learning methods for monitoring bird diversity in viticultural landscapes
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Professor Susan Fuller, Adjunct Professor Paul Roe - Drivers of transitional agri-food system pathways toward increased production of sustainable, nutritious plant-based proteins
PhD, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Dr Rudolf Messner, Dr Angela Guerrero Gonzalez - Increasing Adolescents' Pulse Consumption to Support Healthy and Environmentally Sustainable Diets
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Professor Jolieke van der Pols - Influences of climate shocks and nature-based solutions on the resilience of farmers and agri-food systems
PhD, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Professor Carol Richards, Dr Daniel Cruz Lopez - Area-based conservation for nature positive outcomes
PhD, Mentoring Supervisor
Other supervisors: Professor Jonathan Rhodes - Modelling and Optimising Food Systems Impacts on Biodiversity, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions to Enable Sustainable Development
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Professor Kate Helmstedt - Supply chain dynamics behind land clearing for cattle farming in Queensland: How can key actors be incentivized to prevent further clearing?
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Dr Angela Guerrero Gonzalez, Professor Jonathan Rhodes
Completed supervisions (Doctorate)
- Sensory Polluted Soundscapes: Understanding the Impacts on Soniferous Fauna (2026)
- Declining small woodland birds: is removing noisy miners the answer? (2020)
- Effective monitoring for biodiversity conservation (2017)
- Scaling the benefits of agri-environment schemes for biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes (2016)
Completed supervisions (Masters by Research)
- Extreme weather and unintended consequences in climate adaptation interventions for biodiversity (2026)
- Ecoacoustic Monitoring of the Endangered Pink Cockatoo (Lophochroa leadbeateri leadbeateri) in Arid and Semi-Arid Eastern Australia: Insights into Spatial and Temporal Patterns and Distribution (2025)
Supervision topics
The supervisions listed above are only a selection.