Adjunct Professor
Peter Mather

Biography

Research theme: Environment, Food
Research discipline: Biogeoscience
Research program: Ecosystems
Research area
Stock structure of commercially important freshwater fishes in the Mekong River basin: Populations of aquatic species that are isolated in space and time will tend to diverge as a response to local adaptation and stochastic processes. Understanding . the scale at which populations of a species are evolving independently is critical both for their long term conservation but also for how best to develop them in culture. This project assessed the spatial scale of population subdivision in two important species of cyprinid fish in the Mekong River basin.
Molecular analysis of wild and cultured stocks of giant freshwater prawn species: Giant freshwater prawn wild and culture fisheries in Asia support an industry worth annually in excess of 1 Billion USD. Currently little is known about the levels and patterns of genetic diversity in either wild or cultured stocks. This project used a variety of molecular markers to characterize genetic diversity and to use this information to assist efforts to conserve natural biodiversity in the species and to identify new approaches for improving culture stocks in the Asia-pacific region.
Evolutionary genetics of the Australian magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen): The Australian magpie is polymorphic for backcolour plumage and backcolour frequencies vary geographically across Australia. This long term study is using molecular, ecological and behavioural approaches to understand the significance of the geographical patterns of plumage variation and to test a number of evolutionary mechanisms that have been proposed to potentially maintain the distributions of backcolours in space an time.
Areas of expertise

• Population Genetics


• Genetics and Evolution


• Applied Genetics of Aquatic Species


• Aquaculture Genetics.

Current grants

• Stock structure of Mekong River Fish Species, A.C.I.A.R. (A$365,000) - 2003 - 2007


• Improving stock quality and Nuttrition in cultured freshwater prawns in the Pacific, A.C.I.A.R. (A$330,000) 2007 - 2010.

Selected research projects

• Stock structure of commercially important freshwater fishes in the Mekong River basin.


• Genetic diversity in wild and cultured stocks of abalone (Haliotis rubra)


• Molecular analysis of wild stocks of giant freshwater prawn species


• Evolutionary genetics of the Australian magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen)


• Impact of hatchery practices on genteic attriibutes of cultured aquatic species.