Mathematically optimizing the management of protected areas in the Antarctic ecosystems

Overview

Antarctica’s biodiversity is fragile and rapidly changing. Plants and animals as well as human activity are much higher within ice-free areas, which cover little of the continent. For these reasons, protecting of ice-free environments is critical for Antarctic ecosystem survival. Threats to the ecological integrity of Antarctica are increasing through climate change, biological invasion, and increasing human activity. Protected areas help to reduce these threats, and they are a cornerstone of conservation.  Consequently, there is the need to create more protected areas. However, we know little about these remote and harsh environments, so new data is needed to help plan protection. Thus, there is the need for some monitoring exercise (on species and ecosystems) to determine where more protected areas should be created. This brings us to the question this project focuses on: what, where, and how often should we monitor ecosystems in Antarctica?

Research activities

• Implement mathematical and statistical methods to analyse value-of-information based on existing, freely available Antarctic data
• use tools to quantify uncertainty and risk in new data from Antarctic ecosystems
• apply methods from operations research, optimization, and modelling to understand the flow of data from collection to policy decisions.

Outcomes

• Fully implemented existing “Value of Information” model using Antarctic data
• new insights on the antarctica biodiversity management
• development of expertise in multidisciplinary research, cutting across mathematics, ecology and biology
• contribute to a paper to be published in the scientific literature.

Skills and experience

You will have:

• at least two years of study in mathematics (statistics, operations research, applied and computational mathematics). This project can be tailored for students from any QUT mathematics major
• programming skills (that you're keen to work on)
• an interest in using mathematics/statistics and conservation decision science techniques to address applied and/or theoretical ecological problems to inform environmental management
• strong communication skills and an interest in communicating with interdisciplinary scientific teams.

We are particularly interested in applicants from groups that are underrepresented in academia, mathematics, and STEM, based on gender, sexuality, race, culture, disability status. You will join an active and diverse research group (QUT Applied Mathematical Ecology Group), and we have a strong focus on supporting your research development.

Scholarships

You may be eligible to apply for a research scholarship.

Explore our research scholarships

Keywords

• protected areas
• decision science
• biodiversity conservation
• threatened species
• ecosystems
• operations research

Contact

Contact the supervisor for more information.