Welcome to the Biophysical Ecology Lab

Surely the oldest scientific questions concerned the distribution and abundance of animals and plants. A predictive understanding of the habitats in which certain plants and animals occur, and where in their habitat they might be depending on the seasons, the weather and the time of day, were once critical to everyday human survival.

Our research represents a modern take on these old questions, which remain highly significant for conservation, agriculture and human health. Understanding how animals make a living in diverse and changing climates and habitats is also a simply fascinating pure research question.

We take a bottom-up approach to the problem, attempting to understand the basic thermodynamic constraints first – the temperature, water and nutritional requirements.

To do this, we integrate physical data on climate, weather and terrain with knowledge of the behaviour, physiology, life history and morphology of organisms.

To make this integration we use the theoretical principles of biophysical ecology and metabolic theory. In practice, this involves some combination of field work, laboratory measurements and computer simulations. We also integrate molecular tools to understand the phylogenetic and evolutionary context.

Our empirical work is focused on terrestrial invertebrates, especially grasshoppers, but our modelling work spans plants and animals across terrestrial and aquatic biomes.

To find out more, take a look around our site and get in touch if you are interested becoming part of our lab. Read more about research opportunities in the Biophysical Ecology Lab.

We develop and maintain the NicheMapR software package for computing how organisms respond to climate. Click the links below to find out more.

Biological Forecasting and Hindcasting Tools

NicheMapR - Mechanistic Modelling Tools in R

Organisms

Fieldwork

Laboratory

Lab head: Professor Michael Kearney

Mike is a physiological ecologist in the School of BioSciences at The University of Melbourne. A childhood passion of looking for animals in the bush led him to wonder how they manage to survive in some places and not others, and hence to become an ecologist. His research is focused on ways to connect what we can measure about an organism’s basic survival skills and capabilities with what we can measure about their environments and how they change though space and time. From a theoretical point of view, this has led him to work in the fields of microclimate modelling, biophysical ecology and metabolic theory. He also has interests in the evolution of parthenogenetic organisms, palaeo-environments, life history and biogeography. Taxonomically his expertise is with reptiles and grasshoppers but he enjoys studying all kinds of organisms, including plants.

More about Michael:

• ORCID
• Google Scholar
• Twitter
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Fellows and Associates

Graduate and Masters Students

Collaborators

Past Members

The research focus in the Biophysical Ecology Lab is on how physical constraints on heat, water and nutritional balances limit the behaviour, distribution and abundance of species. We tackle these issues with a combination of modelling, laboratory and field work. Most projects will involve some combination of these three approaches, all of which require strong quantitative skills in their implementation.

Potential MSc/PhD Projects

I am open to students proposing their own research projects, as long as they fit within the general area described above and are logistically and financially feasible. In addition, some possible projects on offer are listed below.

Thermal ecology of grasshoppers of the genus Austroicetes: revisiting a classic study in the distribution and abundance of animals

This project is focused on the thermal ecology of different stages of the life cycle of Austroicetes grasshopers. One member of this genus, A. cruciata or the ‘small plague grasshopper’, was the subject of extensive studies by Andrewartha and Birch because of its status as a pest. They mainly focused on the requirements of the eggs from a temperature and moisture perspective. However, there are eight other species in the genus that vary in distribution, phenology and habitat requirements.

This project would involve delving further into the thermal ecology of this group with the broad goal of understanding why their distributions and phenology differ. It could combine field work on habitat use and phenology, laboratory work on thermal and water requirements at different life stages, and modelling work to predict what we see in the field.

Nutritional ecology of matchstick grasshoppers

This project aims to explore some preliminary aspects of the nutritional ecology of matchstick grasshoppers, with a particular focus on the two species we are working on at the moment, Keyacris scurra and Vandiemenella viatica. They appear to be polyphagous, accepting a wide range of different plants as food. However, little is known beyond this.

This project could involve field observations of foraging behaviour of this grasshopper together with laboratory experiments applying different diets. This information will be used to derive better protocols for maintaining captive populations as well as enhancing our understanding of their habitat requirements. The work would be put into the theoretical context of the geometric framework of nutrition.

A mechanistic niche model of the wolf spider Tasmanicosa godefroyii: predicting the dynamics of an abundant predator

This project aims to build a mechanistic niche model of a widespread spider and use it to predict fluctuations in their populations. This species was studied extensively by Bill Humphreys in the 1970s and 1980s and most of the information needed to construct such a model is contained within his papers. These spiders are extremely easy to survey due to their eye-shine at night. The project would involve a combination model development and field work to test the models. It would be highly quantitative in nature. The spiders dig burrows that are used by other organisms and are one of the most common invertebrate predators in many ecosystems in southern Australia. Thus a predictive understanding of their dynamics would contribute to an understanding of important community dynamics.

Professor Michael Kearney
m.kearney@unimelb.edu.au
University of Melbourne
Parkville 3010
Victoria
Australia