Miss Shelby Ryan
Research student
- Email:shelby.ryan@uon.edu.au
Career Summary
Biography
Shelby Ryan is PhD candidate and casual academic in the School of Environmental and Life Sciences at the University of Newcastle. Shelby is researching the status of koalas in New South Wales using emerging drone technologies and thermal imaging. Her research aims to establish reliable models and optimise survey methods to estimate koala density and abundance to assist with localised and landscape scale koala recovery and conservation management.
Prior to commencing her PhD, Shelby completed a Bachelor of Environmental Science and Management (Honours Class I) at the University of Newcastle. For her efforts in the thesis titled ‘Assessing the occupancy and distribution of the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) relative to vehicle collisions as a key spatial threat on the Tomaree Peninsula, Port Stephens, NSW’, Shelby was awarded the Faculty of Science Medal and placed on the Faculty Commendation List. Shelby was awarded a Vice-Chancellor’s PhD Training Priority Scheme Scholarship by the University of Newcastle.
Keywords
- Arboreal
- Bushfire
- Conservation
- Drone
- Koala
- Quantitative ecology
- RPAS
Languages
- English (Mother)
Fields of Research
Code | Description | Percentage |
---|---|---|
410401 | Conservation and biodiversity | 80 |
461199 | Machine learning not elsewhere classified | 20 |
Teaching
Code | Course | Role | Duration |
---|---|---|---|
ENVS3003 |
Conservation Biology School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle |
Demonstrator | 1/10/2021 - 1/11/2021 |
SCIE1001 |
Professional Scientific Thinking The University of Newcastle |
Facilitator | 22/2/2021 - 4/6/2021 |
Publications
For publications that are currently unpublished or in-press, details are shown in italics.
Journal article (4 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link | ||||||||
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2023 |
Beranek CT, Hamer AJ, Mahony SV, Stauber A, Ryan SA, Gould J, et al., 'Severe wildfires promoted by climate change negatively impact forest amphibian metacommunities', Diversity and Distributions, 29 785-800 (2023) [C1] Aim: Changes to the extent and severity of wildfires driven by anthropogenic climate change are predicted to have compounding negative consequences for ecological communities. Whi... [more] Aim: Changes to the extent and severity of wildfires driven by anthropogenic climate change are predicted to have compounding negative consequences for ecological communities. While there is evidence that severe weather events like drought impact amphibian communities, the effects of wildfire on such communities are not well understood. The impact of wildfire on amphibian communities and species is likely to vary, owing to the diversity of their life-history traits. However, no previous research has identified commonalities among the amphibians at most risk from wildfire, limiting conservation initiatives in the aftermath of severe wildfire. We aimed to investigate the impacts of the unprecedented 2019¿2020 black summer bushfires on Australian forest amphibian communities. Location: Eastern coast of New South Wales, Australia. Methods: We conducted visual encounter surveys and passive acoustic monitoring across 411 sites within two regions, one in northeast and one in southeast New South Wales. We used fire severity and extent mapping in two multispecies occupancy models to assess the impacts of fire on 35 forest amphibian species. Results: We demonstrate a negative influence of severe fire extent on metacommunity occupancy and species richness in the south with weaker effects in the north¿reflective of the less severe fires that occurred in this region. Both threatened and common species were impacted by severe wildfire extent. Occupancy of burrowing species and rain forest specialists had mostly negative relationships with severe wildfire extent, while arboreal amphibians had neutral relationships. Main Conclusion: Metacommunity monitoring and adaptive conservation strategies are needed to account for common species after severe climatic events. Ecological, morphological and life-history variation drives the susceptibility of amphibians to wildfires. We document the first evidence of climate change-driven wildfires impacting temperate forest amphibian communities across a broad geographic area, which raises serious concern for the persistence of amphibians under an increasingly fire-prone climate.
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Nova | |||||||||
2022 |
Howell LG, Johnston SD, O'Brien JK, Frankham R, Rodger JC, Ryan SA, et al., 'Modelling Genetic Benefits and Financial Costs of Integrating Biobanking into the Captive Management of Koalas', ANIMALS, 12 (2022) [C1]
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Nova | |||||||||
2022 |
Howell LG, Clulow J, Jordan NR, Beranek CT, Ryan SA, Roff A, Witt RR, 'Drone thermal imaging technology provides a cost-effective tool for landscape-scale monitoring of a cryptic forest-dwelling species across all population densities', WILDLIFE RESEARCH, 49 66-78 (2022) [C1]
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Nova | |||||||||
2020 |
Witt RR, Beranek CT, Howell LG, Ryan SA, Clulow J, Jordan NR, et al., 'Real-time drone derived thermal imagery outperforms traditional survey methods for an arboreal forest mammal', PLOS ONE, 15 (2020) [C1]
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Nova | |||||||||
Show 1 more journal article |