By the Numbers
A look at 25 years of publications from a different angle than the full list: what the work is about, rather than what order it arrived in. Most of it is ecological data science — building and analysing large biodiversity datasets to get at environmental problems: fire, climate change, carbon cycling, and the loss of biodiversity in cities and beyond. It also tracks how the body of work has grown, and how my role in it has shifted from doing the research myself to helping run a group that does.
The themes below were grouped by gpt-5, reading the title and abstract of each paper (164 of 166 works have an abstract available; the rest were placed on their titles alone). Treat the groupings as approximate — many papers could sit reasonably in more than one theme, and each is shown in only one.
Research themes, ranked by size
- Plant functional traits 37 papersGlobal patterns and theory of plant traits across phylogeny and environments, including wood density, leaf economics, trait–climate links, functional distinctiveness, and community assembly using traits and phylogeny.Accounting for functional diversity in biodiversity protection measures (2026) · Beyond species means – the intraspecific contribution to global wood density variation (2026)
- Decomposition and flammability 28 papersHow plant traits, termites, microbes and environment control wood and litter decomposition, nutrient release, and fuel flammability, including global syntheses, models, and empirical tests.Termite discovery disrupts microbial succession and deadwood decay (2026) · Faster than expected: release of nitrogen and phosphorus from decomposing woody litter (2025)
- Citizen science and urban biodiversity 21 papersDeveloping and testing data‑driven biodiversity monitoring with citizen science, ecoacoustics and drones; urban bird ecology and restoration; data quality, curation, and large‑scale abundance estimation.Applying the spectral variability hypothesis to arid shrublands using multispectral drone imagery (2026) · Long unobserved and recently discovered: towards a better understanding of protected‐area species dynamics using curated species lists (2026)
- Macroecology, CO2 and gradients 20 papersBroad‑scale patterns and mechanisms across climates and clades: CO2 physiology and water relations, trait plasticity and adaptation, species richness and dispersal, defenses, fruit types, range limits and climate‑change projections.Predicting decay in functional diversity in plant communities under future climates (2026) · Hungry and thirsty: Effects of CO2 and limited water availability on plant performance (2019)
- Analytical tools and data infrastructure 17 papersSoftware, databases and statistical methodology enabling trait–phylogeny integration, evolving datasets, accuracy metrics, and laboratory/field protocols for plant ecology and biodiversity science.infinitylists: A Shiny application and R package for rapid generation of place‐based species checklists (2025) · APCalign: an R package workflow and app for aligning and updating flora names to the Australian Plant Census (2024)
- Mycorrhizae and symbioses 13 papersEcology and evolution of plant–microbe mutualisms, especially arbuscular mycorrhizas and N2‑fixation, including life‐history strategies, colonization intensity, trait frameworks for fungi, and pathways to mutualism breakdown.Progressing beyond colonization strategies to understand arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal life history (2024) · Finding fungal ecological strategies: Is recycling an option? (2020)
- Fire ecology and recovery 9 papersPlant strategies and community responses to fire regimes, seed thermal niches, flammability mixtures, and biodiversity dynamics and monitoring after the 2019–2020 Australian megafires; includes a national Fire Ecology Database.Continental‐scale empirical evidence for relationships between fire response strategies and fire frequency (2025) · Defining the pyro‐thermal niche: do seed traits, ecosystem type and phylogeny influence thermal thresholds in seeds with physical dormancy? (2025)
- Climate extremes and phenology 8 papersImpacts of heatwaves and drought on plant thermal biology and performance, species phenology shifts, and climate contrasts for native vs. introduced floras; includes risk screening for mammals under extreme heat.Estimating the Impacts of Future Extreme Heat on Dryland Threatened Mammals: An Australian Case Study (2026) · Dress for success: climate pressures predict fur insulation and body size in natural and reintroduced populations of a threatened marsupial (2026)
- Ecosystem case studies and restoration 8 papersApplied studies on ecosystem function, restoration and management across habitats: saltmarsh blue carbon, dam‑altered riparian zones, land‑use and soils, artificial reefs and tropical stream food webs, and practical urban tree management.From dangerous branches to urban banyan: Facilitating aerial root growth of Ficus rubiginosa (2019) · Strong restrictions on the trait range of co-occurring species in the newly created riparian zone of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, China (2019)
- Biocrusts and cryptogams 5 papersBiological soil crusts, lichens and mosses: tissue chemistry and stoichiometry, spectral identification, transplant syntheses, historical resurveys, and global projections of future range shifts.Towards an understanding of future range shifts in lichens and mosses under climate change (2023) · Limited range shifting in biocrusts despite climate warming: A 25‐year resurvey (2023)
Theme mix by year
Plant functional traits
Decomposition and flammability
Citizen science and urban biodiversity
Macroecology, CO2 and gradients
Analytical tools and data infrastructure
Mycorrhizae and symbioses
Fire ecology and recovery
Other
View exact numbers
| Year | Plant functional traits | Decomposition and flammability | Citizen science and urban biodiversity | Macroecology, CO2 and gradients | Analytical tools and data infrastructure | Mycorrhizae and symbioses | Fire ecology and recovery | Other | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 2002 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 2003 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 2006 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 2007 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 2008 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 2009 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 2010 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 2011 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| 2012 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| 2013 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 |
| 2014 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 13 |
| 2015 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 17 |
| 2016 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 2017 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 10 |
| 2018 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| 2019 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 17 |
| 2020 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 12 |
| 2021 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| 2022 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 2023 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 8 |
| 2024 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7 |
| 2025 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 11 |
| 2026 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 14 |
Themes by career period
Each bubble is a theme: x is the mean publication year, y is how many years the theme has been active (span between its earliest and latest paper), size is paper count.
Publications per year, by authorship role
First author (or sole author)
Middle author
Last author
View exact numbers
| Year | First author | Middle author | Last author | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 2002 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 2003 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 2006 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 2007 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| 2008 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 2009 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| 2010 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 7 |
| 2011 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| 2012 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
| 2013 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 8 |
| 2014 | 2 | 8 | 3 | 13 |
| 2015 | 2 | 13 | 2 | 17 |
| 2016 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| 2017 | 1 | 8 | 1 | 10 |
| 2018 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 5 |
| 2019 | 1 | 9 | 7 | 17 |
| 2020 | 0 | 8 | 4 | 12 |
| 2021 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 6 |
| 2022 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| 2023 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 8 |
| 2024 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 7 |
| 2025 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 11 |
| 2026 | 0 | 10 | 4 | 14 |