Dr Ian Lunt - Resume

Contact details

Research interests

Hello and welcome to my web page. My name is Ian Lunt, and I teach vegetation ecology and management at Charles Sturt University in Albury. I get a kick out of studying how human disturbances affect natural ecosystems. This issue is vitally important in conservation biology, as we need to be able to confidently answer questions like: how have disturbances influenced the vegetation patterns we see? And how do we conserve biodiversity when human disturbances have strongly affected how ecosystems work? If we can't answer these questions, our ability to sustainably manage natural systems is greatly compromised.

Not surprisingly, I usually work in highly disturbed habitats such as temperate native grasslands and woodlands, many of which are threatened with extinction in southern Australia. With my students and colleagues, I study human - ecosystem interactions in three ways:

1. by understanding historical influences on natural ecosystems (how did we get here?),

2. by refining present management regimes (how do we stay afloat?) and

3. by developing restoration methods for the future (how can we get ahead?).

Thus, individual research projects focus on historical ecology, fire and grazing effects, restoration techniques, and related issues. In addition to these research interests, I provide expert advice to many government committees in Victoria and New South Wales, and regularly write extension articles for the broader community.

I conduct my research within CSU's Institute for Land, Water and Society.

If the buttons below do not appear in your web browser, follow these links to view my publication list, paper abstracts, research students and major grants. You can download pdf files of many of my papers from my publication list.

Last Updated: 6 June 2006.