ILWS - Institute of Land, Water and Society
Researchers
Associate Professor David Watson
BSc (Hons) Monash, PhD Kansas
School of Environmental Sciences
Assoc Professor David Watson, an ecologist interested in the factors affecting diversity patterns, has conducted numerous empirical and theoretical studies of the determinants of diversity ranging from the cloudforests of southern Mexico to woodland remnants in western Victoria .
Associated with exploring determinants of diversity, he has a longstanding interest in mistletoes and their role in forests and woodlands worldwide and suggests mistletoe may operate as a keystone resource.
Among the many research projects he is currently undertaking are two projects that attracted major ARC Discovery Grants. They are 'Why isn't the world full of mistletoe? An integrative approach to understanding dispersal, recruitment and distribution of parasitic plants' (with collaborators Dr David Roshier and Martin Asmus), a four year project which commenced in 2004; and 'Mistletoe as a keystone resource an experimental test (with collaborator Matt Herring) the first phase of a 20 year project which commenced in 2003.
Other projects, in collaboration with Honours and PhD students, are looking at nestsite selection in woodland birds; the life history and biology of the Painted Honeyeater; the diversity and community composition of insects and spiders (i.e. arthropods) associated with mistletoe clumps; evolution and diversification of tropical mistletoes,; and the dynamics of communities associated with ephemeral creeks in central Australia.
One of the University's team of ornithologists based at its AlburyWodonga (Thurgoona) campus, David has published more than 25 peer reviewed papers and presented at many conferences both in Australia and overseas. One of his papers "Diagnosable vs distinct: evaluating species limits in birds" published in BioScience in 2005 attracted worldwide interest and sparked controversy about just how many undescribed species of birds exist.
David, who is a member of the American Ornithologists Union, International Parasitic Plant Society and International Waterbird Society, was elected to the council of Birds Australia in 2005 on the strength of his research profile in ecology and ornithology.