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Photo of Doctor Rick Stuart-Smith

Doctor

Rick Stuart-Smith

Associate Professor

Ecology and Biodiversity

Orcid identifier0000-0002-8874-0083
  • Associate Professor
    Ecology and Biodiversity
  • +61 3 6226 8214 (Work)
  • +61 3 6227 8035 (Fax)
  • Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, Ecology and Biodiversity, IMAS Taroona, Off-Campus

BIO

Associate Professor Rick Stuart-Smith is a research fellow with the Ecology and Biodiversity group in the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies. His research covers aspects of biogeography, community and macro-ecology, and studies of human impacts, such as pollution, exploitation, invasive species and climate change on marine fauna and flora. A major motivation for his research is to improve the way marine biodiversity is monitored, reported, managed and protected, through contributing to more ecologically-informed policy at larger scales, and guiding local management.

Biography

Rick completed his PhD at the University of Tasmania in 2007, studying the ecology of freshwater fishes. In 2006, he started work on a field-based project at the Tasmanian Aquaculture and Fisheries Institute, leading a small team of divers to survey rocky reef ecological communities at sites around the Tasmanian coastline and Bass Strait Islands. In late 2007, he and Graham Edgar founded the Reef Life Survey program (RLS), starting with a 3-year pilot project to test the effectiveness of training and supporting a national network of recreational divers to undertake detailed reef biodiversity surveys. RLS has since grown significantly, in Australia and internationally. Rick has dived and undertaken biodiversity surveys of rocky and coral reefs all around Australia, across the Pacific Ocean, in the Mediterranean, Atlantic, Caribbean, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean. He has trained ~250 divers to undertake RLS surveys, and undertaken collaborative field research with the Smithsonian Institution and international NGOs such as the Wildlife Conservation Society and Fauna and Flora International. His research primarily revolves around field-collected marine biodiversity data, and incorporates first-hand experience with a diversity of marine environments and faunas.

Career summary
Qualifications

PhD (2007): The Importance of Complex Habitats for the Predator-Prey Interaction Between the Threatened Galaxiid Fish and an Introduced Salmonid. University of Tasmania
BSc (1st Class Hons)(2001): University of Tasmania

SCHOOL AND PORTFOLIO

  • Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies

UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

  • 14 Life Below Water

FIELD OF RESEARCH