My research interests centre on the management of natural resources, in particular forest ecology and the effect of landscape fragmentation. I am a plant ecologist, with special expertise in bryophytes (mosses and their relatives) and lichens.
Career Summary
My interest in ecology began with an inspiring summer (1988-89) as a volunteer for geographers at the University of Tasmania. My addiction to naming plants and for landscape ecology has its source in that summer and with Dr Jocelyn Hughes (University of Melbourne, 1988). Determined to see and understand more of the Tasmanian bush, I did Honours with Professor Jamie Kirkpatrick on the plant communities of the Lake Augusta sand dunes (1990). This topic neatly combined my interest in coastal geomorphology (Dr Eric Bird, UMelbourne) and Tasmanian vegetation. I then ventured back to the big smoke and represented the plant world in Professor Andy Beattie's bug lab at Macquarie University in Sydney. I collaborated with State Forests of NSW on an offshoot to their Environmental Impact Statement for production forests north of Sydney, and investigated patterns of bryophyte and lichen diversity in this landscape.
After my PhD (1993-1996), I started a 5 year post-doctoral position at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. Through my position with the National Centre for Excellent in Sustainable Forest Management at the U of A, I managed a project that monitored plant, bryophyte and lichen response to a selective harvesting trial in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The harvesting was the first selective logging in a province known for large scale clear cutting. The position was interrupted by an offer of an Associate Lectureship at the University of Tasmania, which I took up in March 1999. I was promoted to Lecturer in 2002. My research interests still centred on forest ecology but now include the ecology of grassland and buttongrass moorland. I have been half-time appointment since having children in 2000 (Thomas, and Simon 2002).
Community Engagement
My first year class is working on the physical geography of the Sandy Bay Rivulet (one of the most urban streams in the Hobart area) with the intention of producing information for a community group. The Friends of the Sandy Bay Rivulet aims to rehabilitate sections of the lower Rivulet from their present weedy and hardened state (http://fosbr.org.au).
I have been the expert judge for the Environment section of the Young Achiever Awards (2002-2006).
Research Interests
I have published on the effect of landscape fragmentation on moss in temperate forests in Journal of Applied Ecology and Journal of Biogeography. I have recently reviewed this field with a colleague who works on fragmentation in Brazilian Amazonia (Dr Charles Zartman), and was invited to speak at an international meeting on conservation ecology hosted by a consortium of Fennoscandian research institutions in Sweden in November 2005.
I am actively supervising six research students (Honours, Masters & PhD).
Projects
With rapid land clearing and controversial forest practices continuing in Australia, an understanding of the patterns of existing biodiversity and their response to disturbance is vital. My current research focuses on:
1) the effect of landscape fragmentation by examining diversity in both vegetation remnants and the surrounding matrix. I have collaborated with two highly respected ecologists on fragmentation projects. The first study was with Professor Jamie Kirkpatrick (University of Tasmania) who has been investigating diversity in remnant vegetation in Tasmania's drier areas as part of a five year Land and Water Resources Research and Development Corporation grant.
2) The second fragmentation study is IRGS funded and is a collaboration with Dr David Lindenmayer of The Australian National University. This proposal is novel and has international significance for four reasons: (a) a focus on much-neglected components of biodiversity, (b) the inclusion of these groups in a large-scale fragmentation study, (c) the inclusion of remnant context or 'matrix' (the land surrounding remnants) and (d) a focus on life history attributes or functional groups rather than species alone. This study has resulted in two publications in a top ranking ecology journal (Journal of Applied Ecology and in prep for JAppEcol).
3) understanding bryophyte and lichen distribution at a local scale in wet sclerophyll forests (funded with a WARRA LTER grant; http://www.warra.com/warra/); and
4) urban ecology (student collaboration, see below).
Teaching
I teach part of the first year course (Environment and Society) and of a second year course (Wilderness and Natural Area Management). Environment and Society looks at human impact on the natural environment. The focus is on pressures created by a combination of human population and consumption, the effect of these pressures, and ways that pressure can be alleviated. As part of the Natural Environment Field Techniques course, I teach a section on bryophyte ecology, sampling and identification.
UnitsSelected Publications:- Pharo, E.J., Lindenmayer, D.B., & Taws, N., 2004, 'The effects of large-scale fragmentation on bryophytes in temperate forests', Journal of Applied Ecology, 41 http://www.geol.utas.edu.au/geography/staff/emma_pharo/Pharo_Lindenmayer_Appendix_1.pdf, pgs. 910-921
- Pharo, E.J. & Beattie, A.J., 2002, 'The association between substrate variability and bryophyte and lichen diversity in Eastern Australian forests.', The Bryologist, 105, pgs. 11-26
- Pharo, E.J. and Beattie, A.J., 2001, 'Can management forest types predict bryophyte and lichen diversity?', Australian Journal of Botany , 49, pgs. 1-8
- Pharo, E.J., Beattie, A.J. and Pressey, R.L., 2000, 'Effectiveness of using vascular plants to select reserves for bryophytes and lichens', Biological Conservation, 96 (3), pgs. 371-378
- Pharo, E.J. and Vitt, D.H., 2000, 'Local variation in bryophyte and macro-lichen cover and diversity in a montane forest', The Bryologist , 103, pgs. 455-466
- Pharo, E.J. and Blanks, P.A.M., 2000, 'Managing a neglected component of biodiversity: a study of bryophyte diversity in production forests of Tasmania's northeast', Australian Forestry , 63 (2), pgs. 128-135
- Pharo, E.J., 2001, 'Title Bryophytes and the morphospecies concept: A comparison of novice and expert sorting', Pacific Conservation Biology , ., pgs. 290-291
Full Publication List Current and Supervised Project/s:
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