Presentation title: The global emergence of tipping point drivers of ecosystem disruption and vegetation reorganization

Bio: Craig D. Allen is a Research Scholar in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of New Mexico. He recently retired from the U.S. Geological Survey as a research ecologist and founding leader of the New Mexico Landscapes Field Station, based in the Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico, where he has conducted ecological research since 1981. Craig continues to do place-based, long-term research on the disturbance ecologies and environmental histories of Southwest US landscapes, and the responses of western US mountain ecosystems and forests globally to climate change, with many international collaborations. An elected Fellow of the Ecological Society of America (ESA) and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) “for outstanding leadership in the synthesis of global forest responses to climate change, built from worldwide collaboration and a deep understanding of the environmental history of the southwestern United States”; also received the US Department of Interior’s highest honorary recognition, the Distinguished Service Award: https://www.usgs.gov/centers/fort-collins-science-center/news/ecologist-recognized-department-interior-exceptional

Presentation title: Indigenous Knowledge is saving our iconic species

Bio: Teagan is a proud Arabanna woman. She grew up in Newcastle (Awabakal country) and has worked in strategic policy reform, community engagement and biodiversity conservation across NSW, ACT and WA for the past 15 years. Teagan holds: a Bachelor of Applied Science; Bachelor of Education; and a Masters in Marine Science and Management.

Teagan believes the answer to the conservation issues facing Australia lies in the Indigenous-led use of Traditional Knowledge. She is currently undertaking a PhD with the University of Melbourne; Investigating systemic changes to empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Land and Sea Managers in biodiversity conservation.

Currently serving as Deputy Chair of the Federal Minister for the Environment’s Indigenous Advisory Committee (IAC), Teagan serves on several committees and boards, including Biodiversity Council, Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists and North Australian Land and Sea Management Alliance.

Presentation title: Threats and solutions to safeguard the vegetation of South Pacific islands

Bio: Dr. Jean-Yves Hiro MEYER (PhD at the Université de Montpellier, France, in 1994, Post-doctoral research scholar at the University of Hawaii, USA, in 1997, Scientific Director at the Conservatoire Botanique National de Mascarin, La Réunion Island, France, in 2001, Research Associate in Botany at the National Tropical Botanical Garden of Hawaii since 2008) is a research scientist working in French Polynesia and other Indo-Pacific Islands for the past 30 years. He was hired at the French Polynesian Department of Research in 2002, and was its Director between 2014-2020. A plant ecologist, field botanist and conservation biologist, and a recognized expert on invasive alien species in Pacific islands he is actively involved in research studies on the native and alien flora and fauna of French Polynesia where he organized multidisciplinary field-expeditions in the different archipelagoes (Austral, Marquesas, Society, Tuamotu). He also collaborates as an expert on numerous biodiversity projects across the Pacific (e.g. for the South Pacific Regional Environmental Programme, the Pacific Invasives Learning Network, Conservation International Micronesia-Polynesia Hotspot, IRD New-Caledonia, Cook Islands National Environment Service, Parque Nacional Rapa Nui, Service de l’Environnement of Wallis et Futuna). A guest Lecturer at the UC Berkeley Gump South Pacific Research Station on Moorea and at the Université de la Polynésie française where he coordinates a course on “Conservation biology and biological invasions on islands” for a Master of Science degree (“Environnement Insulaire Océanien”) for the past 10 years, he advises and mentors undergraduate, graduate, doctoral, and post-doctoral students working in French Polynesia, with projects in the areas of terrestrial plant and animal ecology and conservation biology, habitat restoration, and invasive species management.

Webpage: http://www.jymeyer.com/article-19455118.html

Presentation title: Mountains as model environments to test plant responses to climate extremes

Bio: Dr Susanna Venn is an Associate Professor of Plant Ecology at Deakin University. Her research focusses on the processes that drive vegetation patterns and plant regeneration across alpine landscapes. She plays an executive role in managing the Australian Mountain Research Facility and uses this infrastructure in combination with manipulative experiments to investigate plant responses to drought, warming, fire and reductions in snow. Susanna chairs the Australian Institute of Alpine Studies, is a member of the Victorian Government’s Scientific Advisory Committee, the Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment Scientific Steering Committee and the Afromontane Research Unit Advisory Board.

Twitter: @Susanna_Venn
https://www.deakin.edu.au/about-deakin/people/susanna-venn