Urban areas present challenging environments for biodiversity, but they are also home to a diverse array of plants, animals, insects and microorganisms that make important contributions to ecosystem resilience and human health and wellbeing. The Biodiverse Cities research group investigates questions related to the ecology in, of, for and with cities.
Examples of research interests include:
- quantifying biodiversity through spatial datasets and field work
- measuring urban impacts on biodiversity
- urban environments as social-ecological-cultural-technical systems
- urban biodiversity conservation, management, maintenance and governance
- relationships between biodiversity and human health and wellbeing
- biodiversity positive urban design
- urbanisation gradients and comparative ecology of cities and towns
Contact
For enquiries, please email Amy Hahs - amy.hahs@unimelb.edu.au
Academics and researchers in the Biodiverse Cities research group.
Academic staff
Nick Williams
Researchers
Juan Reyna Monrreal
Evariste Rutebuka
Julia Schiller
Zoe Davis
Lu Cao
Zoe Metherell
Sisley Irwin
Katherine Horsfall
Sophia Blosfelds
Phillipa Bell
Find a supervisor
The following staff are available to supervise honours and masters research in the Biodiverse Cities research group.
Professor Nick Williams
Nick's research seeks to understand how urbanisation influences biodiversity patterns and ecosystem processes and develop applied solutions to reduce their negative impacts.
Project topics:
- Native grassland and grassy woodland ecology, management and restoration.
- How urbanisation alters plant and animal traits.
- Developing and evaluating Green Roofs Systems for SE Australia.
Dr Amy Hahs
Amy looks at the impacts of urban environments on plants, animals, and other organisms, the relationship this has with human health and wellbeing, and how we can develop collaborative, interdisciplinary approaches to create better cities for biodiversity and people.
Project topics:
- How urban environments affect the composition, distribution and abundance of plants, animals, ecosystems and green spaces.
- Relationships between biodiversity, green spaces and human health and wellbeing.
- How the policy, planning, design and management of urban greenspaces can be adjusted to better support positive outcomes for biodiversity and people.
Dr Marie Dade
Marie is an urban landscape ecologist who is interested in understanding the social, health and environmental benefits that urban greenery provides to people, and identifying how we can manage these spaces to increase benefits to people while also supporting biodiversity in cities.
Project topics:
- Quantifying the environmental and health benefits provided by different urban park designs.
- Developing indicators and metrics to measure and monitor urban greenspace benefits that can be used to inform urban sustainability targets.
- Exploring how small greenspaces contribute to the sustainability of cities (are small greenspaces providing different environmental, health and biodiversity benefits to large urban greenspaces?)
Dr Julian Brown
Julian studies the interactions between plants and animals across urban, agricultural, and fire-prone landscapes. He is particularly interested in the overlap between biodiversity conservation and the provision of ecosystem services, such as conserving native pollinators in food production areas.
Project topics:
- Reintroducing/translocating pollinators and other insects into urban or agricultural environments.
- Quantifying landscape connectivity for urban plants and pollinators.
- Managing native pollinators in urban agriculture.
Dr Rose Macaulay
My research focuses on how people experience and engage with urban nature – including green and blue spaces. I’m interested in the psychological benefits received through nature experiences, and how these can be enhanced through deeper engagement within nature interactions. I use a range of environmental psychology methods including surveys, semi-structured interviews and designing experimental studies to understand the impact of nature experiences on psychological outcomes.
Project topics:
- Experiences and psychological benefits of urban nature.
- Exploring how nature connections support people experiencing eco-distress or eco-anxiety.
- Exploring social and psychological impacts of urban greening interventions.