Dr Maria Beger
- Job title: University Academic Fellow in Marine Conservation Science
- Email: M.Beger@leeds.ac.uk
- Telephone: +44(0)113 343 2899
- Faculty: Faculty of Biological Sciences
- School: School of Biology
- Location: 8.02 Manton
- Areas of expertise: Maria is a quantitative marine ecologist and conservation scientist integrating field data, spatial models and decision science to find conservation solutions that link theory and practice.
- Faculty profile link: https://biologicalsciences.leeds.ac.uk/school-of-biology/staff/24/dr-maria-beger
I am a conservation ecologist with complementary interests in coral reef ecology and spatial conservation prioritization. I mostly work in the Coral Triangle, the Pacific, the Western Indian Ocean, Japan and Australia. I also work in projects dealing with fish biomass predictions, climate change science, ecosystem services, and global evaluations of protected areas. Current themes I work on are:
- Integrating larval dispersal into spatial planning and conservation;
- How can genetic data inform conservation decisions?
- Managing whole life cycles in migratory animals: integrating telemetry into planning;
- How can we model and manage coral reef resilience?
- Multi-taxon community assembly rules along a tropical to temperate temperature gradient (Australia, Japan)
- Managing range shifts;
- How do pristine reefs differ (Republic of the Marshall Islands)?
- Develop coastal and offshore bioregionalisations (South Pacific);
- Quantifying human-ecological links in coastal ecosystems;
- Which fish are here (fish species counts in Maldives, Philippines, Indonesia, PNG, Australia, Palau, FSM, Marshall Islands, …)
I collaborate with local and regional conservation NGOs, including The Nature Conservancy (Coral Triangle, Micronesia), IUCN (Pacific, Maldives), World Wildlife Fund (Malaysia), Marshall Islands Conservation Society (Republic of the Marshall Islands). I also work with government agencies, such as the NSW Department of Primary Industries and NSW Office of Environment and Heritage in Australia.