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Dr Maria Beger

Position
University Academic Fellow in Marine Conservation Science
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.
Location
8.02 Manton
Faculty
Faculty of Biological Sciences
School
School of Biology

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.