Dale Nimmo

Professoriate

Professor Dale Nimmo

B EnvSci (Hons) Deakin University, PhD Deakin University

Professor in Ecology
Albury / Wodonga
Building 760 Room 108

I am an animal ecologist with broad interests in how 'big' disturbances - things like fire, drought and land clearing - influence biodiversity. I completed my PhD at Deakin University in 2011, which focused on how animal species respond to fire regimes in the semi-arid Murray Mallee region of south eastern Australia. After that, I undertook a research fellowship with Professor Andrew F Bennett (La Trobe University) on the concept of ecological resilience and its relevance to applied ecology, with a particular focus on woodland bird communities and their response to an extreme climactic event: southern Australia's 'Millennium Drought'. I was then awarded an Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Fellowship at Deakin University, during which I continued to work on fire ecology and ecological resilience, but also expanded into research on mammalian predators, namely dingoes, foxes and feral cats.

Current Subjects Taught:

  • BIO112 - Principles of Ecology

Current research Students:

  • Connie Warren (PhD): Biodiversity conservation in modified agricultural landscapes
  • Mark Hall (PhD): The role of linear networks for bird conservation
  • Susannah Hale (PhD): The effects of fire and climatic extremes on mammals
  • Blake Allen (PhD): Movement ecology of specialist and generalist mammals
  • Shannon Braun (PhD): Effects of interactions between fire and predation on reptiles
  • Michelle Bassett (PhD): The impact of the fire regime on mammal communities
  • Hayley Geyley (Hons): Monitoring northern Australia's mammal communities
  • Harry Moore (Hons): the effects of fire on apex and meso predators
  • Andrew Geskche (Hons): Should we promote land sharing or land sparing for biodiversity conservation in our cities?

Previous research students:

  • Adam Cardilini (2010): The impact of urban sprawl on a common wader
  • Mark Hall (2012): Does configuration of roadside vegetation impact avifauna?
  • Catherine Payne (Hons) (2012): The effects of fire on an invasive meso-predator
  • Shannon Braun (Hons) (2013): does fire exacerbate predation pressure for lizard species?
  • Connie Warren (Hons) (2013): Landscape-scale effects of fire on mammalian herbivores
  • Tom Healy (Hons) (2014): The impact of fire on the western grey kangaroo
  • Jessica Lawton (Hons) (2014): Mechanisms for coexistence between rodents
  • Lauren Tworkowski (Hons) (2014): Do fire-scar edges impact reptile communities?
  • Emily Richardson (Hons) (2014): Comparing methods for detecting reptile species
  • Alex Maisey (Hons) (2014): Multi-scale models of an ecosystem engineer, the lyrebird
  • Billy Gearey (Hons) (2014): Trophic ecology of mammal communities
  • Hayley Davis (Hons) (2014): Multi-scale effects of fire on termite communities
  • Brad Farmilo (PhD) (2014): Conserving plant communities in timber plantation landscapes
  • Liz Pryde (PhD) (2014): Conserving biodiversity in tropical timber plantations

Publications:

  1. Chia, E., Bassett, M., Nimmo, D.G., Leonard, S., Ritchie, E. Clarke, M.F., Bennett, A.F. (in press). Fire severity and fire-induced landscape heterogeneity affect arboreal mammals in fire-prone forests. Ecosphere.
  2. Doherty, T., Dickman, C., Nimmo, D.G., Ritchie, E.G. (in press). Multiple threats or multiplying the threats? Interactions between invasive predators and other ecological disturbances. Biological Conservation.
  3. Haslem, A., Nimmo, D.G., Radford, J., Bennett, A.F., (in press). Landscape properties mediate the homogenization of bird communities during extreme drought. Ecology.
  4. Ekanayake, K. Weston, M., Nimmo, D.G., Maguire, G. Endler, J., Kupper, G. (2015). The bright incubate at night: sexual dichromatism and adaptive incubation division in an open-nesting shorebird. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B.
  5. Davis, N.E., Forsyth, D.M., Triggs, B., Pascoe, C., Benshemesh, J., Robley, A., Lawrence, J., Nimmo, D.G., Ritchie, E.G., Lumsden, L. (2015). Interspecific and geographic variation in the diets of sympatric carnivores: dingoes/wild dogs and red foxes in south-eastern Australia. PlosOne.
  6. Nimmo, D.G., Watson, S.J., Forsyth, D., Bradshaw, C.J.A. (2015). Dingoes can help conserve wildlife and our methods can tell. Journal of Applied Ecology.
  7. Beliakov, G., James, S.J., Nimmo, D.G. (2015). Using aggregation functions to model human judgments of species diversity. Information Science.
  8. Bassett, M., Chia, E., Leonard, S., Nimmo, D.G., Holland, G., Ritchie, E.G., Clarke, M.F., Bennett, A.F. (2015) The effects of topographic variation and the fire regime on coarse woody debris: insight from a large wildfire. Forest Ecology and Management.
  9. Pryde, L.C., Holland, G., Watson, S.J., Turton, S.M., Nimmo, D.G.* (2015). Conservation of tropical forest tree species in a native timber plantation landscape. Forest Ecology and Management *senior author.
  10. Newsome, T., Ballard, G.A., Crowther, M., Glen, A., Dellinger, J.A., Flemming, P.S., Greenville, A.C., Johnson, C.N., Lentic, M., Moseby, K.E., Nimmo, D.G., Nelson, M.P., Read, J.L., Ripple, W.J., Ritchie, E.G., Shores, C.R., Wallach, A.D., Wirsing, A.J., Dickman, C.R. (2015). resolving the value of the dingo in ecological restoration. Restoration Ecology.
  11. Nimmo, D.G. (2014). The conflation of needs and wants in sustainable intensification. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.
  12. Forsyth, D., Woolnough, A., Nimmo, D.G., Ritchie, E., Kennedy, M., Watson, I., Pople, T. (2014) comment on the influence of dingoes on the Australian sheep flock. Australian Veterinary Journal.
  13. Payne, C., Ritchie, E.G., Kelly, L.T., Nimmo, D.G.* (2014) Does fire influence the landscape-scale distribution of an invasive mesopredator? PlosOne *senior author
  14. Bennett*, J.M., Nimmo*, D.G., Clarke, R., Thomson, J.R., Hall, M., Radford, J.Q., Bennett, A.F., MacNally, R. (2014) Resistance and resilience to pressures: Can the abrupt end of extreme drought reverse the collapse of an avifauna? Diversity and distributions. *Joint lead authors.
  15. Nimmo, D.G., Kelly, L.T., Farnsworth, L.M., Watson, S.J., Bennett, A.F. (2014) Why do some species have variable responses to fire history? Ecography
  16. Farnsworth, L.M.*, Nimmo, D.G.*, Kelly L.T., Clarke, M.F., Bennett, A.F. Does pyrodiversity beget alpha, beta or gamma diversity? A case study using reptiles from semi-arid Australia. Diversity and Distributions. *Joint lead authors, D.G. Nimmo corresponding author.
  17. Bennett, A.F., Nimmo, D.G., Radford, J. (2014) Riparian vegetation has disproportionately beneficial effects for woodland birds in highly modified landscapes. Journal of Applied Ecology
  18. Johnson, C.J., Crowther, M.S., Dickman, C.R., Letnic, M.I., Newsome, T.M., Nimmo, D.G., Ritchie, E.R., Wallach, A.D.(2014) Experiments in no-impact control of dingoes: comment on Allen et al. 2013. Frontiers in Zoology
  19. Ritchie, E.G., Bradshaw, C., Dickman, C., Hobbs, R., Johnson, E.L., Laurence, B., Lindenmayer, D.B., McCarthy, M.A., Nimmo, D.G., Pressey, B., Watson, D., Woinarski, J. (2013). Continental-scale governance and the hastening of loss of Australia's biodiversity. Conservation Biology.
  20. Nimmo, D.G., Kelly, L.T., Spence-Bailey, L.M., Watson, S.J., Taylor, R., Clarke, M.F., Bennett, A.F. (2013) fire mosaics and reptile conservation in a fire prone region. Conservation Biology.
  21. Ritchie, E.G., Nimmo, D.G., Bradshaw, C.J.A., Burgman, M.A., Martin, J.K., McCarthy, M.A., Parris, K.M., Dickman, C.R., French, K., Hobbs, R., Hughes, L., Johnson, C.N., Johnston, E., Laurance, W.F., Lindenmeyer, D., Lunt, I.D., McIntyre, S., Possingham, H.P. Pressey, B., Watson, D.M., Woinarski, J. (2013). relaxed laws imperil Australian wildlife [Correspondence]. Nature
  22. Kelly, L.T., Dyamen, R., Nimmo, D.G., Clarke, M.G., Bennett, A.F. (2013) Spatial and temporal drivers of small mammal distributions in a semi-arid environment: the role of rainfall, vegetation and life-history. Austral Ecology
  23. Farmilo, B.J.,Nimmo, D.G., Morgan, J.W. (2013). Pine plantations modify local conditions in forest fragments in southeastern Australia: insights from a fragmentation experiment. Forest Ecology and Management.
  24. Cardilini, A., Weston, M., Nimmo, D.G., Sherman, C., Dann, P. (2013). Surviving in sprawling suburbs: suburban environments represent high quality breeding habitat for a widespread shorebird. Landscape and Urban Planning.
  25. Avitable, S., Haslem, A., Kelly, L.T., Taylor, R., Nimmo, D.G., Watson, S., Bennett, A.F., Clarke, M.F. (2013) Systematic fire mapping is critical for fire ecology, planning and management: a case study from the semi-arid Murray Mallee, southeastern Australia. Landscape and Urban Planning.
  26. Nimmo, D.G., Kelly, L.T., Spence-Bailey, L.M., Watson, S.J., Haslem, A., White, J., Clarke, M.F., Bennett, A.F. (2012)Predicting the century-long, post-fire responses of reptiles. Global Ecology and Biogeography.
  27. Weston, M., Dodge, F., Nimmo, D.G., Bunce, A., Miller, K.K. (2012) Do temporary beach closures assist in the conservation of breeding shorebirds on recreational beaches? Pacific Conservation Biology.
  28. Watson, S.J., Taylor, R.S., Nimmo, D.G., Kelly, L.T., Clarke, M.F., Bennett, A.F. (2012) the influence of unburnt patches and distance to refuges on post-fire bird communities. Animal Conservation.
  29. Haslem, A., Avitable, S., Taylor, R., Kelly, L.T., Watson, S.J., Nimmo, D.G., Kenny, S., Callister, K., Spence-Bailey, L.M., Bennett, A.F., Clarke, M.F. (2012) Time-since-fire and inter-fire interval influence on hollow availability for fauna in a fire-prone system. Biological Conservation.
  30. Kelly, L.T., Nimmo, D.G., Spence-Bailey, L.M., Taylor, R., Watson, S.J., Clarke, M.G., Bennett, A.F. (2012) relative influence of the properties of fire mosaics on small mammals; a landscape perspective. Journal of Applied Ecology.
  31. Watson, S.J., Taylor, R.S., Spence-Bailey, L.M., Nimmo, D.G., Kenny, S., Kelly, L.T., Haslem, A., Griffioen, P., Callister, K., Brown, L., Avitable, S., Clarke, M.F., Bennett, A.F. (2012) The Mallee Fire and Biodiversity Project. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria.
  32. Taylor, R.S., Watson, S.J., Nimmo, D.G., Kelly, L.T., Bennett, A.F., Clarke, M.F. (2012) Landscape-scale effects of fire on bird assemblages: does pyrodiversity beget biodiversity? Diversity and Distributions
  33. Watson, S.J., Taylor, R.S., Nimmo, D.G., Kelly, L.T., Haslem, A., Clarke, M.F., Bennett, A.F. (2012)Effects of time-since-fire on bird species: how informative are generalized fire-response curves for conservation management?
  34. Nimmo, D.G., James, S., Kelly, L.T., Watson, S.J., Bennett, A.F. (2011) The decoupling of abundance and species richness in lizard communities. Journal of Animal Ecology Ranked 1/152 in Zoology.
  35. Kelly, L.T., Nimmo, D.G., Spence-Bailey, L.M., Haslem, A., Watson, S.J., Clarke, M.F., Bennett, A.F. (2011) The influence of fire history on small mammal distributions: insights from a 100-year post-fire chronosequence. Diversity and Distributions.
  36. Haslem, A., Kelly, L.T., Nimmo, D.G., Watson, S.J., Kenny, S., Taylor, R. Avitabile, S., Callister, K., Spence-Bailey, L., Clarke, M., Bennett, A.F. (2011) Habitat or fuel? Implications of long-term, post-fire dynamics for the development of key resources for fauna and fire. Journal of Applied Ecology.
  37. Kelly, L.T., Nimmo, D.G., Spence-Bailey, L.M., Clarke, M.F., Bennett, A.F. (2010) the short term responses of small mammals to wildfire in semiarid mallee shrubland, Australia. Wildlife Research.
  38. Clarke, M.F., Avitabile, S.C., Brown, L., Callister, K.E., Haslem, A., Holland, G.J., Kelly, L.T., Kenny, S.A., Nimmo, D.G., Spence-Bailey, L.M., Taylor, R.S., Watson, S.J., Bennett, A.F. (2010) Ageing mallee eucalypt vegetation after fire: insights for successional trajectories in semi-arid mallee ecosystems. Australian Journal of Botany.
  39. Haslem, A., Callister, K.E., Avitabile, S.C., Griffioen, P.A., Kelly, L.T., Nimmo, D.G., Spence-Bailey, L.M., Taylor, R.S., Watson, S.J., Brown, L., Bennett, A.F., Clarke, M.F. (2010) A framework for mapping vegetation over broad spatial extants: A technique to aid land management across jurisdictional boundaries. Landscape and Urban Planning.
  40. Spence-Bailey, L.M., Nimmo, D.G., Kelly, L.T., Clarke, M.F., Bennett, A.F. (2010) maximising trapping efficiency in reptile surveys: the role of seasonality, weather conditions and moon phase on capture success. Wildlife Research.
  41. Nimmo, D.G., Spence-Bailey, L.M., Kenny, S. (2008) range extension of the Millewa Skink Hemiergis millewae, in the Murray-Sunset National Park, Victoria. Victorian Naturalist.
  42. Spence-Bailey, L. & Nimmo, D.G. (2008) A new record of the endangered bardick, Echiopsis curta, in south-western New South Wales. Herpetofauna.
  43. Nimmo, D.G. & Miller, K.K. (2007) Ecological and human dimensions of management of feral horses in Australia; a review. Wildlife Research.
  44. Nimmo, D.G., Miller, K.K., Adams, R. (2007) Managing feral horses in Victoria: a study of community attitudes and perceptions. Ecological Management & Restoration.

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