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:
- 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.
- 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.
- Haslem, A., Nimmo, D.G., Radford, J., Bennett, A.F., (in press). Landscape properties mediate the homogenization of bird communities during extreme drought. Ecology.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Beliakov, G., James, S.J., Nimmo, D.G. (2015). Using aggregation functions to model human judgments of species diversity. Information Science.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Nimmo, D.G. (2014). The conflation of needs and wants in sustainable intensification. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- 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
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- 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?
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Spence-Bailey, L. & Nimmo, D.G. (2008) A new record of the endangered bardick, Echiopsis curta, in south-western New South Wales. Herpetofauna.
- Nimmo, D.G. & Miller, K.K. (2007) Ecological and human dimensions of management of feral horses in Australia; a review. Wildlife Research.
- Nimmo, D.G., Miller, K.K., Adams, R. (2007) Managing feral horses in Victoria: a study of community attitudes and perceptions. Ecological Management & Restoration.