Keynote Presentation - Mark Ooi, Scientia Assoc Prof, University of NSW
| Tuesday, November 25, 2025 |
| 9:45 AM - 10:15 AM |
| Hall C (Main Plenary) |
Speaker
Associate Professor Mark Ooi
Associate Professor
University of New South Wales
Plants and fire: understanding fundamentals to improve conservation under future fire regimes
9:45 AM - 10:15 AMAbstract document
Plant species are adapted to historic fire regimes, persisting within thresholds of fire frequency, seasonality, severity and extent. Developing an understanding of how shifting fire regime elements can impact persistence and recovery of plant species is therefore essential for conserving biodiversity. However, many fundamental plant-fire mechanisms, particularly how they vary, are still surprisingly poorly understood. Drawing on the results from recent research, this talk focuses on new insights into fire persistence mechanisms, including how extreme fire severity and out-of-season burns interact with plant and seed ecological processes to determine which species may persist and which may struggle. Using these findings, I'll explore how future fire regimes may filter different functional groups from broader species pools and how we can include flexibility in fire management guidelines to conserve biodiversity.
Biography
Mark’s research career has been driven by an interest in the great outdoors and has focused on plant and fire ecology. A lot of his work is aimed at gaining a better understanding of how plant population dynamics are driven by fire regimes and shifts in climate, and his research interests range from investigating mechanisms of functional plant response, to trait distribution patterns, seed ecology and applied conservation biology. He has published over 120 papers and collaborates on projects across Australia, as well as in Europe, China and Brazil. After completing his PhD, Mark worked as a postdoc at the University of Sheffield (UK), then at the University of Wollongong as an ARC Fellow, and now leads a lab as a Scientia Associate Professor at UNSW in Sydney. He is co Editor-in-Chief at the Australian Journal of Botany, a member of the NSW Threatened Species Scientific Committee, and has been awarded two Eureka Prizes as part of the NSW Bushfire Hub and the citizen science-focused Environment Recovery Project.
