Presentation - ESA Gold Medal Award Winner
| Thursday, November 27, 2025 |
| 1:50 PM - 2:15 PM |
| Hall C (Main Plenary) |
Speaker
Dr Suzanne Prober
Senior Principal Research Scientist
CSIRO
Gold Medal Award 2024 - From eucalypt woodlands to nature repair: renovating the biodiversity and ecological function of Australia’s ecosystems
1:30 PM - 1:50 PMAbstract document
In this presentation, I’ll take you on a lightning tour of my 30 years of research towards managing and renovating Australia’s biodiversity and ecosystems, framed through the lens of rediscovering and understanding the workings of temperate eucalypt woodlands. These widespread ecological communities have been extensively altered through agricultural development across southern Australia, to the extent that diverse native understoreys and other key ecological components are extremely rare today. Understanding and restoring these woodlands has been a
detective journey involving pocket-handkerchief remnants in country cemeteries, applying sugar to understand nitrogen cycling and weed invasion, keystone species regulating alternative stable states, and genomic tools to understand climate adaptation capacity.
Compared with woodlands of fragmented agricultural landscapes, many are unaware of the magnificent semi-arid eucalypt woodlands that remain over millions of hectares in Western Australia’s Great Western Woodlands. Trees in these woodlands are killed by fire, with old growth woodlands taking over 250 years to recover. Here our work in collaboration with the Ngadju people has focused on detecting ecological change and managing the apparent rapid increase in the extent and frequency of stand-killing fire.
Building on these foundations of field-based research, I’ll then touch on how my colleagues and I are addressing the urgent challenges of climate adaptation and nature repair at national and global scales. I’ll aim to highlight the immeasurable value of field observation and experimentation for ecologists – not only for confirming what theory might already predict, but for discovering the surprising or unexpected, and for developing the ecological insights and lived understanding to bring to integrative national and global biodiversity and climate adaptation initiatives. Combined with the power of working collaboratively with other researchers, government, industry, Traditional Owners and local communities, these approaches
are essential for helping to steer Australia’s ecosystems towards a more resilient and brighter future.
detective journey involving pocket-handkerchief remnants in country cemeteries, applying sugar to understand nitrogen cycling and weed invasion, keystone species regulating alternative stable states, and genomic tools to understand climate adaptation capacity.
Compared with woodlands of fragmented agricultural landscapes, many are unaware of the magnificent semi-arid eucalypt woodlands that remain over millions of hectares in Western Australia’s Great Western Woodlands. Trees in these woodlands are killed by fire, with old growth woodlands taking over 250 years to recover. Here our work in collaboration with the Ngadju people has focused on detecting ecological change and managing the apparent rapid increase in the extent and frequency of stand-killing fire.
Building on these foundations of field-based research, I’ll then touch on how my colleagues and I are addressing the urgent challenges of climate adaptation and nature repair at national and global scales. I’ll aim to highlight the immeasurable value of field observation and experimentation for ecologists – not only for confirming what theory might already predict, but for discovering the surprising or unexpected, and for developing the ecological insights and lived understanding to bring to integrative national and global biodiversity and climate adaptation initiatives. Combined with the power of working collaboratively with other researchers, government, industry, Traditional Owners and local communities, these approaches
are essential for helping to steer Australia’s ecosystems towards a more resilient and brighter future.
Biography
Dr Suzanne Prober is a respected leader in Australian ecology. Dr Prober’s research with CSIRO Environment spans biodiversity conservation, ecological restoration, and the integration of Indigenous ecological knowledge and values into landscape management. Her work has helped shape national approaches to ecosystem resilience, climate adaptation, and collaborative conservation science.
