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PhD Research for University of New South Wales
"Towards sustainable tourism in Outback Australia: The behaviour and impact of nature-based tourists on vegetation and selected wildlife species."
MSc Research on Predator-Prey Systems for Ludwigs-Maximilians University
"The effects of Daphnia diel vertical migration on phytoplankton dynamics and their implication for Daphnia life history parameters in the pelagial of lakes."
Presents research on the effects of a fluctuating temperature regime experienced by Daphnia during diel vertical migration on Daphnia life history parameters and the effect of different zooplankton grazing patterns resulting from diel vertical migration on phytoplankton growth and composition: a laboratory experiment.
Walking, hiking and running in parks: A multidisciplinary assessment of health and well-being benefits
Survey and GPS tracking research to study visitors frequenting national park trails for walking, hiking and running. What are the benefits of walking, hiking and running in parks, how can we measure these benefits, energy expenditure, in particular, using GPS tracking as an innovative approach, and what are the best ways to communicate such benefits to the public are some of the questions posed.
The use of public participation GIS (PPGIS) for park visitor management: a case study of mountain biking.
A study of mountain biker and horse rider behaviour and needs using Public Participation GIS (PPGIS) and GPS tracking in the Northern Sydney area.
Visitor monitoring along roads and hiking trails: How to determine usage levels in tourist sites.
This is where my GPS tracking career started. In my PhD I realised early on that there is need for better methods to capture variation in visitation on a more granular scale. GPS tracking provides this type of solution. More on this research and how GPS tracking compares to questionnaire-based surveying and other methods in the above link to this publication.
Transformative Travel: Concepts and Market Opportunities for Protected Areas
A systematic quantitative literature review of transformative travel (tourism and recreation) in parks. The focus was on health and wellness, spiritual, cultural/indigenous and volunteer travel including: markets, motivations, benefits and experiential factors that transform participants. Innovative transformative travel experiences for parks are discussed.
Public perception of park benefits and repositioning of the agency
A three-year highly collaborative ARC project on "Testing and Shifting the Market Position Occupied by Australian Park Agencies".
Presents among other research on assessing the efficacy of communication interventions for shifting public perceptions of park benefits; External and internal stakeholder perceptions of the benefits of parks in New South Wales, Australia; Lessons learned from pilot testing an experimental communication intervention: generation Y and park benefits.
Outcome-focussed national park experience management: transforming participants, promoting social wellbeing, and fostering place attachment
A survey and interviews to investigate visitor experiences in a special model of thematically connected guided tours in NSW national parks that are highly successful in attracting repeat participants. Who the participants are, how they benefit from participating in these tours over prolonged periods of time, how parks benefit from offering these tours, and what makes these tours successful are some of the areas explored.
Observation techniques that minimize impacts on wildlife and maximize visitor satisfaction in night-time tours
Survey and experimental wildlife research to determine low-impact night-time viewing of wildlife coupled with high visitor satisfaction.
Interpretive media that attract park visitors and enhance their experiences
Survey and GPS tracking research to compare the performance of modern technical media (multi-media tour, audio tour) with traditional media (signage, pamphlets) for park visitor interpretation.
How to use persuasive communication to encourage visitors to pay park user fees
This research employed Ham et al.’s (2009) approach to developing effective persuasive messages for park signage to increase visitor compliance with paying PUF. The central idea in this approach is that messages that are relevant to the park visitor community, and are easy to process, are likely to motivate people to elaborate and consequently act upon them.
Vegetation moderates impacts of tourism usage on bird communities along roads and hiking trails.
This research investigated bird communities inhabiting ecosystems adjacent to recreational tracks. High tourism usage decreased abundance and bird species richness. More aggressive birds with a generalist diet were overrepresented under high usage. Sensitivity to disturbance increased with the use of microhabitats in lower strata. A better developed vegetation decreased the negative effect of high usage on birds.
This study presents edge-effects of recreational access roads and hiking tracks. Tourism usage intensity determined track-distance gradients. Access mode affected the type, magnitude and spatial scale of tourism-induced impacts. Introduced non-native species self-propagated from roads to other disturbed sites. This increased the spatial extent of roadside impacts from a narrow to a wide effect zone.
Minimizing disturbance to wildlife by tourists approaching on foot or in a car: A study of kangaroos in the Australian rangelands.
Approaching wildlife to attain a closer viewing experience is common amongst visitors to natural areas. We examined how tourists approach free-living kangaroos during encounters in a popular tourism destination in South Australia. We then simulated the typical properties of approaches to quantify the behavioural reactions of two kangaroo species—the Red Kangaroo (Macropus rufus) and the Euro (M. robustus erubescens). We also accounted for the disturbance context such as varying environmental conditions (time of day, cover, wind speed) and other factors (species, sex class, grouping) that potentially modify the kangaroos’ flight response.
The results suggest that wildlife tourists should be educated to the best choice of approach behaviour and viewing conditions to reduce aversive reactions in kangaroos and mediate closer observations to the visitors’ greater satisfaction and the kangaroos’ better welfare. Our study also shows the benefit of a two-stage approach where the detailed observation of human behaviour serves as a prerequisite to an experimental study on wildlife response.