Matt Binns

I am doing a PhD on the effects of climate on grassland invertebrate communities (supervised by Nigel Andrew, Heloise Gibb - LaTrobe and David Warton - UNSW). To do this I am collecting invertebrate samples from a broad climatic range; as far north as the Qld/NSW border, west as Cobar and down to Melbourne. I am looking at Themeda australis dominated grasslands and grassy woodlands. I will be assessing diversity in terms of community structure and morphological traits. This will be analysed using the recent advances in model based approaches for multivariate abundance data.

Over the last few months I have been focussing on Thysanoptera and Hemiptera, sorting to morphospecies. In the next few months I will be taking morphological measurements, returning to the field to collect a 3rd season worth of samples and initiating a transplant experiment - this involves moving Themeda australis to different climates and assessing the effects that has on the associated invertebrate assemblages.