Life, Earth and Environment
Our Vision: Science for understanding, conservation and restoration of our natural world
The Life, Earth and Environment research theme is a highly active community of academics engaged in discipline-based and interdisciplinary research that spans ecological and built landscapes. Our purpose is to undertake high quality research that improves our understanding of ecosystem, earth sciences and biodiversity, as a means to advance ecosystem resilience, and to inform management practices that contribute to ongoing sustainable landscape use and restoration. Join us to advance your studies in one of our focus research areas.
Research groups
We focus on integrating rigorous science with management for optimising productivity and biodiversity in aquatic systems. Our current focus is on ecosystem processes and rehabilitation of Australian Research conducted in this lab seeks to understand both how and why animals behave the way that they do... The major scientific goal of the Behavioural and Physiological Ecology research centre (BPE) is to investigate behavioural and physiological adaptations of native Australian animals living in various habitats... Research conducted by this group develops globally significant understanding and solutions to the extinction crisis and loss of terrestrial ecosystem services from local to planetary scales as a result of unsustainable development... Earth sciences at UNE deal with our planet's geological and prehistoric past and the cataclysmic processes that shaped the earth. The research projects we conduct in this lab seek to understand how parasites live and what effects they have on their hosts... The NSW Environmental Trust has awarded the University of New England $14.6 million to tackle the devastating impact feral cats are having on NSW wildlife. This is the largest single grant ever awarded in NSW towards the control of feral cats and will fund innovative, on-ground research at sites in northern, southern and western NSW. Our primary interest is to improve our understanding of relationships between shape and function in living and fossil animals. We use computer based 3D modelling (Finite Element Analysis) and geometric morphometrics to predict and analyse mechanical behaviour in skulls and other biological structures... The lab's current research focuses on a range of interlinked topics of significance to biological and geographical diversity... The Mammal Ecology Group (MEG) is made up of staff and students with a passion for mammal research. Together, we cover almost every facet of palaeontology and palaeoanthropology: from microfossils to Ice Age megafauna to dinosaurs, and from giant arthropods to sabretooth cats to Neanderthals... Our research develops globally significant understanding and solutions to the biodiversity conservation in flora. Our projects range from systematics and pollination processes through to the genomics of adaptation and speciation in plants... Engineers are at the forefront of the transition to a carbon-constrained world. Sustainable technologies are required to allow the world to adapt whilst ensuring a good quality of life for all its residents...
floodplain and coastal wetland & riverine systems...