Dr Melissa Parsons
Lecturer, School of Behavioural, Cognitive and Social Sciences
Qualifications
BAppSc (Hons) (University of Canberra), PhD (University of Canberra)
Contact
| Email: | melissa.parsons@une.edu.au |
| Room: | Earth Sciences (C2) 210 |
| Phone: | 02 6773 3527 (or +61 2 6773 3527 overseas) |
| Fax: | 02 6773 3030 |
Dr Melissa Parsons is a river scientist. She works at the interface between theoretical and applied science, with a view to supporting decision-making in water resource management. Much of her research examines the scales at which organisms and physical features are distributed in river landscapes and the factors that influence those distributions. Melissa’s research has also examined concepts of resilience in river and floodplain ecosystems, and the ways that resilience thinking can be applied to enhance river and floodplain management outcomes.
Melissa has worked on numerous rivers and floodplain ecosystems in Australia, including the rivers of the Upper Murrumbidgee Catchment, the Warrego River and the Lower Balonne floodplain. Between 2002 and 2007 Melissa was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, where she examined responses of the Sabie River, Kruger National Park, to a large flood disturbance.
Areas of Teaching
GEPL304 Cyberspace
GEPL309 Natural Hazards
PhD Student Advisor
Research interests
Many aspects of river science including riparian vegetation ecology, macroinvertebrate ecology, impacts of large floods, rivers as landscapes, river management, pattern and process at multiple scales, geomorphological templates, environmental monitoring, ecosystem services and social-ecological resilience.
Publications
Refereed journal papers
Foxcroft, L.C., Parsons, M., McLoughlin, C.A., Richardson, D.M. (2008) Patterns of alien plant distribution in the Sabie River following a large infrequent flood disturbance. South African Journal of Botany, 74: 463-475.
Parsons, M. and Thoms, M.C. (2007) Hierarchical patterns of physical-biological associations in river ecosystems. Geomorphology, 89: 127-146.
Thoms, M.C., Parsons, M.E. and Foster, J.M. (2007) The use of multivariate statistics to elucidate patterns of floodplain sedimentation at different spatial scales. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 32: 672-686.
Parsons, M., McLoughlin, C.A., Rountree, M.W. and Rogers, K.H. (2006). The biotic and abiotic legacy of a large infrequent flood disturbance in the Sabie River, South Africa. River Research and Applications 22: 187-201.
Parsons, M., McLoughlin, C.A., Kotschy, K.A., Rogers, K.H. and Rountree, M.W. (2005) The effects of extreme floods on the biophysical heterogeneity of river landscapes. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 3: 487-494.
Parsons, M., Thoms, M.C. and Norris, R.H. (2004). Development of a standardized approach to river habitat assessment in Australia. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 98: 109-130.
Parsons, M., Thoms, M.C. and Norris, R.H. (2004) Using hierarchy to select scales of measurement in multiscale studies of stream macroinvertebrate assemblages. Journal of the North American Benthological Society, 23: 157-170.
Parsons, M., Thoms, M.C. and Norris, R.H. (2003) Scales of macroinvertebrate distribution in relation to the hierarchical organisation of river systems. Journal of the North American Benthological Society, 22: 105-122.
Thoms, M.C. and Parsons, M. (2003) Identifying spatial and temporal patterns in the hydrological character of the Condamine-Balonne River, Australia, using multivariate statistics. River Research and Applications, 19: 443-457.
Parsons, M. and Norris, R.H. (1996) The effect of habitat specific sampling on biological assessment of water quality using a predictive model. Freshwater Biology, 36: 419-434.
Book chapters, conference papers and reports
Parsons, M., Thoms, M., Capon, T., Capon, S., Reid, M. (2009) Resilience and thresholds in river ecosystems. Final report to the National Water Commission, Canberra.
Capon, T., Parsons, M., Thoms, M. (2009) Floodplain ecosystems: resilience, value of ecosystem services and principles for diverting water from floodplains. Final report to the National Water Commission, Canberra.
Harris, C., Thoms, M.C., Rayburg, S. and Parsons, M. (2008) An approach for assessing the physical condition of rivers at the catchment scale. In: Lambert M., Daniell, T., Leonard M. (eds). Proceedings of Water Down Under, April 2008, Adelaide. Engineers Australia. pp. 1879-1889.
Parsons, M., Thoms, M., Harris, C., Rayburg, S. (2007). Assessment of physical form at the valley scale: protocol for a reference based approach. Sustainable Rivers Audit, Murray Darling Basin Commission, Canberra.
Parsons, M. (2004) Kruger Rivers Post-Flood Research Programme. The Water Wheel, 3: 7-10. Published by the South African Water Research Commission.
Thoms, M.C. and Parsons, M. (2002). Ecogeomorphology: an interdisciplinary approach to river science. The Structure, Function and Management Implications of Fluvial Sedimentary Systems. Proceedings of an international symposium held at Alice Springs, Australia, September 2002. International Association of Hydrological Sciences Publication No. 276, pp. 113-119.
Parsons, M. (2001) The dark side of a PhD: learning the lessons that supervisors don’t teach. In: Bartlett, A. and Mercer, G. (eds) Postgraduate Research Supervision: Transforming (R)Elations. Peter Lang, New York. pp. 189-193.
Parsons, M., Thoms, M. and Norris, R. (2001) AUSRIVAS Physical Assessment Protocol. CRCFE and Environment Australia. 173pp.