Dr Romina Rader

Professor (Research) in Community Ecology , Ecology - School of Environmental and Rural Science

Romina Rader

Phone: +61 02 6773 2857

Email: rrader@une.edu.au

Twitter: @rominatwi

Biography

Dr Rader is a community ecologist and her research focuses on plant–animal interactions in natural and human-modified landscapes. She is interested generally in the ecology of plants and animals in different types of habitats and landscapes and how they respond to differing management practices and global change. Her current projects relate to wild and managed insect pollinators, their efficiency at pollinating horticultural crops and the ecology and conservation of remnant vegetation.

Qualifications

  • 2011 Doctor of Philosophy (Science): James Cook University, Cairns, Australia. Title: "The provision of pollination ecosystem services to agro-ecosystems by a diverse assemblage of wild, unmanaged insect taxa".
  • 2006 Certificate IV in Workplace Training and Assessment, TAFE Queensland, Australia.
  • 2005  Master of Science by Research, James Cook University, Cairns, Australia. Title:  "Vertical distribution, resource and space use in a tropical rainforest small mammal community."
  • 2001 Graduate Diploma in Education (Science), Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.
  • 1998  Bachelor of Environmental Science, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

Awards

2017- 2020 Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award

Teaching Areas

  • Ecology
  • Community Ecology
  • Ecosystem Rehabilitation
  • Biology

Primary Research Area/s

Pollination Ecology; Agroecology; Community Ecology

Research Interests

Rader Community Ecology Lab

Biodiversity, Landscapes and Ecosystem Stewardship

Plant Evolution and Pollination Group

Research Supervision Experience

PhD, Masters and Hons research supervision experience

Publications

Journal articles

S.A.E.C. Wijesinghe, L.J. Evans, L. Kirkland & R. Rader 2020, ‘A global review of watermelon pollination biology and ecology: The
increasing importance of seedless cultivars’, Scientia Horticulturae, vol. 271, pp. 109493, doi:10.1016/j.scienta.2020.109493

Heidi Kolkert, Rhiannon Smith, Romina Rader & Nick Reid 2020, ‘Insectivorous bats foraging in cotton crop interiors is driven
by moon illumination and insect abundance, but diversity benefits from woody vegetation cover’, Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment,
vol. 302, pp. 107068, doi:10.1016/j.agee.2020.107068

Jamie R. Stavert, Charlie Bailey, Lindsey Kirkland & Romina Rader 2020, ‘Pollen tube growth from multiple pollinator visits more
accurately quantifies pollinator performance and plant reproduction’, Scientific Reports, vol. 10, no. 1, doi:10.1038/s41598-020-73637-5

Liam K. Kendall, Vesna Gagic, Lisa J. Evans, Brian T. Cutting & Jessica Scalzo, Romina Rader. 2020, ‘Self-compatible blueberry cultivars require
fewer floral visits to maximize fruit production than a partially self-incompatible cultivar’, Journal of Applied Ecology, doi:10.1111/1365-
2664.13751

Vesna Gagic, Lindsey Kirkland, Liam K. Kendall, Jeremy Jones & Jeffrey Kirkland Romina Rader 2020, ‘Understanding pollinator foraging
behaviour and transition rates between flowers is important to maximize seed set in hybrid crops’, Apidologie, doi:10.1007/s13592-020-
00800-2

Mark A Hall, Jeremy Jones, Maurizio Rocchetti, Derek Wright & Romina Rader 2020, ‘Bee Visitation and Fruit Quality in
Berries Under Protected Cropping Vary Along the Length of Polytunnels’, Journal of Economic Entomology, vol. 113, no. 3, pp. 1337–
1346, doi:10.1093/jee/toaa037

Robert Mcdougall, Romina Rader & Paul Kristiansen 2020, ‘Urban agriculture could provide 15% of food supply to Sydney, Australia,
under expanded land use scenarios’, Land Use Policy, vol. 94, pp. 104554, doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104554

R. Rader, S.A. Cunningham, B.G. Howlett & D.W. Inouye 2020, ‘Non-Bee Insects as Visitors and Pollinators of Crops: Biology,
Ecology, and Management’, Annual Review of Entomology, vol. 65, no. 1, pp. 391–407, doi:10.1146/annurev-ento-011019-025055

McDougall, R., P. Kristiansen, and R. Rader, Small-scale urban agriculture results in high yields but requires judicious management of inputs to achieve sustainability. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2019. 116(1): p. 129-134.

Dainese, Matteo, et al. 2019. 'A global synthesis reveals biodiversity-mediated benefits for crop production', Science Advances  (2019) Vol. 5, no. 10, eaax0121

Lawrence, Rachel, RDB Whalley, Nick Reid, and Romina Rader. 2019. 'Short-duration rotational grazing leads to improvements in landscape functionality and increased perennial herbaceous plant cover', Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 281: 134-44.

Kendall, Liam K, Romina Rader, Vesna Gagic, Daniel P Cariveau, Matthias Albrecht, Katherine CR Baldock, Breno M Freitas, Mark Hall, Andrea Holzschuh, and Francisco P Molina. 2019. 'Pollinator size and its consequences: Robust estimates of body size in pollinating insects', Ecology and Evolution, 9: 1702-14.

Marini, Lorenzo, Ignasi Bartomeus, Romina Rader, and Francesco Lami. 2019. 'Species–habitat networks: A tool to improve landscape management for conservation', Journal of Applied Ecology, 56: 923-28.

McDonald, Sarah E, Rachel Lawrence, Liam Kendall, and Romina Rader. 2019. 'Ecological, biophysical and production effects of incorporating rest into grazing regimes: a global meta‐analysis', Journal of Applied Ecology.

McDonald, Sarah E, Nick Reid, Rhiannon Smith, Cathleen M Waters, John Hunter, and Romina Rader. 2019. 'Rotational grazing management achieves similar plant diversity outcomes to areas managed for conservation in a semi-arid rangeland', The Rangeland Journal, 41: 135-45.

Willcox, Bryony K, Brad G Howlett, Andrew J Robson, Brian Cutting, Lisa Evans, Linley Jesson, Lindsey Kirkland, Malou Jean-Meyzonnier, Victoria Potdevin, Manu E Saunders, and R Rader. 2019. 'Evaluating the taxa that provide shared pollination services across multiple crops and regions', Scientific Reports, 9: 1-10.

Sonter, C.A., R. Rader, and S.C. Wilson, A new, practicable and economical cage design for experimental studies on small honey bee colonies. Journal of Experimental Biology, 2019. 222(9): p. jeb200998.

Saunders, M.E. and R. Rader, Network modularity influences plant reproduction in a mosaic tropical agroecosystem. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 2019. 286(1899): p. 20190296.

Willcox, Bryony K, Andrew J Robson, Brad G Howlett, and Romina Rader. 2018. 'Toward an integrated approach to crop production and pollination ecology through the application of remote sensing', PeerJ, 6: e5806.

Saunders, Manu E, Tobias J Smith, and Romina Rader. 2018. 'Bee conservation: Key role of managed bees', Science, 360: 389-89.

Birkhofer, K., et al., A framework to identify indicator species for ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes. Ecological Indicators, 2018. 91: p. 278-286.

Birkhofer, K., et al., Relationships between multiple biodiversity components and ecosystem services along a landscape complexity gradient. Biological conservation, 2018. 218: p. 247-253.

Foster, E., Love, J., Rader, R., Reid, N., Drielsma, M.J. (2017) Integrating a generic focal species, metapopulation capacity, and connectivity to identify opportunities to link fragmented habitat. Landscape Ecology

Hudson, L.N et al. (incl. Rader, R and other co-authors) (2017).  The database of the PREDICTS (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems). Ecology and Evolution 7 (1), 145-188.

Adriana De Palma, Stefan Abrahamczyk, Marcelo A. Aizen, Matthias Albrecht, Yves Basset, Adam Bates, Robin J. Blake, Céline Boutin, Rob Bugter, Stuart Connop, Leopoldo Cruz-López, Saul A. Cunningham, Ben Darvill, Tim Diekötter, Silvia Dorn, Nicola Downing, Martin H. Entling, Nina Farwig, Antonio Felicioli, Steven J. Fonte, Robert Fowler, Markus Franzén, Dave Goulson, Ingo Grass, Mick E. Hanley, Stephen D. Hendrix, Farina Herrmann, Felix Herzog, Andrea Holzschuh, Birgit Jauker, Michael Kessler, M. E. Knight, Andreas Kruess, Patrick Lavelle, Violette Le Féon, Pia Lentini, Louise A. Malone, Jon Marshall, Eliana Martínez Pachón, Quinn S. McFrederick, Carolina L. Morales, Sonja Mudri-Stojnic, Guiomar Nates Parra, Sven G. Nilsson, Erik Öckinger, Lynne Osgathorpe, Alejandro Parra, Carlos Peres, Anna S. Persson, Theodora Petanidou, Katja Poveda, Eileen F. Power, Marino Quaranta, Carolina Quintero, Romina Rader, Miriam H. Richards, T’ai Roulston, Laurent Rousseau, Jonathan P. Sadler, Ulrika Samnegård, Nancy A. Schellhorn, Christof Schüepp, Oliver Schweiger, Allan H. Smith-Pardo, Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter, Jane C. Stout, Rebecca K. Tonietto, Teja Tscharntke, Jason M. Tylianakis, Hans A. F. Verboven, Carlos H. Vergara, Jort Verhulst, Catrin Westphal, Hyung Joo Yoon & Andy Purvis (in press).  Predicting bee community responses to land-use changes:Effects of geographic andtaxonomic biases.  Scientific Reports

C. Coux, R. Rader, I. Bartomeus, JM. Tylianakis (2016) Linking species functional roles to their network roles, Ecology letters (in press).

E. Foster, J. Love, R. Rader, N. Reid, M. Dillon (2016) Planning for metapopulation persistence using a multiple-component, cross-scale model of connectivity Biological Conservation 195, 177-186.

Romina Rader, Ignasi Bartomeus, Lucas A. Garibaldi, Michael P.D. Garratt, Brad Howlett, Rachael Winfree, Saul A. Cunningham , Margaret M. Mayfield , Anthony D. Arthur, Georg K.S. Andersson, Riccardo Bommarco, Claire Brittain, Luísa G. Carvalheiro, Natacha P. Chacoff, Martin H. Entling, Benjamin Foully, Breno M. Freitas, Barbara Gemmill-Herren, Jaboury Ghazoul, Sean Griffin, Caroline L. Gross, Lina Herbertsson, Felix Herzog, Juliana Hipólito, Sue Jaggar, Frank Jauker, Alexandra-Maria Klein, David Kleijn, Smitha Krishnan, Camila Q. Lemos, Sandra A.M. Lindström, Yael Mandelik, Victor M. Monteiro, Warrick Nelson, Lovisa Nilsson, David Pattemore, Natália de O. Pereira, Gideon Pisanty, Simon G. Potts, Menno Reemer, Maj Rundlöf, Cory S. Sheffield, Jeroen Scheper, Christof Schüepp, Henrik G. Smith, Dara A. Stanley, Jane C. Stout, Hajnalka Szentgyörgyi, Hisatomo Taki, Carlos H. Vergara, Blandina F. Viana, and Michal Woyciechowski (2015).  Non-bee insects are important contributors to global crop pollination. PNAS, in press.

Kleijn, D., Winfree, R., Bartomeus, I., Carvalheiro, L.G., Henry, M., Isaacs, R., Klein, A.M., Kremen, C., M'Gonigle, L.K., Rader, R., Ricketts, T., Williams, N.M., Adamson, N.L., Ascher,  J.S., Báldi, A., Batáry, P., Benjamin, F., Biesmeijer,  J.C., Blitzer, E.J., Bommarco, R., Brand, M.R., Bretagnolle, V., Button, L., Cariveau, D. P., Chifflet, R., Colville, J.F., Danforth, B.N., Elle, E., Garratt, M.P., Herzog, F., Holzschuh, A., Howlett, B.G., Jauker, F., Jha, S., Knop, E., Krewenka, K.M., Le Féon, V., Mandelik, Y., May, E.A., Park, M.G., Pisanty, G., Reemer, M., Riedinger, V., Rollin, O., Rundlöf, M., Sardiñas, H.S., Scheper, J., Sciligo, A.R., Smith, H.G., Steffan-Dewenter, I., Thorp, R., Tscharntke, T., Verhulst, J., Viana, B.F., Vaissière, B.E., Veldtman, R., Westphal, C. & Potts, S.G. (2015). Delivery of crop pollination services is an insufficient argument for wild pollinator conservation. Nature Communications volume 6, Article number: 7414, doi:10.1038/ncomms8414

Crea, C, Ali, A., Rader, R (2015). A new model for ecological networks using species level traits.  Methods in Ecology and Evolution (early view), DOI: 10.1111/2041-210X.12471.

Saunders, M.E., Peisley, R.K., Rader, R., Luck, G.W (2015). Pollinators, pests, and predators: recognising ecological trade-offs in agroecosystems. AMBIO (early view), doi:10.​1007/​s13280-015-0696-y.

Rader, R., Birkhofer, K., Schmucki, R., Smith, H.G., Stjernman, M. and Lindborg, R.  (2014).  Organic farming and heterogeneous landscapes positively affect different measures of plant diversity.  Journal of Applied Ecology 51,1544-1553.

Rader R., Bartomeus, I., Tylianakis, J.M. and Laliberté, E. (2014) The winners and losers of land-use intensification: pollinator community disassembly is non-random and alters functional diversity. Diversity and Distributions 20, 908-917.

R Rader, K Birkhofer, R Schmucki, HG Smith, M Stjernman, R Lindborg (2014). Organic farming and heterogeneous landscapes positively affect different measures of plant diversity. Journal of Applied Ecology 51 (6), 1544-1553

Rader, R., Reilly, J., Bartomeus, I. and Winfree, R (2013). Native bees buffer the negative impact of climate warming on crop pollination by honey bees.  Global Change Biology 19: 3103–3110.

Lucas A. Garibaldi, Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter, Rachael Winfree, Marcelo A. Aizen, Riccardo Bommarco, Saul A. Cunningham, Claire Kremen, Luísa G. Carvalheiro, Ohad Afik, Ignasi Bartomeus, Faye Benjamin, Virginie Boreux, Daniel Cariveau, Natacha P. Chacoff, Jan H. Dudenhöffer, Breno M. Freitas, Sarah Greenleaf, Lawrence Harder, Juliana Hipólito, Andrea Holzschuh, Brad Howlett, Rufus Isaacs, Steven K. Javorek, Christina Kennedy, Kristin Krewenka, Yael Mandelik, Margaret M. Mayfield, Iris Motzke, Theodore Munyuli, Brian A. Nault, Mark Otieno, Jessica Petersen, Gideon Pisanty, Simon G. Potts, Romina Rader, Taylor H. Ricketts, Maj Rundlöf, Colleen L. Seymour, Christof Schüepp, Krishnan Smitha, Hajnalka Szentgyörgyi, Hisatomo Taki, Teja Tscharntke, Carlos H. Vergara, Blandina F. Viana, Thomas C. Wanger, Catrin Westphal, Neal Williams, Alexandra M. Klein (2013).  Global crop pollination provided by wild insects is not substituted with abundant honey bees.  Science 339:1608-1611.

Anna Eklof, Ute Jacob, Jason C. Kopp, Jordi Bosch, Rocio Castro-Urgal, Natacha P. Chacoff, Bo Dalsgaard, Claudio de Sassi, Mauro Galetti, Paulo R. Guimaraes Jr., Silvia Beatriz Lomascolo;Ana M. Martın Gonzalez, Marco Aurelio Pizo, Romina Rader, Anselm Rodrigo, Jason M. Tylianakis, Diego P. Vazquez & Stefano Allesina (2013).  The Dimensionality of Ecological Networks.  Ecology Letters 16: 577-83.

Rader, R., Edwards, W, Westcott, D., Cunningham, S. and Howlett, B. (2013) Diurnal effectiveness of pollination by bees and flies in agricultural Brassica rapa: implications for ecosystem resilience. Basic and Applied Ecology 14: 20-27.

Rader, R, Howlett, B., Cunningham, S., Westcott, D. and Edwards, W. (2012)  Spatial and temporal variation in pollinator effectiveness: Do unmanaged insects provide consistent pollination services to mass flowering crops? Journal of Applied Ecology 49: 126-134.

Rader, R, Howlett, B., Cunningham, S., Westcott, D. and Edwards, W. (2011)  Pollen transport differs between bee and fly taxa in a human-modified landscape. Diversity and Distributions 17: 519-529.

Rader, R, Howlett, B., Cunningham, S., Westcott, D., Newstrom-Lloyd, L., Walker, M., Teulon, D. and Edwards, W. (2009). Alternative pollinator taxa are equally efficient, but not as effective as the honeybee in a mass flowering crop. Journal of Applied Ecology 46: 1080-1087.

Rader, R. and Krockenberger, A (2007). The impact of consumption of fruit by vertebrate and invertebrate frugivores on the germination success of an Australian rainforest seed. Austral Ecology 32: 86-92.

Rader, R. and Krockenberger, A (2006). Does resource availability govern vertical stratification of small mammals in Australian lowland rainforest? Wildlife Research 33: 571-576

Rader, R. and Krockenberger, A (2006). Three dimensional use of space use by a tropical rainforest rodent, Melomys cervinipes and its implications for foraging and home range size. Wildlife Research 33: 577-582

Rader, R. and Reed, S. (2005). A method of tagging Aratus pisonii (H. Milne Edwards, 1837) crabs for population and behavioural studies (Decapoda, Brachyura, Grapsidae). Crustaceana 78(3): 361-365.

Book Chapters

Winter, J.W., Whitford, D. and Rader, R. (2008). The tree mouse, Pogonomys sp. In S. Van Dyck and R. Strahan (ed.) The Mammals of Australia. Pp 680-682. Reed New Holland, Sydney.

Rader, R. (2005). Vertical stratification of small mammals in lowland rainforest of the Australian Wet Tropics. In "Forest Canopies" (M.D. Lowman and H.B. Rinker, Eds.), pp 309-311 Elsevier Academic Press, San Diego.

Reports

IPBES (2016): Summary for policymakers of the assessment report of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services on pollinators, pollination and food production. S.G. Potts, V. L. Imperatriz-Fonseca, H. T. Ngo, J. C. Biesmeijer, T. D. Breeze, L. V. Dicks, L. A. Garibaldi, R. Hill, J. Settele, A. J. Vanbergen, M. A. Aizen, S. A. Cunningham, C. Eardley, B. M. Freitas, N. Gallai, P. G. Kevan, A. Kovács-Hostyánszki, P. K. Kwapong, J. Li, X. Li, D. J. Martins, G. Nates-Parra, J. S. Pettis, R. Rader, and B. F. Viana (eds.). Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Bonn, Germany. 36 pages.

Other

Anne Dollin, Katja Hogendoorn, Tim Heard, Saul Cunningham, Romina Rader, Manu Saunders, Tanya Latty, Caragh Threlfell, Tobias Smith, Megan Halcroft, Danielle Lloyd-Prichard (2016).  Australian Native Bees.  Education Delivery, Tocal College, NSW Department of Primary Industries.

Funding Sources

  • Australian Research Council
  • Horticulture Innovation Australia
  • Australian Department of Agriculture
  • The University of New England
  • The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Ltd
  • The Ian Potter Foundation
  • Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment Biological Industries Research fund, New Zealand

Memberships

Editor Journal of Applied Ecology

Member of Ecological Society of Australia

Member of British Ecological Society

Member of American Ecological Society