Professor Jonathan Majer
Head, Department of Environmental Biology
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Email: J.Majer@curtin.edu.au
Phone: +61 8 9266 7041
Fax: +61 8 9266 2495
Address: Curtin University of Technology,
GPO Box U1987, Perth WA 6845 |
- Abbreviated CV
- Research Interests
- Publications
Research interests - Specific
I have a number of active projects, running through
my graduate students, through co-operation with co-researchers
or in my own right. In addition to projects directly
associated with my general research interests, through
my postgraduate students I am starting to become involved
with the taxonomy of Australian arthropods. I actively
seek co-operation with researchers at other Australian
universities and at other Australian and overseas institutions,
as I believe that this opens up research opportunities
which would be unavailable or unattainable to a solitary
researcher.
- An Inventory of the ant fauna of Western
Australia (In association with Dr Brian Heterick
(Curtin University)
Collections of ants have been accumulating at Curtin
over the past 22 years, although many have never been
integrated with the central Curtin collection. This
has now been done and the taxonomy of the collection
has been brought up to date. Certain species have
been synonymized, leaving a current total of around
715 species.
- An inventory of terrestrial invertebrates on Barrow
Island in relation to the Gorgan Gas Field gas liquification
plant.
Chevron proposes to construct a gas liquification
plant on Barrow Island, off the Western Australian
coast. This is an A-class nature reserve, which is
almost free of introduced plants and animals. Because
of this, Chevron will need to take steps to ensure
that no fungi, plants, animals, or other organisms
are introduced during the construction or operation
of this plant. The aim of this study is to document
the species of terrestrial invertebrates on Barrow
Island, prior to commencement of the project in order
to provide base-line information on what is already
there. A range of plants, both in pristine and disturbed
areas, are being surveyed by a range of sampling tools,
and the resulting material is being sent to specialist
Taxonomists. So far, over 500 species or morphospecies
of invertebrates have been identified.
- Sustaining Gondwana: Harnessing local, plant based
knowledge for sustainable outcomes
Sustaining Gondwana is a sustainability and conservation
initiative involving funding of over $2 million focussed
on the southern coastal region of Western Australia.
Sponsored by the U.S. based Alcoa Foundation, with support
from Curtin University, this five year Program is one
of five to be awarded internationally, with Curtin the
sole participating academic partner in the SE Asia-Pacific
region.
- The Foundation
The Alcoa Foundation is a US based, globally focused
charitable foundation which has invested more than
US$300 million in education, cultural, environmental
and community initiatives since its establishment
in 1952.
Through its Conservation and Sustainability
Program, the Alcoa Foundation aims to support and foster
global sustainability initiatives with a current focus
on improved education in sustainability issues. To
this purpose, the foundation has awarded five grants
to academic partners in the United Kingdom (The London
School of Economics and Political Science), Brazil
(University of Sao Paulo), China (Tsinghua University),
and USA (University of Michigan) and Curtin University
of Technology.
The Program is supporting the appointment
of six postdoctoral research fellows per academic partner
throughout this five-year program. Two have already
been appointed to Curtin.
- The Curtin Program
The Curtin research program is an inter-disciplinary
conservation and sustainability program focussed
on developing place based knowledge for the southern
coastal region of Western Australia. The program
brings together expertise from across the University
in the biological, environmental and social sciences.
The
focus of the program is to document and enhance economic,
environmental and social sustainability initiatives
in the region by working alongside existing programs
in partnership with community, government and industry.
Curtin
is hosting the Foundation’s Fellowship
program through the Alcoa Research Centre for Stronger
Communities.
The Foundation is also funding a Sustainability
Cabinet that has a stewardship role in the realisation
of sustainable cross-sector partnerships that will
emerge through the Fellowship program. Cabinet members
are Prof Daniela Stehlik, Prof Jonathan Majer, Assoc.
Prof Fiona Haslam McKenzie and Prof Dong-ke Zang.
- Hemipteran assemblages of understorey habitats in
rehabilitated bauxite mines and jarrah forest (Melinda
Moir, PhD candidate)
- An evaluation of selected invertebrates for use as
success indicators, with special reference to Worsley
Alumina’s
Bauxite Mining operation at Boddington (Gamal Orabi,
PhD Candidate)
- Assessing matrix habitat surrounding forest reserves
in southwest Sri Lanka, with special reference to ants
as indicator organisms (Nihara Gunawardene, PhD Candidate)
- The use of fire to create a small grain habitat mosaic
with the object of maximizing the biodiversity of vertebrates,
arthropods, fungi, vascular and non-vascular plants
in the southern jarrah forest ecosystem (Paul van Heurck,
PhD Candidate)
- The role of disturbance by fire in minesite rehabilitated
vegetation (Anita Lyons, PhD Candidate)
- Evaluation of the potential use of ants in integrated
pest management of Australian and Rwandan coffee (Gabriel
Bizimungu, PhD Candidate)
- Management of two broadacre pest mite species, Balaustium
medicagoense and Bryobia praetiosa, in the high rainfall
areas of southern Western Australia (Svetlana Micic,
PhD candidate)
- Systematics and phylogenetics of monoscutidae (Arachnida:
Opiliones), (Christopher Taylor,
PhD Candidate)
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Prof. Jonathan Majer
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