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Associate Professor Diana Fisher

Principal Research Fellow

School of the Environment
Faculty of Science
d.fisher@uq.edu.au
+61 7 334 69004

Overview

My research interests include causes and detectability of extinction and decline, conservation ecology of threatened and declining marsupials (especially dasyurids and macropods), and tropical mammals, evolutionary ecology, mating systems and life history evolution, especially associations between life histories and seasonality, climate and sexual selection.

My long-term interest in conservation and evolutionary ecology of carnivorous marsupials started at The University of Sydney, where I was an Honours student of Chris Dickman. I did a PhD on ecology of bridled nailtail wallabies at The University of Queensland with Craig Moritz and Anne Goldizen. My research fellowships and programmes since then have investigated ecology and evolution of mammals: a Royal Society fellowship at the University of Aberdeen with Xavier Lambin, an ARC APD fellowship at ANU with Andrew Cockburn, and an ARF fellowship, and a Future Fellowship and UQ Fellowship at The University of Queensland School of Biological Sciences.

I have worked in state environment agencies and the Australian Museum at times before joining UQ in 2007. I am co-chair of the IUCN Marsupial and Monotreme Specialist Group (with Professor John Woinarski), chair of the Australasian Mammal Taxonomy Consortium (affiliated with the Australian Mammal Society), and winner of the 2020 ESA Australian Ecology Research Award.

History:

Principal Research Fellow / Deputy Academic Director UQ Hidden Vale Research Station/ Associate Professor, School of the Environment / Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, UQ. Jan 2022-

UQ Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland. Conservation and life history evolution of mammals in Australia and Melanesia. January 2016 – December 2018.

ARC Future Fellow / Senior Lecturer, School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland. Life history evolution, extinction and conservation ecology of carnivorous marsupials. January 2012 – December 2015.

ARC Australian Research Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland. Causes of animal extinction and rediscovery, detection of extinction and trajectories of decline in mammals with respect to the spread of invasive predators. January 2007 – December 2011.

Natural Heritage Trust, federal Department of Environment and Heritage, Canberra. Collating published data on threats to nationally endangered vertebrates under the EPBC Act, for the Species Profiles And Threats database. Part time, January- December 2006.

ARC Postdoctoral Fellow, Division of Botany and Zoology, Australian National University, Canberra. Testing hypotheses to explain the evolution of polyandry, using antechinuses. April 2002 to February 2006 (maternity leave December 2004 – October 2005).

Royal Society Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Zoology, University of Aberdeen. Behavioural mechanisms of density-dependent immigration and implications for population dynamics in the water vole. Jan 2000 - April 2001 (maternity leave April 2001 – April 2002).

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Queensland. Ecological correlates of marsupial life histories, behaviour and social organisation. 1999 - 2000.

PhD. The Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Queensland, supervised by Professor Craig Moritz and Dr Anne Goldizen: Behavioural ecology and demography of the bridled nailtail wallaby, Onychogalea fraenata 1994 - 1998.

Research Interests

  • Mammal ecology
    Population ecology & biogeography of mammals, especially in Australia & Melanesia. Life history evolution of animals: drivers and mechanisms. Causes and detectability of extinction. Conservation ecology of threatened and declining marsupials, bats, tropical mammals. Evolutionary ecology of mammals: sexual selection, mating systems, life histories Behavioural ecology of mammals: social organisation and maternal care strategies.

Research Impacts

Co-chair Australian Marsupial and Monotreme Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission 2019-Australian Marsupial and Monotreme Specialist Group

Australian Mammal Taxonomy Consortium Chair 2023- Australian Mammal Taxonomy Consortium

Australian Ecology Research Award (AERA) 2020. Australian Ecology Research Award

Senior Editor, Cambridge University Press Journal Prisms: Extinction 2021- Cambridge Prisms Extinction

Member of the ARC College of Experts 2019-2021

Associate Editor of Methods in Ecology and Evolution 2013-

Associate Editor of Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B 2015-2021.

Media:

The Conversation AMTC checklist of Australian mammals

How the AMTC is contributing to conservation

The Conversation evolution of semelparity in male Antechinus

Nature- beyond the glamour of conservation

Science- sexual selection

Nature- extinct species rediscovery

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland

Publications

View all Publications

Grants

View all Grants

Supervision

  • Evolution of semelparity in male animals

    Doctor Philosophy

  • Fire, cats, and the northern bettong

    (2024) Doctor Philosophy

  • The ecology and conservation of fishing cats in urban landscapes in Colombo, Sri Lanka

    Doctor Philosophy

View all Supervision

Available Projects

  • Camera trap monitoring methods for small animal abundance and behaviour (honours project)

    This project would test the assumptions of the time lapse camera trapping method (Collett and Fisher 2017. Time-lapse camera trapping as an alternative to pitfall trapping for estimating activity of leaf litter arthropods. Ecology and Evolution 18: 7527-7533 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.3275) and validate associations between activity of small creatures at different temperatures and leaf litter clutter, and their true abundance. It would use arenas with known numbers of individuals of various species in different conditions, to compare the close-focus time lapse camera activity index with actual abundance. This project would also compare time-lapse camera methods with other arthropod sampling methods (collecting a square metre of litter and extracting all arthropods using Tullgren funnels, which is sometimes claimed to be a complete census). The project could also test the effectiveness of close-focus camera monitoring to identify native rodents using alternative configurations of one or two cameras. Fieldwork would be at UQ Hidden Vale field station.

  • Ecological resilience and life history adaptation of brush-tailed phascogales in south east Queensland

    Brush-tailed phascogales are insect-eating, arboreal, forest-dependent marsupials restricted to southern Australia. They are threatened in all states where they occur except Queensland. At UQ Hidden Vale Research Station, brush-tailed phascogales are are some of the most frequent occupants of our recently established nest boxes. This species has a peculiar life history likely to underpin population dynamics: it is one of very few animals in which all males die after breeding. This field-based project includes field ecology, evolutionary ecology experiments, and practical conservation. You will test hypotheses to advance theory in life history evolution, understand why brush-tailed phascogales appear to be doing better in south east Queensland than elsewhere, and find how we can protect them.

    You will work with researchers conducting landscape scale habitat restoration, fire and tree-thinning experiments at UQ Hidden Vale Research Station. Experiments include adding nest boxes, leaf litter and fallen timber to plots in phascogale habitat. You will 1) follow the fate and behaviour of individually identifiable phascogales to investigate how the timing and quality of food, nest site attributes, male competition, and predation risk influence recruitment and adult survival. 2) Find how environmental productivity and predictability influence mating systems, life history adaptations and constraints in dasyurids, focusing on male and female phascogales.

    Applicants should submit a cover letter explaining their experience and research interests, CV, academic transcripts, and the names of two referees to Assoc. Prof. Diana Fisher <d.fisher@uq.edu.au>. You will be based in the School of the Environment at the University of Queensland, St Lucia (Brisbane), Australia. UQ Hidden Vale Research Station is an hour by car from UQ St Lucia campus.

    All research costs of this project are funded. You will need to apply for a PhD scholarship. The next Graduate School Scholarship (UQGSS, including tuition fees) in the University of Queensland domestic round opens in August 2024, for commencement in RQ1 2025.

  • Data Driven Evolution and Biodiversity: Plant Extinction

    The Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences Stockholm University invites applications for a four-year, fully funded PhD position in Data-Driven Evolution and Biodiversity. Data Driven Evolution and Biodiversity concerns research that takes advantage of the massive data streams offered by techniques such as high-throughput sequencing of genomes and biomes, continuous recording of video and audio in the wild, high-throughput imaging of biological specimens, and large-scale remote monitoring of organisms or habitats. The PhD project in Data-Driven Evolution and Biodiversity is part of the project 'New probabilistic and AI methods for inferring recent and ongoing plant extinctions'. The student will develop new quantitative methods for extinction assessments and apply them to digitised herbarium data and information on species' traits, distributions and threats to accelerate and improve estimates of plant extinction. The student will be trained in Red List assessments, probabilistic modelling, machine learning and computational approaches in biodiversity science. The student will be will be supervised by Aelys Humphreys (Stockholm University) and work closely with an international team of collaborators associated with the project: Daniele Silvestro (University of Fribourg), Diana Fisher (University of Queensland), Alexandre Antonelli (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Gothenburg University) and Jon Norberg (Stockholm University).

    Closing date 31st July 2024

View all Available Projects

Publications

Featured Publications

Book

Book Chapter

  • Conservation Biogeography of Modern Species of Australasian Marsupials

    Woinarski, John C. Z. and Fisher, Diana O. (2023). Conservation Biogeography of Modern Species of Australasian Marsupials. American and Australasian Marsupials. (pp. 1319-1366) Cham, Switzerland: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-08419-5_44

  • Taxonomy and Diversity of Living Australasian Marsupials

    Baker, Andrew M., Eldridge, Mark D. B., Fisher, Diana O., Frankham, Greta, Helgen, Kristofer, Jackson, Stephen M., Potter, Sally, Travouillon, Kenny J. and Umbrello, Linette S. (2023). Taxonomy and Diversity of Living Australasian Marsupials. American and Australasian Marsupials. (pp. 163-247) Cham, Switzerland: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-08419-5_32

  • Reproductive strategies

    Fisher, D. O. (2018). Reproductive strategies. The secret lives of carnivorous marsupials. (pp. 211-212) edited by C.R. Dickman and A. Baker. Clayton, VIC Australia: CSIRO Publishing.

  • The bridled nailtail wallaby

    Fisher, D. O. (2016). The bridled nailtail wallaby. A fragile balance: the extraordinary story of Australian marsupials. (pp. 21-22) edited by Dickman, C. R.. Sydney, NSW Australia: Australian Geographic.

  • Sperm competition in the Macropodoidea: a review of evidence

    Paplinska, J. Z., Bencini, R., Fisher, D. O., Newell, G., Goldizen, A. W., Hazlitt, S. L., Sigg, D. P., Finlayson, G., Munn, A., Chambers, B., Mayberry, C. and Taggart, D. A. (2010). Sperm competition in the Macropodoidea: a review of evidence. Macropods: The biology of kangaroos, wallabies and rat-kangaroos. (pp. 65-76) edited by Graeme Coulson and Mark Eldridge. Collingwood, Vic., Australia: CSIRO Publishing.

  • Maternal behavior of marsupials

    Fisher, D.O. (2004). Maternal behavior of marsupials. Encyclopedia of animal behaviour. (pp. 850-852) edited by Marc Bekoff. London, United Kingdom: Greenwood Press.

Journal Article

Other Outputs

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

  • Evolution of semelparity in male animals

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • The ecology and conservation of fishing cats in urban landscapes in Colombo, Sri Lanka

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

  • How does land management affect recovery of brush-tailed rock-wallabies after fire and drought

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Feral Cat Control for Threatened Mammal Recovery in Central Queensland

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Smallholder agriculture and food and nutrition security: strategies to empower farming families in Solomon Islands

    Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Modelling the fine-scale behaviour, movement, and habitat use of free-range Koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) in southeast Queensland to predict and prevent risk of mortality

    Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

Completed Supervision

Possible Research Projects

Note for students: The possible research projects listed on this page may not be comprehensive or up to date. Always feel free to contact the staff for more information, and also with your own research ideas.

  • Camera trap monitoring methods for small animal abundance and behaviour (honours project)

    This project would test the assumptions of the time lapse camera trapping method (Collett and Fisher 2017. Time-lapse camera trapping as an alternative to pitfall trapping for estimating activity of leaf litter arthropods. Ecology and Evolution 18: 7527-7533 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.3275) and validate associations between activity of small creatures at different temperatures and leaf litter clutter, and their true abundance. It would use arenas with known numbers of individuals of various species in different conditions, to compare the close-focus time lapse camera activity index with actual abundance. This project would also compare time-lapse camera methods with other arthropod sampling methods (collecting a square metre of litter and extracting all arthropods using Tullgren funnels, which is sometimes claimed to be a complete census). The project could also test the effectiveness of close-focus camera monitoring to identify native rodents using alternative configurations of one or two cameras. Fieldwork would be at UQ Hidden Vale field station.

  • Ecological resilience and life history adaptation of brush-tailed phascogales in south east Queensland

    Brush-tailed phascogales are insect-eating, arboreal, forest-dependent marsupials restricted to southern Australia. They are threatened in all states where they occur except Queensland. At UQ Hidden Vale Research Station, brush-tailed phascogales are are some of the most frequent occupants of our recently established nest boxes. This species has a peculiar life history likely to underpin population dynamics: it is one of very few animals in which all males die after breeding. This field-based project includes field ecology, evolutionary ecology experiments, and practical conservation. You will test hypotheses to advance theory in life history evolution, understand why brush-tailed phascogales appear to be doing better in south east Queensland than elsewhere, and find how we can protect them.

    You will work with researchers conducting landscape scale habitat restoration, fire and tree-thinning experiments at UQ Hidden Vale Research Station. Experiments include adding nest boxes, leaf litter and fallen timber to plots in phascogale habitat. You will 1) follow the fate and behaviour of individually identifiable phascogales to investigate how the timing and quality of food, nest site attributes, male competition, and predation risk influence recruitment and adult survival. 2) Find how environmental productivity and predictability influence mating systems, life history adaptations and constraints in dasyurids, focusing on male and female phascogales.

    Applicants should submit a cover letter explaining their experience and research interests, CV, academic transcripts, and the names of two referees to Assoc. Prof. Diana Fisher <d.fisher@uq.edu.au>. You will be based in the School of the Environment at the University of Queensland, St Lucia (Brisbane), Australia. UQ Hidden Vale Research Station is an hour by car from UQ St Lucia campus.

    All research costs of this project are funded. You will need to apply for a PhD scholarship. The next Graduate School Scholarship (UQGSS, including tuition fees) in the University of Queensland domestic round opens in August 2024, for commencement in RQ1 2025.

  • Data Driven Evolution and Biodiversity: Plant Extinction

    The Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences Stockholm University invites applications for a four-year, fully funded PhD position in Data-Driven Evolution and Biodiversity. Data Driven Evolution and Biodiversity concerns research that takes advantage of the massive data streams offered by techniques such as high-throughput sequencing of genomes and biomes, continuous recording of video and audio in the wild, high-throughput imaging of biological specimens, and large-scale remote monitoring of organisms or habitats. The PhD project in Data-Driven Evolution and Biodiversity is part of the project 'New probabilistic and AI methods for inferring recent and ongoing plant extinctions'. The student will develop new quantitative methods for extinction assessments and apply them to digitised herbarium data and information on species' traits, distributions and threats to accelerate and improve estimates of plant extinction. The student will be trained in Red List assessments, probabilistic modelling, machine learning and computational approaches in biodiversity science. The student will be will be supervised by Aelys Humphreys (Stockholm University) and work closely with an international team of collaborators associated with the project: Daniele Silvestro (University of Fribourg), Diana Fisher (University of Queensland), Alexandre Antonelli (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Gothenburg University) and Jon Norberg (Stockholm University).

    Closing date 31st July 2024

  • Evolution of semelparity

    A handful of animals (some arthropods and Australian marsupials) have iteroparous females- that reproduce repeatedly, but semelparous males- that inevitably die during or soon after mating. This ARC-funded project is using multi-species comparative approaches, behavioural ecology, population ecology methods, and quantitative modelling to test evolutionary explanations. Multiple projects are available on the causes and cnsequences of semelparity in animals and plants.

This staff member is a UQ Expert for media in the following fields:

Australian mammal extinctions, Global extinctions - mammals, Antechinuses, Australian mammal declines, Endangered species, Extinctions - mammals, Species rediscovery, Bridled nailtail wallabies, Wallabies, Marsupials, Carnivorous marsupials, Life history evolution - dasyurids

They are happy to lend their expertise to your articles or broadcasts and share their research discoveries and insights with the community via media channels.

For additional assistance with story ideas, general advice and information or help with seeking further experts, please email the UQ Media Team or telephone (07) 3365 1120.

Links

ResearcherID: C-1324-2010

ORCID: 0000-0002-4017-3710

Scopus ID: 7403343262

Google Scholar ID: y911xKwAAAAJ

Personal Profile: Link

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