Jane Elith

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Professor Jane Elith FAA is an ecologist in the School of Botany at the University of Melbourne. She graduated from the School of Agriculture and Forestry at the University of Melbourne in 1977. She specialises in ecological models that focus on spatial analysis and prediction of the habitat of plant and animal species. Following graduation, she was a research assistant and tutor for three years, and then spent the following 12 years raising her children. She returned to the University of Melbourne in 1992 and later commenced a part-time PhD in the School of Botany. She was awarded her PhD in 2002 on 'Predicting the distribution of plants'. Since then, she has been a research fellow in the School of Botany. She is currently an ARC Future Fellow and sits within the Centre of Excellence for Biosecurity Risk Analysis at the University of Melbourne.

Contents

Elith is known primarily for her work on statistical models and data, and has mostly focused on species distribution models. Elith is interested in the methods used to model the distribution of species, and focuses on how they work, how to improve them for typical data types and applications, and how to deal with their uncertainties. [1] She is particularly interested in understanding how models work and in finding technical solutions to improve their performance. She is also interested in and contributes to their use for practical applications.

Dean of Science at the University of Melbourne, Professor Karen Day, said Dr Elith was blazing a trail for women in the disciplines of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). [2]

She won the 2016 Fenner Medal awarded by the Australian Academy of Science for research in biology. In 2020, she was honoured to be an international member of the National Academy of Sciences. [3]

Research

Elith is currently working on three main topics.

"People focus on certain places for their surveys," she said. "Close to town, close to roads or in their favourite places."

However the gaps need to be filled. So Dr Elith uses the available data to make statistical models based on the patterns and known relationships hidden within the data. She also takes into account weaknesses in the data and works to find a more robust model. [4]

Honours and professional contributions

Elith is one of the most highly cited ecologists in Australia and internationally, despite only graduating in 2002. Over the past decade she has become the 11th most-cited author in the field of environment and ecology. [5] In 2012, she was recognised by Thomson Reuters as a highly cited researcher, putting her in the top 1% of researchers globally. She presented her work to the National Press Club (Australia) on May 30, 2012. [6] Only two people from the University of Melbourne were honoured with this award.

Elith was also named in the 2014 Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researchers in the Environment/Ecology category, awarded to researchers for having an exceptional impact by ranking in the top 1% most cited researchers in their field of study. [7]

In 2015 Elith was awarded the Frank Fenner Prize for Life Scientist of the Year in the Prime Minister's Prizes for Science, [8] and in 2016 was awarded the Australian Ecology Research Award. [9] She was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2017. [10]

Her 2006 paper [11] on novel methods to improve prediction of species' distributions from occurrence data, by mid-2014, had been cited about 3,000 times (Google Scholar citations July 31, 2014). Other highly cited work includes her papers on boosted regression trees, her review of methods for spatial predictions, and her work on maximum entropy modeling.

Elith has been a Subject Editor for Ecology (2009-), Diversity and Distributions (2013-), Biological Invasions (2011-2014) and Ecography (2007-2010). She has provided scientific advice to the Murray-Darling Basin Commission, the Australian Biosecurity System for Primary Production and the Environment, the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, and the Atlas of Living Australia. She has won numerous research grants and she routinely teaches specialist courses in spatial modeling.

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

Spatial ecology studies the ultimate distributional or spatial unit occupied by a species. In a particular habitat shared by several species, each of the species is usually confined to its own microhabitat or spatial niche because two species in the same general territory cannot usually occupy the same ecological niche for any significant length of time.

QDGC - Quarter Degree Grid Cells are a way of dividing the longitude latitude degree square cells into smaller squares, forming in effect a system of geocodes. Historically QDGC has been used in a lot of African atlases. Several African biodiversity projects uses QDGC, among which The atlas of Southern African Birds is the most prominent one. In 2009 a paper by Larsen et al. describes the QDGC standard in detail.

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A home range is the area in which an animal lives and moves on a periodic basis. It is related to the concept of an animal's territory which is the area that is actively defended. The concept of a home range was introduced by W. H. Burt in 1943. He drew maps showing where the animal had been observed at different times. An associated concept is the utilization distribution which examines where the animal is likely to be at any given time. Data for mapping a home range used to be gathered by careful observation, but nowadays, the animal is fitted with a transmission collar or similar GPS device.

Ecological forecasting uses knowledge of physics, ecology and physiology to predict how ecological populations, communities, or ecosystems will change in the future in response to environmental factors such as climate change. The goal of the approach is to provide natural resource managers with information to anticipate and respond to short and long-term climate conditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Species distribution modelling</span> Algorithmic prediction of the distribution of a species across geographic space

Species distribution modelling (SDM), also known as environmental(or ecological) niche modelling (ENM), habitat modelling, predictive habitat distribution modelling, and range mapping uses computer algorithms to predict the distribution of a species across geographic space and time using environmental data. The environmental data are most often climate data (e.g. temperature, precipitation), but can include other variables such as soil type, water depth, and land cover. SDMs are used in several research areas in conservation biology, ecology and evolution. These models can be used to understand how environmental conditions influence the occurrence or abundance of a species, and for predictive purposes (ecological forecasting). Predictions from an SDM may be of a species’ future distribution under climate change, a species’ past distribution in order to assess evolutionary relationships, or the potential future distribution of an invasive species. Predictions of current and/or future habitat suitability can be useful for management applications (e.g. reintroduction or translocation of vulnerable species, reserve placement in anticipation of climate change).

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References

  1. "University of Melbourne congratulates new Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science". The Melbourne Newsroom. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
  2. "Leading female scientists recognised with Australian Academy of Science awards". University of Melbourne News Archive. Archived from the original on 18 April 2021. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  3. "2020 NAS Election". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
  4. Smith, Bridie (21 October 2015). "PM's Prizes for Science: Jane Elith wins life scientist of the year". Canberra Times. Archived from the original on 4 February 2018. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
  5. "Plants, precious metals, polymers and pests | Cosmos". cosmosmagazine.com. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
  6. "Thomson Reuters Australia Citation and Innovation Awards 2012" Archived 21 April 2017 at the Wayback Machine , 30 May 2012. Accessed 14 August 2014.
  7. "Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researchers", 2014, accessed 18 August 2014.
  8. "PM Prizes for Science 2015". 2015, accessed 12 December 2017.
  9. "Past Recipients". ecolsoc.org.au. Ecological Society of Australia. Archived from the original on 8 March 2019. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  10. "Australian Academy of Science: Fellows elected in 2017". www.science.org.au. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
  11. Elith, J., C. H. Graham, R. P. Anderson, M. Dudík, S. Ferrier, A. Guisan, R. J. Hijmans, F. Huettmann, J. R. Leathwick, A. Lehmann, J. Li, L. G. Lohmann, B. A. Loiselle, G. Manion, C. Moritz, M. Nakamura, Y. Nakazawa, J. McC. M. Overton, A. Townsend Peterson, S. J. Phillips, K. Richardson, R. Scachetti-Pereira, R. E. Schapire, J. Soberón, S. Williams, M. S. Wisz, and N. E. Zimmermann (2006). "Novel methods improve prediction of species' distributions from occurrence data". Ecography 29:129-151.