Prof. Ran Nathan is a full professor at the department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he holds the Adelina and Massimo DellaPergola Chair in Life Sciences. Early in his academic career, Nathan introduced a mechanistic multidisciplinary approach to the challenging study of long-distance dispersal (LDD) of seeds, revealing the mechanisms of LDD by wind, producing a wide range of models to predict LDD and plant spread in changing environments, and proposing a novel synthesis of dispersal and spatial dynamics in plants. Nathan has expended his research beyond plant dispersal, to study animal migration, foraging, navigation, cognition and behavior, focusing on birds and bats, but also including ants and fish. His studies provided the first evidence for large-scale map-based navigation in mammals, and the most comprehensive field evidence to date for a cognitive map in wild animals. His studies of animal foraging revealed strong evidence for information sharing at a communal roost, divulged non-ergodic behavior of raptors within local patches, and disclosed the reasons for inter-specific variation in foraging efficiency among closely related sympatric species. In the field of flight biomechanics, Nathan revealed strong deviations from the classic theory of thermal soaring and proposed risk-sensitive flight behavior as a major revision to the basic theory, and also discovered the key role of wind drift in explaining the lower soaring performance of young versus adult birds. Nathan studies apply a variety of advanced methods and technologies for investigating movement and behavior of free-ranging animals, including stable isotopes, DNA sequencing, cameras, GPS tags and the new cutting-edge high-throughput ATLAS tracking system he recently co-developed with Prof. Sivan Toledo. He also advanced movement ecology research by illustrating the unique power of stochastic simulations in disentangling the drivers of movement behavior, the utility of machine learning methods for classifying behaviors, and the revolutionary contribution of high-throughput tracking systems for understanding key unanswered questions in movement ecology and animal behavior.

Presentation title: The high-throughput revolution in movement ecology

Dr Tatsuya Amano is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow based at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Queensland, and is the Deputy Director in Research at the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science also at UQ. Tatsuya is committed to improving the way we conserve biodiversity, from the generation and interpretation of scientific evidence to the transfer of evidence to decisions and societies. His research interests include: identifying gaps in our efforts in conservation science, policy and practices, overcoming knowledge gaps with modelling approaches, and facilitating evidence-based conservation. He also has a strong interest in unveiling the importance of overcoming cultural barriers in environmental sciences. His translatE project (https://translatesciences.com/) applies scientific approaches to understanding the consequences of language barriers in science and devising solutions, with the aim of maximising scientific contribution to global biodiversity conservation.

Presentation title: Transcending language barriers, reconnecting evidence and people for conservation

Dr Ian Cresswell is the co-Chair of the national 2021 State of the Environment Report, as well as author of numerous book chapters and scientific papers on Australian conservation, land and sea management and Indigenous land management.

An experienced environmental scientist with a demonstrated history of working across government, industry and society to achieve conservation and sustainable development outcomes, Dr Cresswell has led major programs in CSIRO both in marine science and terrestrial and freshwater ecology. Previously he also worked within the Australian Government as a Senior Executive leading oceans management, sustainable fisheries assessments and international wildlife management, and was the Director of the Australian Biological Resources Study.

Dr Cresswell is an Adjunct Professor at the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of NSW, and currently serves as the Chair of the Atlas of Living Australia, the NESP Resilient Landscapes Hub Steering Committee, and the Western Australian Biodiversity Science Institute.

Moses Kerry is the Founder and Director of Mauberema Ecotourism and Nature Conservation Education Research and Training Center (MENCERTC) and is a lecturer and course coordinator at the University of Goroka, Division of Biological Science. Moses teaches a variety of biological science courses for undergraduate students. Moses has a Bachelor of Natural Science with Honors in Biology and a special interest in conservation.

The Mauberema Conservation project was part of Moses’s proposed Master’s Thesis Project, ‘Creating a Sustainable Conservation Approach in Papua New Guinea: A Key Tool for Biodiversity Conservation and Management, Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation and Socioeconomic Development for Forest Developing Country’, in early 2017. Moses went on to initiate the Mauberema Ecotourism and Conservation project and establish MENCERTC as a local community-based organisation in September 2017 with support from the University of Goroka and his Mauberema community.

Professor Adrienne Nicotra is a plant evolutionary ecologist with interest in the capacity of plants to respond to environment and environmental change –phenotypic plasticity. Her work focusses on native species from a wide range of environments, though she is particularly fond of mountain flora. Adrienne joined ANU as a postdoctoral fellow in 1998 and has been there ever since, now as a Professor and Associate Director Research in the Division of Ecology and Evolution in the Research School of Biology. Adrienne is the director of the Australian Mountain Research Facility.

Kris French is a leading research ecologist, specialising in invasion ecology, urban ecology and conservation biology. Her research has asked questions that investigate all scales; from cells through to ecosystems to understand how disturbances impact the distribution and abundance of both plants and animals. She has been particularly active in understanding how weeds invade ecosystems, and how they impact native species. More recently she has investigated how weeds and native plants will cope with heatwaves. This has included work to establish changes in cellular proteins, mycorrhizal relationships, physiological and ecological parameters. Her work has always been approached through a lens of conservation; what will help us conserve our native species?

Presentation title: Gardening Australia

Professor Richard Kingsford is a conservation biologist who has worked extensively across the wetlands and rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin. He is the Director of the Centre for Ecosystem Science, UNSW Sydney. He works with many different communities and governments across Australia on management of ecosystems and also works on adaptive management and reintroductions, leading the Wild Deserts project. His research has influenced conservation policy and management, including through involvement on state and federal advisory committees. Richard the Society for Conservation Biology’s Global Governance Committee and is a Director on the Society for Conservation Biology Oceania Board.

Presentation title: Ecology in the Anthropocene – lessons learnt