Ecological Statistician
Dr Rowan Trebilco
Dr Trebilco’s research examines the processes that shape marine communities and ecosystems at scales ranging from local assemblages to global biomes, with the goal of informing conservation and management. He has a long-standing interest and engagement in the interface between ecological research, decision-making and environmental stewardship. While Dr Trebilco’s work has a quantitative focus, its grounded by several years of fieldwork above and below temperate, tropical, and southern oceans.
Dr Trebilco joined the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre at the end of 2014 as an ecological statistician, after being awarded his PhD in Biology at Simon Fraser University in Canada. He completed an MSc. in Biodiversity Conservation and Management as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford in 2007, and before that, worked as a Seabird Biologist for the Tasmanian state government.
social & academic profiles
Current Research
In the CRC, Dr Trebilco’s focus has been on engaging with national and international collaborators to develop models, methods and analyses to facilitate assessment of Southern Ocean ecosystem status and trends, and to advance fundamental understanding of ecosystem structure and function. This work is primarily directed toward project R2.3, and also has strong links with project R2.2.
Selected Publications
Clark L., Trebilco R., Walters A., Polanowski A., Deagle B. (2018) DNA-based diet analysis of mesopelagic fish from the southern Kerguelen Axis. Deep-Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography. Doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2018.09.001
Addison P., Collins D., Trebilco R., Howe S., Bax N., Hedge P., Jones G., Miloslavich P., Roelfsema C., Sams M., Stuart-Smith R., Scanes P., von Baumgarten P., McQuatters-Gollop A. (2017). A new wave of marine evidence-based management: emerging challenges and solutions to transform monitoring, evaluating, and reporting, ICES Journal of Marine Science, fsx216, doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsx216
Meyer B., Freier U., Grimm V., Groeneveld J., Hunt B., Kerwath S., King R., Klaas C., Pakhomov E., Meiners K., Melbourne-Thomas J., Murphy E., Thorpe S., Stammerjohn S., Wolf-Gladrow D., Auerswald L., Götz A., Halbach L., Jarman S., Kawaguchi S., Krumpen T., Nehrke G., Ricker R., Sumner M., Teschke M., Trebilco R, Yilmaz N (2017). Hide, survive and hitch a ride, a new view on the krill-sea ice relationship. Nature Ecology & Evolution, doi:10.1038/s41559-017-0368-3
Melbourne-Thomas J., Constable A., Fulton E., Corney S., Trebilco R. et al. (2017) Integrated modelling to support decision-making for marine social-ecological systems in Australia. ICES Journal of Marine Science. doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsx078
Blanchard J.L., Heneghan R.F., Everett J.D., Trebilco R., Richardson A.J. (2017). From Bacteria to Whales: Using Functional Size Spectra to Model Marine Ecosystems. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 32(3), 174–186
McCormack S., Melbourne-Thomas J., Trebilco R., Blanchard J., Constable A. (2017). Simplification of complex ecological networks – species aggregation in Antarctic food web models. Proceedings of the 22nd International Congress on Modelling and Simulation: 264-270 (fully refereed conference proceedings)
Lee L., Salomon A.K., Watson J.C., Trebilco R. (2016) Indirect effects and prey behavior mediate interactions between an endangered prey and recovering predator. Ecosphere, 7(12), e01604–26
Melbourne-Thomas J., Corney S.P., Trebilco R, Meiners K.M., Stevens R.P., Kawaguchi S, Sumner M.D., Constable A.J. (2016) Under-ice habitats for Antarctic krill larvae: could less mean more under climate warming? Geophysical Research Letters. 10.1002/2016GL070846
Trebilco R., Dulvy N.K., Anderson, S.C., Salomon A.K. (2016) The paradox of inverted biomass pyramids in kelp forest fish communities Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Sciences, 283: 20160816
Trebilco R., Dulvy N.K., Salomon A.K., The role of habitat complexity in shaping the size-structure of a temperate reef fish community. (2015) Marine Ecology Progress Series, 532, 197–211
Brown C. & Trebilco, R. (2014). Unintended cultivation, shifting baselines, and conflict between objectives for fisheries and conservation. Conservation Biology, 28, 423–431
Trebilco R., Baum J.K., Salomon A.K., & Dulvy N.K., (2013). Ecosystem ecology: size-based constraints on the pyramids of Life. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 28, 423-431
Trebilco R., Halpern B., Mills-Flemming J., Field C., Blanchard W. & Worm B. (2011). Mapping species richness and human impact drivers to inform global pelagic conservation prioritisation. Biological Conservation, 144, 1758–1766
Trebilco R., Gales R., Lawrence E., Alderman R., Robertson G. & Baker G.B. (2010). Characterizing seabird bycatch in the eastern Australian tuna and billfish pelagic longline fishery in relation to temporal, spatial and biological influences. Aquatic Conservation-Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 20, 531-542. *one of the top-10 most cited papers in Aquatic Conservation for 2011
Trebilco R., Gales R., Baker G.B., Terauds A. & Sumner M.D. (2009). At-sea movement of Macquarie Island giant petrels: relationships with Marine Protected Areas and Regional Fisheries Management Organisations. Biological Conservation, 141, 2942-2958
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contact information
Dr Rowan Trebilco
Rowan.Trebilco@wwwace.aappartnership.org.au
Authorised by the CEO of the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre October 2019.
The ACE CRC was established and supported under the Australian Government’s Cooperative Research Centres Program.
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