Professor Angela Moles | UNSW Research

My Expertise

Rapid evolution, Introduced species, Responses of Australian plants to climate change, Seed ecology, Plant-animal interactions, Enemy release and biocontrol, Global patterns in plant ecology

Fields of Research (FoR)

Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, Biogeography, Invasive SpeciesEcology, Ecological Impacts of Climate Change

SEO tags

Expanding Knowledge

Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity

Biography

I am a member of the Evolution & Ecology Research Centre, the ARC College of Experts, the NSW Threatened Species Scientific Committee, the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Advisory Panel, the Australian Flora Foundation Council and Scientific Committee. I am Acting Director - Inspiring Ecology Teaching for the Ecological Society of Australia, and I am the Chair of the School of BEES Equity, Diversity and Inclusion committee.

My lab webpage is...view more

My lab webpage is here: https://bigecology.com.au/

My research goals are:

To find out how Australian species and plant communities are responding to climate change
To improve understanding of the ecology and evolution of introduced species
To use a big picture approach to quantify the factors affecting the ways plants grow and reproduce, including soil, climate and biotic interactions.
To better understand the selective processes underlying global patterns in ecological strategy

My Qualifications

Postgraduate Diploma in Higher Education (learning and teaching), Macquarie University, 2006
PhD in Ecology, Macquarie University, 2004
BSc(hons), majoring in Botany and Ecology, Victoria University of Wellington, 1997

My Awards

2022: Distinguished Fellow of the International Biogeography Society

2021: Royal Society of New South Wales Poggendorff Lectureship.

2021: Nancy Millis Medal for Women in Science (from the Australian Academy of Science)

2020: UNSW Sydney Outstanding Research Supervisor Award (from the Arc Postgraduate Council)

2018: Australian Ecology Research Award (awarded by the Ecological Society of Australia)

2017: Vice Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence - for contributions to student learning

2017: Shortlisted for the AFR Emerging Leader Award

2017: Became a fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales

2014: Vice Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence - Postgraduate Research Supervision

2013: Frank Fenner Prize for Life Scientist of the Year

2012: NSW science and engineering award for Excellence in Biological Sciences (Plant, Agriculture and Environment)

2011: Australian Museum Eureka Award for Outstanding Young Researcher

2011: Included in The (Sydney) Magazine list of the 100 most influential people in NSW

2010: Edgeworth David Medal, Royal Society of New South Wales (awarded to a scientist under the age of 35 for work contributing to the advancement of Australian science)

2009: JG Russell Award (awarded to one QEII fellow each year by the Australian Academy of Science)

2008: NSW Tall Poppy Award (awarded by the Australian Institute of Policy and Science for outstanding scientific research and communication)

2008: L’Oreal/UNESCO for Women in Science Fellowship

My Research Activities

My students and I use a combination of field work and synthesis of data from the literature to quantify large scale patterns in ecology. We use controlled glasshouse conditions to study rapid evolution in introduced species, and we use herbarium, seed bank and museum specimens to study plants and animals from the past. We collaborate with ecologists from all around the world, and with researchers from a range of other disciplines including geography, climate science, and statistics.

My Research Supervision

Areas of supervision

Plant ecology, invasion biology, plant-animal interactions, biogeography, rapid evolution, species' responses to climate change.

I would love to talk to potential PhD students who are interested in working on projects in large scale ecology, or who have exciting ideas of their own, but I am not qualified to supervise physiology or genetics.

Currently supervising

Karen Zeng (PhD)	When do plant species experience enemy release: data synthesis.
Giancarlo Chiarenza (PhD)	Global patterns in plant-soil interactions.
Joe Atkinson (joint PhD)	Quantitative assessment of restoration effectiveness in Australia
Frederick Dadzie (joint PhD)	Do soil microbes improve seedling recruitment in restoration sites?
Inna Osmolovsky	Speciation and plant responses to climate change
Marcus Greenwood	How fire and climate change affect species distribution shifts
Iain Campbell	Is mapping based on bird assemblages more accurate at determining habitats at a regional scale than International Ecological (IUCN) and Botanical (IVC) mapping schemes?

STUDENTS WHO HAVE COMPLETED THEIR DEGREES

Student (degree)	Start year	Graduation year		Research topic
PhD
Zoe Xirocostas	2019	2022		When do plant species experience enemy release: a field study?
Alex Sentinella	2017	2021		Gradients in global germination and geographical genomics
Susan Everingham	2017	2021		How much have Australian plants changed in response to climate change?
Claire Brandenburger	2012 (half time)	2019		Are introduced plants in the process of becoming new Australian species?
Floret Meredith	2013	2017		Are plants on islands less-well defended against herbivores than their mainland counterparts?
Si-Chong Chen	2012	2016		Seed dispersal and seed size
Jacinta Green	2014*	2016		Chemical defence against fouling in seaweeds
Rhiannon Dalrymple	2011	2015		The latitudinal gradient in colour in birds, plants and butterflies
Habacuc Flores	2010	2013		Understanding introduced species in Australia
Ray Blick	2009	2012		Disentangling an entangled bank: using network theory to understand interactions in plant communities
Fiona Thomson	2009*	2011		Investigating seed dispersal at local (Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, Australia) and larger scales.
Laura Warman	2007	2011		Vegetation patterns and refugia of the wet tropics in Australia
Masters
Joanna Buswell	2007	2009		Rapid evolution in introduced species in New Zealand and Australia.
Floor Soudijn	2008	2009		Offspring size/number trade-offs in Echinoderms and Malacostraca.
Honours
Marcus Greenwood	2022	2022	Quantifying maternal effects
Madelon Cruickshank	2022	2022	Designing an app to train researchers to estimate cover
Euan Rogers	2022	2022	Are arid zone plants shifting their distributions in response to climate change?
Bettina Ignacio	2021	2022	The soil seed bank at Fowlers Gap
Rosa Earle	2021	2022	Empirical evidence for introduction bias
Sebastian Schwartz	2020	2021	Where and why do plants have domatia?
Lillian Zhang	2020	2020	Are Australian rainforest species moving interstate in response to climate change?
Ashika Jagdish	2020	2020	Biogeographic patterns in photoperiod sensitivity in the Australian flora
Jennifer Auld	2019	2020	Are Australian alpine species moving uphill in response to climate change?
Zoe Xirocostas	2018	2018	Does the sex with the shorter chromosome die earlier?
Karen Zeng	2017	2018	Are photoperiod sensitive species slower to respond to climate change?
Neil Ross	2017	2017	How did the spinifex get its hole? A test of whether ring formation in Triodia is caused by soil pathogens
Coen Romalis	2017	2017	Development of reproductive isolation between introduced species and their source population (F2 generation)
Meena Sritharan	2016	2017	Have Australian Alpine plants changed morphology in response to climate change?
Casey Gibson	2016	2016	Development of reproductive isolation between introduced species and their source population (F1 generation)
Susan Everingham	2016	2016	Invasion of novel, anthropogenic habitats by native species.
Martin Kim	2015	2015	Herbivory through time and space on introduced species
Stephanie Creer	2014	2015	Herbivores, pollinators, wind and soil fertility: Selection pressures driving the evolution of Arctotheca populifolia
Timothy Hitchcock	2013	2013	The latitudinal gradient in plant longevity
Thomas Meredith	2013	2013	Are primary producers on land better defended than their marine counterparts?
Marianne Tindall	2012	2012	Latitudinal gradients in plant physical defences
Rhiannon Dalrymple	2010	2011	Rapid evolution in clonal introduced species in Australia.
Ellen Couchman	2010	2010	Morphological change in invading starlings in Australia
Karen Bartle	2009	2010	Rapid evolution of dispersal morphology at the range edge of Senecio madagascariensis.
Paul Chachelle	2008	2008	Why the land is green and the sea is blue.

Advice for prospective students

The Big Ecology Lab is a very collaborative group, with really wide-ranging interests. As a student in the Big Ecology lab, you’re expected to get involved with as many things as possible. For instance, you might attend a weekly discussion group, present work at conferences, help your labmates out (with fieldwork, figuring out the answers to difficult questions, and with moral support), do some undergrad teaching, go to seminars, talk science with other staff/students in the department, and come out for beer sometimes. This all takes up time; but it's this sort of stuff that makes being a grad student fun.

If you are a PhD or MSc student, I think it is best if you can come up with your own research topic (after all, you’re going to be thinking about this topic a lot for the next 2-4 years – it might as well be something you really care about). However, I will work with you to make sure that you end up with something that’s going to be achievable, scientifically sound AND interesting. I’m open to a wide range of project topics. BSc(hons) students – I realise you might not have a clear idea of what you want to work on yet, and that’s perfectly ok. I will be really happy to talk about your ideas for research; but if you can’t come up with anything, I do have a list of project ideas that I think will be both manageable and interesting.

The single most important thing you should do while choosing a supervisor is to talk to their past/present students and ask what it’s like in their lab. Come and talk to us all.