Honours supervisors and projects

Dr Nick Bond

Aquatic Ecology

Telephone: 9905 5606
Email: nick.bond@sci.monash.edu.au

Potential Honours topics

The effects of floods on benthic stream communities

Floods are known to have dramatic short-term effects on benthic stream communities, but the processes affecting the rates and patterns of recovery are much less well understood. This project could examine the role of a number of factors in influencing the recovery trajectories following disturbance such as the size of the disturbed area

Biotic interactions in intermittent streams

The loss of continuous surface water in intermittent streams concentrates biota into isolated refuge waterholes in which biotic interactions are intensified. There are a number of potential questions relating the role of competition and predation in structuring communities in remnant pools, including the effects of introduced species, that could be examined as part of this project.

The effects of habitat patchiness on stream-invertebrate assemblages

The patch-dynamics concept has been influential in our understanding of benthic stream communities. Most work on habitat patchiness in streams has focussed primarily on within patch characteristics in explaining local community structure. Much less attention has been given to interactions among patches. This project would adopt a landscape perspective in examining local patch dynamics in streams.

The effects of ecological restoration on the structure and function of stream ecosystems

There are many unanswered questions about how to restore aquatic ecosystems, and how ecosystems respond to the types of restoration actions that are commonly implemented. There may be potential in this project to piggyback onto actual restoration work being carried out by stream managers, or to explore, on a smaller scale, some of the theories that underpin our approaches to stream restoration.