<http://arcue.botany.unimelb.edu.au/mark_mcdonnell.html>
Mark Jeffrey McDonnell
Australian Research Centre for Urban Ecology
c/o School of Botany
University of Melbourne
Victoria 3010 Australia
Present Position
Director, Australian Research Centre for Urban Ecology and Divisional Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens- Melbourne. Principal Fellow with the title of Associate Professor in the School of Botany, The University of Melbourne, Australia
Previous Employment
2001 July–October
Acting Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne
1998–present
Director of the Australian Research Centre for Urban Ecology of the Royal Botanic Gardens and Divisional Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens- Melbourne, Australia
1993–1998
Associate Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut USA and Director, Bartlett Arboretum-The Connecticut State Arboretum
1991–1993
Associate Scientist and the NYBG Forest Ecologist, Institute of Ecosystem Studies, The New York Botanical Garden, Mary Flagler Cary Arboretum, Millbrook, New York
1984–1991
Assistant Scientist and the NYBG Forest Ecologist, Institute of Ecosystem Studies, The New York Botanical Garden, Mary Flagler Cary Arboretum, Millbrook, New York
Education
1979–1983
Ph. D. in Ecology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J., USA
1976–1979
M.S. in Botany, University of New Hampshire, Durham, N.H., USA
1971–1975
B.A. in Botany, Connecticut College, New London, CT., USA
Research Grants and Contracts
Involved in obtaining approximately $9 million in grants and contracts since 1984. Major sources of funding include US National Science Foundation, Baker Foundation (AU), Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund (US) and Central Hudson and Empire State Electric Energy Research Corporation (US).
Editorial Boards and Advisory Panels
Editorial Board of Ecological Management and Restoration 2000 - Present
Member of the Board of Editors, Landscape and Urban Planning 2003 - Present
Member of Advisory Council Urban Ecosystems 2004 - Present
Served on advisory panels for the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. National Academy of Science, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, Southeast Water and Victoria Coast Council Science Panel.
Publications
Books
McDonnell, M. J., A. K. Hahs and J. Breuste (Editors) (2009) Ecology of Cities and Towns: A Comparative Approach. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
McDonnell, M. J. and S. T. A. Pickett. (1993) (Editors) Humans as Components of Ecosystems: Subtle Human Effects and the Ecology of Populated Areas. Springer-Verlag. New York. 363 pp. (reprinted in 2007).
Articles in Referred Journals: Most recent relevant publications
Hahs A.K., McDonnell M.J., McCarthy M.A., Vesk P.A., Corlett R.T., Norton B.A., Clemants S.E., Duncan R.P., Schwartz M.W., Thompson K. & Williams N.S.G. (in press) A global analysis of plant extinction rates in urban areas. Ecology Letters. DOI 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2009.01372.x
Williams, N.S.G., Schwartz, M.W., Vesk, P.A., McCarthy, M.A., Hahs, A.K., Clemants, S.E., Corlett, R.T., Duncan, R.P., Norton, B.A., Thompson, K., McDonnell, M.J. (2009). A conceptual framework for predicting the effects of urban environments on floras. Journal of Ecology 97: 4-9.
McDonnell, M. J. and Hahs, A. K. (2008). The use of gradient analysis studies in advancing our understanding of the ecology of urbanising landscapes: current status and future directions. Landscape Ecology 23: 1143-1155.
Hamer, A. J. and M. J. McDonnell (2008). Amphibian ecology and conservation in the urbanising world: a review. Biological Conservation 141: 2432-49.
Hahs, A. and McDonnell, M.J. (2006) Selecting independent measures to quantify Melbourne's urban-rural gradient. Landscape and Urban Planning: 78: 435-448.
Williams N.S.G., Morgan J.W., McCarthy M.A. and McDonnell M.J. 2006. Influence of patch attributes, landscape context and fire regime on the local extinction of grassland plant populations. Ecology 87: 3000-3006.
Articles in Referred Journals: High impact relevant publications
McDonnell, M. J., S.T.A. Pickett, R. V. Pouyat, R. W. Parmelee, M. M. Carreiro, P. M. Groffman, P. Bohlen, W. C. Zipperer, and K. Medley. (1997) Ecology of an urban-to-rural gradient. Urban Ecosystems 1: 21-36.
Medley, K. E., M. J. McDonnell and S. T. A. Pickett. (1995) Human influences on forest-landscape structure along an urban-to-rural gradient. The Professional Geographer 47: 159-168.
McDonnell, M. J. and S. T. A. Pickett. (1990) Ecosystem structure and function along gradients of urbanization: An unexploited opportunity for ecology. Ecology 71: 1231-1237.
Pickett, S.T.A. and M.J. McDonnell. (1989) Changing perspectives in community dynamics: A theory of successional forces. Trends Ecol. Evol. 4:241-245.
McDonnell, M. J. and E. W. Stiles. (1983) The structural complexity of old field vegetation and the recruitment of bird-dispersed plant species. Oecologia 56: 109-116.
Teaching Activities and Graduate Supervision
Over the past 20+ years I have been involved in teaching the following courses both in the US and Australia: Applied Ecology, Community and Ecosystem Ecology, Urban Ecology, Plant Ecology, Humans in the Changing Global Environment, and General Ecology.
Staff at ARCUE have supervised or co-supervised 18 PhD, 6 Masters and 22 Honours students at the University of Melbourne and Monash University over the past decade.
Research Interests
Over the last 20 years my research has focused on understanding the structure and function of ecological systems in urban and suburban environments, and the conservation of biodiversity in cities and towns. The books and papers I have published on urban ecology have resulted from interactions with scholars from a diversity of fields including ecology, geography, history, landscape architecture and planning as well as resource managers, policy makers and teachers. I have pioneered the use of gradient analysis in the ecological study of cities and towns around the world. Throughout my career I have been concerned with bringing high-quality ecological data and the understanding of basic ecological processes to bear on the problems of conservation and management of biodiversity and ecosystem processes in the creation and expansion of human settlements.