The University of Western Australia

Asst/Prof Etienne Laliberte

Assistant Professor
School of Plant Biology

Contact details

Address

School of Plant Biology
The University of Western Australia (M090)
35 Stirling Highway
CRAWLEY WA 6009
Australia

Phone

6488 2214

Email

etienne.laliberte@uwa.edu.au

Personal homepage

http://www.elaliberte.info

Qualifications

BSc McG., MSc Montr., PhD Cant.

Biography

I completed a BSc in Botany (1998-2002) at McGill University (Canada). I then worked for two years at the Montréal Botanical Garden, where I was in charge of educational activities. In 2004, I went back to school and completed a MSc in Ecology (2004-2006) at Université de Montréal (Canada). My MSc research explored different scenarios for forest restoration on abandoned agricultural land. Following completion of my MSc, I moved to New Zealand to complete a PhD in Ecology (2007-2010) at the University of Canterbury. My PhD research focused on the links between land-use change, plant functional diversity, and ecosystem functioning in grasslands. I joined the School of Plant Biology as Assistant Professor in October 2010, and was awarded a three-year UWA Research Fellowship in 2011. In 2012, I was awarded a three-year ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA).

Key research

Controls over plant species composition and diversity

Trait-based plant community ecology

Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning

Mechanisms promoting local species coexistence

Publications

For PDF versions of my publications and Endnote / BibTeX citation files, please visit my homepage:
http://www.elaliberte.info/publications

15. Laliberté, E., Turner, B.L., Costes, T., Pearse, S.J., Wyrwoll, K.-H., Zemunik, G., and H. Lambers. 2012. Experimental assessment of nutrient limitation along a 2-million year dune chronosequence in the south-western Australia biodiversity hotspot. Journal of Ecology (in press).

14. Laliberté, E., Shipley, B., Norton, D. A. and D. Scott. Which traits determine abundance under long-term shifts in soil resource availability and grazing intensity? Journal of Ecology (in press)

13. Laliberté, E. and J. M. Tylianakis. 2011. Cascading effects of long-term land-use changes on plant traits and ecosystem functioning. Ecology 93:145-155.

12. Laughlin, D. C., Fulé, P. Z., Huffman, D. W., Crouse, J., and E. Laliberté. 2011. Climatic constraints on trait-based forest assembly. Journal of Ecology 99:1489-1499

11. Lambers, H., Finnegan, P. M., Laliberté, E., Pearse, S. J., Ryan, M. H., Shane, M. W., and E. J. Veneklaas. 2011. Phosphorus nutrition of Proteaceae in severely phosphorus-impoverished soils: are there lessons to be learned for future crops? Plant Physiology 156:1058-1066

10. Laliberté, E., Norton, D. A., Tylianakis, J. M., and D. Scott. 2010. Comparison of two sampling methods for quantifying changes in vegetation community structure under rangeland development. Rangeland Ecology & Management 63: 537-545

9. Tylianakis, J. M., Laliberté, E., Nielsen, A., and J. Bascompte. 2010. Conservation of species interaction networks. Biological Conservation 143: 2270-2279

8. Laliberté, E*. and J. M. Tylianakis*. 2010. Deforestation homogenizes tropical parasitoid-host networks. Ecology 91: 1740-1747 *Equal contribution.

7. Laliberté, E., and P. Legendre. 2010. A distance-based framework for measuring functional diversity from multiple traits. Ecology 91: 299-305

6. Laliberté, E., Wells J., DeClerck F., Metcalfe D.J., Catterall C.P., Queiroz C., Aubin I., Bonser S.P., Ding Y., Fraterrigo J.M., McNamara S., Morgan J.W., Sanchez-Merlos D, Vesk P.A. and Mayfield M.M. 2010. Land-use intensification reduces functional redundancy and response diversity in plant communities. Ecology Letters 13: 76-86

5. Laliberté. E., Paquette, A., Legendre, P. and A. Bouchard. 2009. Assessing the scale-specific importance of niches and other spatial processes on beta diversity: a case study from a temperate forest. Oecologia 159: 377-388

4. Laliberté, E. 2008. Analyzing or explaining beta diversity? Comment. Ecology 89: 3232-3237

3. Laliberté, E., Cogliastro, A. and A. Bouchard. 2008. Spatiotemporal patterns in seedling emergence and early growth of two oak species direct-seeded on abandoned pastureland. Annals of Forest Science 65: e407

2. Laliberté, E., Bouchard, A. and A. Cogliastro. 2008. Optimizing hardwood reforestation in old-fields: the effects of treeshelters and environmental factors on tree seedling growth and physiology. Restoration Ecology 16: 270-280

1. Paquette, A., Laliberté, E., Bouchard, A., de Blois, S., P. Legendre, and J. Brisson. 2007. Lac Croche understory vegetation data set (1998-2006) Ecology 88: 3209

Roles, responsibilities and expertise

My main role/responsibility is to conduct research and supervise postgraduate students. I also contribute to undergraduate teaching in PLNT3306: Australian Vegetation and coordinate BIOL4403: Plant Ecophysiology. I have broad interests in plant community ecology, but particular areas of expertise include: controls over plant diversity, trait-based approaches, functional diversity metrics, and statistical/spatial modelling.

Future research

South-western Australia is one of the world's 25 global biodiversity hotspots. A central theme of my current research is to explore mechanisms that promote species coexistence in megadiverse plant communities.

Funding received

- 2012-2015: ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA). $375,000.
- 2012: UWA Research Development Award. $29,933.
- 2011-2014: UWA Research Fellowship. $250,000.

Languages

French (first language)
English

Memberships

Ecological Society of America

Honours and awards

2012-2015: ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA)

2011: UWA High Achieving Young Researcher Award

2011-2014: UWA Research Fellowship

2010: Graham Whyte Forestry Prize, University of Canterbury

2008-2011: New Zealand International Doctoral Research Scholarship, Education New Zealand

2007-2010: University of Canterbury International PhD Scholarship

2007-2010: FQRNT PhD Research Scholarship, Québec Provincial Government

2007-2010: NSERC PhD Postgraduate Scholarship, Canadian Federal Government (declined)

2006: MSc Thesis Bursary, Université de Montréal

2006: Jacques Rousseau Bursary, Université de Montréal

2001: Jardine Bursary, McGill University

Teaching

BIOL4403: Plant Ecophysiology (postgraduate field course). Unit coordinator. To be first taught in Sept. 2012.

PLNT3306: Australian Vegetation (4 lectures on alpha/beta/functional diversity, data analysis labs)

Current external positions

Consulting Editor, Plant & Soil (2011-...)

Research profile

Research profile and publications