The University of Western Australia

Asst/Prof Rachel Standish

Research 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 1073

Fax

6488 7461

Email

rachel.standish@uwa.edu.au

Location

Room G29, Botany and Biology Building, Crawley campus

Qualifications

BSc(Zoology) W.Aust., PhD Massey

Biography

I completed a BSc (Hons) in Zoology at the University of Western Australia in 1991. I spent a few years as a research assistant at the University of Wollongong studying the genetic structure of corals before moving to New Zealand in 1996 to begin a PhD. My PhD research focused on the effects of an invasive weed on community and ecosystem processes within lowland forest remnants. I returned to Perth in 2004, where I joined Professor Richard Hobbs' research group at Murdoch University. Here, I worked with Viki Cramer and others to determine the ecological barriers to old-field recovery in south-western Australia. I became a UWA Research Fellow in 2009.

Key research

I have a broad interest in ecology and its application to the management and restoration of native ecosystems. My research is grounded in theory but driven by an interest in developing practical outcomes for restoration in a rapidly changing world. I use an experimental approach to research that is informed by my observations of what occurs in nature. In this regard, plants offer many opportunities to explore.

Publications

Selected publications

Hallett LM, Standish RJ, Hobbs RJ 2011 Seed mass and summer drought survival in a Mediterranean-climate ecosystem. Plant Ecology (online) DOI: 10.1007/s11258-011-9922-2

Prober SM, Standish RJ, Wiehl G 2011 After the fence: Soil and vegetation condition in grazed, fenced and benchmark remnants of forb-rich eucalypt woodland. Australian Journal of Botany, 59(4):396-381. doi:10.1071/BT11026

Prober SM, Thiele KR, Rundel PW, Byrne M, Christidis L, Gosper CR, O’Connor MH, Grierson PF, Macfarlane C, Scott JK, Standish RJ, et al. 2011 Facilitating adaptation of biodiversity to climate change: a conceptual framework applied to the world’s largest Mediterranean-climate woodland. Climatic Change (online) doi:10.1007/s10584-011-0092-y

Standish RJ and Hobbs RJ 2010 Restoration of OCBILs in south-western Australia: Response to Hopper. Plant and Soil 330:15–18

Standish RJ, Cramer VA and Hobbs RJ 2008 Land-use legacy and the persistence of invasive Avena barbata on abandoned farmland. Journal of Applied Ecology 45: 1576–1583.

Cramer VA, Hobbs RJ, Standish RJ 2008 What’s new about old fields? Land abandonment and ecosystem assembly. Trends in Ecology and Evolution. 23 : 104-112.

Standish RJ, Cramer VA and Yates CJ 2008 A revised state-and-transition model for the restoration of woodlands in Western Australia. New Models for Ecosystem Dynamics (eds R.J. Hobbs & K.N. Suding). Island Press, Washington, DC.

Standish RJ, Sparrow A D, Williams PA and Hobbs RJ 2008 A State-and-Transition Model for the Recovery of Abandoned Farmland in New Zealand . New Models for Ecosystem Dynamics (eds R.J. Hobbs & K.N. Suding). Island Press, Washington, DC.

Harris RJ and Standish RJ 2008 Ant dispersal and predation affects the availability of seeds for old-field recolonisation in Western Australia. The Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 91: 301–312.

Standish RJ, VA Cramer, SL Wild and RJ Hobbs 2007 Seed dispersal and recruitment limitation are barriers to native recolonisation of old-fields in Western Australia. Journal of Applied Ecology 44: 435–445.

Cramer VA, RJ Standish & RJ Hobbs 2007 Western Australian Old Fields: Prospects for the Recovery of Native Vegetation in an Ancient and Highly Modified Landscape. In Old Fields: Dynamics and Restoration of Abandoned Farmland, eds. VA Cramer and RJ Hobbs, Island Press, Washington, pp. 286-306.

Standish RJ, Stokes BA, Tibbett M, Hobbs RJ 2007 Seedling response to phosphate addition and inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizas and the implications for old-field restoration in Western Australia. Environmental and Experimental Botany 61: 58–65.

Standish RJ, Cramer VA, Hobbs RJ and Kobryn HT 2006 Legacy of land-use evident in soils of Western Australia’s wheatbelt. Plant and Soil 280: 189–207.

Standish RJ 2004 Impact of an invasive clonal herb on epigaeic invertebrates in forest remnants in New Zealand. Biological Conservation 116: 49–58.

Standish RJ, Williams PA, Robertson AW, Scott NA, Hedderley DI 2004 Invasion by a perennial herb increases decomposition rate and alters nutrient availability in warm temperate lowland forest remnants. Biological Invasions 6: 71–81.

Standish RJ 2002 Experimenting with methods to control Tradescantia fluminensis. New Zealand Journal of Ecology 26: 161–170.

Standish RJ, Robertson AW, Williams PA 2001 The impact of an invasive weed Tradescantia fluminensis on native forest regeneration. Journal of Applied Ecology 38: 1253–1263.

Roberts JD, Standish RJ, Byrne PG, Doughty P 1999 Synchronous polyandry and multiple paternity in the frog Crinia georgiana (Anura: Myobatrachidae). Animal Behaviour 57: 721–726.

Ayre DJ, Hughes TP, Standish RJ 1997 Genetic differentiation, reproductive mode, and gene flow in the brooding coral Pocillopora damicornis along the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Marine Ecology Progress Series 159: 175–187.

Funding received

2009 UWA Development Award
2008 DEC with RJ Hobbs
2008 Avon Catchment Council with SM Prober
2006–9 ARC-Linkage with RJ Hobbs, M Tibbett & JM Koch
1997–01 Landcare Research (NZ) scholarship

Teaching

Currently, I co-supervise an MSc student, Lisa Denmead and two PhD students, Christine Allen and Martha Orozco Aceves.

Useful links

Ecosystem Restoration & Intervention Ecology Research Group
- http://www.erie-research.org
- http://www.plants.uwa.edu.au/research/ecosystem_restoration

New and noteworthy

2011 Theo Murphy High Flyers Think Tank
- http://www.erie-research.org/news.html

Current projects

I contribute to a number of research projects. One that keeps me busy is a collaborative, long-term, and large-scale field experiment at UWA Future Farm. It is designed to consider how different species mixtures may affect ecosystem functions and services such as carbon storage, nutrient cycling, invasion resistance and prevention of soil erosion. We will also consider potential tradeoffs in the provision of ecosystem functions, how different plant species mixtures may respond to simultaneous environmental changes, and how different plant species assemblages may affect other trophic levels, both above and below ground (in collaboration with Mike Perring, Kris Hulvey, Lori Lach, Richard Hobbs, Mark Tibbett and Raphael Didham, and ably assisted by Tim Morald and Rebecca Parsons).

Other recent projects include one that aims to test fire as a tool for restoration of woodlands degraded by grazing, and another that aims to compare plant traits of weeds and natives in Mediterranean-climate ecosystems of the world.

Research profile

Research profile and publications