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Ms Rebecca Thomas
Ms Rebecca Thomas
Current Teaching
SCM2201 Soil and Land Processes - demonstrator/tutor
Student Qualifications
- Bachelor of Environmental Science (2008) first class Honours (2009) - Edith Cowan University, Western Australia
Professional Memberships
- Centre of Excellence in Ecohydrology
- Centre of Ecosystem Management
- Ecological Society of Australia
- Royal Society of Western Australia
- WA Naturalists Club
Awards and Recognition
- Australian Postgraduate Award APA Scholarship
- Serventy Memorial Prize in Natural Sciences
- Mount Lawley Teacher's College Memorial Award
Research
Research Interests
- Ecohydrology, Plant Ecology, Ecological Optimality, Hydrological Equilibrium Theory, Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems, Banksia woodlands/Proteaceae-dominated shrublands, Mediterranean-type Ecosystems, Predicting the impacts of climate change on biodiversity and ecosystem function in biodiverse shrublands
Current Research Areas
- PhD: my PhD aims to quantify the functional adjustments of vegetation in Mediterranean-type ecosystems to changes in water availability over time, specifically distinguishing between the unique responses of phreatophytic (groundwater using) and non-phreatophytic vegetation, in a bid to understand hydrological equilibrium and optimality processes in these systems, the subsequent direction of their future states and character under drying water regimes, their resilience and adaptive capacities, and the associated feedbacks on ecology and hydrology. My Honours thesis in 2009 successfully identified species level and community level structural and functional adjustments representing a shifting hydrological equilibrium, in Banksia woodlands of south-western Australia. Principal Supervisor: A/Professor Ray Froend. With: Centre of Excellence in Ecohydrology, Centre for Ecosystem Management, Department of Environment and Conservation
Recent Research Grants
- APA Scholarship
Recent Publications
Monographs
- Thomas, R. (2009). Structural characteristics of Banksia woodland along an ecohydrological gradient, Western Australia. Honours Thesis. Edith Cowan University, Western Australia.
- Thomas, R., Froend, R. & Loomes, R. (2008). Investigation into the Response of Groundwater Levels to Bushfire in areas of Native Vegetation on the Gnangara Mound, Western Australia. A Report to the Department of Environment and Conservation, Western Australia
Refereed Journal Articles
- Thomas, R., Froend, R.H. & Stock, W.D. (in prep). Shifting hydrological equilibrium of Banksia woodland in response to altered water regime.
- Horwitz, P., Sommer, B. & Thomas, R., Judd, S. (in prep).Ecological and economic implications for restoration of drought-affected wetlands. Presented at Society for Ecological Restoration International Conference in Perth, August 2009.
Conference Papers
- Thomas, R. (2009). Differences in Banksia woodland structural characteristics along an ecohydrological gradient. Poster presentation at the Royal Society of Western Australia 11th Annual Postgraduate Symposium, Curtin University.