Dr Bea Sommer

Post Doctoral Research Fellow

Telephone: (61 8)  6304 5561  
Mobile: 0416 554 850  
Email: b.sommer@ecu.edu.au   
Campus:  
Room: CL19.339  

 

Current Teaching

  • SCI2257 - Relief teaching for Water & Wetlands management

Background

Selected research projects:

  • Eco-hydrological study of groundwater-dependent vegetation communities on the Gnangara mound
  • Impact of Acid Sulfate Soils on freshwater ecosystems of southwest Western Australia
  • Wetland biodiversity investigation (Gnangara Sustainability Study)
  • Wetland macroinvertebrate monitoring program of the Gnangara Mound Environmental Monitoring
  • 'Macroinvertebrate Monitoring Program Gnangara Mound'
  • ‘Water chemistry and invertebrate responses to fire in wetlands with pyritic organic rich soils on the Swan Coastal Plain’
  • ‘Effects of mine discharge water on wetland species, Jangardup and Jangardup South’
  • ‘Predictive modelling of wetland response to changing water quality and quantity’
  • ‘Survey of receiving wetlands, and impacts of dewatering discharge for the Cuddingwarra prospect’

Professional Memberships

  • Australian Society for Limnology (ASL)
  • Society for International Limnology (SIL)
  • Australia Water and Waste Water Association (AWWA)
  • Royal Society of WA
  • Conservation Council of W.A.
  • Birds Australia WA Group

Awards and Recognition

Other

  • Australian Postgraduate Award (APA)
  • Edith Cowan PhD Top-up Scholarship
  • Certificate of Merit: Undergraduate Water Prize (AWWA) (1998)
  • NSW Murray Wetlands Working Group student prize for Excellence in Wetland Management Research (Albury, 2006)

Research Areas and Interests

  • Ecological Water Requirements of aquatic fauna and flora
  • Wetland ecology
  • Wetland sediment/water interactions
  • Aquatic macroinvertebrates
  • Effects of climate change on aquatic ecosystems
  • Wetland management
  • Acid Sulfate Soils (particularly in relation to drought-induced acidification of wetlands)
  • Impact of mining operations (mainly de-watering) on aquatic ecosystems
  • Nutrient and carbon cycling in wetlands
  • Chemistry and ecology of humic wetland systems
  • Effects of fire on wetland sediments, water quality and ecology
  • Hydroecology of groundwater dependent vegetation; and
  • Ecological risk assessment

Staff Qualifications

  • Bachelor of Science, Edith Cowan University .
  • Doctor of Philosophy, Edith Cowan University, 2007 .

Research

Recent Research Grants

  • Project 4.1 - Wetland Macroinvertebrates and Water Quality (Gnangara Mound),  Dept of Water WA,  Grant,  2011,  $31,120.
  • Physico-chemical and biological consequences of lower ground- and surface water levels at Loch McNess, Yanchep National Park,  Department of Environment and Conservation WA,  Grant,  2011,  $7,000.
  • Project 4.1 - Wetland Macroinvertebrates and Water Quality (Gnangara Mound),  Dept of Water WA,  Grant(**),  2010,  $48,323.
  • Project 4.1 - Wetland Macroinvertebrates and Water Quality (Gnangara Mound),  Dept of Water WA,  Grant,  2009,  $28,750.
  • Assessment of Wetland Invertebrate & Fish Biodiversity for the Gnangara Sustainability Study,  Department of Environment & Conservation WA,  Grant,  2008,  $23,715.
  • Project 4.1 - Wetland Macroinvertebrates and Water Quality (Gnangara Mound),  Dept of Water WA,  Grant,  2008,  $28,750.
  • The Effects of mine discharge water on wetland species, Jangardup and Jangardup South.,  Cable Sands (WA) Pty Ltd,  Grant,  2004,  $440.

Recent Publications (within the last five years)

Journal Articles

  • Sommer, B., Froend, R., (2011), Resilience of phreatophytic vegetation to groundwater drawdown: Is recovery possible under a drying climate?. Ecohydrology, 4(1), 67-82, DOI: 10.1002/eco.124.
  • Froend, R., Sommer, B., (2010), Phreatophytic vegetation response to climatic and abstraction-induced groundwater drawdown: Examples of long-term spatial and temporal variability in community response. Ecological Engineering, 36(9), 1191-2000, Amsterdam, DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoleng.2009.11.029.
  • Sommer, B., Horwitz, P., (2009), Macroinvertebrate Cycles of Decline and Recovery in Swan Coastal Plain (Western Australia) Wetlands Affected by Drought Induced Acidification. Hydrobiologia: the international journal on limnology and marine sciences, 624(1), 191-203, The Netherlands, DOI: 10.1007/s10750-008-9692-6.
  • Horwitz, P., Rogan, R., Halse, S., Davis, J., Sommer, B., (2009), Wetland Invertebrate Richness and Endemism on the Swan Coastal Plain,Western Australia. Marine and Freshwater Research, 60(10), 1006-1020, Australia, DOI: 10.1071/MF08204.