Tamika Lunn

Qualifications

BSc (Hons) Zoology

BSc Zoology & Environmental Science

Position

PhD Candidate

Contact details

Address:

Environmental Futures Research Institute

Building N78, Room 3.28, School of Environment,

Griffith University, Nathan Campus,

170 Kessels Rd, Nathan,

Queensland, Australia, 4111

Email: tamika.lunn"at"gmail.com

Twitter: @lunn_tamika

Overview

My main research interests are in quantitative ecology, anthropogenic disturbance, and wildlife disease, though my previous field and research experience has encompassed a much broader range of areas.

I completed my Bachelor of Science with honours at the University of Tasmania. For my honours research I was interested in the use of non-routine statistical approaches as a means of enhancing research in complex freshwater systems. I used structural equation modelling to assess platypus stream use, and the influence of forest harvesting on platypus occurrence and long term population abundance and health.

After completing honours I worked as an ecology research intern for the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, where I assisted in endangered species programs at sanctuaries in the heart of arid Australia. Here I was fortunate enough to trap and handle a myriad of Australian mammals rarely seen by people, including numbats, bilbies, bridled nailtail wallabies, boodies, woylies and mala.

Research Keywords

Disease ecology, infectious disease dynamics, wildlife conservation, mathematical modelling

Publications & Conferences

2017

Lunn, T., S. Munks, S. Carver (2017). Impacts of timber harvest on stream biota – an expanding field of heterogeneity. Biological Conservation (in press).
Lunn, T., S. Munks, S. Carver (2017). Causal processes of a complex system: modelling stream use and disturbance influence on the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus). Freshwater Biology (in review).
Lunn, T., J. Buettel, S. Nicol, B. Brook (2017). Population modelling of the Tasmanian Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus). Journal of Animal Ecology (in prep).
Lunn, T., M. Gerwin, J. Buettel, B. Brook (2017). Importance of long term monitoring for evaluating forest disturbance: a case study from the 2016 Tasmanian wildfires. PLOS ONE (in prep).
Munks, S., J. Macgregor, T. Lunn, K. Warren, S. Carver (2017) Platypuses and land-use practices: Catchment-scale studies provide some insight into the effect of forestry and agriculture. International Mammalogical Congress, Perth, Western Australia, 9th-14th July, 2017.

2016

Lunn, T., J. Macgregor, S. Munks, S. Carver (2016). Dermatophilus congolensis infection in platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus), Tasmania, Australia, 2015. Journal of Wildlife Diseases, 52(4).
Carver, S., S. N. Bevins, M. R. Lappin, E. E. Boydston, L. M. Lyren, M. Alldredge, K. A. Logan, L. L. Sweanor, S. P. D. Riley, L. E. K. Serieys, R. N. Fisher, T. W. Vickers, W. Boyce, R. McBride, M. C. Cunningham, M. Jennings, J. Lewis, T. Lunn, K. R. Crooks, and S. VandeWoude (2016). Pathogen exposure varies widely among sympatric populations of wild and domestic felids across the United States. Ecological Applications, 26(2):367-381.

Links

I was then employed as a research associate at the University of Tasmania, where I led two separate projects within the D.E.E.P (Dynamics of Eco-Evolutionary Patterns) lab: one investigating the effects of the 2016 Tasmanian wildfires on temperate wet sclerophyll forests, and the other modelling population demographics of the echidna, and evaluating the influence of climate on this species. These projects involved a mix of spatial point pattern and mark-recapture analyses, general modelling, as well a large amount of field research.

Research Overview

My PhD research focuses on the mechanistic modelling of flying-fox viral infectious diseases. A central theme of my research will be identifying mechanisms of viral maintenance, and drivers of viral excretion within Australian Pteropus bats, which I will investigate though a combination of modelling, field and laboratory research. I am particularly interested in how land-use change mechanistically influences bat population dynamics, and ultimately drives spillover and emergence of bat-borne pathogens. My PhD is co-supervised by Raina Plowright at Montana State University, and Peggy Eby at University of New South Wales.