Staff Profile

Qualifications

John Morgan graduated with a B.App.Sc.(Hons) before gaining his Ph.D. at La Trobe University in 1998. He worked at the University of Tasmania and Deakin University before his appointment as a lecturer at La Trobe University in 2000.

Teaching areas

I teach plant ecology at all undergraduate year levels, focusing on Australian ecosystems and environmental problems:
• BIO1PS Plant Science
• BOT2AES Australian Ecology and Systematics
• BOT 2PE Plant Ecology
• BOT3FEB Field and Environmental Botany
• BOT3ESE Ecology, Systematics and Evolution

Research interests

I am a plant community ecologist who is interested in the persistence of species and communities in heterogeneous, fragmented, and disturbed landscapes. I study, in particular, extinction, invasion and co-existence at decadal to century-scales. I then apply this understanding to the conservation and restoration of terrestrial plant communities.

• what factors govern species richness and how do local deterministic factors (niche models) interplay with landscape factors (neutral models)
• the role that non-native plants play in structuring native plant communities, both by direct and indirect interactions
• how native ecosystems re-assemble following disturbance (in a floristic, structural and functional sense)
• the importance of spatial scale in understanding vegetation responses to disturbance and environmental heterogeneity
• drivers of long-term vegetation dynamics and why woody plant encroachment is a ecological phenomenon in many woodland communities in southern Australia
• the processes that underpin local extinction and persistence in communities, and the implications this has for ecosystem function and stability

Field trips

Field trips are an integral part of learning about plant ecology. I organize several trips per year including:

• BOT2AES/ BOT2PE field trip to Natimuk (mid-semester break, early October each year) to study vegetation-environment relationships
• BOT3FEB field trip in May to study biodiversity of forests (Otways)
• BOT3ESE field trip (September) to study ecological interactions in natural plant communities (East Gippsland).

Recent publications and presentations

• Briggs, A. & Morgan, J.W. (2008) Morphological diversity and abundance of biological soil crusts differ in relation to landscape setting and vegetation type. Australian Journal of Botany 56, 246-253.
• Williams, N.S.G., Hahs, A.K. and Morgan, J.W. (2008) A dispersal-constrained habitat suitability model for predicting invasion of alpine vegetation. Ecological Applications 18, 347-359.
• Lunt, I.D., Eldridge, D.J., Morgan, J.W. & Witt, G.B. (2007). A framework to predict the effects of livestock grazing and grazing exclusion on conservation values in natural ecosystems in Australia. Australian Journal of Botany 55, 401-415.
• Venn, S.E. & Morgan, J.W. (2007) Phytomass and phenology of three alpine snowpatch species across a natural snowmelt gradient. Australian Journal of Botany 55, 450-456.
• Franco, J. & Morgan, J.W. (2007) Using historical records, aerial photography and dendroecological methods to determine vegetation changes in a grassy woodland since European settlement. Australian Journal of Botany 55, 1-7.
• Williams N.S.G, Morgan J.W., McCarthy M.A & McDonnell M.J. (2006) Influence of patch attributes, landscape context and fire regime on the local extinction of grassland plant populations. Ecology 87, 3000-3006.
• Price, J.N. & Morgan, J.W. (2006). Vegetation dynamics following resource manipulations in herb-rich woodland. Plant Ecology 188, 29-37.
• Price, J.N. & Morgan, J.W. (2006). Variability in plant fitness influences range expansion of Leptospermum scoparium. Ecography 29: 623-631.
• Morgan, J.W. (2006). Bryophyte mats inhibit germination of non-native species in burnt temperate native grassland remnants. Biological Invasions 8: 159-168.
• Morgan, J.W. & Scacco, P.J. (2006). Planting designs in ecological restoration: insights from the Button Wrinklewort. Ecological Management and Restoration 7: 51-54.
• McDougall, K.L. & Morgan, J.W. (2005). Establishment of native grassland vegetation at Organ Pipes National Park near Melbourne, Victoria: vegetation changes from 1989 to 2003. Ecological Management and Restoration 6: 34-42.
• McDougall, K.L., Morgan, J.W., Walsh, N.G. & Williams, R.J. (2005). Plant invasions in treeless vegetation of the Australian Alps. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 7: 159-171.
• Williams N.S.G, Morgan J.W., McDonnell M.J. & McCarthy M.A. (2005). Plant traits and local extinctions in natural grasslands along an urban - rural gradient. Journal of Ecology 93: 1203-1213.