Staff profile

Dr Heloise Gibb

Senior Lecturer, Coordinator, Zoology Honours

Faculty of Science, Technology and Engineering

School of Life Sciences
Department of Zoology

Biological Sciences Building 1, Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Qualifications

BSc Hons, PhD, SYD.

Membership of professional associations

Ecological Society of Australia

Area of study

Zoology

Brief profile

Research interests (further detail is also available on the Insect Ecology research webpage )

Determinants of assemblage structure at local and global scales

Much of my work and the work of my lab examines factors that affect the structure of assemblages, focusing on ants as a model system. Dominant ants are thought to structure ant communities through a competition hierarchy, but there are few experimental tests of this theory. I have performed experimental removals of dominant ants and behavioural experiments in Australia and Sweden to test how competition affects community structure.  Competition appears to vary widely in its importance in structuring assemblages because its importance is regulated by the environment (e.g. Gibb & Hochuli 2004, Gibb 2005, 2011, Gibb & Parr 2010).

I am also interested in the role of abiotic factors, including habitat structure, climate and resource availability, in determining community structure. Funding from the ARC (2012-2014) is allowing us to extend this to a predictive understanding of the relationships between functional traits and the environment at a global scale in the Global Ants Collaboration  (Dunn et. al 2007, 2009).   Additionally, in collaboration with the Desert Ecology Laboratory at the University of Sydney, I am exploring long-term patterns in assemblages resulting from the El Niño Southern Oscillation.

Restoration ecology

I am interested in how restoration of habitats and fauna affects invertebrate biodiversity and the role of invertebrates in ecosystem functions. Our work in this area includes investigation of the effects of revegetation of degraded farmland on epigaeic beetles and ant-hemiptera mutualisms and their broader consequences for ecosystems (Gibb & Cunningham 2009, 2010, 2011, Gibb et al. 2011).

We are also investigating whether morphological traits of insects, an indicator of their functional roles, respond to revegetation and other restoration activities. This work is being conducted in collaboration with scientists from CSIRO and the Australian National University. My research group is experimentally testing how the restoration of threatened native omnivores influences populations of the arthropods that constitute their diet. Focal omnivores include iconic marsupial species such as the bilby, Macrotis lagotis. This question is particularly important in improving our understanding of the change that Australian ecosystems have undergone as a result of extensive losses of previously widespread and common ecosystem engineers (Gibb 2012). This change is likely to have affected both the biodiversity and functional roles of arthropods.

I have also worked extensively on the restoration of saproxylic insect communities in northern Sweden (e.g. Gibb et al. 2006a,b,c), and am currently engaged in a study examining the colonisation abilities of species threatened by fragmentation of their habitats resulting from forestry in collaboration with scientists at Umeå University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

Responses of insect functional traits to the environment

Animal traits have been shown to respond predictably to the environment, for example, body size commonly increasing along temperature gradients. In collaboration with researchers from the Universities of New South Wales and New England, I am investigating how a range of functionally important morphological features of insects respond to climatic gradients. This work is supported by the Australian Research Council and will allow us to make predictions as to how insect communities may evolve in response to climate change. This also links in well with our work in the Global Ants Collaboration and the development of models to predict change in the traits of assemblages in response to global change.

Landscape ecology and invertebrate detritivores

More recently, I commenced a collaboration with Nick Murphy (Genetics), the Fire Ecology Group and the Department of the Environment and Sustainability to investigate the role of refuges from fire in maintaining populations of functionally important invertebrate detritivores in fire-prone landscapes.

Supervision

I supervise several PhD and honours students: visit the Insect Ecology Lab for details.

 

Teaching units

ZOO2AFE - Australian Fauna and Ecology

ZOO3EPA - Mallee Field Course

ZOO3EPA - Behavioural Ecology

CBE2IC - Issues in Conservation Biology

CBE3AC - Applications in Conservation Biology

Recent publications

(2011-2012)

Hjältén, J., Stenbacka, F., Pettersson, R., Gibb, H., Johansson, Danell, K., Ball, J.P., & Hilszczanski J. (in press) Micro and macro-habitat associations in saproxylic beetles: implications for biodiversity management. PLoS One

Yates, M., Gibb, H. & Andrew, N.R. (2012) Habitat characteristics may override climatic influences on ant assemblage composition: a study using a 300 km climatic gradient. Australian Journal of Zoology 59: 332-338

Gibb, H., Durant, B. & Cunningham, S.A. (2012) Arthropod colonisation of natural and experimental logs in an agricultural landscape: effects of habitat, isolation, season and exposure time. Ecological Management & Restoration 13: 166-174

Johansson, T. & Gibb, H. (2012) Forestry alters foraging efficiency and crop contents of aphid-tending red wood ants, Formica aquilonia. PLoS One 7: e32817

Gibb, H. (2012) How might terrestrial arthropod assemblages have changed after the ecological extinction of critical weight range (CWR) mammals in Australia? Reintroductions at Scotia Sanctuary as a model for pre-European ecosystems. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of NSW 134:

Gibb, H. (2012) Effects of planting method on the recovery trajectory of ant-plant interactions on revegetated farmland. Austral Ecology online early

Parr, C.L. & Gibb, H. (2012) The discovery-dominance trade-off is the exception, rather than the rule. Journal of Animal Ecology 81: 233-241.

Gibb, H. (2011) Experimental evidence for mediation of competition by habitat succession. Ecology 92: 1871-1878.

Barton, P.S., Gibb, H., Manning, A.D., Lindenmayer, D.B., Cunningham, S.A. (2011) Experimental reduction of native vertebrate grazing benefits beetle diversity at multiple scales. Journal of Applied Ecology 8: 943-951.

Gibb, H. & Johansson, T. (2011) Field tests of interspecific competition in ant assemblages: Revisiting the dominant red wood ants. Journal of Animal Ecology 80: 548-557.

Narendra, A., Gibb, H. & Mustak, A.T.M. (2011) Structuring of ant assemblages in Western Ghats, India: The role of habitat, disturbance and invasive species. Insect Conservation and Biodiversity 4: 132-141.

Gibb, H. & Cunningham, S.A. (2011) Habitat contrasts reveal a shift in the trophic position of ant assemblages. Journal of Animal Ecology 80: 119-127.

Barton, P.S., Gibb, H., Manning, A.D., Lindenmayer, D.B., Cunningham, S.A. (2011) Morphological traits and phylogenetic position as predictors of microhabitat use and response to habitat manipulation in a ground-dwelling beetle assemblage. Biological Journal of the Linnaean Society 102: 301-310.

See Recent publications tab for full details 

Older publications

see "Recent Publications" tab on the Insect Ecology Lab page for full publication list

Research projects

There are a number of projects currently funded in this lab:

Gibb, H., Parr, C.L, Dunn, R.R., Sanders, N.J. “A global-scale analysis of functional traits in the face of global change” Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Grants 2011-2014

Gibb, H. Murphy, N. “Evaluating the role of invertebrates in decomposing fuels in foothill forests” Department of Sustainability and the Environment, Victoria 2011-2014

Gibb, H., Wardle, G. “Do arid-zone ants undergo boom-bust population fluctuations in response to the El Niño Southern Oscillation?” Hermon Slade Foundation 2011-2014.

Gibb, H., Hayward, M. "Effects of native omnivores on invertebrate biodiversity and function: an experimental approach", Australia and Pacific Science Foundation 2009-2012

Warton, D.I., Andrew, N.R., Gibb, H. “Predicting the effect of climate change on community structure and function: an assessment using temperate grassland invertebrates”, ARC Discovery 2009-2012

Dynesius, M., Hjältén, J., Gibb, H. ”Colonisation ability of forestry-intolerant species: A core factor for conservation in fragmented forest landscapes during climate change” Centre for Environmental Research, Umeå University, Sweden, 2008-2012