- Statistical analyses of marine biological and environmental data
- Development of ecological methods
- Ecological modelling
- Development of software tools and systems for data analysis
- Spatial modelling and mapping
Role
Principal Research Scientist
Education
1999: PhD Ecological Statistics; James Cook Uni
1980: MEd Psychology of Motivation; Uni Western Australia
1978: MSc Fluid Mechanics; Uni New South Wales
1971: BSc Mathematics; Uni of Newcastle (UK)
Current Research Activities
The development of statistics and ecological models and methods, including:
Research into the effects of climate change, water quality and crown-of-thorns starfish on the Great Barrier Reef.
Modelling change in the diversity of ecosystems in space and time and the effects of environmental drivers.
Development of open-source software tools (esp. in R)
- Multivariate regression trees
- Principal curves
- Extended dissimilarity
- Aggregated boosted trees
- Multinomial Diversity Models
Research into the effects of climate change, water quality and crown-of-thorns starfish on the Great Barrier Reef.
Modelling change in the diversity of ecosystems in space and time and the effects of environmental drivers.
Development of open-source software tools (esp. in R)
- MDM, mvpart & pcurve at CRAN
Publications
Over 80 science and technical papers in international journals. Some of the better ones:
De'ath G, Fabricius KE, Sweatman H, Puotinen M (2012) The 27¿year decline of coral cover on the
Great Barrier Reef and its causes. PNAS 109(44) 17995-17999
De'ath G (2012) The Multinomial Diversity Model: Linking Shannon Diversity To Multiple Predictors. Ecology. Ecology 93(10) 2286¿2296
Fabricius KE, Okaji K, De'ath G (2010) Three lines of evidence to link outbreaks of the crown-of-thorns seastar Acanthaster planci to the release of larval food limitation. Coral Reefs 29: 593-605.
De'ath G, Fabricius K (2010) Water quality as a regional driver of coral biodiversity and macroalgae on the Great Barrier Reef. Ecological Applications 20: 840-850.
De'ath G, Fabricius K, Lough J (2009) Declining coral calcification on the Great Barrier Reef. Science 323: 116-119.
Delean S, De'ath G, Marsh H (2009) Climate and maternal effects modify sex ratios in a weakly dimorphic marsupial. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 64: 265-277.
De'ath G (2008) Boosted trees for ecological modeling and prediction. Ecology 88: 243-251.
Fabricius K, De'ath G (2008) Photosynthetic symbionts and energy supply determine octocoral biodiversity in coral reefs. Ecology 89: 3163-3173.
van Oppen MJH, Lutz A, De'ath G, Peplow L, Kininmonth S (2008) Genetic traces of recent long-distance dispersal in a predominantly self-recruiting coral. PLoS ONE 3: e3401.
Cooper T, De'ath G, Fabricius KE, Lough J (2008) Declining coral calcification in massive Porites in two nearshore regions of the northern Great Barrier Reef, Global Change Biology 14: 1-10.
Fabricius K, De'ath G, Puotinen M, Done T, Cooper T, Burgess SC (2008) Disturbance gradients on inshore and offshore coral reefs caused by a severe tropical cyclone. Limnology & Oceanography 53: 690-704.
De'ath G (2003) Design and analysis of ecological experiments: philosophy and practice. Journal of Biogeography 30: 311-313.
De'ath G (2002) Multivariate Regression Trees: A New Technique for Constrained Classification Analysis. Ecology 83: 1103-1117.
De'ath G, Fabricius KE (2000) Classification and regression trees: a powerful yet simple technique for the analysis of complex ecological data. Ecology 81: 3178-3192.
De'ath G (1999) Principal curves: a new technique for indirect and direct gradient analysis. Ecology 80: 2237-22
