- Research Scientist with the Healthy and Resilient GBR Program at AIMS
- AIMS Postdoc, Marine Biodiversity Hub, National Environmental Research Program
Role
Background
I am a quantitative ecologist with a background in marine and coral reef ecology, and strong interests in statistics and ecological modeling. My research area is mostly in biogeography, although I tend to couple it to other disciplines such as remote sensing and habitat imagery to better understand the predictability of marine biodiversity patterns.
Education
- 2007 PhD Thesis, University Pierre & Marie Curie (UPMC, Paris VI)
- 2004 Master's Thesis in Oceanology and Marine Environment, UPMC
- 2004 Engineering diploma in Food and Life Sciences, AgroParisTech
Current Research Activities
I am mostly interested in determining the drivers of species occupancy and abundance, and their patterns across species ranges as well as the determinism of species turnover.
I am currently working on the spatially-explicit, statistical predictive modeling of biodiversity patterns on Australian coral reefs (Great Barrier Reef, Torres Strait, Ningaloo and Scott Reefs) from physical habitat characteristics. I also apply these approaches to temperate marine systems, such as abalone or fish in South Australia through a collaboration with the University of Adelaide and University of Tasmania.
I am currently working on the spatially-explicit, statistical predictive modeling of biodiversity patterns on Australian coral reefs (Great Barrier Reef, Torres Strait, Ningaloo and Scott Reefs) from physical habitat characteristics. I also apply these approaches to temperate marine systems, such as abalone or fish in South Australia through a collaboration with the University of Adelaide and University of Tasmania.
Publications
Over 25 science and technical papers in international journals. The following are a selection of recent publications.
- Fordham DA, Brook BW, Caley MJ, Bradshaw CJA, Mellin C (in press) Conservation management and sustainable harvest quotas are sensitive to choice of climate modelling approach for two marine gastropods. Diversity & Distribution
- Sequeira A, Mellin C, Delean S, Meekan MG, Bradshaw CJA (accepted) Spatial and temporal predictions of inter-decadal trends in Indian Ocean whale sharks. Mar Ecol Prog Ser doi: 10.3354/meps10166 (12 Nov 2012)
- Sequeira A, Mellin C, Meekan MG, Sims DW, Bradshaw CJA (2013) Inferred global connectivity of whale shark populations. J Fish Biol 82:367-389
- Russell BD, Connell SC, Mellin C, Brook BW, Burnell OW, Fordham DA (2012) Predicting the distribution of commercially viable invertebrate stocks under future climate. PLoS ONE 7(12): e46554
- Mellin C, Parrott L, Andrefouet S, Bradshaw CJA, MacNeil MA, Caley MJ (2012) Multi-scale marine biodiversity patterns inferred efficiently from habitat image processing. Ecological Applications 22:792-803.
- Mellin C, Russell BD, Connell SC, Brook BW, Fordham DA (2012) Geographic range determinants of two commercially important marine molluscs. Diversity and Distributions 18: 133-146.
- Sequeira A, Mellin C, Rowat D, Meekan MG, Bradshaw CJA (2012) Ocean-scale prediction of whale shark distribution. Diversity and Distributions 18:504-518
- Fordham DA, Akçakaya HR, Araújo MB, Elith J, Keith D, Pearson R, Auld TD, Mellin C, Morgan JW, Regan TJ, Tozer M, Watts MJ, White M, Wintle B, Yates C and Brook BW (2012) Plant extinction risk under climate change: are forecast range shifts alone a good indicator of species vulnerability to global warming? Global Change Biology 18:1357-1371.
- Mellin C, Delean S, Caley MJ, Edgar GJ, Meekan MG, Pitcher CR, Przeslawski R, Williams A, Bradshaw CJA (2011) Effectiveness of Biological Surrogates for Predicting Patterns of Marine Biodiversity : a Global Meta-Analysis. PLoS ONE 6(6): e20141.
- Mellin C, Huchery C, Caley MJ, Meekan MG, Bradshaw CJA (2010) Reef size and isolation determine the temporal stability of coral reef fish populations. Ecology 91:3138-3145.
- Mellin C, Bradshaw CJA, Meekan MG, Caley MJ (2010) Environmental and spatial predictors of species richness and abundance in coral reef fishes. Global Ecology and Biogeography 19:212-222.
