Dr M. Aaron MacNeil - CV - Australian Institute of Marine Science

Role

Research Scientist with the Marine Biodiversity Team at AIMS

Background

My research is in understanding the role of fishes in aquatic ecosystems, primarily through the use of statistical models. I have been working to develop ecological metrics useful for quantifying the effects of anthropogenic disturbance on fish communities, trends and patterns in biodiversity, and for making informed management decisions. Often this work has involved the use of Bayesian hierarchical models to handle the limited, real-world constraints of quantifying social and ecological processes from non-experimental data.

Education

2001: BSc Marine Biology, Dalhousie Univeristy, Halifax, NS Canada
2004: MSc Fisheries, University of Georgia, Athens, GA USA
2007: PhD Marine Biology, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

Current Research Activities

Currently I am working to develop ecosystem benchmarks to support management of the Great Barrier Reef and reefs throughout the Indian Ocean. I am quantifying rates of disturbance and recovery of reefs within the GBR Marine Park in an effort to understand how resilient these reefs have been in the past and to predict how resilient they will be in the future. In collaboration with researchers at James Cook University and the Wildlife Conservation Society, I am working to understand the add-on effects of fish declines in reef ecosystems and the socio-ecological dynamics of marine fisheries.

Expert Committees and Boards

Editorial Board: Environmental Conservation

Publications

Cinner JE, McClanahan TR, MacNeil MA, Graham NAJ, Daw T, Mukminin A, Feary D, Rabearisoa A, Wamukota A, Jiddawi N, Campbell S, Baird A, Januchowski-Hartley F, Hamed S, Lahari R, Morove T, Kuange K (2012) Co-management of coral reef social-ecological systems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 109: 5219-5222

McClanahan TR, Graham NAJ, MacNeil MA, Muthiga NA, Cinner JE, Bruggemann JH, Wilson SK (2011) Critical thresholds and tangible targets for ecosystem-based management of coral reefs. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 108:17230-17233

Graham NAJ, Chabanet P, Evans RD, Jennings S, Letourneur Y, MacNeil MA, McClanahan TR, Öhman MC, Polunin NVC, Wilson SK (2011) Extinction vulnerability of coral reef fishes. Ecology Letters 14: 341-348

Cheal AJ, MacNeil MA, Cripps E, Emslie MJ, Jonker M, Schaffelke B and Sweatman HPA (2010) Coral-macroalgal phase shifts or reef resilience: links with diversity and functional roles of herbivorous fishes on the Great Barrier Reef. Coral Reefs 29: 1005-1015

MacNeil MA, Graham NAJ (2010) Enabling regional management in a changing climate through Bayesian meta-analysis of a large-scale disturbance. Global Ecology and Biogeography 19: 412-421

MacNeil MA, Graham NAJ, Cinner J, Loring P, Jennings S, Dulvy NK, Fisk AT, Polunin N, McClanahan T (2010) Transitional states in marine fisheries: adapting to predicted global change. Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society 365: 3753-3763

MacNeil MA, Graham NAJ, Polunin N, Kulbicki M, Galzin R, Harmelin-Vivien M, Rushton SP (2009) Hierarchical drivers of reef-fish metacommunity structure. Ecology 90: 252-264