Understanding koala populations

CBCS researchers have contributed significant work over the past 15 years to advance our understanding of the effect of landscape and climate change on koala populations. This work has revolutionised our understanding of the landscape ecology of koalas and moved it toward a more holistic landscape and regional perspective. Major contributions have included the finding of large variations in habitat thresholds across the koala’s range (Rhodes et al. 2008), the discovery that climate change and drought have been a major driver of koala declines in western Queensland and New South Wales (Seabrook et al. 2011, Santika et al. 2014), quantifying the cumulative impact of multiple threats (Rhodes et al. 2011) and understanding the effect of landscape structure on genetic connectivity at multiple scales (Dudaniec et al. 2013).