Ben C Scheele

• PhD
• PostDoc Position at Australian National University

The global extinction crisis is intensifying rapidly, driven by habitat loss, overexploitation, climate change, invasive species, and disease. This unprecedented loss of species not only threatens ecological integrity but also undermines ecosystem services vital for human survival. In response, many countries have set ambitious conservation targets...

Quantifying how species' distributions contract in response to threats can reveal pathways of decline and the role of environmental conditions in moderating threat impacts. Two general patterns of niche contraction have been described: ecological marginalization, where species contract away from threat impacts to peripheral, sub‐optimal areas of th...

Understanding how agricultural and land management practices affect amphibian biodiversity is essential for conservation efforts in farmland. We investigated the impact of farm dam enhancement on tadpole abundance and growth in a highly modified farming landscape in south‐eastern Australia. We completed detailed surveys on 52 farm dams (artificial...

Pathogens that infect multiple host species have an increased capacity to cause extinctions through parasite‐mediated apparent competition. Given unprecedented and continuing losses of biodiversity due to Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), the causative fungus of the amphibian skin disease chytridiomycosis, a robust understanding of the mechanism...

Quantifying temporal changes in species occurrence has been a key part of ecology since its inception. We quantified multidecadal site occupancy trajectories for 18 bird species in four independent long‐term, large‐scale studies (571 sites, ~1000 km latitude) in Australia. We found evidence of a year × long‐term study interaction in the best‐fittin...

Amphibian chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), is associated with declines in ~500 amphibian species globally. Decades after initial disease outbreaks, the trajectory of impacted species varies substantially; while some species continue to decline, there are instances of natural recovery, such as the whistling tree frog, Litoria ver...

Extensive areas spanning billions of hectares within the world’s arable landscapes are heavily degraded, have suffered losses of biodiversity, and require major restoration efforts. Indeed, the United Nations declared 2021-2030 to be the decade of restoration. The restoration challenges facing south-eastern Australia’s woodlands are not dissimilar...

Insect pollinators, which are ectothermic, are especially sensitive to abiotic conditions, which often drive predictable patterns of pollinator species turnover along environmental gradients. However, pollinator activity is also reliant on suitable biotic conditions, such as the presence of host plants. High‐elevation environments provide a useful...

Metapopulations often exist in a fragile balance between local extinctions and (re)colonisations, in which case emerging threats that alter species vital rates may drastically increase metapopulation extinction risk. We combined empirical data with metapopulation simulations to examine how demographic shifts associated with amphibian chytrid fungus...

Biodiversity is in rapid decline globally with agriculture being one of the leading causes. Within agricultural landscapes, some features provide a benefit to biodiversity that is disproportionate to their spatial area. An interesting example is artificial ponds–or farm dams–which can support a large variety of taxa. Here, we present a global revie...

Globally, species are increasingly at risk from compounding threatening processes, an increasingly prominent driver of which is environmental disturbances. To facilitate effective conservation efforts following such events, methods that evaluate potential impacts across multiple species and provide landscape‐scale information are needed to guide ta...

Understanding factors that influence population‐level responses to emerging threats in declining species is crucial for informed conservation action. In amphibian species impacted by the chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis), a pathogen that has caused amphibian declines globally, a commonly reported pattern is that more severe population...

Many Australian animal species are threatened by introduced species, and some by problematic native species. Conservation programs resulting in a network of havens (islands and fenced mainland areas free of introduced predators) have successfully reduced extinction risks for many threatened mammal taxa susceptible to introduced predators. However,...

Question Soil properties can play a crucial role in influencing the abundance and distribution of plant species. Fire regimes can also have substantial impacts on plant community composition. However, few studies have examined the effects of both fire regimes and soil properties on the occurrence of rare plant species. Here, we asked if rare specie...

Reptiles are an important part of the vertebrate fauna in the temperate woodlands of south-eastern Australia. However, compared to birds and mammals, the long-term occurrence of reptiles across woodland growth types–old growth, regrowth, and replantings–remains poorly understood. Here, using 18-years of data gathered at 218 sites across 1.5 million...

Wildfire and grazing by invasive herbivores can influence habitat suitability for ground‐dwelling fauna, such as reptiles. Australia has a large and diverse reptile fauna, with the Australian Alps bioregion in the southeast of the continent supporting a disproportionately high number of threatened species. In this bioregion, many species are threat...

Global change is causing an unprecedented restructuring of ecosystems, with the spread of invasive species being a key driver. While population declines of native species due to invasives are well documented, much less is known about whether new biotic interactions reshape niches of native species. Here we quantify geographic range and realized-nic...

Catastrophic megafires can increase extinction risks; identifying species priorities for management and policy support is critical for preparing and responding to future fires. However, empirical data on population loss and recovery post-fire, especially megafire, are limited and taxonomically biased. These gaps could be bridged if species' morphol...

Deepening droughts and unprecedented wildfires are at the leading edge of climate change. Such events pose an emerging threat to species maladapted to these perturbations, with the potential for steeper declines than may be inferred from the gradual erosion of their climatic niche. This study focused on two species of amphibians-Philoria kundagunga...

There has been considerable discussion in Australia about market-based initiatives with the potential to bring effective incentives and greater investment for farmers and other land managers to promote biodiversity conservation. These initiatives include bio- diversity trading markets (also termed the nature repair market), stewardship schemes, cer...

Aim Much research has quantified species responses to human‐modified ecosystems. However, there is limited work on how human‐modified ecosystems may reshape competitive interactions between species. Using a 19‐year study across 3 million ha, we aimed to answer the question: Are levels of interference competition between bird species context depende...

In light of the global challenges of the Anthropocene, including biodiversity loss, there are increasing calls for positive, inspirational futures to motivate action and help steer away from current, largely unsustainable trajectories. The three horizons framework is an approach in future studies that engages with normative futures and helps develo...

Sky island species face climate-driven and anthropogenic habitat loss and population fragmentation, and are therefore vulnerable to genetic erosion. We conducted a genetic study of the cryptic and threatened alpine she-oak skink (Cyclodomorphus praealtus) throughout its range, across two regions of the mainland Australian Alps; an extensive high el...

Purpose of Review Large-scale and/or long-term monitoring has many important roles in landscape ecology and conservation biology. We explore some of these roles in this review. We also briefly discuss some of the key design issues that need to be considered when developing long-term, large-scale monitoring to ensure it is effective. Recent Finding...

Limiting biodiversity loss is a global challenge, especially in areas where biodiversity conservation conflicts with intensifying agricultural production. The different views and preferences about how to protect biodiversity, and why it is valuable, make concerted action to improve conservation outcomes difficult. Exploring different discourses tha...

Aim The distribution and abundance of forest biodiversity can be shaped by multiple drivers, including disturbances like wildfires. We quantified the influence of wildfire severity and bird life history attributes on temporal patterns of bird site occupancy. Location Wet eucalypt forests of Victoria, Australia. Methods We employed a Before, After...

Understanding the responses of rare species to altered fire disturbance regimes is an ongoing challenge for ecologists. We asked: are there associations between fire regimes and plant rarity across different vegetation communities? We combined 62 years of fire history records with vegetation surveys of 86 sites across three different dry sclerophyl...

Achieving coexistence between humans and large carnivores in human-shaped landscapes is a complex challenge. Addressing this challenge requires the revaluation of the approaches academia uses to foster carnivore conservation and human-large carnivore coexistence. In this forum paper, we provide a brief overview of the three archetypical approaches...

Invasive predators are responsible for declines in many animal species across the globe. To redress these declines, conservationists have undertaken substantial work to remove invasive predators or mitigate their effects. Yet, the challenges associated with removal of invasive predators mean that most successful conservation programs have been rest...

The intentional movement of species outside their indigenous range – assisted colonisation – is an emerging tool in conservation. Here, we outline the process developed to identify and assess candidate sites for assisted colonisation of the critically endangered Northern Corroboree Frog (Pseudophryne pengilleyi), a range‐restricted species highly t...

Agricultural practices have created tens of millions of small artificial water bodies (“farm dams” or “agricultural ponds”) to provide water for domestic livestock worldwide. Among freshwater ecosystems, farm dams have some of the highest greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per m2 due to fertilizer and manure run‐off boosting methane production – an ext...

In many farming landscapes, aquatic features, such as wetlands, creeks, and dams, provide water for stock and irrigation, while also acting as habitat for a range of plants and animals. Indeed, some species threatened by land‐use change may otherwise be considerably rarer—or even suffer extinction—in the absence of these habitats. Therefore, a crit...

Aim After environmental disasters, species with large population losses may need urgent protection to prevent extinction and support recovery. Following the 2019–2020 Australian megafires, we estimated population losses and recovery in fire‐affected fauna, to inform conservation status assessments and management. Location Temperate and subtropical...

Determining the drivers of plant rarity is a major challenge in ecology. Analysing spatial associations between different plant species can provide an exploratory avenue for understanding the ecological drivers of plant rarity. Here, we examined the different types of spatial associations between rare and common plants to determine if they influenc...

Invasive species are major drivers of ecosystem degradation globally. How invasive herbivore impacts differ from native herbivore impacts remains understudied. We examined the relationships between herbivore sign and vegetation height, foliage density, cover of forbs, weeds, bare ground, and soil compaction across environmental and herbivore activi...

This project has developed and tested a framework for assessing research value across the life cycle of conservation research projects and programs. This is the first comprehensive attempt of its kind to build and test a multimodal, integrated, qualitative and quantitative framework for achieving and assessing value in environmental research. The r...

Aim The incidence of major fires is increasing globally, creating extraordinary challenges for governments, managers and conservation scientists. In 2019–2020, Australia experienced precedent‐setting fires that burned over several months, affecting seven states and territories and causing massive biodiversity loss. Whilst the fires were still burni...

Emerging infectious diseases are an increasingly prominent threat to biodiversity. However, traditional methods in conservation generally have limited efficacy in the face of disease threats. Ironically, although unintentional human movement of species has facilitated the spread of pathogens, intentional conservation translocations are a promising...

More than a third of the world’s amphibian species are listed as Threatened or Extinct, with a recent assessment identifying 45 Australian frogs (18.4% of the currently recognised species) as ‘Threatened’ based on IUCN criteria. We applied structured expert elicitation to 26 frogs assessed as Critically Endangered and Endangered to estimate their p...

The recent introduction of the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans into northeastern Spain threatens salamander diversity on the Iberian Peninsula. We assessed the current epidemiological situation with extensive field sampling of urodele populations. We then sought to delineate priority regions and identify conservation units for the...

Monitoring of threatened species is a critical part of conserving biodiversity. It is needed to understand population trajectories, threatening processes, and the type and effectiveness of management responses needed to ensure persistence and recovery. Characteristics of some plant species (e.g. immobility) should render them amenable to monitoring...

In many farming landscapes, aquatic features such as wetlands, creeks and dams provide water needed for stock and irrigation, while also acting as habitat for a range of plants and animals. Indeed, some species threatened by land use change may otherwise be considerably rarer – or even extinct – in the absence of these habitats. Therefore, a critic...

The sublethal effects of infectious disease on reproductive behaviour and mating success are not well understood. Here, we investigated predictors of male mating success in one of Australia's most critically endangered vertebrates: the northern corroboree frog, Pseudophryne pengilleyi. Using a genomic approach to assign parentage, we explored wheth...

Measuring, reporting, and forecasting research impact beyond academia has become increasingly important to demonstrate and understand real-world benefits. This is arguably most important in crisis disciplines such as medicine, environmental sustainability and biodiversity conservation, where application of new knowledge is urgently needed to improv...

The amphibian chytrid fungal pathogen (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, henceforth Bd) has had a devastating impact on biodiversity, causing the decline or extinction of over 500 amphibian species. Yet, our understanding of Bd transmission pathways remains incomplete, in particular for host species with weak aquatic associations, and between reservo...

Australia’s 2019–2020 mega-fires were exacerbated by drought, anthropogenic climate change and existing land-use management. Here, using a combination of remotely sensed data and species distribution models, we found these fires burnt ~97,000 km2 of vegetation across southern and eastern Australia, which is considered habitat for 832 species of nat...

Quantifying the long‐term population trajectory of species and the factors affecting these trends is a fundamental part of animal conservation. We describe the results of a long‐term investigation of temporal changes in the occurrence of arboreal marsupials in the wet eucalypt forests of south‐eastern Australia. The assemblage includes habitat spec...

Aim Investigation of realized niche contraction in declining species can help us understand how and where threats are being either mediated or tolerated across landscapes. It also provides insights into species' sensitivity to environmental change that are unable to be identified through analysis of declines in range size or abundance alone. Here,...

Many studies have documented the individual effects of variables such as vegetation, long‐term climate and short‐term weather on biodiversity. Few, however, have explicitly explored how interactions among these major drivers can influence species abundance. We used data from a 15‐year study (2002–2017) in the endangered temperate woodlands of south...

Ecosystems are shaped by a range of drivers including human and natural disturbances. They also may be subject to interactions between disturbances which can affect ecological processes, biodiversity and ecosystem condition; yet few ecosystems have been subject to multiple studies of the effects of interacting disturbances. This limits the understa...

Lambert et al . question our retrospective and holistic epidemiological assessment of the role of chytridiomycosis in amphibian declines. Their alternative assessment is narrow and provides an incomplete evaluation of evidence. Adopting this approach limits understanding of infectious disease impacts and hampers conservation efforts. We reaffirm th...

Environmental DNA techniques have become established as a useful tool for biological monitoring and are used extensively to determine species presence in aquatic systems. However, their application in terrestrial systems has been more limited, likely in part due to difficulties in choosing where to sample and ensuring that collected DNA reflects cu...

Habitat loss is widely acknowledged as a key driver of global biodiversity decline. However, whether biodiversity loss occurs in response to reductions in habitat amount versus reductions in connectivity in fragmented landscapes is debated. A challenge in resolving this issue is that measures of the amount of native woody vegetation cover and those...

Novel outbreaks of emerging pathogens require rapid responses to enable successful mitigation. We simulated a 1-day emergency meeting where experts were engaged to recommend mitigation strategies for a new outbreak of the amphibian fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans. Despite the inevitable uncertainty, experts suggested and discussed...

In forests subject to stand-replacing disturbances, early successional stands can provide important habitats for a range of species not typically present in long-undisturbed areas. Compared to old-growth forests, the habitat values of – and key ecological processes in – early successional forests have been less studied, perhaps due to a perception...

Novel outbreaks of emerging pathogens require rapid responses to enable successful mitigation. We simulated a 1‐day emergency meeting where experts were engaged to recommend mitigation strategies for a new outbreak of the amphibian fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans. Despite the inevitable uncertainty, experts suggested and discussed...

Many human-shaped landscapes have high natural and cultural values and support viable amphibian populations. The challenges and approaches required to achieve the persistence of amphibians in such landscapes are clearly different from approaches commonly applied in protected areas. Contrary to protected areas or natural landscapes, where amphibian...

Forests globally are subject to disturbances such as logging and fire that create complex temporal variation in spatial patterns of forest cover and stand age. However, investigations that quantify temporal changes in biodiversity in response to multiple forms of disturbance in space and time are relatively uncommon. Over a 10‐yr period, we investi...

Many human-shaped landscapes support viable amphibian populations due to the habitats created and/or maintained as a consequence of human actions. The challenges and approaches required to achieve the persistence of amphibians in human-shaped landscapes are markedly different from approaches commonly applied in protected areas. Contrary to protecte...

Many human-shaped landscapes support viable amphibian populations due to the habitats created and/or maintained as a consequence of human actions. The challenges and approaches required to achieve the persistence of amphibians in human-shaped landscapes are markedly different from approaches commonly applied in protected areas. Contrary to protecte...

Globalization has facilitated the emergence and spread of novel pathogens, representing a major conservation challenge. The amphibian disease chytridiomycosis, caused by the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, epitomizes this unprecedented threat, being responsible for declines and extinctions of amphibians worldwide. Chytridiomycosis h...

Achieving coexistence between large carnivores and humans in human‐dominated landscapes (HDLs) is a key challenge for societies globally. This challenge cannot be adequately met with the current sectoral approaches to HDL governance and an academic community largely dominated by disciplinary sectors. Academia (universities and other research instit...

Monitoring threatened species is essential for quantifying population trends, understanding causes of species' declines, and guiding the development and assessment of effective recovery actions. Here, we provide a systematic , continental-scale evaluation of the extent and quality of monitoring for threatened species, focusing on terrestrial and fr...

The demise of amphibians? Rapid spread of disease is a hazard in our interconnected world. The chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis was identified in amphibian populations about 20 years ago and has caused death and species extinction at a global scale. Scheele et al. found that the fungus has caused declines in amphibian populations every...

Transformation of intact vegetation into new kinds and configurations of human‐modified habitats is a well‐established driver of biodiversity loss. Following initial conversion, many human‐dominated landscapes are then subject to further large‐scale changes in land use. The impacts on biodiversity of repeated changes in land use remain poorly known...

Context Introduced herbivores can have a substantial impact on native plants and animals, particularly in ecosystems that do not share a recent evolutionary history with similar herbivore species. The feral horse, Equus caballus, has a widespread but patchy distribution in Australia, with large populations present in national parks in the Australia...

New evidence of impacts by feral horses in Australia's alpine parks systems confirms they endanger threatened species and extensively damage critically endangered bog communities that could take millennia to recover. These impacts are not confounded by effects of deer and accumulate over time, even when only a small number of feral horses (~100) ar...

Aim Knowledge of the individual and collective effects of habitat, weather variability and climate on bird populations is limited, with the result that species vulnerability to the collective impacts of global change is poorly understood. We quantified the effects of interactions between these potential drivers on the occurrence of resident, migrat...

Species occurrence is influenced by a range of factors including habitat attributes, climate, weather and human landscape modification. These drivers are likely to interact, but their effects are frequently quantified independently. Here we report the results of a 13‐year study of temperate woodland birds in south‐eastern Australia to quantify how...

Mitigating the negative impacts of agriculture on amphibians requires knowledge of how different land uses affect species distribution and community composition. In the case of frogs, there is currently insufficient information on their use of terrestrial habitats in cropping landscapes to inform conservation planning. We examined how four differen...

Monitoring is essential for effective conservation and management of threatened species and ecological communities. However, more often than not, threatened species monitoring is poorly implemented, meaning that conservation decisions are not informed by the best available knowledge. We outline challenges and provide best‐practice guidelines for th...

Targeted threatened species management is a central component of efforts to prevent species extinction. Despite the development of a range of management frameworks to improve conservation outcomes over the past decade, threatened species management is still commonly characterised as ad hoc. Although there are notable successes, many management prog...

The dramatic loss of biodiversity in Australia over the past 200 years following European colonisation has been well documented for some taxa (Short and Smith 1994, Fusco et al. 2015, Lindenmayer 2015). Much of this rapid decline is the result of broad scale habitat clearing, changed fire regimes, and the introduction of feral herbivores and predat...

Booderee National Park is located in Jervis Bay in south-eastern Australia, around 200 km south of Sydney on the New South Wales coast between Nowra and Ulladulla. A major monitoring program began in Booderee National Park in 2003, which encompassed a range of vertebrate groups including mammals, birds, reptiles and frogs, as well as native vegetat...

A major monitoring program began in Booderee National Park in 2003, which encompassed a range of vertebrate groups including mammals, birds, reptiles and frogs, as well as native vegetation. Fifteen-years of monitoring has now revealed a major ecological surprise: localised collapses of populations of some of the park’s mammal species and the drama...

The conventional approach to conserving threatened biota is to identify drivers of decline, instigate actions to mitigate threatening processes, and monitor interventions to test their effectiveness and ensure target species recover. In Australia, predation by introduced predators is a threatening process for many native mammals. Here we report the...

The fungal skin disease chytridiomycosis has caused the devastating decline and extinction of hundreds of amphibian species globally, yet the potential for evolving resistance, and the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms remain poorly understood. We exposed 406 naïve, captive-raised alpine tree frogs (Litoria verreauxii alpina) from multiple p...