Dylan Westaway

• PhD at Charles Sturt University

Habitat destruction is the most pervasive threat to global biodiversity, leading to widespread population declines and range reductions. Land clearing can leave small, isolated populations persisting in remnant habitat, where demographic factors may erode genomic diversity and diminish adaptive potential. We compared the genomic structure, diversit...

Motivation Terrestrial predators play key roles in cycling nutrients, as well as limiting prey populations, and shaping the behaviour of their prey. Prehistoric, historic and ongoing declines of the world's predators have reshaped terrestrial ecosystems and are a topic of conservation concern. However, the availability of ecologically relevant pred...

Context Human disturbance has transformed ecosystems globally, yet studies of the ecological impact of landscape modification are often confounded. Non-random patterns of land clearing cause differing vegetation types and soil productivity between fragments in modified landscapes and reference areas—like national parks—with which they are compared....

Despite being a central aspect of a species' ecology and having important conservation implications, the use of fine‐scale habitat features (microhabitats), and how they vary over time, are poorly known for most species. In this study, we leveraged 522 relocations of radio‐tracked mallee tree dragons ( Amphibolurus norrisi ) and painted dragons ( C...

Ecosystem engineers modify their environment and influence the availability of resources for other organisms. Burrowing species, a subset of allogenic engineers, are gaining recognition as ecological facilitators. Burrows created by these species provide habitat for a diverse array of other organisms. Following disturbances, burrows could also serv...

Heath monitors ( Varanus rosenbergi ) are arguably the most thoroughly studied Australian varanid, largely stemming from long‐term research on Kangaroo Island, South Australia. However, research on other populations within this species' disjunct distribution is limited. We opportunistically tracked a heath monitor in the Little Desert National Park...