Dr. Michael McCarthy
Senior Ecologist, Australian Research Centre for Urban Ecology
Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne
and School of Botany, The University of Melbourne

Biography
Dr. McCarthy is a senior ecologist with the Australian Research Centre for Urban Ecology. He completed his PhD in 1995 on "Stochastic Population Models for Wildlife Management" with Mark Burgman at the University of Melbourne. During his PhD, he developed models for helmeted honeyeaters, orange-bellied parrots, red kangaroos and giant Gippsland earthworms. He completed post-docs at the Australian National University, the University of Adelaide and UC Santa Barbara, working on population models, fire ecology and decision theory in conservation biology. He taught in the School of Botany at the University of Melbourne for a year before taking up his current position at ARCUE.

His research interests encompass studies of both plants and animals, and range from pure theoretical studies through to applications for conservation management. His research interests include population ecology, conservation biology, decision-making in the face of uncertainty and statistical ecology. Current research topics include the birds of Melbourne, the design of nature reserves, methods for assessing risks of extinction, forest management in Melbourne's water catchments, and Bayesian methods for statistical inference in ecology. He has published more than fifty refereed papers and book chapters.

Selected Publications
Lindenmayer, D.B., Possingham, H.P., Lacy, R.C., McCarthy, M.A., and Pope, M. L. 2003. How accurate are population models? Lessons from landscape-scale tests in a fragmented system. Ecology Letters 6: 41-47.

McCarthy, M.A., Possingham, H.P., Day, J.R., and Tyre, A.J. 2001. Testing the accuracy of population viability analysis. Conservation Biology 15: 1030-1038.

McCarthy, M.A., and Lindenmayer, D.B. 1999. Incorporating metapopulation dynamics of greater gliders into reserve design in disturbed landscapes. Ecology 80: 651-667.

McCarthy, M.A., and Burgman, M.A. 1995. Coping with uncertainty in forest wildlife planning. Forest Ecology and Management 74: 23-36.

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