Dr Kara Youngentob
Areas of expertise
- Landscape Ecology 050104
- Natural Resource Management 050209
- Wildlife And Habitat Management 050211
- Conservation And Biodiversity 050202
- Ecological Impacts Of Climate Change 050101
- Environmental Education And Extension 050203
Research interests
My main interests are in applied ecological research to inform and improve wildlife management and conservation decisions. I'm also a big fan of science communication.
Biography
I completed a PhD in Environment from the Australian National University in 2010 and a MSc in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation from the University of Florida in 2004. I attended Guilford College, in Greensboro, North Carolina, for my undergraduate education.
Researcher's projects
My current projects involve: 1) understanding and mitigating the drivers of decline in threatened species populations, 2) determining how plant nutritional qualities and other environmental factors influence the distribution and abundance of folivorous animals, and 3) remote sensing ecosystem and wildlife population responses to landscape change. My past research has explored habitat fragmentation and edge effects on wildlife populations, contributed to the development of the Centre for Land and Water Research at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), and focused on understanding how suburban landscapes influence people's sense of community, resource consumption, and knowledge about the natural environment.
Available student projects
Current student projects
Xander Kremer, MSc student. Project: Are we out of the woods yet: do nest-boxes aid in the recovery of greater gliders in post-burn forest landscapes
Alejandro de la Fuente Pinero, PhD student. Project: Investigating how soil composition, leaf nutrition, and climate change affect the distribution and abundance of endangered rainforest possum species
Saroj Shrestha, PhD student. Project: Conservation mangement of southern greater gliders (Petauroides volans) in a changing climate
Cassandra Briggs, PhD student. Project: Gliding to Recovery: A genetic study of the southern greater glider (Petauroides volans) using scat DNA
Murraya Lane, PhD student. Project: The effects of fire on eucalypt browse quality and landscape use by the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus)
Ivan Kotzur, PhD student. Project: Understanding and mapping how thermal and dietary constraints combine to restrict koala habitat and determine refugia
Denise McGregor, PhD student. Project: Greater glider ecology and physiology at the extremes of their distribution.
Past student projects
Richard Turner, PhD student. Project: The eco-evolutionary processes that affect survival in a wild-population of superb fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus)
Ryan Adams, Honours student. Project: Investigating the effect of sampling method on assessments of koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) habitat
Tina Gopalan, Honours student. Project: The influence of fire and foliar chemistry on the diet of southern greater gliders, (Petauroides volans)
Isabella Howard, Honours student. Project: Testing strategies to improve the thermal performance of nest boxes
Jasmine Pflugmacher, German exchange scholar. Project: Literature review on the relationship between soil fertiliy and leaf nutritional quality for koalas
Helen Pinch, MSc scholar (Oxford University). Project: Literature review on the effects of temperature on food intake of endotherms
Shukhrat Shokirov, PhD student. Project: Measuring ecosystem and wildlife population response to landscape change with remote sensing
Jessie Au, PhD student. Project: Charting forage quality for koala conservation
Laura Morgan, Honours student. Project: The application of NIRS to investigate koala physiological characteristics from scat
Sarah Martin, Honours student. Project: Please pass the salt: Investigating the availability and importance of sodium in the diet of marsupial folivores
Rachel Alexander, Honours student (University of Queensland). Project: Temporal and ecological drivers of eucalypt forage quality
Mahalia Kingsley, Summer Scholar. Project: Using nutritional quality of trees to assess koala habitat suitability
Publications
- Shokirov, S, Jucker, T, Levick, S et al. 2023, 'Habitat highs and lows: Using terrestrial and UAV LiDAR for modelling avian species richness and abundance in a restored woodland', Remote Sensing of Environment, vol. 285, pp. 1-17.
- Lindenmayer, D, Blanchard, W, McBurney, L et al. 2022, 'Stand age related differences in forest microclimate', Forest Ecology and Management, vol. 510.
- Lindenmayer, D, McBurney, L, Blanchard, W et al. 2022, 'Elevation, disturbance, and forest type drive the occurrence of a specialist arboreal folivore', PLOS ONE (Public Library of Science), vol. 17, no. 4, pp. e0265963.
- Howard, I, Ridley, J, Blanchard, W et al. 2022, 'Helping wildlife beat the heat: Testing strategies to improve the thermal performance of nest boxes', Australian Zoologist, vol. 42, no. 2, pp. 534-560.
- Shokirov, S, Schaefer, M, Levick, S et al. 2021, 'Multi-platform LiDAR approach for detecting coarse woody debris in a landscape with varied ground cover', International Journal of Remote Sensing, vol. 42, no. 24, pp. 9316-9342.
- Youngentob, K, Lindenmayer, D, Ford, K et al. 2021, 'Food intake: an overlooked driver of climate change casualties?', Trends in Ecology and Evolution, vol. 36, no. 8, pp. 676-678.
- Morgan, L, Ford, K, Tolleson, D et al. 2021, 'The application of NIRS to determine animal physiological traits for wildlife management and conservation', Remote Sensing, vol. 13, no. 18, pp. 14pp.
- Shokirov, S, Levick, S, Jucker, T et al. 2020, 'Comparison of TLS and ULS Data for Wildlife Habitat Assessments in Temperate Woodlands', IEEE International Symposium on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (IGARSS), The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc, N/A, pp. 6097-6100.
- Martin, S, Youngentob, K, Clark, R et al. 2020, 'The distribution and abundance of an unusual resource for koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) in a sodium-poor environment', PLOS ONE (Public Library of Science), vol. 15, no. 6, pp. e0234515.
- Au, J, Youngentob, K, Foley, W et al. 2020, 'Sample selection, calibration and validation of models developed from a large dataset of near infrared spectra of tree leaves', Journal of Near Infrared Spectroscopy, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 186-203.
- McGregor, D, Padovan, A, Georges, A et al. 2020, 'Genetic evidence supports three previously described species of greater glider, Petauroides volans, P. minor, and P. armillatus', Scientific Reports, vol. 10, pp. 11pp.
- Ford, K, Saraf, I, Hocart, C et al. 2019, 'Occurrence and distribution of unsubstituted B-ring flavanones in Eucalyptus foliage', Phytochemistry, vol. 160, pp. 31-39.
- Au, J, Clark, R, Allen, C et al. 2019, 'A nutritional mechanism underpinning folivore occurrence in disturbed forests', Forest Ecology and Management, vol. 453, pp. 1-8.
- Au, J, Youngentob, K, Clark, R et al 2017, 'Bark chewing reveals a nutrient limitation of leaves for a specialist folivore', Journal of Mammalogy, vol. 98, no. 4, pp. 1185-1192.
- Youngentob, K, Zdenek, C & van Gorsel, E 2016, 'A simple and effective method to collect leaves and seeds from tall trees', Methods in Ecology and Evolution, vol. 7, no. 9, pp. 1119-1123pp.
- Youngentob, K, Yoon, H, Stein, J et al 2015, 'Where the wild things are: using remotely sensed forest productivity to assess arboreal marsupial species richness and abundance', Diversity and Distributions, vol. 21, no. 8, pp. 977-990.
- Youngentob, K 2015, 'Estimating foliar chemistry of individual tree crowns with imaging spectroscopy', in Held, A., Phinn, S., Soto-Berelov, M., & Jones, S. (ed.), AusCover Good Practice Guidelines: A technical handbook supporting calibration and validation activities of remotely sensed data products, TERN AusCover, Australia, pp. 1-13.
- Youngentob, K, Wood, J & Lindenmayer, D 2013, 'The response of arboreal marsupials to landscape context over time: a large-scale fragmentation study revisited', Journal of Biogeography, vol. 40, no. 11, pp. 2082-2093.
- Youngentob, K, Likens, G, Williams, J & Lindenmayer, DB 2013, 'A survey of long-term terrestrial ecology studies in Australia', Austral Ecology, vol. 38, pp. 365-373.
- Suarez, L, Youngentob, K, Jones, S et al 2012, 'Field sampling protocol for foliage chemistry assessment. Applicability over varied forest sites in Australia', Geospatial Science Research 2 Symposium, GSR_2 2012, ed. C. Arrowsmith, C. Bellman, W. Cartright, CEUR-WS.ORG, Online, pp. -.
- Lindenmayer, D, Hulvey, K, Hobbs, R et al. 2012, 'Avoiding bio-perversity from carbon sequestration solutions', Conservation Letters, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 28-36.
- Youngentob, K, Yoon, H, Coggan, N et al 2012, 'Edge effects influence competition dynamics: A case study of four sympatric arboreal marsupials', Biological Conservation, vol. 155, pp. 68-76.
- Youngentob, K, Renzullo, L, Held, A et al 2012, 'Using imaging spectroscopy to estimate integrated measures of foliage nutritional quality', Methods in Ecology and Evolution, vol. 3, 416-419.
- Berni, J, Kljun, N, van Gorsel, E et al 2011, '3D spatial distribution of biophysical parameters derived from hyperspectral and lidar remote sensing. Improving the constraints in land surface modelling', International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment (ISRSE 2011), International Symposium for Remote Sensing of the Environment, Sydney, NSW, pp. -.
- Lindenmayer, D, Wood, J, McBurney, L et al 2011, 'How to make a common species rare: A case against conservation complacency', Biological Conservation, vol. 144, no. 5, pp. 1663-1672.
- van Gorsel, E, Kljun, N, Leuning, R et al 2011, 'Use of high resolution lidar and hyperspectral data to evaluate the sensitivity of net ecosystem exchange to stand structural and plant chemical properties', International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment (ISRSE 2011), International Symposium for Remote Sensing of the Environment, Sydney, NSW, pp. -.
- Youngentob, K, Roberts, D, Held, A et al 2011, 'Mapping two Eucalyptus subgenera using multiple endmember spectral mixture analysis and continuum-removed imaging spectrometry data', Remote Sensing of Environment, vol. 115, no. 5, pp. 1115-1128.
- Youngentob, K, Wallis, I, Lindenmayer, D et al 2011, 'Foliage Chemistry Influences Tree Choice and Landscape Use of a Gliding Marsupial Folivore', Journal of Chemical Ecology, vol. 37, pp. 71-84.
- Felton, A, Fischer, J, Lindenmayer, D et al. 2009, 'Climate change, conservation and management: an assessment of the peer-reviewed scientific journal literature', Biodiversity and Conservation, vol. 18, pp. 2243-2253.
- Gibbons, P, Zammit, C, Youngentob, K et al 2008, 'Some practical suggestions for improving engagement between researchers and policy-makers in natural resource management', Ecological Management and Restoration, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 182-186.
- Lindenmayer, D, Fischer, J, Felton, A et al. 2007, 'The complementarity of single-species and ecosystem-oriented research in conservation research', Oikos, vol. 116, pp. 1220-1226.
- Youngentob, K & Hostetler, M 2005, 'Is a New Urban Development Model Building Greener Communities?', Environment and Behavior, vol. 37, no. 6, pp. 731-759.
Projects and Grants
Grants information is drawn from ARIES. To add or update Projects or Grants information please contact your College Research Office.
- Greater Glider Risk Assessment Booderee National Park (Primary Investigator)
- Gourmet Gum Leaves Project: Evaluating the nutritional quality of preferred koala food trees on the Redlands Coast (Primary Investigator)
- Assessing landscape nutritional quality for koalas (Secondary Investigator)
- Gourmet gum leaves - evaluating the nutritional quality of preferred koala food trees on the Redlands Coast (Secondary Investigator)
- The effect of fire on koala diet composition and quality (Secondary Investigator)
- Post-fire management and conservation of the Greater Glider (Secondary Investigator)
- Post-fire feeding by greater gliders (Secondary Investigator)
- Regional Bushfire Recovery for Multiregional Species and Strategic Projects Program (Primary Investigator)
- Restoring the nutritional landscape for eucalypt folivores (Primary Investigator)
- Next gen nest boxes for post-fire recovery of Greater Gliders (Primary Investigator)
- Koala regional habitat descriptions and assessment project (Primary Investigator)
- Monitoring rescued and wild koalas in post-fire habitat on the NSW southern tablelands (Primary Investigator)
- Identifying forests dominated by Allocasuarina littoralis or Eucalyptus sieberi with hyperspectral imagery (Primary Investigator)
- Determining the effects of regeneration harvesting on habitat nutritional quality for koalas (Secondary Investigator)
- Remote sensing ecosystem and wildlife population responses to landscape change (Secondary Investigator)
- More than pretty pictures Ecological applications of modern remote sensing (Primary Investigator)
