Southwood Prize
The British Ecological Society awards an annual prize to the best paper by a young author in each of the Society’s journals. The Journal of Applied Ecology awards the Southwood Prize in memory of Prof. Sir Richard Southwood. The winner is selected by the Editors of Journal of Applied Ecology at the end of each year and an announcement is made early in the New Year following.
If the first author of the paper considers that they are eligible for this award when their manuscript is accepted for publication then they are invited to nominate themselves for this award. Those nominated are typically under 30 years old and in the early stages of their research career. Nominations are accepted from authors slightly older where their careers in ecology have been interrupted or have developed later.
In addition to a cash award, the winner of the Southwood Prize receives a one year subscription to the journal, free of charge, and is eligible for financial support towards attending the BES Annual Meeting where they are invited to give a short presentation on their paper.
Further Information:
Winner of the Southwood Prize 2012
Andrew Olds
The 2012 Southwood Prize winner is Andrew Olds for his paper Synergistic effects of reserves and connectivity on ecological resilience published with Kylie A. Pitt, Paul S. Maxwell and Rod M. Connolly (Journal of Applied Ecology, Volume 49 issue 6, pp. 1195-1203)
Understanding the effect of reserve connectivity on mobile organisms and how this influences ecosystem function is vital for effective reserve management. The editors were impressed by this well-conducted experimental study by Olds et al. which addressed a highly important question in applied ecology. The study was able to produce specific management recommendations for improving ecosystem resilience. Olds et al. linked processes at both the landscape and local scales, taking an ecosystem approach to habitat management.
Andrew is a Research Fellow in the Coast and Estuaries section of the Australian Rivers Institute and School of Environment at Griffith University in Queensland. In his PhD at Griffith University (2013), he examined the effects of connectivity on marine reserve performance across the western Pacific Ocean. Andrew worked previously as an environmental consultant and a conservation practitioner. His research focuses on marine community ecology, seascape ecology, conservation planning and the impacts of global change on marine ecosystems. Current projects continue to examine the effects of marine reserves on ecological processes, ecosystem services and socio-ecological resilience in tropical Australian and Pacific seascapes.
Winner of the Southwood Prize 2011
Nicholas Beeton
The 2011 Southwood Prize has been awarded by the editors to Nicholas Beeton for his paper with Hamish McCallum Models predict that culling is not a feasible strategy to prevent extinction of Tasmanian devils from facial tumour disease (Journal of Applied Ecology, Volume 48 issue 6, pp.1315-1323).
The Tasmanian devil Sarcophilus harrisii is currently threatened by the infectious cancer Devil Facial Tumour Disease (or DFTD). The disease has affected the devil population to the point where the species is now endangered. Beeton and McCallum use a suite of mathematical models to investigate the effectiveness of culling of infected devils as a tool to control DFTD. Though they found that more regular removal was more likely to be effective, their main conclusion was that the removal rate necessary to successfully eliminate disease may be too high to be achievable. This research demonstrates the importance of modelling in gauging the appropriateness of management actions, and suggests that culling is only appropriate for controlling wildlife diseases in a limited set of conditions.
Nicholas is currently finalising his Ph.D. in Zoology at the University of Tasmania, studying the Tasmanian devil and DFTD from a modelling perspective. This includes the above study (Beeton and McCallum 2011), predicting spatial patterns of abundance, modelling the spatial spread of the disease, and estimating model parameters using novel techniques. His background is in Applied Mathematics, having received his BSc (Hons) in Advanced Mathematics from the University of Sydney with a thesis studying nonlinear dynamics in biomedical ultrasound. He has a broad interest in applied problem-solving, having also completed various mathematics- and physics-based research projects as an undergraduate, including studying photonic crystals in a butterfly wing, modelling magnetic fields in the solar corona, and helping to design terahertz-frequency detectors.
Nicholas is a worthy recipient of the Southwood Prize for 2011 and we wish him every success in his future career.
Winner of the Southwood Prize 2010
Stephanie O’Donnell
For the 2010 publication year, the editors are pleased to award this prize to Stephanie O’Donnell for her co-paper with Jonathan Webb and Richard Shine ‘Conditioned taste aversion enhances the survival of an endangered predator imperilled by a toxic invader’ (Journal of Applied Ecology, Volume 47, pp.558-565).
The post-colonization history of Australia has been one of repeated extinctions due, in large part, to the fact that imported non-indigenous species seem to have a disproportionately large impact on the native biota. Currently, cane toads Bufo marinus are spreading rapidly across Australia and, due to their toxicity, have been the cause of a multitude of population declines in predators. O’Donnell and co-authors use conditioned taste aversion (CTA) as a tool to make predators wary of cane toads. In a clever experiment, the researchers laced dead toads with a nausea-inducing chemical and fed them to a subset of male northern quolls Dasyurus hallucatus -a predator rapidly declining in the presence of the toads. Upon release, toad-averse quolls had much higher survival than toad-naive ones. This research shows that in situations where stopping an invasion is impossible, management activities can focus instead on altering the behaviour of native animals, thus reducing the immediate risk of extinction.
During her two years in the Shine lab., Stephanie was based in northern Australia where she worked closely with a captive breeding programme for the endangered northern quoll. Her work with captive-bred animals was focused on refining the CTA technique for training quolls to avoid toads as prey, with the ultimate aim of producing a bait for training wild populations of quolls. Stephanie was also involved with the longer-term monitoring of released ‘toad smart’ quolls into areas of Kakadu National Park. This work has produced some exciting results. Most encouragingly, some toad-trained female quolls have survived for 12 months in the field, and have successfully raised litters of young. This ongoing collaborative project involves a team from the University of Sydney, the Territory Wildlife Park, and Kakadu National Park, and is funded by the Australian Research Council.
After completing her honours and research assistant role with the Shine lab., Stephanie joined an environmental consultancy specialising in the forest carbon sector. She works on projects to prevent the logging of native forests, thereby avoiding significant carbon emissions from deforestation. These projects also yield immense benefits for conserving biodiversity, maintaining ecosystem services and both generating and diversifying income for local communities that traditionally depend on timber harvests. Stephanie is particularly responsible for carbon modelling and vegetation stratification, although she has the opportunity to contribute to each stage of a project’s development. She is thoroughly enjoying working in such a dynamic and cutting-edge field, particularly the fact that the environmental benefits of these projects are immediately evident.
Winner of the Southwood Prize 2009
Christian Kerbiriou
The 2009 Southwood Prize is awarded to Christian Keribiriou for his co-paper ‘Tourism in protected areas can threaten wild populations: from individual response to population viability of the chough Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax‘ (Journal of Applied Ecology, Volume 46, pp. 657-665).
The paper combines careful observation with stochastic modelling to demonstrate that relatively minor disturbance from tourism has dramatic effects on population viability, even when breeding individuals are not directly affected. In addition to its important contribution to protected area management, the paper demonstrates that the full impact of tourism may be overlooked, with direct consequences for the assessment of sustainable levels of human disturbance in national parks, nature reserves and other protected areas. Few studies have quantified the link between ultimate factors of species decline, stochastic processes and extinction risk for a given population or species. By demonstrating how tourism pressure is related both to individual response and population dynamics in an endangered species, this study takes a significant step forward.
Christian Keribiriou worked as a conservation practitioner in the National Regional Park of Amorique in France where he was involved in monitoring and survey work, and raising public awareness of environmental issues. During this time, he completed his PhD with the Museum of Paris on the population viability of chough on the protected island of Ouessant off the west coast of Brittany, France. He went on to do postdoctoral research working on the development of a national biodiversity monitoring scheme, focusing particularly on bat monitoring. In June 2009, he moved to a permanent position as a Lecturer at Paris University where he teaches ecology and statistics. His research continues to focus on population viability analyses through interdisciplinary approaches. Christian is a worthy recipient of the Southwood Prize for 2009 and we wish him every success in his academic career.
Winner of the Southwood Prize 2008
Tiziana Lembo and Katie Hampson
The 2008 Southwood Prize is awarded jointly to Tiziana Lembo and Katie Hampson for their paper ‘Exploring reservoir dynamics: a case study of rabies in the Serengeti Ecosystem’ ( Journal of Applied Ecology, Volume 45, pp. 1246–1257). The paper combines long-term data and modelling to demonstrate that the reservoir for rabies in the Serengeti is a multi-host community where domestic dogs are the only population necessary for persistence but wild carnivores contribute as non-maintenance populations. In addition to making a significant contribution to understanding the dynamics of multi-host diseases, the work has also had a major impact on management policy, suggesting that control strategies that target domestic dogs should have the greatest impact on reducing risk of infection to humans, livestock and wildlife. The paper is exemplary in combining academic rigour with management relevance and the authors are worthy joint recipients of the 2008 Southwood Prize.
Tiziana Lembo’s PhD, based at the University of Edinburgh, focussed on the identification of reservoirs for rabies and canine distemper virus in the Serengeti. The study posed several major challenges relating to the complex and elusive problem of reservoir identification for pathogens infecting multiple host species, which Tiziana successfully addressed using a suite of phylogenetic and epidemiological approaches. Tiziana followed her PhD with a BBSRC fellowship on bovine tuberculosis in Tanzania, and currently holds a joint position as a post-doctoral fellow at Lincoln Park Zoo (USA) and the University of Glasgow.
Katie Hampson’s PhD from Princeton University focussed on understanding the transmission dynamics of rabies in the Serengeti. During this study, she pioneered the use of contact-tracing methodology and applied a range of quantitative methods for elucidating the epidemiology of rabies, generating invaluable information on the infection parameters and transmission patterns of rabies in domestic animals, human, and wildlife hosts. Katie has developed these approaches further as part of her post-doctoral fellowship from the Wellcome Trust which is currently held at the University of Sheffield.
The Journal of Applied Ecology published a number of excellent papers by young authors during 2008 and we should also like to mention the contribution from Lian Pin Koh entitled ‘Can oil palm plantations be made more hospitable for forest butterflies and birds?’ (Journal of Applied Ecology, Vol. 45, pp. 1002–1009). The Editors thought this was a very important and timely contribution from a young author and offer their congratulations for a well-executed piece of work.
Winner of the Southwood Prize 2007
Jonathan N. Pauli
The 2007 Southwood Prize is awarded to Jonathan N. Pauli for his co-paper with Steven W. Buskirk ‘Risk-disturbance overrides density dependence in a hunted colonial rodent, the black-tailed prairie dog Cynomys ludovicianus‘ (Journal of Applied Ecology, Volume 44, pp. 1219-1230).
This paper is exemplary in its use of a carefully designed empirical study to address an important issue in applied ecology, within a very clear theoretical framework. In the review process it was identified as extremely well written, with clear management relevance and as making a strong contribution to general theory about the effects of hunting disturbance on colonial species. The study results were very interesting, demonstrating the importance of indirect effects of hunting on vital rates, and showing that these effects (principally reduced fecundity in succeeding years) swamped any potential positive compensatory effect of hunting on population growth rate. Jonathan Pauli is a very worthy recipient of the Southwood prize for 2007, and we congratulate him on this excellent piece of work.
Jonathan is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Ecology at the University of Wyoming. For his dissertation research, he is investigating the population dynamics, structure, and dispersal capabilities of American martens on islands off northwestern North America. He received his MSc in Zoology and Physiology from the University of Wyoming, where he studied the effects of plague and recreational shooting on black-tailed prairie dog biology. He received his BSc at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
In 2007, the Journal of Applied Ecology published a number of papers by young authors and we should also like to mention the contribution by Robert Schick with Steven Lindley for ‘Directed connectivity among fish populations in a riverine network’ (Volume 44, pp. 1116-1126). The editors felt this was an important paper by a young author and offer their congratulations on a well-executed piece of
research.