The environmental control of Australian rainforest

The fragmented nature of the rainforest archipelago in Australia, and the environmental constraints associated with it, have been a major focus of my research over the last twenty years. This thesis is my contribution to the problem. It includes a book and 53 scientific articles. The book is my synthesis of the available evidence. The scientific articles are my research contribution to the issue, based mainly on field studies in Tasmania and the monsoonal tropics of Western Australia, Queensland and throughout the Northern Territory. I began this research as a post-graduate student at the University of Tasmania, but most was conducted whilst I was a wildlife ecologist with the Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory. The book was written during a one-year fellowship at Harvard University and was finalised in my capacity as a Principal Research Fellow at the Northern Territory University. Three articles (marked in bold in Table 1) are based on work I undertook for my Botany honours degree at the University of Tasmania. I have not previously submitted any other work included in this thesis for any other degree. I am the sole author of the book and eleven of the 53 articles.