Dr Peter Erskine

Peter has a PhD on the nutritional ecology of contrasting Australian ecosystems (monsoon forests, savanna woodlands, semi-arid mulga woodlands and subantarctic vegetation) from the University of Queensland, Australia. Since completion of his PhD in 1997 he has worked with non-government organisations, as an environmental consultant and within the University system. He has conducted research in a variety of ecosystems in Australia, Papua New Guinea, Laos, Uganda and Vietnam, and helped train students from a range of countries. Over the last decade he has worked on forest landscape restoration and mine rehabilitation nationally and internationally. He currently works closely with research organisations, mining companies and government agencies to solve a range of issues on land restoration and the environmental impacts of mining.

Peter has a broad range of interests and is reluctant to articulate a unifying theme for his research. Stemming from recent research on biodiversity and rehabilitation, his research is being moulded by issues that have emerged over time and include:

• monitoring techniques to detect environmental change,
• utilising Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to address issues of scale,
• carbon sequestration, decision making, and
• the utility of reference sites for measuring rehabilitation success.

He works on a range of projects designing monitoring programs, rehabilitation strategies and completion criteria for restoration work.

• An assessment of the monitoring programs in the Newnes Plateau shrub swamp communities in the western coalfields of NSW (Graduate Student Opportunities)
• Revegetation assessment program for the D-Tree Tenement and historic Paradise workings in NW Queensland Legend International
• Identifying cost-effective reforestation approaches for biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration in the Australian wet tropics
• Soil organic matter and green carbon in rehabilitation: their role in the carbon balance
• Risk assessment tools to support end use decisions for mined land of the Bowen Basin
• Spatial and temporal modelling for vegetation monitoring uncertainty

• Society for Ecological Restoration

Doust SJ, Erskine PD, Lamb D (2008) Restoring rainforest species by direct seeding: tree seedling establishment and growth performance on degraded land in the wet tropics of Australia.  Forest Ecology and Management 256 (5) 1178–1188.

Nightingale, JM, Hill, MJ, Phinn SR, Davies, ID, Held, AA And Erskine, PD. (2008). Use of 3-PG and 3-PGS to simulate forest growth dynamics of Australian tropical rainforests: I. Parameterisation and calibration for old-growth, regenerating and plantation forests. Forest Ecology and Management 254 (2): 107-121

Lamb D and Erskine PD (2008) Forest restoration at a landscape scale. In: Living in a Dynamic Tropical Forest Landscape. (eds. N Stork & S Turton) Blackwells.

Erskine PD, Mulligan DR, Olsen MF, Kirsch B and Roe P (2007) Completion criteria for rehabilitated forest ecosystems on mined land – should they be based on unmined reference sites? Mine Closure 2007, Santiago, Chile.

Erskine PD, Catterall CP, Lamb D and Kanowski J (2007) Patterns and processes of old field reforestation in Australian rainforest landscapes. In: Old fields: Dynamics and restoration of abandoned farmland (eds. VA Cramer & RJ Hobbs), Island Press, Washington DC.

Firn J, Erskine PD and Lamb D (2007) What are the functional consequences of diversity in tropical plantations and secondary rainforest ecosystems? Oecologia  154:521–533

Doust SJ, Erskine PD, Lamb D (2006) Direct seeding to restore rainforest species: Microsite effects on the early establishment and growth of rainforest tree seedlings on degraded land in the wet tropics of Australia Forest Ecology and Management 234 (1-3): 333-343

Erskine PD, Lamb D and Bristow M (2006) Tree species diversity and ecosystem function: can multi-species plantations generate greater productivity? Forest Ecology and Management 233 (2-3): 205-210

McNamara S, Tinh VT, Erskine PD, Lamb D, Yates D, Brown S (2006) Rehabilitating degraded forest land in central Vietnam with mixed native species plantings. Forest Ecology and Management 233 (2-3): 358-365

Manson DG, Hanan J, Hunt M, Bristow M, Erskine PD, Lamb D, Schmidt S (2006) Modelling predicts positive and negative interactions between three Australian tropical tree species in monoculture and binary mixture. Forest Ecology and Management 233 (2-3): 315-323

Lamb D, Erskine PD and Parrotta J (2005) Restoration of degraded tropical forest landscapes. Science 310: 1628-1632.

Erskine PD, Lamb D and Borschmann G (2005) Growth performance and management of a mixed rainforest tree plantation. New Forests 29:117-134.

Erskine PD, Lamb D and Bristow M (2005) Reforestation in the tropics and sub-tropics of Australia using rainforest timber tree species. RIRDC, Canberra and the Rainforest CRC, Cairns.

Presentations

Erskine PD (2010) Coal, carbon capture, climate change and complicity. Sustainable Minerals Institute Seminar series.

Lamb D, Erskine PD (2009) Ecological Mine and Quarry Restoration; Lessons for practitioners and restoration theory. International Society for Ecological Restoration Conference, Perth

Erskine PD (2008) Bauxite mining in a private nature reserve in northern Australia. Invited by the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) and delivered to the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona, Spain

Erskine PD, Vickers H (2008) Removing and rehabilitating Australian ecosystems – do mining companies know what is expected for closure?  SD08 – Solutions Through Collaboration. Minerals Council Of Australia Annual Conference, Darwin 2008

Erskine PD, Mulligan DR, Olsen MF, Kirsch B and Roe P (2007) Completion criteria for rehabilitated forest ecosystems on mined land – should they be based on unmined reference sites? Mine Closure 2007, Santiago, Chile.