Honorary Research Associate

Phoebe Barnard BSc Hons (Acadia, Canada), MSc (Witwatersrand), PhD (Uppsala, Sweden) Birds & Environmental Change Partnership Programme, Climate Change and BioAdaptation Division, Kirstenbosch Research Centre South African National Biodiversity Institute Tel: +27 (0)21 799 8705 Fax: +27 (0)21 797 6903 Email: p.barnard@sanbi.org.za

Although Phoebe trained as a behavioural and evolutionary ecologist, working mainly on the ecology of birds of prey and sexual selection in flashy African passerine birds, she has spent the last decade in conservation biology, policy and strategic planning. A senior scientist at the Climate Change and BioAdaptation Division of the South African National Biodiversity Institute, she has resumed her research life part-time, combining her twin 'work passions' of biodiversity and climate change by looking at the vulnerability and adaptation of African birds and other animals to environmental change.

Phoebe previously founded and ran the Namibian national biodiversity and climate change programmes, has contributed to the development of environmental observation systems and the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, and worked as scientific coordinator for the Global Invasive Species Programme. Her interests in global environmental change in Africa include the roles of scientific networks, long-term environmental observatories and young scientists. Her research interests include the behavioural, demographic, energetic, genetic and life history determinants of species vulnerability to climate change, what bird data can tell us about population trends, ecosystem health and human well-being, and how species will move across fragmented landscapes in response to environmental change.

Research programmes

Climate Change Vulnerability & Adaptation

Recent peer-reviewed publications

2012

Altwegg, R., Broms, K., Erni, B., Barnard, P., Midgley, G.F. & Underhill, L.G.. (in press). Novel methods reveal shifts in migration phenology of barn swallows in South Africa. Proceedings of the Royal Society B IP. IF 5.064

Huntley, B., Altwegg, R., Barnard, P., Collingham, Y.C. & Hole, D.G. (in press). Modelling relationships between species spatial abundance patterns and climate. Global Ecology and Biogeography IP. IF 5.273

Turner, R.C., Midgley, J.J., Barnard, P., Simmons, R.E. & Johnson, S.D. 2012. Experimental evidence for bird pollination and corolla damage by ants in the short-tubed flowers of Erica halicacaba (Ericaceae). South African Journal of Botany 79: 25–31. IF 1.106

2010

Barnard, P. & Midgley, G. 2010. No going back for species and ecosystems. Book Review: Heatstroke: Nature in an Age of Global Warming by Anthony D. Barnosky. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 25:9-10. IF 11.564

Huntley, B., Barnard, P., Altwegg, R., Chambers, L., Coetzee, B.W. T., Gibson, L., Hockey, P.A.R., Hole, D.G., Midgley, G.F., Underhill, L.G. & Willis, S.G. 2010. Beyond bioclimatic envelopes: dynamic species’ range and abundance modelling in the context of climatic change. Ecography 33: 1-6. IF 4.385

Rahlao, S.J., Esler, K.J., Milton, S.J. & Barnard, P. 2010. Nutrient Addition and Moisture Promote the Invasiveness of Crimson Fountaingrass (Pennisetum setaceum). Weed Science 58:154-159. IF 1.451

Rahlao, S.J., Milton, S.J., Esler, K.J. & Barnard, P. 2010. The distribution of invasive Pennisetum setaceum along roadsides in western South Africa: the role of corridor interchanges. Weed Research 50:537-543. IF 1.451