Honorary Research Associate

Phoebe Barnard BSc Hons (Acadia, Canada), MSc (Witwatersrand), PhD (Uppsala, Sweden) Birds & Environmental Change Partnership Programme, South African National Biodiversity Institute Tel: +27 (0)21 799 8722 Fax: +27 (0)21 799 8705 Email: p.barnard@sanbi.org.za

Phoebe is a behavioural and evolutionary ecologist by background. She initially worked on sexual selection in flashy African passerine birds, and on birds of prey in North America and southern Africa. But being long aware that Rome is burning, and that sexual selection adds little to urgent conservation measures, she switched to global change and conservation biology and has spent the last 18 years in conservation biology, policy and strategic planning. As a
senior scientist at the Climate Change and BioAdaptation Division of the South African National Biodiversity Institute, and a Fitz research associate, she can now combine her twin 'work passions' of biodiversity and climate change by looking at the vulnerability and adaptation of African birds, especially fynbos endemics, to environmental change in ‘real-life,’ transformed landscapes. She also works collaboratively with Brian Huntley, Steve Willis and Yvonne Collingham (Durham University), Rhys Green (Cambridge University/ RSPB), Rob Simmons and Jeremy Midgley (UCT), Frank Schurr and team (Potsdam University and Senckenberg Institute), Anton Pauw and students (Stellenbosch University), Ross Turner (University of KwaZulu-Natal) and Martine Maron (Queensland University) to understand different parts of this system.

Phoebe earlier founded and ran the Namibian national biodiversity and climate change programmes, has contributed to the development of environmental observation systems and the governance of 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.

Long-term 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, how species will move across fragmented landscapes in response to environmental change, and what options we have to help them persist through the next few difficult centuries.

Research programmes

Climate Change Vulnerability & Adaptation

Current postdoctoral researchers and students

Postdoctoral researchers

Alan T.K. Lee: Spatial and temporal patterns of abundance and dispersal by fynbos avifauna (Supervisors: Phoebe Barnard and Phil Hockey)

Masters

Anina Heystek (U. Stellenbosch): Spatial ecology of bird pollination in the Cape Floristic Region (Supervisors: Anton Pauw and Phoebe Barnard)

Earlier postdoctoral researchers and students

Postdoctoral researchers

Clelia Sirami: Global changes and bird community responses to vegetation structure in southern Africa (2007-2010, Supervisors: Phoebe Barnard, Guy Midgley)

Doctoral

Seb Rahlao: Current and future vulnerability of South African ecosystems to perennial grass invasion under global change scenarios (2006-09, Supervisors: Karen Esler, Sue Milton, Phoebe Barnard)

Thabiso Mokotjomela: Bird dispersal of invasive alien plants in changing climates: emerging invaders in South Africa (2008-10, Supervisors: Karen Esler, Charles Musil, Phoebe Barnard)

Sally Hofmeyr: Impacts of environmental change on large terrestrial bird species in South Africa: insights from citizen science data (2008-12, Supervisors: Les Underhill, Phoebe Barnard)

Masters

Loïc Chalmandrier: Fire impact on bird communities of the Cape fynbos (2008-09, Supervisors: Clelia Sirami, Phoebe Barnard)

Honours

Anina Heystek: Competition for pollination structures in Erica communities (2011, Supervisors: Anton Pauw, Phoebe Barnard)

Lara Croxford: Avians versus arthropods: what really pollinates Protea lepidocarpodendron? (2011, Supervisors: Anton Pauw, Phoebe Barnard)

Will Wyness: Protea compacta architecture and Cape Sugarbird (Promerops cafer) behaviour: a loose connection or tight bond? (2011, Supervisors: Jeremy Midgley, Phoebe Barnard)

Recent peer-reviewed publications

2012

Altwegg, R., Broms, K., Erni, B., Barnard, P., Midgley, G.F. & Underhill, L.G.. 2012. Novel methods reveal shifts in migration phenology of barn swallows in South Africa. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 279:1485-1490. IF 6.401

Evans, D.M., Barnard, P., Koh, L.P., Chapman, C.A., Altwegg, R., Garner, T.W.J., Gompper, M.E., Gordon, I.J., Katzner, T.E. & Pettorelli, N. 2012. Funding nature conservation: who pays? Animal Conservation 15:215-216. IF 2.931

Huntley, B., Altwegg, R., Barnard, P., Collingham, Y.C. & Hole, D.G. 2012. Modelling relationships between species spatial abundance patterns and climate. Global Ecology and Biogeography IP. IF 5.145

Huntley, B., Allen, J.R.M., Barnard, P., Collingham, Y.C. & Holliday, P.R. 2012. Species distribution models indicate contrasting late-Quaternary histories for Southern and Northern Hemisphere bird species. Global Ecology and Biogeography IP. IF 5.145

Huntley, B. & Barnard, P. 2012. Potential impacts of climatic change on southern African birds of fynbos and grassland biodiversity hotspots. Diversity and Distributions IP. IF 4.83

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 1.659

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 1.528

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