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Joanna Sumner
Manager of Genetic Resources, Museum VictoriaARC Postdoctoral Fellow, ANU
jsumner@museum.vic.gov.au
Website: www.anu.edu.au/BoZo/Scott/KeoghLab/JoannaSumnerHome.html
Ecology and evolution of reptiles: conservation and population genetics, molecular systematics, phylogeography, habitat fragmentation. Phylogeography of south-east Australian water skinks
I am interested in the evolution and ecology of reptiles, and I use a combination of field and molecular genetic techniques to study population biology, dispersal ecology, habitat fragmentation, systematics, evolutionary ecology, and speciation. My PhD research involved surveys for reptiles and frogs in fragmented and continuous rainforest sites in the Wet Tropics of north eastern Australia. This research concentrated on how habitat fragmentation affected the molecular ecology and genetic diversity of Gnypetoscincus queenslandiae, a rainforest endemic skink. In my current research I am using the Eulamprus quoyii group of water skinks as a model system to determine how the uplifting of the Great Dividing Range has shaped the evolutionary history and patterns of speciation of animals in south-eastern Australia.
Other ongoing projects include the population biology and molecular ecology of the endangered broad-headed snake and research on threatened species legislation among state and Commonwealth jurisdictions.
Publications
Sumner, J. (2006) Higher relatedness within groups due to deferred natal dispersal in a rainforest skink, Gnypetoscincus queenslandiae. Austral Ecology 31:441-448.Sumner, J. (2005) Decreased relatedness between male prickly forest skinks (Gnypetoscincus queenslandiae) in habitat fragments. Conservation Genetics 6:333-340.
Jessop, T., Sumner, J., Lance, V., and Limpus, C. (2004) Reproduction in shark attacked sea turtles is supported by stress reduction mechanisms. Proceeding of the Royal Society of London B (supp): 271: S91-S94
Jessop,T., Sumner, J., Rudiharto, H., Purwandana, D., Imansyah. M.J., and Phillips, J. A. (2004) Distribution, use and selection of nest type by Komodo Dragons. Biological Conservation 117: 463-470.
Sumner, J., T. Jessop, D. Paetkau, C. Moritz. (2004). The effect of anthropogenic habitat fragmentation on molecular diversity in a rainforest endemic skink, Gnypetoscincus queenslandiae. Molecular Ecology 13:259-269.
Sumner, J., Rousset, F., Estoup, A. and Moritz, C. (2001). "Neighbourhood size", dispersal and density estimates in the prickly forest skink (Gnypetoscincus queenslandiae) using individual genetic and demographic methods. Molecular Ecology 10:1917-1927.
Sumner, J., Moritz, C. and Shine, R. (1999). Shrinking forest shrinks skink: morphological change in response to rainforest fragmentation in the prickly forest skink (Gnypetoscincus queenslandiae). Biological Conservation 91:159-167.