Associate Professor Kylie Scales is an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellow in the School of Science, Technology and Engineering. A/Prof Scales is a quantitative marine ecologist whose research seeks to understand and predict ecological responses to physical variability and change in the oceans. She has research interests in the spatial and movement ecology of highly mobile marine vertebrates such as seabirds, turtles, sharks and large teleost fish, fisheries sustainability, dynamic ocean management, ecological forecasting, and marine climate change. Her interdisciplinary research pursues real-world solutions for applications in the management of marine resources and conservation of marine biodiversity.
A/Prof Scales takes a highly collaborative approach to research, and works in partnership with industry, government agencies, CSIRO, non-governmental organisations, universities and research institutions in Australia and internationally. She serves as a Senior Editor for the open-access journal Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation, published by the Zoological Society of London. Dr Scales served as a Contributing Author and Expert Reviewer on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 6th Assessment Report. She was awarded an Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellowship focused on fisheries adaptation to climate change in 2019, commended as Best Early Career Researcher in Science, Health, Education and Engineering in 2018 and received the Vice-Chancellor and President's Award for Excellence in Research in 2017.
Research Summary
In recent years, A/Prof Scales has focused her research on dynamic habitat suitability modelling for mobile species as a near real-time, data-driven solution to the reduction of unsustainable fisheries bycatch. A/Prof Scales conducts research on ecological interactions, environmental interfaces and the mechanisms that underlie how animals respond to environmental conditions. As anthropogenic pressure on the natural environment intensifies, inter-disciplinary thinking will be required to predict how ecosystems and their wild inhabitants will respond to changing conditions. Hence, A/Prof Scales is interested in techniques for predicting ecosystem responses to anthropogenic threats, including global climate change.
Research areas
- Spatial Ecology
- Movement Ecology
- Species distribution modelling
- Fisheries oceanography
- Dynamic ocean management
- Climate change impacts and adaptation
Teaching areas
- ANM302 Global-Change Ecology
A/Prof Kylie Scales is an ecologist with broad, inter-disciplinary interests in biogeography, spatial ecology and conservation biology.