AssDipLabTech, BAppSc C.Stuart, MSc, PhD James Cook

Year Joined IAS Staff: Feb 2020    Present Position: Deputy Director IAS

 

Location & Contact Details:

Laucala (lower campus), Building 134, Room M130B, Email: gilianne.brodie@usp.ac.fj; Phone (679) 3232876

Work Experience:

Dr Brodie has held positions in Australia government service (agriculture) and the tourism sector. She taught for a short time at the University of Central Queensland (chemistry and biology) before becoming an academic staff member in Marine Biology & Aquaculture and Biological Sciences at James Cook University, northern Australia for 15 years. From 2005-2007 Dr Brodie worked for BioNet International via the Pacific Community (SPC) Division of Land Resources before joining USP in 2008. From 2008-2019, she taught invertebrate biology, ecology, conservation biology and biodiversity & conservation as a Senior Lecturer then Associate Professor in the School of Biological & Chemical Sciences at USP. She was acting Head of the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences (SBCS) from 2014-15 before becoming Deputy Director of the Institute of Applied Sciences in February 2020. Dr Brodie was a Research Group Leader on the Science Faculty Research Committee at the University of the South Pacific from 2008-2020.

Project & Research Interests:

 

Coastal ecosystem biodiversity and integrated functional processes, service benefits from nature on islands, conservation, invertebrate biology, environmental policy development, sustainable development, human use of invertebrates including the role of cultural and/or traditional knowledge in natural resource management.

Recent and Current Projects:

Dr Brodie’s recent and current projects focus on island and atoll coastal ecosystems, island natural resource management, climate change, resilience, ecosystem and biodiversity assessment. She also has a strong interest in applied multi-disciplinary & transdisciplinary research in achieving natural resource sustainability.

2020 – 2023 Marine Science Advisor, Framework of the Pacific Islands Marine Bioinvasions Alert Network (PacMAN). Flanders UNESCO Trust Fund & Richard Lounsbery Foundation with OBIS/IOC Belgium. (Fiji)

2019 – 2021 Co-Investigator, “One Ocean Hub”: United Kingdom Research Council (Fiji & Solomon Islands)

2019 – 2021 Team Leader, “Keeping balance: the status and importance of seagrass ecosystems in the Pacific Oceanscape Phase 2”. USP Pacific Oceans & Natural Resources SRT (Fiji, Solomon Islands & Kiribati)

Past Project Experience:

Dr Brodie has worked in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa, Tonga, Nauru and Kiribati and supervised over 25 postgraduate projects in the USP region. She has over 30 years of experience in biodiversity & natural resource management in tropical and island ecosystems across tropical marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems with particular emphasis on coastal ecosystems, conservation and invertebrates. She has completed over 30 research and development projects primarily in developing countries or remote communities.

Dr Brodie has undertaken environmental research, development, consultancy, education and capacity building initiatives: with; the Pacific-Europe Network for Science Technology & Innovation; the United Kingdom Research Council Global Challenges Fund; Commonwealth Marine Economies Program; the Great Barrier Reef Marine Parks Authority; IUCN-Oceania; the Pacific Community; Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund; MacArthur Foundation; Environment Australia; Biosecurity Authority of Fiji; Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas); Landcare New Zealand; the Cooperative Research Centre for Sustainable Development of the Great Barrier Reef and the Cooperative Research Centre for the Torres Strait Islands.

Examples of Past Project Grants 

2016 – 2018 Team Leader, “Keeping balance: the status and importance of seagrass ecosystems in the Pacific Oceanscape”. USP Pacific Oceans & Natural Resources SRT, Fiji & Solomon Islands.

2017     New Zealand Government, Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment. Catalyst Seed Funding: named collaborator with Lockhart, Massey University. Transforming DNA diagnostics: from lab to field [for applied use in Pacific Island developing countries].

2017     USP Research Office SRT. Exploring the presence and distribution of potential disease-causing rat lungworm (Angiostrongylus cantonensis) in urban areas in Suva using molecular and geospatial tools. Named collaborator with Dr Tamara Osborne, School of Biological & Chemical Sciences, University of the South Pacific, Fiji

2015     Team Leader PACNET-Plus: Food Security and Biosecurity in Melanesia: pest agents of decline in healthy food production.

2014     Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF): named collaborator with Ass. Professor Fisher, University of Queensland, Conservation of Threatened Endemics in Solomon Islands.

Postgraduate Student Research Projects

Dr Brodie much enjoys working with local and regional postgraduate students, and in partnership with them she has undertaken research on a wide variety of environmental and conservation related projects: including topics related to maintaining ecosystem and economic service benefits from marine, freshwater and forest resources on islands. Dr Brodie has a passion for invertebrates, particularly molluscs, and the habitats they occur in. She is interested in working on projects involving applied or multidisciplinary approaches to sustainable use of natural resources, in particular those with links to policy development, ecosystem service benefits, nature-based solutions, climate change, pollution, biodiversity assessment, taxonomy and the use of invertebrate fauna, including cultural use, by humans.

Postgraduate Projects Completed at USP

• Modelling the effects of seagrass on wave attenuation in two different low-energy coastal environments in Fiji. (Lency Muna MSc – principal supervisor)
• Quantifying the dominance of little fire ant (Wasmannia auropunctata) and its’ effect on crops in the Solomon Islands (John Fasi MSc – principal supervisor)
• Potential of the problematic weed Abrus precatorius to control invasive termite, Coptotermes gestroi, in Fiji (Ravikash Prasad MSc – principal supervisor),
• Evaluating forest ecosystem health; the use of herpetofauna as bioindicators to priority conservation areas (Edgar Pollard MSc– principal supervisor).
• Effect of catchment Forest cover on macroinvertebrate community structure in streams of Fiji. (Bindiya Rashni, MSc –co-supervisor)
• Ecology, harvest dynamics and conservation of Pacific Ebony (Diospyros insularis) on Vangunu Island, Solomon Islands (Ramokasa Anisi MSc – principal supervisor).
• Diversity and community structure of macro-moths (Lepidoptera) in forest habitats on Viti Levu, Fiji. (Siteri Tikoca MSc – principal supervisor).
• Taxonomy, host selection & biogeography of the Fijian long-horned beetle (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae). (Waqa-Sakiti PhD – principal supervisor).
• Feeding preferences and behaviour of two Solomon Island endemic fruit bats: Pteropus rayneri and Dobsonia inermis. (Corzzierrah Posala MSc – principal supervisor).
• Occurrence and characterisation of entomopathogenic nematodes in Fiji soils and their potential application in biocontrol (Sumeet Kour, PhD – principal supervisor)
• Growth comparison study of black-lipped pearl oysters, Pinctada margaritifera (Linnaeus, 1758) at different depths in Savusavu Bay, Fiji Islands (John Carreon, MSc – principal supervisor)
• Monitoring of the migration and song patterns of Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeanliae) in Tonga. (Latu ‘Aisea, MSc – principal supervisor)
• Namrata Chand: Spatial Distribution of Seagrass at Suva Lagoon, Fiji (Chand, MSc principal supervisor)
• Faunal biodiversity in bird’s nest fern along an elevational transect on a tropical montane forest on Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. (Kevin Sese – MSc, co-supervisor)

Current Postgraduate Students

• The role of seagrass habitat in preventing coastal erosion: comparative case study of Tarawa and Abaiang Atoll lagoons in Kiribati. (Tekimwau Otiawa, MSc candidate – co-supervisor)
• Seagrass and its relationship with water quality in an atoll lagoon (Max Peter, PGDiploma candidate – principle supervisor)
• Behavioural ecology of Fiji’s woodland songbirds.(Alifereti Naikatini, PhD candidate – principle supervisor)
• A Baseline study of Fijian Placostylinae land snails: Genetics, Distribution and Population. (Lia Bogitini, MSc candidate, co-supervisor)
• Chemical profiling and structure elucidation of chemical markers in Santalum yasi [sandalwood] in Fiji (Miriama Vuiyasawa, MSc candidate, co-supervisor)

 

Hobbies:

Gardening and home renovation, plus anything to do with the nature, environment and the Ocean

 

Publications:

Dr Brodie has authored over 80 publications including >35 refereed journal papers, several book chapters, and applied technical reports.  Recent examples are:

Coastal Ecosystems

Brodie, G., Brodie, J., Maata, M. Peter, M., Otiawa, T. and Devlin, M. (2020). Seagrass habitat and its link to nearshore fisheries, threatened species, pollution, water quality and human health in Tarawa Lagoon, Kiribati. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 155, 111099.

Brodie, G., Holland, E., N’Yeurt, A., Soapi, K. & Hills, J. (2020). Seagrasses and seagrass habitats in Pacific small island developing states: potential loss of benefits via human disturbance and climate change. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 160, 111573.

Mangubhai, S., Sykes, H., Lovell, E., Brodie, G., Jupiter, S., Lal, R., Lee, S., Loganimoce, E. M., Morris, C., Nand, Y., Qauqau, I. & Rashni, B. (2019). Coastal and marine ecosystems in Fiji. In: World Seas: An Environmental Evaluation, Volume 2. Elsevier Science Publisher.

 

Conservation & Biodiversity on Islands

Anisi, R., de Souza, A., Brodie, G., Thaman, R. & Keppel, G. (2020). Conservation of ebony producing Diospyros species (Ebenaceae) in the Pacific: evidence from taxonomy, ethnobotany and ecology on Vangunu Island, Western Solomon Islands. Pacific Conservation Biology. https://doi.org/10.1071/PC19052

Gerlach, J., Barker, G.M., Bick, C.S., Bouchet, P., Brodie, G., Christensen, C.C., Collins, T., Coote, T., Cowie, R.H., Fiedler, G.C. and Griffiths, O.L. .. (2020). Negative impacts of invasive predators used as biological control agents against the pest snail Lissachatina fulica: the snail Euglandina ‘rosea’ and the flatworm Platydemus manokwari. Biological Invasions, pp.1-35.

Miller, C., Brodie, G. and Pippard, H. (2016). Editors. Faunal Species Conservation in the Melanesian Pacific Islands. Pacific Conservation Biology, Special Volume no. 22. CSIRO Publishing. 90pp.

Pollard, E. Thaman, R. & Brodie, G. & Morrison, C. (2015).Threatened biodiversity and traditional ecological knowledge: associated beliefs, customs and uses of herpetofauna among the ‘Are”Are on Malaita Island, Solomon Islands. Enthobiology Letters, 6(1): 99-110. ISSN 2159-8126

Pollard, E., Brodie, G., Thaman, R. & Morrison, C.  (2014). The use of herpetofauna and cultural values to identify priority conservation forests on Malaita, Solomon Islands. Pacific Conservation Biology, 20(4): 354-362.

Brodie, G., Pikacha, P. & Tuiwawa, M. (2013). Biodiversity and conservation in the Pacific Islands: Why Are We Not Succeeding? Chapter 21. pp. 181-187. In: Sodhi, N.S., Gibson, L. & Raven, P. (eds.). Conservation Biology: Lessons from the Tropics. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 9780470658635

Fasi, J., Brodie, G., & Vanderwoude, C. (2013). Increases in crop pests caused by Wasmannia auropunctata in Solomon Islands subsistence gardens. Journal of Applied Entomology, 137(8): 580-588.

Invertebrate Biology

Kour, S., Khurma, U. R., Brodie, G.D. and Hazir, Selcuk (2020). Natural occurrence and distribution of entomopathogenic nematodes (Steinernematidae, Heterorhabditidae) in Viti Levu, Fiji Islands. The Journal of Nematology, 52  pp. 1-17. DOI: 10.21307/jofnem-2020-017

Brodie, G., Lako, J. and Lowry, B. (2017). The Value of Snails: Prestige & Innovation Beyond Amazing Biodiversity. Chapter 1, pp 13-49. In: Yap, C. K. (editor). Snails: Biodiversity, Biology & Behavioural Insights. Animal Science, Issues and Research, NOVA Science Publishers, New York. ISBN 978-1-53611-847-6

Tikoca, S., Hodge, S., Tuiwawa, M., Pene, S., Clayton, J. & Brodie, G. (2017). A comparison of macro-moth assemblages across three types of lowland forest in Fiji. The Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera, 49: 69-79.

Brodie, G. D., Barker, G.M., Pippard, H., Bick, C. and O’Foighil, D. (2016) Disappearing jewels: an urgent need for conservation of Fiji’s partulid tree snail fauna. Pacific Conservation Biology, 22(3): 249 – 261.

Barker, G.M., Brodie, G, Bogitini, L. and Pippard, H. (2016) Diversity and current conservation status of Melanesian – New Zealand Placostylinae land snails (Gastropoda, Bothriembryontidae), with discussion of conservation imperatives, priorities and methodology issues. Pacific Conservation Biology, 22(3): 203-222.

Brodie, G., Barker, G., Haynes, A., Singh, R., Stevens, F., Fiu, M., Bogitini, L., Matewai, M. & Naivalurua, J. (2013). Documentation of Fiji’s endemic and introduced land snail Fauna. Biodiversity Conservation Lessons Learned Technical Series 23. Conservation International – Pacific Islands. 87 pp. ISBN 978-982-9130-23-5.

Prasad, R., Brodie, G., Vanderwoude, C. and Hodge, S. (2015) Potential of the weed Abrus precatorius Linnaeus (Fabales: Fabaceae) for control of insect pests in the South Pacific: a review. International Journal of Entomological Research, 3(3): 113-124.

Brodie, G. and Barker, G.M., Stevens, F., and Fiu, M. (2014) Preliminary re – survey of the land snail fauna of Rotuma: conservation and biosecurity implications. Pacific Conservation Biology, 20(1): 94-107.