Post-doctoral Fellow
Conservation biology, population genetics, impacts of landscape variability (e.g. habitat fragmentation) on population biology, marine ecology and genetics
Phone: +61 2 6125 9288
Fax: + 61 (0)2 6125 0746
E-mail: sam.banks@anu.edu.au

Sam Banks completed undergraduate degrees in arts and science at Monash University. His honours and postgraduate work were in conservation genetics and the population biology of marsupials. Post-doctoral research at Macquarie University from 2005 to 2007 focused on marine invertebrate ecology and genetics. He commenced a post-doctoral fellowship in the Fenner School in 2007.

Professional Activities

I am interested in conservation and population biology and have used molecular genetics and field ecological approaches in my research. My genetics experience began during my honours and in subsequent work developing non-invasive methods for genetically identifying individual animals and applying these methods to conservation programs for endangered species like the northern hairy-nosed wombat. I went on to complete a PhD focusing on the impacts of habitat fragmentation on the social behaviour and population biology of small marsupial carnivores (Antechinus). I then took a sea change and worked on the genetics of marine invertebrate populations, and how this is influenced by physical oceanic and geographic processes. Since moving to ANU in 2007, I have been researching variation in animal life history strategies in relation to environmental heterogeneity.

Selected Publications

Banks, S.C. et al. 2008. Microhabitat heterogeneity influences offspring sex allocation and spatial kin structure in possums. Journal of Animal Ecology 77, 1250?1256

Banks et al. 2007. Sex and sociality in a disconnected world: a review of the impacts of habitat fragmentation on animal social interactions. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 85, 1065?1079.

Banks, S.C. et al. 2007. Oceanic variability and coastal topography shape local genetic structure in a long-dispersing marine invertebrate. Ecology, 88, 3055-2064.

Beckman, J. et al. 2007. Phylogeography and environmental correlates of a cap on reproduction: teat number in a small marsupial, Antechinus agilis. Molecular Ecology 16, 1069-1083.

Banks, S.C. et al. 2005. The effects of habitat fragmentation on the social kin structure and mating system of the agile antechinus, Antechinus agilis. Molecular Ecology, 14, 1789-1801.