Lecturer

Phone: +61 (0)2 6125 4533
Fax: + 61 (0)2 6125 0746
E-mail: Chris.McElhinny@anu.edu.au

Chris was Schlich Medallist at the ANU Department of Forestry in 1998, and was awarded an ANU University Medal for his Honours Degree in Forestry in 1999. He completed a PhD in Resource and Environmental Management at ANU in 2004. Since July 2005 Chris has held the position of Lecturer in Forest and Woodland Ecology and Silviculture.

Professional Activities

My broad research interests are the role of vegetation structure in ecosystem function and the development and application of stand and landscape scale biometrics to improve the management of native vegetation.

Current projects include:

• Calibrating the FullCAM Carbon Accounting Model for the effects of forest silviculture on nitrogen and carbon cycles in commercially managed native forests (Collaborating agency, Australian Greenhouse Office)
• Modelling foliage vertical structure in Tasmanian Wet Forests (Collaborating agencies, Forestry Tasmania, Bushfire CRC)
• Assessing the ecological condition of Victoria's State Forests using SFRI data (Collaborating agency, Victorian DSE)
• Optimising silvicultural options for the moist hardwood forests of NE NSW (Collaborating agency, Forests NSW)
• The nature and function of log micro-environments in Yellow Box (Eucalyptus melliodora) - Red Gum (Eucalyptus blakelyi) woodland (Collaborating agencies, Environment ACT, CSIRO Entomology)
• Litter dynamics in Yellow Box (Eucalyptus melliodora) - Red Gum (Eucalyptus blakelyi) woodland (Collaborating agency, Environment ACT)
• A process model of coarse woody debris dynamics in Yellow Box (Eucalyptus melliodora) - Red Gum (Eucalyptus blakelyi) (Collaborating agency, Environment ACT)
• Management options for the invasive native woody weeds Kunzea parvifolia and Kunzea ericoides (Collaborating agency, Southern Rivers CMA)
• The structural complexity and composition of direct seeded revegetation in the Australian Capital Region (Collaborating agency, Greening Australia)

My teaching mirrors my research interests, and I convene and contribute to undergraduate courses concerned with forest and woodland ecology, and stand dynamic processes.

Selected Publications

Tabor, J. McElhinny, C. Hickey, J. Woods, J., 2007. Colonisation of clearfelled coupes by rainforest tree species from mature mixed forest edges, Tasmania, Australia. Forest Ecology and Management, 240: 13-23

McElhinny, C., Gibbons, P. and Brack, C. 2006. An objective and quantitative methodology for constructing an index of stand structural complexity, Forest Ecology and Management, 235, 54-71.

McElhinny, C., Gibbons, P., Brack, C., and Bauhus, J. 2006. Fauna-habitat relationships: a basis for identifying key structural attributes in temperate Australian forests and woodlands. Pacific Conservation Biology, 12 (2), 89-110.

McElhinny, C., Gibbons, P., Brack, C., and Bauhus, J. 2005. Forest and woodland stand structural complexity: its definition and measurement. Forest Ecology and Management, 218: 1-24.