Dr Natalie Ban

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, James Cook University (2008-2010); . Research Interests Publications online Select Publications

Research Interests

My research interests span conservation biology, marine spatial planning, conservation planning and implementation. My love for the outdoors and concern about the future of our planet prompted me to develop research programs that focus on options for the conservation of biodiversity whilst respecting people’s needs and uses of resources.

I am currently a postdoctoral fellow in Program 6 (Conservation Planning for a Sustainable Future), working closely with Professor Bob Pressey. My research (past and present) covers three themes:

Patch dynamics and conservation planning: My postdoctoral research is comprehensively assessing the role of an important and hitherto largely ignored set of biodiversity processes, patch dynamics, in conservation planning. These spatial and temporal dynamics of resources and disturbances, such as pelagic productivity and coral bleaching, are extremely important for conservation planning because the persistence of many species depends on them. Yet current planning methods do not include patch dynamics in the design of conservation areas. This research will significantly improve biodiversity conservation through the development and testing of quantitative objectives and guidelines for incorporating patch dynamics into conservation planning whilst considering dynamic threats, including climate change. I will study two kinds of marine patch phenomena, seek unifying themes in relation to spatial and temporal predictability, and identify appropriate conservation responses. The selected dynamics are coral bleaching as a disturbance; and pelagic productivity as resources. Study areas include the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, and the Bismarck Sea, Papua New Guinea.

Marine protected area design: My Ph.D. thesis provided a direct comparison between – and integration of – community-based and science-based approaches to the establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs). MPAs are one potentially effective conservation tool, but are being established very slowly. My research showed that community involvement in placing MPAs can help meet many ecological goals, although biophysical data improve the conservation value of sitings. My work helped reconcile differing perspectives about the efficacy of community-based vs. science-based MPA selection. I explored and analyzed these approaches, separately and together, in two areas in British Columbia (BC), Canada. First, I generated a community-based plan for MPA placement through partnerships with two First Nations (indigenous peoples) in BC. They offered strong support for spatial protection measures, and individuals nominated overlapping areas. Second, I applied a decision support tool (Marxan) to determine MPA placement under scientific precepts. Conservation planning usually lacks detailed ecological information but the Marxan approach was robust to some missing data; in such cases, it was best to use available abiotic and biotic data to ensure that both habitats and species were represented. Third, I integrated community-based and science-based approaches, to find that they verified and complemented each other. Indeed, an integration of the two was preferred by participants and also achieved all conservation objectives.
My current involvement in MPA design and marine spatial planning includes research on management costs of MPAs (Coral Sea Heritage Park, Australia), incorporating climate change in MPA design (Great Barrier Reef, Bismarck Sea), and ongoing engagement in British Columbia.

Human uses and impacts on the marine environment: My interest here is three-fold: 1) mapping anthropogenic impacts; 2) devising ways to incorporate human uses into marine conservation planning; and 3) exploring the concept of marine ecosystem services for conservation planning.

• Analysis of cumulative human impacts in the marine environment is in its infancy. I remain engaged in research to expand upon existing approaches, aiming for a realistic first-consideration of cumulative impacts at a regional scale, using British Columbia as a case study.
• Conservation plans are more likely to be implementable if users are involved in the planning, and if their uses are considered in conservation planning tools. I am involved with the British Columbia Marine Conservation Analysis project, a collaborative project designed to provide resource managers, scientists, decision-makers, and those with a vested interest in the marine environment with better information to have discussions and/or make decisions about the ocean along the BC coast.
• The concept of marine ecosystem services may provide a perspective that speaks more directly to the needs and interests of users and managers, by focusing on the benefits humans derive from ecosystems rather than the inherent value of biodiversity. Many challenges remain to integrate the ecosystem service concept into conservation planning. Drawbacks of the approach also need to be explored.

Publications online

Select Publications

Nicholas A.J. Graham, Tracy D. Ainsworth, Andrew H. Baird, Natalie C. Ban, Line K. Bay, Joshua E. Cinner, Debora M. De Freitas, Guillermo Diaz-Pulido, Maria Dornelas, Simon R. Dunn, Pedro I.J. Fidelman, Sylvain Foret, Tatjana C. Good, Johnathan Kool, Jennie Mallela, Lucie Penin, Morgan S. Pratchett, David H. Williamson. 2011. From microbes to people - tractable benefits of no-take areas for coral reefs. Oceanography and Marine Biology: An Annual Review 49:117-148.

Klein, Carissa J., Natalie C. Ban, Ben Halpern, Maria Beger, Edward T. Game, Hedley Grantham, Alison Green, Travis Klein, Stuart Kininmonth, Eric Treml, Kerrie Wilson, Hugh P. Possingham. 2010. Prioritizing investments to protect Coral Triangle reefs. PLoS ONE 5(8):e12431.

Mills, Morena, Robert L. Pressey, Simon Foale, Natalie C. Ban. 2010. A mismatch of scales: challenges in planning for implementation of marine protected areas in the Coral Triangle. Conservation Letters 3:291-303.

Ban, Natalie C., Hussein Alidina, Jeff Ardron. 2010. Cumulative impact mapping: advances, relevance and limitations to marine management and conservation, using Canada's Pacific waters as a case study. Marine Policy 34:876-886.

Ban, Natalie C., Krista Royle, Charlie Short, Neil Davis, Karin Bodtker, Tanya Bryan, Andrew Day, Dana Haggarty, Lynn Lee, Murray Manson, Dave Nicolson, Glen Rasmussen, Kate Willis Ladell. 2010. Identifying priority areas for marine conservation in British Columbia: a collaborative approach. In. S. Bondrup-Nielsen, K. Beazley, G. Bissix, D. Colville, S. Flemming, T. Herman, M. McPherson, S. Mockford, and S. O’Grady (Eds). Ecosystem Based Management: Beyond Boundaries. Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference of Science and the Management of Protected Areas, 21–26 May 2007, Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Pp. 251-262.

Ban, NC, Caldwell, IR, Green, TL, Morgan, SK, O'Donnell, K, Selgrath (2009). Diverse fisheries require diverse solutions. Science 323(5912): 338-339. (Letter to the editor)
Link to full text or pdf

Ban, NC, and Klein CJ (2009). Spatial socio-economic data as a cost in systematic marine conservation planning. Conservation Letters 2:206-215.
Link to full text or pdf

Ban, NC, Hansen, GJA, Jones, M and Vincent, ACJ (2009). Systematic marine conservation planning in data-poor regions: Socioeconomic data is essential. Marine Policy 33(5): 794-800.
Link to full text or pdf

Ban, NC, Picard, CR and Vincent, ACJ (2009). Comparing and integrating community-based and science-based approaches to prioritizing marine areas for protection. Conservation Biology 23(4): 899-910.
Link to full text or pdf

Ban, NC and Vincent, ACJ (2009). Beyond marine reserves: Exploring the approach of selecting areas where fishing is permitted, rather than prohibited. PLoS ONE 4(7): e6258.
Link to full text or pdf

Ban, N (2009). Minimum data requirements for designing a set of marine protected areas, using commonly available abiotic and biotic datasets. Biodiversity and Conservation 18(7): 1829-1845.
Link to full text or pdf

Ban, NC, Blight, LK, Foster, SJ, Morgan, SK, and O’Donnell, K (2008). Pragmatism before prescription for managing global fisheries. Frontiers in Ecology and Environment 6 (10): 521. (letter to the editor)
Link to full text or pdf

Ban, NC, Picard, C, and Vincent, ACJ (2008). Moving towards spatial marine conservation solutions in indigenous communities. Ecology and Society 13 (1): 32. [online]
Link to full text or pdf

Ban, N, and Alder, J (2008). How wild is the ocean? Assessing the intensity of anthropogenic marine activities in British Columbia, Canada. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 18(1): 55-85.
Link to full text or pdf

Ban, NC (2008). Siting Marine Reserves: Stakeholder-Based Versus Science-Driven Approaches. Pages 1267-1275 in J. L. Nielsen, J. J., Dodson, K. Friedland, T. R. Hamon, J. Musick, and E. Verspoor, editors. Reconciling fisheries with conservation: proceedings of the Fourth World Fisheries Congress. American Fisheries Society, Symposium 49, Bethesda, Maryland.

Jessen, S, and Ban, N (2003). Establishing Marine Protected Areas in British Columbia: an NGO Perspective. In: Aquatic Protected Areas; what works best and how do we know? Eds. J.P. Beumer, A. Grant, and D.C. Smith. Proceedings of the World Congress on Aquatic Protected Areas, Cairns, Australia, August 2002. Australian Society for Fish Biology. pp. 377-387.

Jessen, S and Ban, N (2003). Baja California to the Bering Sea: A North American Marine Conservation Initiative. Wild Earth 12:4.

 

Recent awards and grants

• Australian Research Council Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship (2010-2013)
• Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies internal research funding (2009-2013)
• Great Barrier Reef Foundation Inaugural Bommies Award recipient with Eddie Game of The Nature Conservancy (2010)
• The Canon National Parks Science Scholars Program award recipient (2005-2008)
• Ocean Management Research Network (OMRN) Integrated Management Node graduate student seed grant recipient (2005-2006)
• Mountain Equipment Co-operative studentship recipient (2005-2006)
• Natural Science and Engineering Research Council Doctoral Fellowship (2004-2007)
• Natural Science and Engineering Research Council Industrial Postgraduate Scholarship (2003-2004)

If you are interested in working with me, Email me some details about your research background and research interests.