Annabel Smith
University of Queensland

Dr Annabel Smith

Lecturer in Wildlife Management, The University of Queensland.

See Dr Smith’s full research profile here.

E: annabel.smith@uq.edu.au

Research outputs linked to policy change and decision-making

• 2023–2025: An evidence base for managing interactions between fire regimes and invasive plants, Smith and Campbell (co-project leaders). This research is quantifying optimal fire management strategies for the conservation of biodiversity in grassy woodlands of southeast Queensland. Evidence from this project is being used to inform decision about when and where to invest financial and labour resources into traditional weed management (through herbicide application, slashing and brush-cutting at large scales) and whether fire can be used to more effectively manage weed biomass while conserve biodiversity and reducing costs. This before-after-control-impact experiment has resulted 140 ha of fuel reduction treatments for the protection of environmental and built assets and produced baseline plant community data (165 species across 32 sites) for continued monitoring.
• 2018–2023: Australian Captital Territory, Natural Temperate Grassland Restoration, Smith and Milner (co-project leaders). This project has delivered applied research to improve conservation management in the Australian Captial Territory. Working across five grassland reserves in the ACT, this project produced evidence based guidelines for habitat restoration for threatened species, disturbance management and weed control. This project has changed the way herbicide is applied in threatened temperate grasslands across the ACT, has restored habitat for the threatened pink-tailed worm lizard and has informed new mowing regimes to manage grassland biomass. See an impact video from one of the project’s outputs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjKavzj-Cj4.

Current academic employment and positions

• 2019–present: Lecturer in Wildlife Management, University of Queensland

Highest qualification

• 2012: PhD in ecology, Australian National University.

Major prizes, medals and honours

• 2018: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellowship (European Commission)

Roles on government or regional organisation committees

• Queensland Fire and Biodiversity Consortium (QFBC): Dr Smith sits on the Fire Science Reference Group for the QFBC, an advisory body on applied fire research and best-practice. Membership is based on invitation and brings together fire science experts from across Queensland to lift the profile of fire science in Queensland, improve fire science communication and support collaborative research that improves fire and biodiversity management.