Suzanne F. MorrisonSuzanne F. Morrison
PhD student,
Keogh
Lab
|
Background and Research Interests
My interest in the natural world established itself very early
on in my life and directed my studies at university to biology
and my artwork to environmental themes and biological illustration.
I completed a bachelors degree in science at the Australian National
University focused on ecology and went on to receive first class
honors for my project on the morphology and behaviour of the Southern
water skink, Eulamprus heatwolei, with Assoc.
Prof. Scott Keogh. To begin work on this species I located
a population at a suitable field site and mapped out the vegetation
and retreat sites, in this case logs, within the area. All adult
skinks within the area were caught, marked, sexed, their body
measurements recorded, and a small tissue sample taken before
being released at the point of capture. Over a number of months
I recorded the location and movements of these animals along with
their proximity to other skinks. Once the females became gravid
they were captured and housed individually at the university.
These skinks are livebearers and body measurements were recorded
and tissue samples taken from each individual offspring soon after
birth. The second stage of the project was lab based. As I already
knew the identity of the mother I used microsatellites and genotyped
all the adults and offspring in order to determine paternity.
In many cases I was able to identify the father from among my
marked population and I then tied the information back to male
physical parameters, proximity to females and other males, and
location within the study area. I discovered that multiple paternity
was very common given the small clutch sizes and that floater
males without territories sired as many offspring as males with
identified territories. Looking at physical traits I found that
although the largest male did sire a large number of offspring,
on the whole male size wasn't an indicator of reproductive success.
The results suggested a polygynous mating system for this skink
and that covert forms of female choice such as sperm selection
may have been operating.
After I completed honors I went to work as a remote area field
biologist, surveying small mammals, including the endangered mountain
pygmy possum, in the Australian alpine area of Kosciuszko National
Park. On finishing this contract I chose to leave Australia and
for the next two years travelled extensively overseas. Much of
this time I spent in South East Asia and I lived for a period
in Hanoi, Vietnam, working with conservation and education NGO's
in Cuc Phuong National Park.
My experiences with conservation in developing countries consolidated my previous beliefs and I returned to Australia in order to undertake a PhD in conservation biology focusing on the issues faced in the developing world. I was accepted into the ecology, evolution and systematics graduate program at the Australian National University in 2005 with the research topic of 'the ecology and conservation of the Fijian crested iguana', supervised by Assoc. Prof. Scott Keogh and Dr. Peter Harlow. As very little is know about this critically endangered lizard one of the first steps towards future conservation and environmental management is to obtain basic natural history information from an intact habitat. On the only island still supporting a viable population I will be focusing on the diet, habitat preferences and reproduction of the crested iguana as well as on two species that pose potential threats to the iguanas and the ecosystem, the Pacific rat and the yellow crazy ant. I will be submitting my thesis in Sept 2008.
Education
Professional experience
Fellowships and Research Grants
Publications
1. Scott, I. A. W., C Hayes, J. S. Keogh, S. F. Morrison. 2001. Isolation and characterization of novel microsatellite markers from the Australian water skink Eulamprus kosciuskoi and cross species amplification in other members of the species-group. Molecular Ecology Notes 1:28-30. Download PDF.
2. Morrison, S. F., J. S. Keogh, I. A. W. Scott. 2002. Molecular determination of paternity in a natural population of the multiply mating polygynous lizard Eulamprus heatwolei. Molecular Ecology 11:535-546. Download PDF.
3. Harlow, P. S., S. F. Morrison. 2006. Soaking wet in a Fijian dry forest. Iguana, Vol 13:192-197. Download PDF.
