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Dr. Manu Saunders is a Senior Lecturer in Ecology in the School of Environmental and Rural Science at the University of New England. She obtained her Doctor of Philosophy in Ecology from Charles Sturt University in 2014, Bachelor of Environmental Science with Honours in Ecology from the University of Queensland in 2008, and Bachelor of Arts in English and Communications from the University of Queensland in 2001. Throughout her career, she has held several positions at the University of New England, including Senior Lecturer (current), Lecturer since March 2020, and Postdoctoral Researcher from March 2017 to March 2020. Earlier, she worked as a Technical Officer for stored product pests at the Queensland Government Department of Environment and Science from October 2009 to February 2010. In her teaching role, Saunders coordinates units such as ECOL203 Ecology - Populations to Ecosystems, ENSC222, and PRACENSC, lectures in ECOL100, and supervises Honours, Masters, and PhD research students. Her expertise extends to ecology and environmental science education.
Saunders' research centers on community ecology, with specializations in insect ecology and conservation, plant community ecology, pollination ecology, threatened species conservation, ecosystem services, landscape ecology, and science communication. She is recognized for her contributions to understanding insect declines, pollination dynamics, and biodiversity-ecosystem function links using ecological traits and interaction networks. Key publications include 'A global synthesis of the effects of diversified farming systems on arthropod diversity within fields and across agricultural landscapes' (Global Change Biology, 2017), 'Interpreting insect declines: seven challenges and a way forward' (Insect Conservation and Diversity, 2020), 'Is the insect apocalypse upon us? How to find out' (Biological Conservation, 2020), 'Insect pollinators collect pollen from wind-pollinated plants: implications for pollination ecology and sustainable agriculture' (Insect Conservation and Diversity, 2018), 'Moving on from the insect apocalypse narrative: engaging with evidence-based insect conservation' (BioScience, 2020), 'Conceptual ambiguity hinders measurement and management of ecosystem disservices' (Journal of Applied Ecology, 2020), and 'Rapid on-ground assessment after the 2019–2020 megafires reveals new information on rare and threatened plants in northern New South Wales, Australia' (Austral Ecology, 2024). She has earned the Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, Dean's Award for Early Career Research Excellence, Dean's Award for Mid Career Research Excellence, School Citation for Educational Excellence, and Office of Environment & Heritage/Ecological Society of Australia Award for Outstanding Science Outreach. As Editor in Chief of Insect Conservation and Diversity, she advances the field editorially. Saunders co-founded the Wild Pollinator Count, Australia's first national citizen science project on wild pollinators, in 2014, and participates in projects like Dynamic Lagoons funded by the NSW Government.
Retraction Watch reports the retraction of Anders Møller's 2019 Ecology and Evolution paper due to dataset duplications and inconsistencies, raising ongoing questions about research practices in evolutionary biology.
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