Professor Nicki Mitchell
University of Western Australia
Professor Nicki Mitchell is a zoologist and ecophysiologist, and Deputy Director of the Oceans Institute at the University of Western Australia. Her research focuses on understanding how rapid climate change will impact threatened vertebrates, and how initiatives like assisted colonisation could be deployed to prevent extinction.
Nicki has a soft spot for turtles and frogs. She leads a long-term research program on the nesting ecology of reptiles, particularly on how warming beaches will alter sex ratios and survival of sea turtles. She is also an expert on terrestrial-breeding frog species, and how they are threatened by drying climates.
Nicki co-leads the PEAT Project - a coalition of university- and community-based scientists, Noongar Elders, managers, and volunteers who aim to greatly increase knowledge of the threatened peatland ecosystems in the Walpole Wilderness Area, and to protect their carbon, culture and endemic species as they become increasingly flammable due to climate change.
"I joined the Biodiversity Council because our threatened species and ecosystems need urgent attention, and their recovery will improve our wellbeing and benefit our economy. A nation-wide council of biodiversity experts can help bring these opportunities into focus and turn the tide toward Nature Positive." - Associate Professor Nicki Mitchell
