Email: | p.lavery@ecu.edu.au |
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ORCID iD: | https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5162-273X |
Paul is Emeritus Professor in the School of Science, where he conducts research on marine ecosystems.
Paul is a Marine Ecologist, focusing on benthic marine ecosystems, particularly seagrasses. He is globally recognised for his research on Blue Carbon to mitigate climate change, and the use of seagrass soils as environmental archives to reconstruct environmental change. He has led numerous research programs on seagrass and other blue carbon ecosystems in Australia and Europe, where he was appointed Researcher Vinculado of Spanish Research Council. He led an UN-coordinated program to build blue carbon project capacity of NGOs throughout SE Asia.
Paul published the first seagrass blue carbon assessment for Australia and was part of the team producing the first Australia-wide assessment of blue carbon. He helped develop Australia’s first blue carbon method for the Emissions Reduction Fund and the associated BlueCAM model and provides advice to governments and NGOs on blue carbon methods. His research on the impact of dredging on seagrasses has been translated into industry standard operating protocols. He is a member of the IUCN’s threatened species group for seagrasses. He has >160 research publications and has received more than $13 m in research funding.
Paul was previously the Head of School (Science), Associate Dean (Research), and Director of the University’s Centre for Marine Ecosystem’s Research.
Marine ecology – blue carbon – seagrasses – paleo-ecological reconstruction – Nature Based Solutions – biogeochemistry