Rate My Professor Michael Sievers

Dr. Michael Sievers is a Senior Lecturer in Environmental Sustainability and Management within the School of Environment and Science at Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia. He serves as a Research Fellow with the Global Wetlands Project (GLOW) and the Australian Rivers Institute's Coastal and Marine Research Centre. Sievers holds a Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology, a Master of Science in Marine Biology with Distinction, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Ecology, all from the University of Melbourne, where he completed his PhD between 2015 and 2018 under the supervision of A/Prof. Kirsten Parris, Prof. Stephen Swearer, and Dr. Rob Hale. His thesis examined the ecological costs and benefits of artificial wetlands in urban landscapes, focusing on ecological trap theory, ecotoxicology, metapopulation dynamics, urban ecology, and habitat selection. Early in his career, he conducted research on biofouling in aquaculture at the University of Melbourne and led experiments on post-smolt salmon under hypoxia and temperature stress at the Institute of Marine Research in Norway in 2013. He joined Griffith University in August 2018 as a Research Fellow, received a Griffith University Postdoctoral Fellowship from 2020 to 2021, and was awarded an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) in 2022 valued at $456,343 for the project 'Redefining success in marine ecosystem restoration'.

Sievers specializes in marine ecology, with research interests including coastal ecosystem restoration (seagrass, mangroves, shellfish reefs), biodiversity outcomes in restored habitats, animal behaviour, multiple stressors on coastal wetlands, fisheries habitat use, mangrove conservation and carbon storage, biofouling, and trace metal accumulation. He has produced over 75 peer-reviewed publications, garnering more than 4,000 citations. Notable works include 'Enhanced but highly variable biodiversity outcomes from coastal restoration: A global synthesis' (One Earth, 2024), 'Greater Consideration of Animals Will Enhance Coastal Restoration Outcomes' (BioScience, 2022), 'COVID-19 recovery can benefit biodiversity' (Science, 2020), 'Global typologies of coastal wetland status to inform sustainability targets' (Ecological Indicators, 2021), and 'Submerged cage aquaculture of marine fish' (Reviews in Aquaculture, 2021). His impact is recognized through awards such as the 2023 CERF Cronin Award, 2022 Queensland Tall Poppy Science Award, Quarry Life Award National 1st Place (2016), and Nature Conservancy Applied Conservation Award (2015). Sievers teaches Estuarine Ecology and Marine Biodiscovery, contributes to honours marking, supervises students, and convenes symposia on restoration data integration.