Rate My Professor Rhiannon Smith

Dr. Rhiannon Smith is an Associate Professor in Environmental Management in the School of Environmental and Rural Science at the University of New England. She earned a Bachelor of Natural Resources (Honours) and a Doctor of Philosophy, both from the University of New England. In her career at UNE, she serves as Course Coordinator for the Bachelor of Environmental Science and the Master of Natural Resource Management programs. She coordinates undergraduate and postgraduate units in agriculture and environment and co-supervises postgraduate students investigating ecological and natural resource management topics, with a focus on interactions between nature and agriculture. As Theme Leader for Healthy Agricultural Environments in the Plant Adaptation and Resilience Group, she oversees research aimed at enhancing ecosystem health in production systems.

Dr. Smith's research specializations encompass biodiversity conservation in production landscapes, ecosystem service provision and natural capital accounting, ecosystem health, sustainable land management, ecosystem restoration, eucalypt dieback, interactions between social and ecological systems in agricultural landscapes, and designing carbon neutral farms. Since 2005, she has conducted biodiversity and ecosystem services research in the cotton industry. She leads the Smart Tree project, which investigates the ecohydrology and physiological requirements of floodplain and riparian trees using various sensors. Her scholarly contributions include the co-edited book Managing Biodiversity in Agricultural Landscapes: Conservation, Restoration and Rewilding (Reid and Smith, Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing, 2024). Key peer-reviewed publications feature Nolan et al. (2021) Hydraulic failure and tree size linked with canopy die-back in eucalypt forest during extreme drought (New Phytologist), Kolkert et al. (2021) Insectivorous bats provide significant economic value to the Australian cotton industry (Ecosystem Services), Kolkert et al. (2021) Prey removal in cotton crops next to woodland reveals periodic diurnal and nocturnal invertebrate predation gradients from the crop edge (Scientific Reports), Kolkert et al. (2020) Insectivorous bats selectively source moths and eat mostly pest insects on dryland and irrigated cotton farms (Ecology and Evolution), and Smith et al. (2017) Growth and carbon sequestration by remnant Eucalyptus camaldulensis woodlands in semi-arid Australia during La Niña conditions (Agricultural and Forest Meteorology). She has also contributed opinion pieces, such as Nolan et al. (2020) Entire hillsides of trees turned brown this summer: is this the start of ecosystem collapse? in The Conversation.