Graeme comes from Harare, Zimbabwe, where he went to Saint George’s College. He studied Zoology and Entomology to the honours level at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. He then moved to Oxford University, U.K., on a Rhodes Scholarship. While at New College, Oxford, Graeme completed his doctorate on ‘The Evolutionary Ecology of African Ticks’ under the supervision of Drs. Sarah Randolph and David Rogers. From Oxford he moved to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, funded by a D. H. Smith Postdoctoral Fellowship from The Nature Conservancy (TNC). In Madison he worked with TNC and Professor Steve Carpenter at the Center for Limnology on applying species-based models to management and conservation-related problems in freshwater systems. After two years as a postdoc, he was hired as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at the University of Florida. Graeme returned to Africa at the end of 2005 and occupied the Pola Pasvolsky Chair in Conservation Biology at the University of Cape Town until end June 2015, when he moved to his current position.

Graeme has a wide range of interests, centering around understanding spatial aspects of ecology and the relevance of broad-scale pattern-process dynamics for ecosystem (and social-ecological system) function and resilience. He is also interested in the applications of landscape ecology and complexity theory to conservation and the sustainable management of natural resources.    

Interests

Research

• landscape ecology community ecology social-ecological systems

Experience

• 2006 to 2015 - Pola Pasvolsky Chair, Percy FitzPatrick Institute (University of Cape Town)
• 2001 to 2005 - Assistant Professor, University of Florida (Gainesville, FL, USA)
• 1999 to 2001 - David H. Smith Fellow, University of Wisconsin-Madison (Madison, WI, USA)

Research Disciplines

• Environmental management (4104)
• Ecology (3103)

These are the most recent publications associated with this author. To see a detailed profile of all publications stored at JCU, visit ResearchOnline@JCU. Hover over Altmetrics badges to see social impact.

Journal Articles

• Grantham R, Álvarez-Romero J, Mills D, Rojas C and Cumming G (2021) Spatiotemporal determinants of seasonal gleaning. People and Nature, 3 (2), pp. 376-390, DOI:10.1002/pan3.10179.
• Spijkers J, Singh G, Wabnitz C, Österblom H, Cumming G and Morrison T (2021) Identifying predictors of international fisheries conflict. Fish and Fisheries, 22 (4), pp. 834-850, DOI:10.1111/faf.12554.
• Streit R, Hemingson C, Cumming G and Bellwood D (2021) How flexible are habitat specialists? Short-term space use in obligate coral-dwelling damselfishes. Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries, 31, pp. 381-398, DOI:10.1007/s11160-021-09646-y.
• Bhatia N and Cumming G (2020) Deforestation and economic growth trends on oceanic islands highlight the need for meso-scale analysis and improved mid-range theory in conservation. Ecology and Society, 25 (3), DOI:10.5751/ES-11713-250310.
• Clements H, Biggs R and Cumming G (2020) Cross-scale and social-ecological changes constitute main threats to private land conservation in South Africa. Journal of Environmental Management, 274, Article: 111235, DOI:10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.111235.
• Cumming G and Epstein G (2020) Landscape sustainability and the landscape ecology of institutions. Landscape Ecology, 35 (11), pp. 2613-2628, DOI:10.1007/s10980-020-00989-8.
• Cumming G, Epstein G, Anderies J, Apetrei C, Baggio J, Bodin Ö, Chawla S, Clements H, Cox M, Egli L, Gurney G, Lubell M, Magliocca N, Morrison T, Müller B, Seppelt R, Schlüter M, Unnikrishnan H, Villamayor-Tomas S and Weible C (2020) Advancing understanding of natural resource governance: a post-Ostrom research agenda. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 44, pp. 26-34, DOI:10.1016/j.cosust.2020.02.005.
• Cumming G and Dobbs K (2020) Quantifying social-ecological scale mismatches suggests people should be managed at broader scales than ecosystems. One Earth, 3 (2), pp. 251-259, DOI:10.1016/j.oneear.2020.07.007.
• Lapointe M, Gurney G and Cumming G (2020) Perceived availability and access limitations to ecosystem service well-being benefits increase in urban areas. Ecology and Society, 25 (4), Article: 32, DOI:10.5751/ES-12012-250432.
• Lapointe M, Gurney G and Cumming G (2020) Urbanization alters ecosystem service preferences in a Small Island Developing State. Ecosystem Services, 43, Article: 101109, DOI:10.1016/j.ecoser.2020.101109.
• Sambrook K, Bonin M, Bradley M, Cumming G, Duce S, Andrefouet S and Hoey A (2020) Broadening our horizons: seascape use by coral reef-associated fishes in Kavieng, Papua New Guinea, is common and diverse. Coral Reefs, 39, pp. 1187-1197, DOI:10.1007/s00338-020-01954-2.
• Turner M, Calder W, Cumming G, Hughes T, Jentsch A, LaDeau S, Lenton T, Shuman B, Turetsky M, Ratajczak Z, Williams J, Williams A and Carpenter S (2020) Climate change, ecosystems and abrupt change: science priorities. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 375 (1794), Article: 20190105, DOI:10.1098/rstb.2019.0105.

More

ResearchOnline@JCU stores 137+ research outputs authored by Prof Graeme Cumming from 2011 onwards.

Current and recent Research Funding to JCU is shown by funding source and project.

Advisory Accreditation: I can be on your Advisory Panel as a Primary or Secondary Advisor.

These Higher Degree Research projects are either current or by students who have completed their studies within the past 5 years at JCU. Linked titles show theses available within ResearchOnline@JCU.

Current

• Beyond the Reef: The Influence of Seascape Structure on Fish Communities and Ecological Processes on Coral Reefs (PhD , Secondary Advisor)
• Understanding ecosystem service choices made by individual actors and their implications for social--ecological interactions (PhD , Primary Advisor/AM/Adv)
• The resilience of ecologically-dependent human communities to disturbances within volatile social-ecological systems (PhD , Primary Advisor/AM/Adv)
• Understanding the production of scosystem services and benefits through a socio-cultural approach (PhD , Primary Advisor/AM/Adv)
• Foraging and Survival Responses in Reef Egrets (Egret sacra) and Common and Black Noddies (Anous sp) to Tropical Reef Degradation caused by Climatic change in the Great Barrier Reef Ecosystem, Australia (PhD , Primary Advisor/AM/Adv)

Completed

• Urbanization and human-nature relationships: A comparison of urban and rural dwellers’ perceptions of ecosystem services in the Solomon Islands (2021, PhD , Primary Advisor/AM/Adv)
• Seasonal dynamics in ecosystem services - A case study of small-scale fisheries (2021, PhD , Primary Advisor/AM/Adv)
• Global patterns of international fisheries conflict (2020, PhD , Secondary Advisor)
• Space use by fishes on coral reefs: establishment, fidelity and reef resilience (2020, PhD , Secondary Advisor)

These are the most recent metadata records associated with this researcher. To see a detailed description of all dataset records, visit Research Data Australia.

• Lapointe, M. (2020) Household surveys on ecosystem service preferences and urbanization in the Solomon Islands. James Cook University

The map shows research collaborations by institution from the past 7 years.
Note: Map points are indicative of the countries or states that institutions are associated with.