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.    

Teaching

• BZ3215: Conservation Biology (Level 3; CNS & TSV)

Interests

Research

• landscape ecology community ecology social-ecological systems

Experience

• 2020 to 2022 - Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University (Townsville, QLD, Australia)
• 2015 to 2020 - Professor, James Cook University (Townsville, QLD, Australia)
• 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)

Socio-Economic Objectives

• Marine systems and management (1805)
• Adaptation to climate change (1901)

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

• Bartelet H, Barnes M and Cumming G (2023) Microeconomic adaptation to severe climate disturbances on Australian coral reefs. Ambio, 52. pp. 285-299
• Morrison T, Bodin O, Cumming G, Lubell M, Seppelt R, Seppelt T and Weible C (in press) Building blocks of polycentric governance. Policy Studies Journal,
• Anderies J, Cumming G, Clements H, Lade S, Seppelt R, Chawla S and Müller B (2022) A framework for conceptualizing and modeling social-ecological systems for conservation research. Biological Conservation, 275.
• Bartelet H, Barnes M and Cumming G (2022) Determinants, outcomes, and feedbacks associated with microeconomic adaptation to climate change. Regional Environmental Change, 22 (2).
• Bartelet H, Barnes M, Zoeller K and Cumming G (2022) Social adaptation can reduce the strength of social–ecological feedbacks from ecosystem degradation. People and Nature, 4 (4). pp. 856-865
• Biggs R, Clements H, Cumming G, Cundill G, de Vos A, Hamann M, Luvuno L, Roux D, Selomane O, Blanchard R, Cockburn J, Dziba L, Esler K, Fabricius C, Henriksson R, Kotschy K, Lindborg R, Masterson V, Nel J, O’Farrell P, Palmer C, Pereira L, Pollard S, Preiser R, Scholes R, Shackleton C, Shackleton S, Sitas N, Slingsby J, Spierenburg M, Tengö M and Reyers B (2022) Social-ecological change: insights from the Southern African Program on Ecosystem Change and Society. Ecosystems and People, 18 (1). pp. 447-468
• Cumming G, Magris R and Maciejewski K (2022) Quantifying cross-scale patch contributions to spatial connectivity. Landscape Ecology, 37. pp. 2255-2272
• Cumming G, Henry D and Reynolds C (2022) Translocation experiment gives new insights into the navigation capacity of an African duck. Diversity and Distributions, 28 (5). pp. 1034-1049
• Grantham R, Lau J, Mills D and Cumming G (2022) Social and temporal dynamics mediate the distribution of ecosystem service benefits from a small-scale fishery. Ecosystems and People, 18 (1). pp. 15-30
• Norström A, Agarwal B, Balvanera P, Baptiste B, Bennett E, Brondízio E, Biggs R, Campbell B, Carpenter S, Castilla J, Castro A, Cramer W, Cumming G, Felipe-lucia M, Fischer J, Folke C, DeFries R, Gelcich S, Groth J, Ifejika Speranza C, Jacobs S, Hofmann J, Hughes T, Lam D, Loos J, Manyani A, Martín-López B, Meacham M, Moersberger H, Nagendra H, Pereira L, Polasky S, Schoon M, Schultz L, Selomane O and Spierenburg M (2022) The programme on ecosystem change and society (PECS)–a decade of deepening social-ecological research through a place-based focus. Ecosystems and People, 18 (1). pp. 598-608
• Shurety A, Bodin Ö and Cumming G (2022) A comparative approach to quantify the heterarchical structures of complex systems. Ecology and Society, 27 (3).
• Shurety A, Bartelet H, Chawla S, James N, Lapointe M, Zoeller K, Chua C and Cumming G (2022) Insights from twenty years of comparative research in Pacific Large Ocean States. Ecosystems and People, 18 (1). pp. 410-429

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ResearchOnline@JCU stores 159+ 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

• FORAGING RESPONSES TO CLIMATE CHANGE IN TROPICAL SEABIRDS (PhD , Primary Advisor/AM/Adv)
• Microeconomic adaptation in social-ecological systems (PhD , Primary Advisor/AM/Adv)

Completed

• Space use by fishes on coral reefs: establishment, fidelity and reef resilience (2020, PhD , Secondary Advisor)
• 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)
• An investigation of the spatial influences and governance implications of social-ecological heterogeneity, connectivity, and scale on landscape change (2022, PhD , Primary Advisor/AM/Adv)
• Understanding the production of cultural ecosystem services and benefits (2022, PhD , Primary Advisor/AM/Adv)
• Beyond the reef: the influence of seascape structure on the composition and function of tropical fish communities (2021, 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.