Dr Michele Barnes - Research Portfolio

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About

Michele grew up poking around tide pools on the California coast. She completed her PhD in Natural Resources and Environmental Management and a graduate certificate program in Ocean Policy at the University of Hawaii in 2015. Her dissertation work investigated the effect of resource user’s social networks and social capital on ecological and economic outcomes, and their implications for sustainable resource management in the largest commercial fishery in the Hawaiian Islands.

Michele previously worked as a research specialist in the Socioeconomics and Planning Group at NOAA's Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center in Honolulu, and held adjunct appointments at Hawaii Pacific University and the University of Hawaii, where she taught an upper division course on the human dimensions of marine and coastal systems. After graduating with her PhD, Michele was awarded a prestiguous U.S. National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to study social-ecological interactions in coral reef ecosystems. During this time she joined the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies as a visiting scholar, where she now holds a Research Fellowship position in the People and Ecosystems Program.

Michele's research draws on sociology, psychology, economics, and social-ecological systems theory to understand human behavior and group dynamics in environmental systems, and how they relate to the sustainable use and governance of environmental resources. Her work is highly interdisciplinary and has an applied quantitative focus. Current projects span the developing-developed world divide, with field sites in coastal Kenya, Papua New Guinea, and Hawaii, and themes include:

Social networks, social capital, and environmental outcomes
Social-ecological networks to capture complex relationships between people and ecosystems
Adaptation, transformation, and social-ecological resilience
Inequality, power, and sociocultural diversity in coastal communities

Interests

Professional

marine policy

Research

social networks
social-ecological systems
fisheries
socio-cultural diversity
social capital
equity
shark ecotourism
marine policy
economic valuation
fisheries sustainability

Teaching

environmental social science
environmental economics
human dimensions of environmental systems

Experience

2017 to present - Social Science Research Fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University (Townsville, Australia)
2015 to 2017 - Visiting Scholar & Adjunct, ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University (Townsville, Australia)
2015 to 2017 - Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Dept. of Botany, University of Hawaii (Honolulu, HI, USA)
2015 - Research Specialist, NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (Honolulu, HI, USA)
2012 to 2015 - Graduate Researcher, NOAA's Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (Honolulu, HI, USA)
2012 to 2015 - Research Associate, Dept. of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, University of Hawaii (Honolulu, HI, USA)
2011 to 2012 - Graduate Research Assistant, Dept. of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, University of Hawaii (Honolulu, HI, USA)

Research Disciplines

Socio-Economic Objectives

Honours

Awards

2015 - Ph.D. Student Oral Presentation Award, University of Hawaii
2014 - University of Hawaii Graduate Student Organization Travel Grant
2014 - U.S. National Science Foundation Marine Research Network Travel Grant
2014 - Ph.D. Oral Presentation Award, University of Hawaii
2014 - Achievement Scholarship, Dept. of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, University of Hawaii
2012 - M.S. Student Oral Presentation Award, University of Hawaii

Fellowships

2015 to 2017 - U.S. National Science Foundation Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowship
2011 to 2012 - Sachiyuki Masumoto Scholarship, University of Hawaii

Publications

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

Alexander S, Bodin Ö and Barnes M (2018) Untangling the drivers of community cohesion in small-scale fisheries. International Journal of the Commons, 12 (1). pp. 519-547
Bergseth B, Gurney G, Barnes M, Arias A and Cinner J (2018) Addressing poaching in marine protected areas through voluntary surveillance and enforcement. Nature Sustainability, 1. pp. 421-426
Cinner J, Maire E, Huchery C, MacNeil M, Graham N, Mora C, McClanahan T, Barnes M, Kittinger J, Hicks C, D'Agata S, Hoey A, Gurney G, Feary D, Williams I, Kulbicki M, Vigliola L, Wantiez L, Edgar G, Stuart-Smith R, Sandin S, Green A, Hardt M, Beger M, Friedlander A, Wilson S, Brokovich E, Brooks A, Cruz-Motta J, Booth D, Chabanet P, Gough C, Tupper M, Ferse S, Sumaila U, Pardede S and Mouillot D (2018) Gravity of human impacts mediates coral reef conservation gains. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 115 (27). pp. E6116-E6125
Cinner J, Adger W, Allison E, Barnes M, Brown K, Cohen P, Gelcich S, Hicks C, Hughes T, Lau J, Marshall N and Morrison T (2018) Building adaptive capacity to climate change in tropical coastal communities. Nature Climate Change, 8 (2). pp. 117-123
Marshall N, Barnes M, Birtles A, Brown K, Cinner J, Curnock M, Eakin H, Goldberg J, Gooch M, Kittinger J, Marshall P, Manuel-Navarrete D, Pelling M, Pert P, Smit B and Tobin R (2018) Measuring what matters in the Great Barrier Reef. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 16 (5). pp. 271-277
Barnes M, Bodin Ö, Guerrero A, McAllister R, Alexander S and Robins G (2017) The social structural foundations of adaptation and transformation in social-ecological systems. Ecology and Society, 22 (4).
Barnes M, Arita S, Kalberg K and Leung P (2017) When does it pay to cooperate? Strategic information exchange in the harvest of common-pool fishery resources. Ecological Economics, 131. pp. 1-11
Chang C, Barnes M, Frye M, Zhang M, Quan R, Reisman L, Levin S and Wilcove D (2017) The pleasure of pursuit: recreational hunters in rural Southwest China exhibit low exit rates in response to declining catch. Ecology and Society, 22 (1).
Hughes T, Barnes M, Bellwood D, Cinner J, Cumming G, Jackson J, Kleypas J, van de Leemput I, Lough J, Morrison T, Palumbi S, van Nes E and Scheffer M (2017) Coral reefs in the Anthropocene. Nature, 546 (7656). pp. 82-90
Mbaru E and Barnes M (2017) Key players in conservation diffusion: using social network analysis to identify critical injection points. Biological Conservation, 210. pp. 222-232
Barnes M, Lynham J, Kalberg K and Leung P (2016) Social networks and environmental outcomes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 113 (23). pp. 6466-6471
Barnes M, Kalberg K, Pan M and Leung P (2016) When is brokerage negatively associated with economic benefits? Ethnic diversity, competition, and common-pool resources. Social Networks, 45. pp. 55-65

More: ResearchOnline@JCU stores 23+ research outputs authored by Dr Michele Barnes from 2011 onwards.

Supervision

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

Macro and Micro Level Determinants of the Contribution of Fish to Nutritional Security (PhD , Secondary Advisor)
Market Structures, Trade Networks and Governance of Coral Reef Fisheries across a Development Gradient (PhD , Primary Advisor)
Diffusion of Gear-based Conservation Innovation in Coral Reef Fisheries (PhD , Secondary Advisor)

Collaboration

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.