About

Dr Norman Duke (MSc, PhD) is a mangrove ecologist of more than 40 years standing, a specialist in global mangrove floristics, biogeography, climate change adaptation, vegetation mapping, pollution and coastal habitat condition assessment.  Before coming to JCU, he gained experience at the University of Queensland, the Australian Institute of Marine Science, and Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.

Norm currently leads an active research group on marine tidal wetlands at JCU's TropWATER Centre. He conducts research projects and advises on effective management and mitigation of disturbed and damaged tidal wetland ecosystems. He has published more than 200 articles and technical reports, including his authoritative book, ‘Australia’s Mangroves’ published in 2006 and apps from 2013 onwards.

Norm heads the JCU Mangrove Hub, and MangroveWatch Ltd, a not-for-profit company with a community science partnership program, delivering exciting outreach initiatives for effective monitoring and assessment of healthy mangroves and saltmarsh tidal wetlands.    

PHONE NUMBER (late 2017): 04 3919 1952

Interests
Research
  • mangrove floristics
  • biogeography
  • climate change adaptation
  • vegetation mapping
  • wetland pollution
  • coastal habitats
Research Disciplines
Socio-Economic Objectives
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
Book Chapters
More

ResearchOnline@JCU stores 143+ research outputs authored by Dr Norman Duke from 1978 onwards.

Current Funding

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

Gladstone Ports Corporation Ltd - Contract Research

Mangrove & Saltmarsh monitoring program of the Northern Land Expansion Project (NLEP)

Indicative Funding
$276,560 over 8 years
Summary
This monitoring program provides an effective and responsive methodology for monitoring and assessment of the condition of mangroves and saltmarsh habitat in the vicinity of construction works associated with the Northern Land Expansion Project (NLEP). The mangrove research hub at James Cook University (JCU)?s Centre for Tropical Water and Aquatic Ecosystem Research (TropWATER) will develop and trial this monitoring and `Alert-to-Action? management program for the Gladstone Ports Corporation Limited (GPC).
Investigators
Norman Duke and Adam Canning in collaboration with Angela Huston (TropWater and Gidarjil Development Corporation)
Keywords
Shorelines; Estuaries; Tidal Wetlands; Mangroves; Coastline; Evaluation

Greening Australia Limited - Contract Research

2023 Southern GBR Coastal Wetland Feasibility Assessment

Indicative Funding
$100,000 over 1 year
Summary
To identify locations and activities between Cairns and Gladstone where coastal protection and restoration could occur to increase carbon sequestration and storage. Climate change is threatening the health of all ecosystems globally, including Australia?s Great Barrier Reef. The restoration of coastal ecosystems presents a substantial opportunity to not only sequester carbon, necessary for reducing climate change, with mangrove forests estimated to store approximately five times more carbon per hectare than tropical rainforests. In addition, carbon sequestration, coastal ecosystems can protect from storm surges and erosion, provide habitat for fisheries, improve water quality from runoff, and support immense biodiversity. This project aims to survey the health of the coastal ecosystems between Cairns and Gladstone and identify opportunities for the restoration of mangroves and salt marsh.
Investigators
Norman Duke and Adam Canning (TropWater)
Keywords
Shorelines; Mangroves; Estuaries; Coastline; Tidal Wetlands; Evaluation

Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research - Contract Research

Research Design Development for FST-2022-123 Sundarban Ecosystem Management

Indicative Funding
$30,225
Summary
A contract for Dr Duke to develop a large research project for ACIAR. The tasks include a preliminary analysis of change in mangrove forest and habitat condition in the Sundarban Reserve Forest, meetings with potential project collaborators and stakeholders in Bangladesh, and a report with recommendations for ACIAR forestry research design plus water SRA, FST 2022 123.
Investigators
Norman Duke and Nora Devoe (TropWater and ACIAR)
Keywords
Poverty Relief; Tidal Wetland Change; Climate Change; Ecosystem Services; Water Quality; Monitoring

Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research - Contract Research

Research Design Development for FST-2022-123 Sundarban Ecosystem Management.

Indicative Funding
$33,248
Summary
A contract for Dr Duke to develop a large research project for ACIAR. The tasks include a preliminary analysis of change in mangrove forest and habitat condition in the Sundarban Reserve Forest, meetings with potential project collaborators and stakeholders in Bangladesh, and a report with recommendations for ACIAR forestry research design plus water SRA, FST 2022 123.
Investigators
Norman Duke in collaboration with Nora Devoe (TropWater and ACIAR)
Keywords
Poverty relief; Ecosystem services; Tidal wetland change; Water Quality; Climate Change; monitoring

Gladstone Ports Corporation Ltd - Contract Research

Monitoring Survival and Recovery of Shorelines.

Indicative Funding
$450,000 over 8 years
Summary
This project is to assess and monitor the health of tidal wetlands (mangroves, salt marsh and saltpans) in the Port Curtis and Port Alma areas. These Port locations have been subject to dredging and other activities associated with intensive port infrastructure development. The project will provide a baseline against which future changes can be referenced. It will include high resolution and NDVI mapping of tidal wetlands, shoreline condition assessment using oblique aerial image acquisition and boast-based horizontal image acq1uisition as well the establishment of public entry data and image access portals to display the results of this mapping. The use of community and in particular indigenous Australian rangers will also be incorporated into the field components of this project.
Investigators
Norman Duke in collaboration with Damien Burrows and Jock McKenzie (TropWater)
Keywords
Mangroves; Port Curtis; Port Alma; Shoreline Mapping; Gladstone Port; Salt Pans

Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources - Business Research and Innovation Initiative

Carbon capture and dissemination amongst mangrove forests.

Indicative Funding
$64,799
Summary
The aim of this project is to provide the Department, including its specified experts and consultants, with key unpublished and published field data collected by Dr Duke and MangroveWatch - based on broadly defined parameters for carbon capture and dissemination amongst mangrove forests. These data have been gathered over three decades and relate to the significant mangrove ecosystem.
Investigators
Norman Duke (TropWater)
Keywords
Mangrove forests; Carbon capture; Carbon dissemination

Department of the Environment and Energy - National Environmental Science Programme (NESP) - Northern Australia Environmental Resources Hub

Mangrove Dieback in the Gulf of Carpentaria

Indicative Funding
$200,000 over 4 years
Summary
Landsat and on-ground analysis showed that 7,400 hectares of mangrove forest along a 1,000km long front of the southern Gulf of Carpentaria coastline (from Karumba in the east to Limmen River in the west) suffered dieback over a relatively short and synchronous time period around November 2015. This is the largest event of natural dieback of mangroves ever recorded in the world. This project will provide a survey, description and analysis of the extent and patterns of the dieback across its range. The assessment will include mangrove assessment and monitoring methods, as well as providing recommendations for recovery, potential intervention, future monitoring and further studies.
Investigators
Norman Duke, Damien Burrows and Jock Mackenzie (TropWater)
Keywords
Mangrove; Climate Change; Dieback; Sea Level; Gulf of Carpentaria; El Nino

Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment - National Environment Science Program (NESP) - Total Water Quality (TWQ)

Influencing agriculture practice behaviour change and trust frameworks.

Indicative Funding
$13,500 over 1 year (administered by Reef & Rainforest Research Centre)
Summary
The ecologically-determined water quality improvement targets for the Great Barrier Reef can only be met with significant improvement in farm management practices. Numerous programs over many years, utilising a variety of approaches, have worked with land managers and representative farmer groups, seeking to achieve high levels of uptake of recommended farming practices. However, these have only met with low-moderate success. There has been significant work encouraging and facilitating behaviour and practice change in recent years, including through, but certainly not limited to, the NESP TWQ Hub. Programs encouraging behaviour and practice change are set to remain a feature of contemporary reef funding programs. Thus it is timely to coordinate a synthesis of learnings in this domain. Increasing understanding of, and improving trust frameworks and behaviour change of land managers will lead to improved water quality to the Great Barrier Reef. Understanding the impetus, benefits and barriers of behaviour change for agricultural practice is a large step in improving water quality to the Great Barrier Reef.
Investigators
Suzanne Long, Rachel Hay, Aaron Davis, Allan Dale, Norman Duke, Bruce Taylor, Marie Vitelli and Julie Carmody in collaboration with Damien Burrows, Peter Thorburn and Jim Smart (Reef and Rainforest Research Centre, College of Business, Law & Governance, TropWater, Cairns Institute, Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation, College of Science & Engineering and Griffith University)
Keywords
Farming; Agriculture; Behaviour Change; Best practice; Culture

Department of the Environment and Energy - National Environmental Science Program (NESP) - Tropical Water Quality Hub (TWQ Hub)

Assessing the Gulf of Carpentaria mangrove dieback

Indicative Funding
$200,000 over 2 years
Summary
In early 2016, extensive dieback of mangrove forests was recorded along the southern and western Gulf of Carpentaria coastline. Landsat analysis suggests that 7,400 hectares of mangrove forest suffered dieback over a relatively short and synchronous time period around November, 2015, along a >1,000km wide front from Karumba in the east to Limmen River in the west. Recent field visits to a limited range of affected sites suggest that a relatively low percentage of trees have recovered and most are dying/dead. This is the largest event of natural dieback of mangroves ever recorded in the world. This project will provide a survey, description and analysis of the extent of the dieback across its range, as well as examining patterns of dieback. The assessment will include training and participation of local Indigenous ranger groups in mangrove assessment and monitoring methods, as well as providing recommendations for recovery, potential intervention, future monitoring and further studies. A synthesis workshop will also be held to present the findings of the assessment to a wide audience.
Investigators
Norman Duke in collaboration with Jock Mackenzie (TropWater)
Keywords
mangroves; Monitoring; Dieback; Northern Territory; Gulf of Carpentaria; remote shorelines

Fitzroy Basin Association - Contract Research

Scoring mangrove indicators for the 2019 Gladstone Harbour Report Card

Indicative Funding
$30,182
Summary
This 2019 program extends from that in 2018. As before, a wide range of expertise will be used in this environmental management project in the PCPA TUMRA Indigenous Protected Area. This evaluates the multiple threatened marine coastal ecosystems of this Central Queensland region, specifically for each of the 13 zone sub-area zones of the GHHP study area. The program engages JCU tidal wetland science specialists for the better management of shoreline environmental values by reporting of 3 mangrove condition indicators for the 2019 GHHP report card.;
Investigators
Norman Duke in collaboration with Jock Mackenzie (TropWater)
Keywords
Gladstone Harbour; environmental impacts; mangrove monitoring; Ecosystem Health
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.

Completed
Data

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

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.

  • 5+ collaborations
  • 4 collaborations
  • 3 collaborations
  • 2 collaborations
  • 1 collaboration
  • Indicates the Tropics (Torrid Zone)

Connect with me
Share my profile
Share my profile:
jcu.me/norman.duke

Email
Location
    Advisory Accreditation
    Primary Advisor
    Find me on…
    Icon for ResearcherID page Icon for external homepage Icon for Google Scholar profile Icon for Scopus Author page

    Similar to me

    1. Dr Nicholas Murray
      College of Science & Engineering
    2. A/PROF Nathan Waltham
      TropWater
    3. Dr Michael Rasheed
      TropWater
    4. Dr Adam Canning
      TropWater
    5. Dr Paul York
      TropWater