Rebecca grew up in the UK, and completed a Master’s degree in Zoology from the University of Sheffield before moving to Australia to undertake her PhD at James Cook University. After completing her doctorate, Rebecca worked for the Wildlife Conservation Society Fiji Country program, before returning to JCU as a research fellow in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies' Conservation Planning group. 

Rebecca's research explores how conservation planning concepts and tools can be applied to develop marine protected area networks in regions with community-based management. A central theme of her work is the importance of spatial scale in conservation planning; in particular the need to reconcile regional-sale planning with local-scale implementation in order to develop ecologically functional MPA networks that are supported by local resource users. Her current research is focussed on the Coral Triangle and Western Pacific region. 

Teaching

• MB5310: Marine Reserves as Fisheries Management Tools (Level 5; TSV)

Experience

• 2010 to 2012 - Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Wildlife Conservation Society (Fiji)

Research Disciplines

• Environmental Science and Management (0502)

Socio-Economic Objectives

• Remnant Vegetation and Protected Conservation Areas (9613)
• Ecosystem Assessment and Management (9605)

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

• Kininmonth S, Weeks R, Abesamis R, Bernardo L, Beger M, Treml E, Williamson D and Pressey R (2019) Strategies in scheduling marine protected area establishment in a network system. Ecological Applications, 29 (1).
• Mizrahi M, Diedrich A, Weeks R and Pressey R (2019) A systematic review of the socioeconomic factors that influence how marine protected areas impact on ecosystems and livelihoods. Society and Natural Resources, 32 (1). pp. 4-20
• Adams V, Mills M, Weeks R, Segan D, Pressey R, Gurney G, Groves C, Davis F and Alvarez-Romero J (in press) Implementation strategies for systematic conservation planning. Ambio,
• Alvarez-Romero J, Mills M, Adams V, Gurney G, Pressey R, Weeks R, Ban N, Cheok J, Davis T, Day J, Hamel M, Leslie H, Magris R and Storlie C (2018) Research advances and gaps in marine planning: towards a global database in systematic conservation planning. Biological Conservation, 227. pp. 369-382
• Weeks R and Adams V (2018) Research priorities for conservation and natural resource management in Oceania's small-island developing states. Conservation Biology, 32 (1). pp. 72-83
• Blythe J, Sulu R, Harohau D, Weeks R, Schwarz A, Mills D and Phillips M (2017) Social dynamics shaping the diffusion of sustainable aquaculture innovations in the Solomon Islands. Sustainability, 9 (1).
• Pressey R, Weeks R and Gurney G (2017) From displacement activities to evidence-informed decisions in conservation. Biological Conservation, 212 (Part A). pp. 337-348
• Weeks R, Green A, Joseph E, Peterson N and Terk E (2017) Using reef fish movement to inform marine reserve design. Journal of Applied Ecology, 54 (1). pp. 145-152
• Weeks R (2017) Incorporating seascape connectivity in conservation prioritisation. PLoS One, 12 (7).
• Bode M, Williamson D, Weeks R, Jones G, Almany G, Harrison H, Hopf J and Pressey R (2016) Planning marine reserve networks for both feature representation and demographic persistence using connectivity patterns. PLoS ONE, 11 (5). pp. 1-23
• Cheok J, Pressey R, Weeks R, Andréfouët S and Moloney J (2016) Sympathy for the devil: detailing the effects of planning-unit size, thematic resolution of reef classes, and socioeconomic costs on spatial priorities for marine conservation. PLoS One, 11 (11). pp. 1-25
• Magris R, Treml E, Pressey R and Weeks R (2016) Integrating multiple species connectivity and habitat quality into conservation planning for coral reefs. Ecography, 39 (7). pp. 649-664

More

ResearchOnline@JCU stores 29+ research outputs authored by Dr Rebecca Weeks from 2009 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

• Maximising Potential Impact of Marine Protected Area Placement: An Integrated Socioeconomic Perspective. (PhD , Secondary Advisor)
• Making an Impact in Marine Conservation: Shifting the Focus Towards Threat Mitigation and Avoiding Residual Conservation (PhD , Secondary Advisor)
• Assessing the potential for recreational fishing to contribute to conservation of coastal marine species and habitats (PhD , Secondary Advisor)

Completed

• Systematic conservation planning in marine environments: sensitivities of the planning framework to aspects of scale (2018, PhD , Secondary Advisor)
• Advancing conservation planning for persistence: design of a conservation strategy for Brazilian coral reefs (2016, PhD , Secondary Advisor)

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

• Cheok, J. (2017) Influence of updating frequency in the iterative adjustment of regional priorities in the transition to local actions. 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.