Dr Rebecca Weeks ~ Adjunct Senior Research Fellow

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. 

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)
• Environmental Policy, Legislation and Standards (9607)

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

• Cheok J, Weeks R, Morrison T and Pressey R (2020) Scalar capital as ingredient of success in conservation governance: evidence from Melanesia. Global Environmental Change, 62, Article: 102057, DOI:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102057.
• Smallhorn-West P, Weeks R, Gurney G and Pressey R (2020) Ecological and socioeconomic impacts of marine protected areas in the South Pacific: assessing the evidence base. Biodiversity and Conservation, 29 (2), pp. 349-380, DOI:10.1007/s10531-019-01918-1.
• Thurstan R, Diggles B, Gillies C, Strong M, Kerkhove R, Buckley S, King R, Smythe V, Heller-Wagner G, Weeks R, Palin F and McLeod I (2020) Charting two centuries of transformation in a coastal social-ecological system: a mixed methods approach. Global Environmental Change, 61, Article: 102058, DOI:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102058.
• Adams V, Mills M, Weeks R, Segan D, Pressey R, Gurney G, Groves C, Davis F and Alvarez-Romero J (2019) Implementation strategies for systematic conservation planning. Ambio, 47, pp. 139-152, DOI:10.1007/s13280-018-1067-2.
• Bellwood D, Pratchett M, Morrison T, Gurney G, Hughes T, Álvarez-Romero J, Day J, Grantham R, Grech A, Hoey A, Jones G, Pandolfi J, Tebbett S, Techera E, Weeks R and Cumming G (2019) Coral reef conservation in the Anthropocene: confronting spatial mismatches and prioritizing functions. Biological Conservation, 236, pp. 604-615, DOI:10.1016/j.biocon.2019.05.056.
• Carvalho P, Jupiter S, Januchowski-Hartley F, Goetze J, Claudet J, Weeks R, Humphries A and White C (2019) Optimized fishing through periodically harvested closures. Journal of Applied Ecology, 56 (8), pp. 1927-1936, DOI:10.1111/1365-2664.13417.
• Cheok J, Weeks R and Pressey R (2019) Identifying the strengths and weaknesses of conservation planning at different scales: the Coral Triangle as a case study. Ecology and Society, 24 (4), Article: 24, DOI:10.5751/ES-10919-240424.
• 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), Article: e01820, DOI:10.1002/eap.1820.
• Mills M, Bode M, Mascia M, Weeks R, Gelcich S, Dudley N, Govan H, Archibald C, Romero-de-Diego C, Holden M, Biggs D, Glew L, Naidoo R and Possingham H (2019) How conservation initiatives go to scale. Nature Sustainability, 2 (10), pp. 935-940, DOI:10.1038/s41893-019-0384-1.
• Mizrahi M, Duce S, Pressey R, Simpfendorfer C, Weeks R and Diedrich A (2019) Global opportunities and challenges for shark large marine protected areas. Biological Conservation, 234, pp. 107-115, DOI:10.1016/j.biocon.2019.03.026.
• 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, DOI:10.1080/08941920.2018.1489568.
• Sacre E, Bode M, Weeks R and Pressey R (2019) The context dependence of frontier versus wilderness conservation priorities. Conservation Letters, 12 (3), Article: e12632, DOI:10.1111/conl.12632.

More

ResearchOnline@JCU stores 40+ research outputs authored by Dr Rebecca Weeks from 2009 onwards.

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

• Assessing the potential for recreational fishing to contribute to conservation of coastal marine species and habitats (PhD , Secondary Advisor)

Completed

• Advancing conservation planning for persistence: design of a conservation strategy for Brazilian coral reefs (2016, PhD , Secondary Advisor)
• Systematic conservation planning in marine environments: sensitivities of the planning framework to aspects of scale (2018, PhD , Secondary Advisor)
• Maximising potential impact of Marine Protected Area placement: An integrated socioeconomic perspective. (2020, PhD , Secondary Advisor)
• Developing spatial prioritisation strategies to maximise conservation impact (2019, 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.