Dr Wade Hadwen

Wade’s research expertise includes:

• Aquatic ecology (freshwater and estuarine)
• Protected area management
• Monitoring the condition of aquatic ecosystems
• Climate change impacts on aquatic ecosystems
• Climate change adaptation
• Ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change
• Water, sanitation and hygiene and sustainable development in developing countries

Wade has led numerous multidisciplinary climate change adaptation research projects, which have brought together diverse research teams to focus on evaluating climate threats and identifying pathways to adaptation that avoid unintended and often regrettable ecological, social and economic consequences.

Specifically, he led a NCCARF (National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility) project to examine climate change threats and adaptation options for coastal Australia. On the back of this work, Wade also won a visiting scholarship to NCCARF, further examining issues relating to climate change adaptation in the coastal zone.

More recently, Wade led a large, trans-disciplinary team to examine water, sanitation and hygiene and climate change adaptation opportunities for vulnerable communities in the Pacific region. This project, funded by AusAID and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, has resulted in lasting impacts in the case study areas, both in terms of improved understanding and changes in practice.

• PhD in Aquatic Ecology, Griffith University
• Bachelor of Science (Honours 1st Class) in Ecology, Griffith University
• Bachelor of Science, The University of Queensland

Post Doctoral Fellows

• Dr Morgan MacDonald – DFAT Development Research Award Scheme (ADRAS). Project: Climate change and water supply and sanitation on atolls and flood-prone catchments in the Pacific.
• Dr Ben Cook – NCCARF Synthesis and Integration project – Coastal Ecosystem Response to Climate Change. 
• Dr Joanne Green – NCCARF Synthesis and Integration project – Coastal Ecosystem Response to Climate Change.

Current PhD students

• Mr Pat Gartrell – Drivers of coral-algal dynamics in high latitude coral reefs (co-supervised with Dr Guillermo Diaz-Pulido)
• Mr Ellery Johnson – Allochthonous organic carbon subsidies in estuaries: The importance of inflows (co-supervised with Dr Simon Mitrovic and Dr James Hitchcock)
• Ms Rebekah Grieger – Resilience of coastal freshwater wetland vegetation to rising sea level (co-supervised with Dr Sam Capon and Prof Brendan Mackey)
• Mr Matthew Balzer – Freshwater flows and zooplankton responses (co-supervised with Dr Simon Mitrovic and Dr James Hitchcock)

Completed PhD students

• Dr Thuc Phan – An Integrated Approach for Assessing the Vulnerability and Adaptation of a Coastal Water Supply and Demand System to Climate Change (co-supervised with Dr Jim Smart, Dr Oz Sahin and Dr Samantha Capon)
• Dr James Hitchcock – The effect of environmental flows and nutrient and carbon inflows on the planktonic foodweb in the Bega River Estuary (co-supervised with Dr Simon Mitrovic at University of Technology, Sydney)
• Dr Iris Tsoi – structure and function in benthic algal communities (co-supervised with Dr Fran Sheldon)
• Dr Courtenay Mills – population genetic structure and ecology of fish in tropical Australian rivers (co-supervised with Prof Jane Hughes, Dr Daniel Schmidt and Dr Brad Pusey)

Completed Masters Research students

• Ms Iris Tsoi – ecological stoichiometry in urban streams (co-supervised with Dr Christy Fellows)

Current Masters of Integrated Water Management (MIWM) Final Project students

• Ms Lisa Walpole – How can the water sector best demonstrate ‘prudent and efficient’ investment as a means to achieve ‘altruistic’ goals?
• Mr Jesse Godwin – Evaluation of climate change interventions and outcomes for WaSH

Completed Masters of Integrated Water Management (MIWM) Final Project students

• Ms Camaria Holder – resilience and adaptation in the Caribbean
• Mr Rej Winlove Bungabong – impact assessment of check dams and silt ponds in the Phillipines
• Mr Tom Scarborough – A review of the management of intermittent estuaries from an environmental, social, economic and cultural perspective
• Ms Malis Chheang – Climate resilience of urban and rural water supplies in Cambodia
• Ms Tamara Valeria Garcia Quevedo – Water quality and water treatment policy in Chile
• Mr Salley Alhassan – Mainstreaming climate change adaptation into the WaSH sector plans for sustainable development in the Bolgatanga Municipality of the Upper East Region of Ghana
• Mr Michael Reis – Integrated Vineyard Water Management: A Framework to Improve Vineyard Sustainability Assessments
• Ms Amira Perez – The evolution of monitoring: using IWRM to link science, monitoring and management to make Integrated Monitoring a reality
• Ms Annie Chan – Applying the South East Queensland Healthy Waterways Model in Pearl River Delta, China – A Business Case Approach.      
• Ms Jessica Mowat – Achieving integrated and sustainable outcomes through Ecological Restoration and Best Management Practice at Pine Rivers Wetland Reserve, SEQ
• Mr Hendrik Jufri Sipahutar – Improving Community Resilience to Natural Disasters through Integrated Coastal Wetlands Management

Completed Honours students

• Ms Rebekah Grieger – Resilience of coastal freshwater wetland vegetation to rising sea level (co-supervised with Dr Sam Capon)
•  Mr Rene Delmas – Utilisation of terrestrial carbon by zooplankton: Do stable isotopes reflect assimilation? (co-supervised with Dr Simon Mitrovic and Dr James Hitchcock)
•  Mr Ellery Johnson – Allochthonous organic carbon subsidies in estuaries: The importance of inflows (co-supervised with Dr Simon Mitrovic and Dr James Hitchcock)
•  Ms Courtenay Mills – population genetics of estuarine glassfish (co-supervised with Prof Jane Hughes)
•  Mr Mark Spears – isotopic variability in benthic algae and implications for food web analyses (co-supervised with Dr Mark Kennard)
•  Ms Sally-Anne Redfearn – impacts of horse riding activities on streams in protected areas (co-supervised with Dr Fran Sheldon)

Completed summer scholarship students

• Ms Courtenay Mills – population genetics of estuarine glassfish
• Mr Mark Spears – the impacts of carp in subtropical river food webs
• Mr Grant Russell – feeding ecology of fish in intermittently open estuaries