Jordan Haber
Ecosystem Risk Assessment
Jordan Haber is a PhD researcher in the Quantitative and Applied Ecology (QAEco) group at the University of Melbourne, supervised by Dr Bonnie Wintle and Professor Emily Nicholson. He holds dual Master’s degrees in Ecosystem Science & Conservation from Duke University and City & Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a B.S. in Biology and Environmental Science from Dickinson College.
His Master’s thesis examined avian community dynamics across stand stages in managed pine plantations, while his undergraduate research investigated evolutionary trade-offs between clutch size and egg mass in snapping turtles.
His current PhD research advances applications of the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems, integrating structured expert elicitation and quantitative modelling to strengthen ecosystem risk assessment and conservation decision-making.
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Thesis
Improving Ecosystem Risk Assessment to Support Conservation Decision-Making Under the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems
Ecosystem collapse is an escalating global threat, yet methods for assessing ecosystem risk and guiding recovery remain methodologically inconsistent and often constrained by data gaps. This research aims to advance applications of the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems framework to improve the assessment and management of threatened ecological communities. By integrating spatial data, ecological indicators, quantitative modelling, and structured expert elicitation, the project will evaluate how ecosystem extent, condition, and functional integrity are measured, how uncertainty is characterised, and how risk thresholds are defined. Expert knowledge will be formally incorporated to address data limitations and improve transparency in risk classification. Through applied case studies, this work seeks to strengthen the robustness and policy relevance of ecosystem risk assessments. Ultimately, the project aims to develop decision-relevant tools that bridge ecological science and conservation practice, supporting more effective biodiversity prioritisation under national and international frameworks.