Professor Gretta Pecl
2021 K. Radway Allen Award
With over 150 research outputs and 200 public outputs in marine and fisheries research, Prof Pecl has contributed an extraordinary amount of knowledge to the field of marine science. Prof Pecl is a marine 'generalist' with broad interdisciplinary research interests, building on a background in population dynamics, fisheries biology, and movement and migration of commercial species.
Prof Pecl currently focusses on species and ecosystem responses to climate change, and the development of adaptation options for natural resource management and using citizen science approaches for ecological monitoring and engagement. She has a specific interest in exploring the mechanisms and processes underpinning climate-driven species redistribution, and the ecosystem implications of these, including co-convening the 2016 & 2019 'Species on the Move' conferences. Prof Pecl is also a Lead Author for the IPCC AR6 report. Her climate work has received international acclaim, resulting in her being ranked in the top 200 climate change scientists (and top 20 women) globally.
As the Director of the Centre for Marine Socioecology (CMS), Prof Pecl is leading a diverse team in the challenging new field of marine socioecology, a new area of research that combines multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary components to support integrated systems perspectives. The approach recognises that humans are part of marine systems, and that considering social and ecological components separately cannot deliver the knowledge needed to support healthy sustainable marine systems, and the human communities that depend on them. Prof Pecl has also developed and co-leads the Future Seas initiative, which is a large interdisciplinary project involving 130 researchers and includes a 13 member Traditional and Indigenous Peoples Working Group from the world. Its focus is on creating evidence-based scenarios of more sustainable futures for our oceans (https://futureseas2030.org/).
Prof Pecl has contributed a significant amount of time and research on range shifting species, specifically in south east Australia. She conceptualised, developed and led the highly successful Redmap – the Range Extension Database and Mapping Project (www.redmap.org.au). This innovative citizen science project has spread from a Tasmanian initiative to one of Australia’s largest marine citizen science projects that engages thousands of Australians in scientific discovery and involves over 80 scientists from 25 institutes around Australia. The Redmap model was designed to provide a framework for efficiently collecting, collating, verifying, sharing and using geo-referenced species observational data. It was critical that ‘opportunistic’ participation in the project was easy by (potentially) untrained members of the public, whilst rigorous, standardized, and transparent post hoc verification of submitted observations was still achieved. The project has also been at the forefront of developing robust scientific processes that enables citizen science to be a crucial part of mainstream scientific research. More generally, Prof Pecl is passionate about science communication and spends considerable time engaging with communities via public forums, podcasts, events and innovative projects (eg https://curiousclimate.org.au/).
As an academic at the University of Tasmania, Prof Pecl supervises PhD, Master and Honours students. Prof Pecl also lectures at the university, contributing to different marine science units within the IMAS Marine Biology stream. Prof Pecl has also organised multiple events and initiatives to support HDR development - equipping them with skills and opportunities to learn from researchers within the centre and internationally, as well as to engage with marine stakeholders from Tasmania and elsewhere.
Prof Pecl was the Editor in Chief of the ‘Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries’ journal for five years from 2014 to 2019. Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries is ranked fourth in Aquatic Science journals and is one of very few journals led by a woman in STEM.
Prof Pecl has been an active member of our ASFB community for many years, was recognised in ASFBs “Incredible women in Ichthyology” series, and is already a member of our Hall of Fame. Professor Gretta Pecl is awarded the 2021 K. Radway Allen Award for her outstanding contribution to marine socio-ecological fisheries science.
Examples of significant publications
Pecl G.T. et al. (2017). Biodiversity redistribution under climate change: Impacts on ecosystems and human well-being. Science, 355, 6332. DOI: 10.1126/science.aai9214
Hobday AJ, Pecl GT (2014), Identification of global marine hotspots: sentinels for change and vanguards for adaptation action Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries, 24, (2) pp. 415-425. ISSN 0960-3166. DOI: 10.1007/s11160-013-9326-6
Sunday JM, Pecl GT, Frusher S, Hobday AJ, Hill N, et al. (2015), 'Species traits and climate velocity explain geographic range shifts in an ocean-warming hotspot', Ecology Letters, 18, (9) pp. 944-953. ISSN 1461-0248 (2015). DOI: 10.1111/ele.12474
Last, P.R., White, W.T., Gledhill, D.C., Hobday, A.J., Brown, R., Edgar, G.J. and Pecl, G. (2011), Long-term shifts in abundance and distribution of a temperate fish fauna: a response to climate change and fishing practices. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 20: 58-72. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1466-8238.2010.00575.x
Ogar E, Pecl G, Mustonen T (2020), Science must embrace traditional and indigenous knowledge to solve our biodiversity crisis, One Earth, 3, (2) pp. 162-165. ISSN 2590-3330 DOI: 10.1016/j.oneear.2020.07.006