Zeb Tonkin

Zeb is a senior scientist within the Applied Aquatic Ecology section of the Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research. During his 19 years working as a fish ecologist at the Institute, he has been a key member of ARI’s flows and fish recruitment program and for the past seven years has developed and leads the Instream Habitat and Environmental Flows program. In 2019 Zeb completed his PhD through Griffith University, where he studied the governing processes and population dynamics of Macquarie Perch. Along with continuing his research on the species, Zeb and his team work on a range of monitoring and applied research programs relating to recruitment, migratory behaviour and population dynamics of freshwater fish, threatened species recovery, environmental flows and habitat restoration in the southern Murray Darling Basin. His research has made major contributions to conservation management of Victorian and Australian aquatic biodiversity, having published 50 peer-reviewed journal articles, along with regular client reports and oral presentations on aspects of freshwater fish and aquatic ecology to a range of stakeholder groups. In 2020, he was also honoured with the Australian Society for Fish Biology’s Early Career Excellence Award for outstanding early career contribution to fish and fisheries research.