Professor Mark Westoby

Professor Westoby's research field is evolutionary ecology. He concentrates mainly on vascular plants, on the argument that terrestrial ecosystems are decisively influenced by the life histories and physiognomies and tissue traits of plants. The ecological strategies of species conform to economic allocation principles. Natural selection is a strong invisible hand, suppressing strategies that are less efficient or less competitive. Evolutionary ecology research involves clarifying what kinds of efficiency and competitiveness are decisive, what trade-offs are faced by the organisms, and what traits evolve to a single common best solution versus what traits are diversified across different strategies.

Mark has made significant contributions also to state-and-transition modelling for rangelands management, to diet selection by large herbivores, to the self-thinning rule in plant population dynamics, and to kinship coefficients and the triploid endosperm.