Dr Maria del Mar Palacios
Project Manager & Science communicator
Centre for Integrative Ecology
Deakin University, Burwood campus
221 Burwood Hwy, VIC 3125
Maria's research
Maria is a marine ecologist, project manager, and science communicator based at Deakin University’s Blue Carbon Lab. She is originally from Colombia and received her PhD from James Cook University, Queensland in 2017. Maria has worked for more than 10 years in marine and coastal ecosystems, including coral reefs, mangroves and tidal marshes.
After joining the Blue Carbon Lab, Maria established the award-winning Blue Carbon Citizen Science program – which has engaged over 500 citizen scientists into coastal wetland research across Australia and New Zealand. To date the program has collected over 1000 carbon stock samples from 12 sites and surveyed more than 300 plots of mangroves and saltmarsh. The program began as a partnership with HSBC Australia and Earthwatch Institute, but has expanded now expanded with funding from DELWP’s Community Climate Change Adaptation grants and SeyCCAT’s Blue Grants.
When not with citizen scientists, Maria supports the media strategy of the Blue Carbon Lab taking care of media releases, website, social media, etc…
Keywords
Citizen science, coastal wetlands, science communication
Career Highlights
- Blue Grants, Seychelles Conservation and Climate Adaptation Trust(SeyCCAT), Seychelles (2020)
- Community Climate Change Adaptation grant from DELWP Victoria, Australia (2019)
- Australian Financial Review (AFR) Higher Education Award for Industry Engagement, Australia (2019)
- Woman in Science Travel Award (2018)
- PhD Marine Ecology, James Cook University, Australia (2017)
- Ian Potter Doctoral Fellowship at Lizard Island, Australia (2015)
- Australian Coral Reef Society research award, Australia (2015)
- International Postgraduate Research scholarship, James Cook University, Australia (2012)
- PhD scholarship from COLCIENCIAS, Colombia (2012)
- BSc (Honours) Biology, Universidad del Valle, Colombia (2010)
Selected publications
Malerba ME, MM Palacios, YM Palacios Delgado, J Beardall, DJ Marshall .2019. Cell size, photosynthesis and the package effect: an artificial selection approach New Phytologist 219: 449-461
Palacios, MM, SS Killen, LE Nadler., JR White & MI McCormick 2016. Top- predators negate the effect of mesopredators on prey physiology. Journal of Animal Ecology 85: 1078-1086
Palacios, M.M., D.T. Warren & M.I. McCormick 2016. Sensory cues of a top‐predator indirectly control a reef fish mesopredator. Oikos 125: 201 -209
Palacios, M.M., C.G. Muñoz & F.A. Zapata. 2014. Fish corallivory on a pocilloporid reef and experimental coral responses to predation. Coral Reefs 33: 625 -636
Palacios, M.M. & F.A. Zapata. 2014. Fish community structure on coral habitats with contrasting architecture in the Tropical Eastern Pacific. International Journal of Tropical Biology and Conservation 62(1): 343-357
Selected media
City bankers forego afternoon tea in pursuit of innovative climate change solution (Sunday Star Times, Auckland)
External links to Maria’s research
