Dr Melissa Wartman

Research Fellow

Centre for Integrative Ecology
Deakin University, Burwood campus
221 Burwood Hwy, VIC 3125

m.wartman@deakin.edu.au

Melissa's research

Melissa is an environmental research scientist and Research Fellow at Deakin University’s Blue Carbon Lab. Her current research focuses on nature-based carbon sequestration through blue carbon restoration. Her work entails translating science into on-ground action to help restore coastal wetland ecosystems across Australia. Melissa’s past research has focussed on the impacts of climate change on marine environments including investigating the state of ocean acidification in a Newfoundland fjord and assessments of a brackish lake system and key environmental drivers of algal autecology. Melissa has proven fieldwork and laboratory expertise, having worked in marine, coastal, and estuarine ecosystems, where she has undertaken research involving:

• Assessments of coastal ecosystems including greenhouse gas emissions, collection of soil cores, and quadrat vegetation surveys
• Oceanographic survey techniques in remote locations (Arctic and Atlantic Ocean)
• Analysis of water and soil samples for inorganic and organic carbon
• Running phytoplankton laboratory experiments manipulating temperature, salinity, and nutrients
• Analysis of phytoplankton from brackish lake systems via Focal Plane Array FTIR spectroscopy

Since joining BCL in 2019, Melissa has led major research programs and initiatives involving industry and government partners including the Victorian Coastal Wetland Restoration Program, where she has been working alongside over 15 partners including, academia, government, industry, Traditional Owner groups and community groups, to deliver the restoration and protection of coastal wetland ecosystems throughout Victoria. She uses the power of citizen scientists to support baseline data collection and the ongoing monitoring of environmental outcomes across restoration sites.

Melissa is also leading the delivery of ‘Building the Blue Carbon Business Case: Cost-benefit analysis of coastal wetland restoration’ and ‘estimating the scale of opportunity for fencing coastal wetlands in Victoria’ in an effort to further upscale restoration efforts in Victoria and across Australia more broadly. Outcomes from these projects will review scalable mechanisms to encourage long-term protection of coastal wetland ecosystems as a means to combat climate change and deliver ecosystem services to surrounding coastal communities. These projects aim to provide practitioners with specialist resources to support the implementation of on-ground restoration action.

Internationally, Melissa has provided technical advisory, developing blue carbon capacity in Seychelles including ‘Roadmap to Blue Carbon opportunities in the Seychelles’ and is leading the ‘Blue carbon assessment for Mahe Plateau Mangrove Ecosystem’. She is also leading a project in the Maldives working with Six Senses Laamu to develop blue carbon opportunities for small-scale restoration projects.

Keywords

Victorian Coastal Wetland Restoration #VicWetlandRehab, saltmarsh, restoration, Victoria, BRP

Career Highlights

Education

Postdoctoral Fellow, Deakin University, Australia (2019 – ongoing)
Ph.D., Biological Sciences, Monash University, Australia. 2018
BSc (Hons), Marine Biology and Oceanography, Dalhousie University, Canada. 2013

Awards

Premier’s Sustainability Awards – Healthy Environment Finalist (2021)
SERA International Award for Restoration Excellence Large Scale >50 ha Finalist (2021)
7NEWS Environmental Sustainability Young Achiever Award Finalist (2020)
Monash Graduate Research Travel Grant, Australia (2018)
Monash Postgraduate Publication Award, Australia (2018)
Joanna Jones Student Travel Grant, Australia (2018)
Denis and Maisie Carr Travel Grant, Australia (2016)

Grants

Blue carbon assessment for Mahe Plateau Mangrove Ecosystem (Department of Blue Economy Seychelles) 2021
Victorian Coastal Wetland Restoration Program: restoring wetlands of our past, for our future (Helen Macpherson Smith Trust) 2021
Building the Blue Carbon Business Case: Cost-benefit analysis of coastal wetland restoration (Lord Mayor Charitable Foundation) 2021
Blue Carbon in Hobsons Bay City Council (Hobsons Bay City Council) 2021
Victorian Coastal Wetland Restoration Program: supporting on-ground restoration works (Intrepid Foundation) 2021
Dredge Material Reuse to Restore and Create Blue Carbon Ecosystems (Ports Victoria) 2021
Exploring Blue Carbon opportunities in Seychelles (Seychelles’ Conservation and Climate Adaptation Trust) 2020
Building Adaptive Capacity in the Gippsland Region: Wetland Restoration Citizen Science Program (DELWP) 2019

Selected publications and reports

Palacios MM, Costa MDP, Wartman M, Ebrahim A, Macreadie PI. 2022. Seychelles’ Blue Carbon Roadmap. Submitted to the Seychelles Conservation & Climate Adaptation Trust. Blue Carbon Lab, Deakin University, Australia. 45 pp. Link to report.
Macreadie PM, Robertson AI, Spinks B, Adams MP, Atchison JM, Bell-James J, Bryan BA, Chu L, Filbee-Dexter K, Drake L, Duarte CM, Friess DA, Gonzalez F, Grafton RQ, Helmstedt KJ, Kaebernick M, Kelleway J, Kendrick GA, Kennedy H, Lovelock CE, Megonigal PJ, Maher DT, Pidgeon E, Rogers AA, Sturgiss R, Trevathan-Tackett SM, Wartman M., Wilson KA., Rogers K. 2022. Operationalizing marketable blue carbon. One Earth, 5(5) 485-492. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2022.04.005
Wartman M., Schuster L., & Macreadie PI. 2022. Beneficial re-use of dredged material for the restoration and creation of blue carbon ecosystems. Deakin University, Burwood, 54pp.
Morgain R.A., Bekessy S., Bush J., Butler D., Cadenhead N., Clarke R., Croeser T., Dickey A., Evans M.C., Fitzsimons J., Fletcher M.S., Foley R., Gacutan J., van Leeuwen S., Lovelock C., Macreadie P.I., McLeod E., Morris R.L., Neal D.P., Oke C., Rossel R.V., Russell-Smith J., Spindler R., Thompson S., Wartman M., Young M., Wintle B.A. Nature as a Climate Solution, University of Melbourne, 2021. http://conservationfutures.org.au/publications
Palacios MM, Waryszak P, Costa, MDP, Wartman M., Ebrahim A, Macreadie PI. 2021 Literature Review: Blue Carbon research in the Tropical Western Indian Ocean WIO. A report submitted to the Seychelles Conservation & Climate Adaptation Trust (SeyCCAT). Deakin University, Australia, 80pp. Link to report.
Costa M., Wartman M., Macreadie PI. 2021. Blue Carbon in Hobsons Bay City Council. A report submitted to the Hobsons Bay City Council. Deakin University, Australia, Deakin University, Melbourne, 34pp. Link to report.

Selected media

News Media

Farmers place fresh value on Gippsland saltmarshes to earn blue carbon credits. ABC Gippsland, 2022
Farmers ready for new carbon credit opportunities. ABC The World Today, 2022
To save salt marshes, researcher deploy a wide arsenal of techniques. Mongabay, 2021
Discovering our overachieving coastal blue carbon ecosystems. Remember the Wild, 2020
Victorian Coastal Wetland Restoration Program. Deakin University, 2020
Gippslandscapes podcast E18: Blue Carbon – how wetlands and coastal fringes could save the planet. West Gippsland CMA, 2020
Blue Carbon: what is it and why do we care?. Connected to Port Phillip, 2019

StoryMaps developed by Melissa

Follow Mel on social media