We tackle fundamental questions in ecology, including...
... how populations and communities vary in space & time
... how they resist and recover from change
... and how they might look in a future world.

We apply this knowledge to real-world problems to find solutions to the global biodiversity crisis and to prepare ecosystems for an uncertain future.

We are particularly enamoured with freshwater ecosystems, but our research spans disciplinary and ecological boundaries.

New ways to forecast biodiversity

Jono was recently honoured with New Zealand’s Prime Minister’s Te Puiaki Kaipūtaiao Maea MacDiarmid Emerging Scientist Prize for 2022. Details here.

Our Research

We are, broadly speaking, community ecologists. But we ask a range of questions to understand how populations and communities vary in space and time, including how landscape or river network structure and dispersal interact to affect the organisation of biodiversity; how global change will alter the structure of ecological networks; how river and riparian species respond to changes in flow regimes (cycles of floods and drought); and how best to forecast the distribution of species in changing landscapes.

Ecological forecasting

Forecasting ecological responses to global environmental change.

Ecological networks in a changing world

Species interaction networks, spatial ecological networks, and networks of networks.

Flow-ecology modelling

The relationship between river flow regimes and freshwater and riparian biodiversity.

Global change ecology

Population, community and ecosystem responses to climate change and other environmental change.

Mechanistic population modelling

Models that link population dynamics with environmental variability (e.g. matrix projections).

Metacommunity ecology

Disentangling the role of local and regional drivers of biodiversity including dispersal.

Organisation of biodiversity in river networks

Uncovering the role of the dendritic structure of river networks on their biodiversity.

River restoration and management

Understanding the drivers of restoration success to improve restoration practice in the future.

Temporal ecological variability

The role of environmental fluctuations on ecological dynamics across scales.

People

We are part of the FERG group and work closely with several other labs at UC (e.g. Tylianakis Lab).

Team

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Jonathan D. Tonkin

Associate Professor & Rutherford Discovery Fellow

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Anne Mcleod

Postdoctoral Fellow

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Hao Ran Lai

Postdoctoral Fellow

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Andrea Tabi

Postdoctoral Fellow

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Ignacio Reyes

PhD student

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Anthony Gillis

PhD student

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Li Wang

PhD student

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Rory Lennox

Master’s student

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Rose Foster

PhD student (lead supervised by M. LaRue)

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Justin Rogers

PhD student (lead supervised by J. Brasington)

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Holly Harris

PhD student (lead supervised by A. McIntosh)

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Naomi Heller

PhD student (lead supervised by A. McIntosh)

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Christina McCabe

Master’s student (lead supervised by C. Matthaei)

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Sarah Seeley

Master’s student (lead supervised by H. Chapman)

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Jack Anderson

Summer student

Alumni

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Arek Aspinwall

Master’s student (lead supervised by M. LaRue) (2019-2021)

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Elizabeth de Jongh

Postgraduate Scholar

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Olivia Hore

Master’s student (lead supervised by A. McIntosh)

Recent Publications

Also see Google Scholar and ResearchGate.

Taxonomic and functional reorganization in central European stream macroinvertebrate communities over 25 years

2023 Science of The Total Environment

PDF DOI

Causes, Responses, and Implications of Anthropogenic versus Natural Flow Intermittence in River Networks

2023 BioScience

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Priorities for synthesis research in ecology and environmental science

2023 Ecosphere

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The global EPTO database: Worldwide occurrences of aquatic insects

2023 Global Ecology and Biogeography

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The power of forecasts to advance ecological theory

2023 Methods in Ecology and Evolution

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Funded Projects

MBIE Endeavour fund

Fish futures: preparing for novel freshwater ecosystems

Te Pūnaha Matatini Centre of Research Excellence

Achieving sustainable and resilient river ecosystems in Aotearoa under climate change

Department of Conservation / Waimakariri District Council

Modelling native fish species vulnerability to climate change in NZ and Waimakariri District

Antarctic Science Platform

Projecting Ross Sea Region ecosystem changes in a warming world

Rutherford Discovery Fellowship

Rethinking ecological networks in changing environments

Latest News

May 2023 » Jono wins major award. Jono was recently honoured by receiving New Zealand’s Prime Minister’s Te Puiaki Kaipūtaiao Maea MacDiarmid Emerging Scientist Prize for 2022. Details can be found here here.

May 2023 » Congratulations Rory! Rory recently handed in his honours thesis on trout galaxiid interactions in response to major floods. Congratulations on a great thesis, Rory!

Feb. 2023 » Welcome Li! We’re delighted to welcome Li Wang to the group as a PhD student working on host-parasitoid coevolution as part of a project funded by Bioprotection Aotearoa working with Jason Tylianakis and I! Great to have you aboard, Li!

Jan. 2023 » Jono promoted to Associate Professor. Jono has recently been promoted to Associate Professor. Thanks to all the amazing collaborators and mentors who helped him get there.

November 2022 » Welcome Jack! Jack Anderson has joined the group as a Te Punaha Matatini-funded summer student working with Anne McLeod! Great to have you aboard, Jack!

November 2022 » Welcome Andi! We’re delighted to welcome Andrea Tabi to the group as a Postdoctoral Fellow working on our Te Punaha Matatini freshwater forecasting project! Great to have you aboard, Andi!

October 2022 » Welcome Anthony! We’re delighted to welcome Anthony Gillis to the group as a PhD student working on marine species interaction networks! Great to have you aboard, AJ!

July 2022 » Gabi’s first PhD chapter published in TREE! Congrats on the paper, Gabi. Gabi led a stellar effort on forecasting the future of life in Antarctica in Trends in Ecology and Evolution. Paper here and pdf here

June 2022 » Postdoc position available! We’re looking for a Postdoctoral Fellow to participate in a research project, Achieving sustainable and resilient river ecosystems in Aotearoa under climate change, funded by Te Pūnaha Matatini. Your role will focus on forecasting freshwater fish community responses to climate change and to generate near-term forecasts and long-term projections of freshwater fish community responses to changing flow regimes. More details here and here.

April 2022 » Welcome Elizabeth! We’re delighted to welcome Elizabeth de Jongh to the group as a Postgraduate Scholar!

April 2022 » Welcome Dani! We’re delighted to officially welcome Dani Hernandez to the group as a PhD student! Great to have you aboard, Dani!

March 2022 » Jono joining the editorial board of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. Jono is delighted to join the editorial board of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

March 2022 » New PhD position available! Mads Thomsen and I are looking for a student for a project on uncovering the role of indirect species interactions in marine ecological networks in a warming world. And a reminder that Jason Tylianakis and I are looking for a student for a project on metacommunity and evolutionary drivers of resilience. Details: http://tonkinlab.org/open

Jan. 2022 » New postdoc position available! We’re looking for a Postdoctoral Fellow to participate in a research project, Achieving sustainable and resilient river ecosystems in Aoteaora under climate change, funded by Te Pūnaha Matatini. Your role will focus on forecasting freshwater fish community responses to climate change and to generate near-term forecasts and long-term projections of freshwater fish community responses to changing flow regimes. More details here and here.

Jan. 2022 » A new global agenda for advancing freshwater biodiversity research. Jono was recently involved in a large global effort to come up with a new agenda for freshwater biodiversity research. “The proposed agenda aims to advance freshwater biodiversity research globally as a critical step in improving coordinated actions towards its sustainable management and conservation.” See publication. Thanks to Alain and Sonja for leading this important effort.

Dec. 2021 » Welcome Nacho! We’re delighted to officially welcome Ignacio (Nacho) Reyes to the team as a PhD student. Nacho will be focusing on forecasting freshwater fish population and community responses to future change. Find Nacho here.

Nov. 2021 » Fish futures MBIE programme kicks off. We’re excited to have our recently funded Fish future MBIE Endeavour Programme kick off this month led by the Cawthron Institute. Fish futures: preparing for novel freshwater ecosystems is a five-year project that will address the increasing stress on Aotearoa New Zealand’s freshwater fish from pressures such as human activity, climate change, pollution and threats from other species.

Oct. 2021 » New PhD position available! We have a PhD position currently available jointly with Jason Tylianakis. Check out our vacancies page for this position on metacommunity and evolutionary drivers of resilience.

Oct. 2021 » Congratulations Arek! Congratulations to Arek Aspinwall who recently passed his Master’s project with flying colours.

Oct. 2021 » New paper on applying metacommunity theory to river management Very happy to see this group paper led by Chris Patrick out on the application of metacommunity theory to the management of riverine ecosystems. Lots to be learned from metacommunity theory to help us manage freshwater systems better.

Jul. 2021 » New positions available! We have two positions currently available in the same project: (working with Jason Tylianakis) one Postdoc and one PhD.

Jul. 2021 » Jono on TVNZ Breakfast talking about the CBD Post-2020 Biodiversity Framework. Jono talked to John Campbell on Breakfast TV about the latest UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s draft Post-2020 Biodiversity Framework.

Jul. 2021 » Welcome Gabrielle! We’re delighted to welcome Gabrielle Koerich to the team as a PhD student. Gabrielle will be working with Jono on forecasting species responses to climate change in the Ross Sea Region of Antarctica, as part of the Antarctic Science Platform.

Jun. 2021 » Welcome Anne! We’re delighted to welcome Anne Mcleod to the team as a Postdoc. Anne will be collaborating with Jono on some exciting new community theory modelling spanning from metacommunity models to food web models to ecosystem models.

Jun. 2021 » Paper out on hydropeaking effects in the Colorado River. Thanks to Erin for leading this great work!

May 2021 » New paper in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. Jono’s paper on designing flow regimes to support entire river ecosystems is now out in Frontiers. Thanks to the great coauthors: Dave Lytle, Julian Olden, Dave Merritt, Lindsay Reynolds and Jane Rogosch!

Apr. 2021 » Opening PhD call up to international students. I have a new PhD position available on forecasting fish species vulnerability to climate change. Please see the opportunities page.

Feb. 2021 » Several new publications added. Jono has been involved in several new papers that have come out (now uploaded to the website), including work highlighting the benefits of long-term spatially replicated datasets for advancing metacommunity theory and issues surrounding assigning causal drivers of long-term trends in insect abundances.

Oct. 2020 » Bio-Protection Aotearoa and Te Pūnaha Matatini funded for eight years. Last week, the next round of NZ Centres of Research Excellence were announced. Jono is delighted that two of the CoREs he is involved in have been funded for the next eight years: Bio-Protection Aotearoa and Te Pūnaha Matatini. There will be new positions advertised here in the coming months.

Sept. 2020 » Paper accepted in Global Change Biology. Jono has just had a co-authored paper on taxonomic homogenisation but functional differentiation among stream macroinvertebrate assemblages under climate change. This effort was led by Théophile Mouton. More soon.

Aug 2020 » Paper accepted in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. Jono has just had a paper on designing flow regimes to support entire river ecosystems accepted for publication in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. More soon.

June 2020 » New funding to forecast fish species response to changing flow regimes. Jono recently received funding to develop new models to forecast how native NZ fish will respond to climate-induced changes to flow regimes. Stay tuned for a new PhD advertisement coming soon.

Feb 2020 » Paper coming soon on conservation of aquatic macroinvertebrate biodiversity in tropical regions. This should be available in the next few weeks in Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems.

Dec 2019 » News piece on our Nature paper. Karla Lant at the Environmental Monitor recently published this really nice news piece on our river management perspective piece here.

Oct 2019 » Permanent position. Jono received the news that he has a permanent position at the University of Canterbury in the fabulous School of Biological Sciences. He’s delighted to get to set down roots and build a flourishing research lab in his home country of New Zealand.

Sept 2019 » New Tonkin Lab website. Welcome to the new-look Tonkin Lab website. Keep your eyes peeled for upcoming opportunities to join the lab.

June 2019 » New paper in Nature. Our paper on preparing river ecosystems for an uncertain future came out in Nature. It was a real treat to work with such a great group of colleagues on this one: LeRoy Poff, Dave Lytle, Julian Olden, Nick Bond, Avril Horne, Albert Ruhi, Lindsay Reynolds and Dave Merritt.

April 2019 » New paper in Ecosphere. We have a new paper out in Ecosphere. This is a multi-species demographic model that links native and nonnative species with river flow regimes in the Verde River, Arizona. Projecting the model beyond the survey data predicted a shift from a native dominant to a nonnative dominant community, which was linked to increasing drought frequency. Thanks very much for leading this effort, Jane!

Dec 2018 » Paper accepted in Sci. Tot. Env. We just had a paper accepted led by Peter Haase, Francesca Pilotto and Fengqing Li. This has been a long road, so it’s nice to see it through review. The title gives the central result: Moderate warming over the past 25 years has already reorganized stream invertebrate communities.

Dec 2018 » Paper accepted in River Research and Applications. We just had a paper accepted on: The three Rs of river ecosystem resilience: Resources, Recruitment and Refugia. Thanks to Kris Van Looy for leading this. This originated at a workshop in Berlin back in 2015, so it’s nice to see it come through in the end.

Dec 2018 » Awarded the inaugural NZFSS Early Career Researcher Award. Last week, Jono received the inaugural Early Career Researcher Award by the New Zealand Freshwater Sciences Society. Jono is very grateful to both the Society for giving him the award and the many colleagues that have helped him to get where he is today. It meant he got to share his past few years of research with the society by way of a keynote address.

Oct 2018 » Awarded a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship. Jono is delighted and honoured to receive a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship from the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi. The title of his 5-year programme is “Rethinking ecological networks in changing environments”. The fellowship will allow him to build his research programme here in New Zealand after several years overseas, and provide the time to tackle major environmental challenges in a way that is not necessarily possible over shorter timescales. News releases here and here.

 

Special Issue in Freshwater Biology

Jono recently edited a special issue in Freshwater Biology with Florian Altermatt and Jani Heino on metacommunities in river networks. You can find the special issue here, and the editorial here.

We compiled a series of papers with the aim of highlighting the importance of the river network on structuring biodiversity, particularly through metacommunity dynamics and associated dispersal processes. The issue covers a wide range of topics (from disease spread and nutrient uptake to trophic dynamics), approaches (from field and lab experiments to modelling and population genetics), taxonomic foci (from diatoms and protists to fish), and geographic locations (from the tropics to the subarctic).

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