2005 Young Tall Poppy Science Award Recipient

Dr Tracy Langkilde
School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney

Many factors shape biodiversity. One of the main factors is the ability of animals to co-exist in with their environment, with other species and within their communities. Understanding the dynamics of communities and the factors that influence them will provide a basis for understanding ecosystems and the factors that affect biodiversity. Dr Tracy Langkilde is conducting research in community ecology, working towards understanding these factors. Her study site is Kanangra Boyd National Park in the Blue Mountains, NSW.

Tracey’s studies on lizards have revealed very interesting findings. For instance, female alpine skinks (Eulamprus heatwolei) face a dilemma when it comes to deciding on ‘survival of the fittest’ for their offspring. Pregnant females select their thermal regulation during pregnancy, which modifies the body size of her offspring, thereby affecting their competitive fitness since larger animals have a greater chance of survival. However, the offspring size that enhances survival for daughters reduces survival of sons, and vice versa; thus, a female lizard can manipulate the size of her offspring to produce either "fit" sons or "fit" daughters, but cannot do both. Hence pregnant females thermoregulate to enhance the fitness of whichever sex of offspring they are producing in largest numbers.

Following the completion of a BSc with a first class Honours in the School of Biological Sciences at James Cook University and a PhD from the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Sydney in 2005, Tracy recently commenced a two-year Postdoctoral Fellowship at Yale University.

Tracy’s research has attracted much media attention, featuring internationally in newspaper and magazine articles, and on television.  She is regularly involved in educational programs targeted at school students, volunteering her time at University Open days and giving motivational speeches to secondary school student about selecting science as a career.  Tracy has also volunteered her time to write and run a course on field skills and species identification for NatureSearch, a Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service program.

Tracy received a Young Tall Poppy Science Award in 2005.