April Reside

Dr. April Reside is a Senior Lecturer in AgroEcology in the School of the Environment, Faculty of Science, at the University of Queensland. She holds joint appointments in the School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability and serves as Deputy Director for Engagement and Policy at the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science. Reside earned her PhD from James Cook University, researching the potential impacts of climate change on Australian tropical savanna birds. Prior to academia, she worked as a field ecologist for non-government organizations. In her first postdoctoral role, she modeled distributions for approximately 1700 Australian vertebrates at fine resolution, projecting suitable climates through 2085 and identifying hotspots for species climate tracking, which contributed to IUCN Species Survival Commission guidelines on assessing species vulnerability to climate change. Her career includes leadership in Black-throated Finch conservation for over 12 years as Chair of the Recovery Team, and service on BirdLife Australia's Research and Conservation Committee, Threatened Species Committee, and the Invasive Species Council's Science Committee.

Reside's research integrates ecology, conservation biology, and policy, emphasizing refuges and refugia, costed recovery plans for threatened species, woodland bird communities, biodiversity responses to climate change, and adaptation strategies. She employs conservation planning tools to delineate spatial priorities for biodiversity persistence and carbon sequestration amid global change. With extensive work on flying vertebrates, including bats across three continents and nine countries, she adapts species distribution models to capture temporal and spatial variability in vagile species. Current projects evaluate threats to endangered reptiles like the Condamine earless dragon, develop metrics for fauna community condition, and explore ecosystem services such as pest control by native insectivores in agricultural landscapes. Her impact is evidenced by the Queensland Young Tall Poppy Award 2020 for public engagement. Notable publications include 'The cost of recovering Australia’s threatened species' (2024, Nature Ecology & Evolution), 'Accounting for the true costs of recovery of threatened species' (2025, Nature Ecology & Evolution), 'Ride's free-tailed bat: Ozimops ridei' (2023, book chapter), and 'Persistence through tough times: fixed and shifting refuges in threatened species conservation' (2019).

Professional Email: a.reside@uq.edu.au