User:GlendaWardle/Clare

Clare McArthur is a leading ecologist at the University of Sydney. She was educated at Monash University, Victoria, Australia, where she completed her BSc (1983) and PhD (1988). Clare studies plant-animal interactions and is best known for her work on foraging ecology of marsupials. This work included running feeding preference trials with mule deer in Washington State and with Sitka black-tailed deer in Alaska.

Research
Clare’s first research showed that the variation in tooth wear among kangaroo populations provided links to their diet. Following this interest in animal diets, for her PhD Clare investigated how tannins in eucalypt leaves affect digestion in ringtail possums.

Research highlights
One of the novel discoveries of Clare’s work was to overturn ideas about the role that phenolics play as a classic defence compound for protecting plants from herbivores.

In 2003 she led a research team investigating the palatability to herbivore browsers of different eucalypt varieties.

In 2011, Clare’s was a guest on Margaret Throsby’s ABC radio program (18 March 2011) Plant secondary chemistry

Clare's recent work aims to understand the behavioural ecology of herbivoures as a balance between obtaining food and fear of predation.

Her work on 'The foraging tight-rope"  was highlighted as a video release in the international journal Functional Ecology.

Academic affiliations
Clare was appointed in the School of Zoology, University of Tasmania in 1995 and spent nine years there before moving to the University of Sydney in 2004, where she remains. During her time in Tasmania, Clare also managed the Resource Protection Program within the Cooperative Research Centre for (Temperate Hardwood and then Sustainable Production) Forestry.

Leadership
Clare is currently Head of Department for the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Sydney.

She is a member of the Editorial Board for Functional Ecology

Personal interests
Kayaking and other things that keep her active and fit.