Chris was Schlich Medallist at the ANU Department of Forestry in 1998, and was awarded an ANU University Medal for his Honours Degree in Forestry in 1999. He completed a PhD in Resource and Environmental Management at ANU in 2004. Since July 2005 Chris has held the position of Lecturer in Forest and Woodland Ecology and Silviculture.

Professional Activities

My broad research interests are the role of vegetation structure in ecosystem function and the development and application of stand and landscape scale biometrics to improve the management of native vegetation.

Current projects include:

• Calibrating the FullCAM Carbon Accounting Model for the effects of forest silviculture on nitrogen and carbon cycles in commercially managed native forests (Collaborating agency - Australian Greenhouse Office)
• Developing metrics and user friendly tools for the sustainable management and restoration of privately owned dry sclerophyll forests and woodlands (Collaborating agency - RIRDC)
• Modelling foliage vertical structure in Tasmanian Wet Forests (Collaborating agencies - Forestry Tasmania, Bushfire CRC)
• Assessing the ecological condition of Victoria's State Forests using SFRI data (Collaborating agency - Victorian DSE)
• The nature and function of log micro-environments in Yellow Box (Eucalyptus melliodora) ? Red Gum (Eucalyptus blakelyi) woodland (Collaborating agencies - Environment ACT, CSIRO Entomology)
• Litter dynamics in Yellow Box (Eucalyptus melliodora) ? Red Gum (Eucalyptus blakelyi) woodland (Collaborating agency - Environment ACT)
• A process model of coarse woody debris dynamics in Yellow Box (Eucalyptus melliodora) ? Red Gum (Eucalyptus blakelyi) (Collaborating agency - Environment ACT)
• Management options for the invasive native woody weeds Kunzea parvifolia and Kunzea ericoides (Collaborating agency - Southern Rivers CMA)
• The structural complexity and composition of direct seeded revegetation in the Australian Capital Region (Collaborating agency - Greening Australia)

My teaching mirrors my research interests, and I convene and contribute to undergraduate courses concerned with forest and woodland ecology, and stand dynamic processes.

Academic Highlights

ANU College of Science Award for Individual Teaching Excellence 2007.

Selected Publications

Gibbons, P., Briggs, S.V., Ayers, D., Seddon, J., Doyle, S., Cosier, P., C. McElhinny, C., V. Pelly, V., Roberts, K., 2009. An operational method to assess impacts of land clearing on terrestrial biodiversity. Ecological Indicators, 9, 26-40.

Gibbons, P., Briggs, S.V., Ayers, D.A., Doyle, S., Seddon, J., McElhinny, C., Jones, N., Sims, R., Doody, J. 2008. Rapidly quantifying reference conditions in modified landscapes. Biological Conservation, 141, 2483-2493

Scanlan, I., McElhinny, C., Turner, P. 2008. A methodology for modelling canopy structure: An exploratory analysis in the tall wet eucalypt forests of southern Tasmania. Old Forests, New Management International Conference, 17-21 February 2008, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.

Brookhouse, M., Brack, C., McElhinny, C. 2008. The Distance to Structural Complement approach for expressing landscape-level pattern in forest structural complexity. Report for the Department of Sustainability and Environment, Victoria, 47p.

McElhinny, C., Gibbons, P. and Brack, C. 2006. An objective and quantitative methodology for constructing an index of stand structural complexity, Forest Ecology and Management, 235, 54-71.

McElhinny, C., Gibbons, P., Brack, C., and Bauhus, J. 2005. Forest and woodland stand structural complexity: its definition and measurement. Forest Ecology and Management, 218: 1-24.