DrRebecca Hamilton

My research spans two interconnected themes. The first uses palaeoecology to explore how landscape respond to climate, fire, and human disturbance across timescales ranging from decades to millions of years. The second draws on historical ecology to reconstruct how shifting social perspectives have shaped ecosystems through time, and how communities remember, value, and manage protected places today. These interests come together in my current work on two ARC Discovery Projects investigating how agriculture and ecology have interacted through time in tropical Asia — work ultimately driven by a common purpose: using the past to inform how we sustain a habitable planet in the face of accelerating global change.

My research aligns with the Faculty of Science Research Strengths - Understanding Life on Earth, Understanding Our Planet, Healthy Animals, Health and Wellbeing Across the Lifespan, Biodiversity Conservation, Climate and Environmental Change, Sustainability.