South Australian Museum - North Terrace, Adelaide, South Australia 5000

Biography

Mark Stevens' research has a strong focus on invertebrates, in particular work on Collembola, but also Crustacea and Hymenoptera. Lately, Mark has been combining morphological and molecular data to determine the systematic position of Antarctic and Australasian groups. An important aspect to Mark's work is an integrated molecular, systematic and palaeoecological approach to allow patterns in phylogenetic/phylogeographic diversification to be traced from origins to the present and contrasted against climate/biome shifts (e.g. aridification).

One highlight of his research relates to a strong record in studies of Collembola that incorporates work on species groups from throughout the Southern Hemisphere (New Zealand, Australia, Antarctica, and sub-Antarctic islands). He was the first to investigate the correlations between molecular dating, geological and glaciological hypotheses for continental Collembola. This work revealed a collembolan fauna that was likely to have been present on the Antarctic continent as it became glaciated and have remained their since. Currently, Mark is involved in an International Polar Year project aimed at understanding, valuing and protecting Antarctica's unique terrestrial ecosystems. He is also principal investigator on two Australian Antarctic Division projects (since 2003) that focus on molecular studies of the origins and dispersal patterns of terrestrial invertebrates in the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic.

In 2008, Mark was awarded full academic status as lecturer (level B) in the School of Biological Sciences at Flinders University, where he has strong collaborations on studying the systematics and phylogenetic relationships of native bees with Assoc. Prof. Mike Schwarz. Mark is also a member of the BCCOL project launched in 2007 by Collembola taxonomists with the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, its aim is to barcode Collembola of the world.

Major Publications: (top 5)

Ashton GV, Stevens MI, Hart MC, Green DH, Burrows MT, Cook EJ, Willis KJ (2008) Mitochondrial DNA reveals multiple northern hemisphere introductions of Caprella mutica (Crustacea, Amphipoda). Molecular Ecology 17: 1293-1303.

Stevens MI, Hogendoorn K, Schwarz MP (2007) Evolution of sociality by natural selection on variances in reproductive fitness: evidence from a social bee. BMC Evolutionary Biology 7: 153.

Joly S, Stevens MI, Jansen van Vuuren B (2007) Haplotype networks can be misleading in the presence of missing data. Systematic Biology 56: 857-862.

Convey P, Stevens MI (2007) Antarctic Biodiversity. Science 317(5846): 1877-1878.

Stevens MI, Greenslade P, Hogg ID, Sunnucks P (2006) Examining Southern Hemisphere springtails: could any have survived glaciation of Antarctica? Molecular Biology and Evolution 23: 874-882.