Research Staff

Robert Kooyman
Assistant Scientist (Botanist-Ecologist)
Africa and Madagascar

St. Louis address:
email: rkooyman@mobot.org

Missouri Botanical Garden
4344 Shaw Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63110
USA

France address:
Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle
Institut de Systématique, Évolution, et Biodiversité (ISYEB), Unité Mixte de Recherche 7205
18 rue Buffon
75005 Paris
France

Australia address:
Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney

Education
Master of Science (MSc), New England University (UNE), Armidale, NSW Australia, 2005
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, 2011

Evolutionary Ecology Paleo-botany and the evolution of the Gondwana rainforests Biogeography Botany Quantitative and trait-based Ecology Restoration Ecology

Robert has undertaken extensive field work and botanical / ecological research and surveys. He has substantial experience in research on endangered and threatened species, communities, and ecosystems; and a long involvement with native vegetation management and ecosystem restoration activities, fauna habitat assessment and rehabilitation, and ‘landscape’ scale approaches to ecosystem assessment and habitat management. He has accumulated an extensive knowledge of the forest ecosystems and flora and fauna of Australia, New Zealand, the South Pacific, Southeast Asia, tropical and temperate South and Central America, and Madagascar. He is a member of the World Heritage Management Committee for the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia. He has undertaken and advised on the planning and implementation of large-scale restoration actions in rainforest and other vegetation communities in Australia and internationally (e.g., Africa-Madagascar with MBG); and the planning and implementation of culturally appropriate ecological community and species recovery actions in national and international contexts (e.g., threatened species and ecological work in Australia with RBGS, MBG in Africa-Madagascar, and with UN-FAO in the South Pacific).

Peer-Reviewed Publications and Scientific Communications Wilf P, Kooyman R.M. 2023. Do Southeast Asia's Paleo-Antarctic trees cool the planet? New Phytologist 239: 1556-1566. Mokany K, McCarthy J, Falster D, Gallagher R, Harwood TD, Kooyman R.M., Westoby M. 2022. Patterns and drivers of plant diversity across Australia. Ecography. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.06426. Kooyman R.M., Ivory SJ, Benfield AJ, Wilf P. 2022. Gondwanan survivor lineages and the high-risk biogeography of Anthropocene Southeast Asia. Journal of Systematics and Evolution 60: 715-727. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jse.12853. Lindenmayer DB, Zylstra P, Kooyman R.M., Taylor C, Ward M, Watson JEM. 2022. Logging elevated the probability of high-severity fire in the 2019–20 Australian forest fires. Nature Ecology and Evolution (Matters Arising). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01717-y. Fitzgerald M, Gorta S, Kooyman R.M. 2021. A summer and winter’s tale: factors influencing avian community composition and species abundances in lowland subtropical floodplain forests in central eastern Australia. Pacific Conservation Biology https://doi.org/10.1071/PC21009. Rossetto M, Kooyman R.M. 2021. Conserving refugia – what are we protecting and why? Diversity 13, 67. https://doi.org/10.3390/d13020067. Daniel Falster et al. 2021. AusTraits – a curated plant trait database for the Australian flora. bioRxiv preprint DOI: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.04.425314; this version posted January 7, 2021. Lambers H, Wright IJ, Guilherme Pereira C, Bellingham PJ, Bentley LP, Boonman A, Cernusak LA, Foulds W, Gleason SM, Gray EF, Hayes PE, Kooyman R.M., Malhi Y, Richardson SJ, Shane MW, Staudinger C, Stock WD, Swarts ND, Turner BL, Turner J, Veneklaas EJ, Wasaki J, Westoby M, Xu Y. 2021. Leaf manganese concentrations as a tool to assess belowground plant functioning in phosphorus-impoverished environments. Plant and Soil 461(1): 43-61. Ward M, Tulloch AIT, Radford JQ, Williams BA, Reside AE, Macdonald SL, Mayfield HJ, Maron M, Possingham HP, Vine SJ, O’Connor JL, Massingham EJ, Greenville AC, Woinarski JCZ, Garnett ST, Lintermans M, Scheele BC, Carwardine J, Nimmo DG, Lindenmayer DB, Kooyman R.M., Simmonds JS, Sonter LJ, Watson JEM. 2020. Impact of 2019–2020 mega-fires on Australian fauna habitat. Nature Ecology and Evolution. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-1251-1. Muscarella R, Emilio T, Phillips OL, et al. 2020. The global abundance of tree palms. Global Ecology and Biogeography. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13123. Lindenmayer DB, Kooyman R.M., Taylor C, Ward M, Watson JEM. 2020. Recent Australian wildfires made worse by logging and associated forest management. Nature Ecology and Evolution 4:898-900. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-1195-5. Kooyman R.M., Watson J, Wilf P. 2020. Protect Australia's Gondwana Rainforests. Science 367: Issue 6482: 1083. DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.1126/science.abb2046. Delmas C, Kooyman R.M., Rossetto M. 2020. Evolutionary constraints and adaptation shape the size and colour of rainforest fruits and flowers at continental scale. Global Ecology and Biogeography 29: 830-841. DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.1111/geb.13065. Kooyman R.M., Morley RJ, Crayn DM, Joyce EM, Rossetto M, Slik JWF, Strijk JS, Su T, Yap J-Y S, Wilf P. 2019. Origins and Assembly of Malesian Rainforests. Annual Review of Evolution, Ecology and Systematics 50:119–143. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-110218-024737. Rutherford S, van der Merwe M, Wilson PG, Kooyman R.M. and Rossetto M. 2019. Managing the risk of genetic swamping of a rare and restricted tree. Conservation Genetics. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-019-01201-4. Slik et al. 2018. Phylogenetic classification of the world’s tropical forests. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A. https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1714977115. Yap, J-Y., Rossetto, M., Costion, C., Crayn, D., Kooyman, R.M., Richardson, J. and Henry, R. 2018. Filters of floristic exchange: how traits and climate shape the invasion of Sahul from Sunda. Journal of Biogeography 45(4), 838-847. DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.1111/jbi.13143. Wright, I.J., Dong, N., Maire, V., Prentice, I.C., Westoby, M., Díaz, S., Gallagher, R.V., Jacobs, B.F., Kooyman, R.M., Law, E.A., Leishman, M.R, Niinemets, Ü., Reich, P.B., Sack, L., Villar, R., Wang, H., Wilf, P. 2017. Global Climatic Drivers of Leaf Size. Science 357: 917–921. Sams, M.A., Lai, H.R., Vesk, P.A., Bonser, S.P., Kooyman, R.M., Metcalfe, D.J., Morgan, J.W. and Mayfield, M.M. 2017. Land use history explains changes in the functional diversity of recovering forests better than climate or species richness. Global Ecology and Biogeography 26: 1165–1176. Bokhorst, S., Kardol, P., Bellingham, P.J., Kooyman, R.M., Richardson, S.J., Schmidt, S. and Wardle, D.A. 2017. Responses of communities of soil organisms and plants to soil aging for two contrasting long-term chronosequences. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 106: 69-79. Kooyman, R.M., Laffan, S.W. and Westoby, M. 2016. The incidence of low phosphorus soils in Australia. Plant and Soil. DOI https://www.doi.org/10.1007/s11104-016-3057-0. Issue - 412(1): 143-150. Costion, C.M., Lowe, A.J., Rossetto, M., Kooyman, R.M., Breed, M.F., Ford, A., Crayn, D.M. 2016. Building a plant DNA barcode reference library for a diverse tropical flora: an example from Queensland, Australia. Diversity 8, 5; DOI:https://www.doi.org/10.3390/d8010005. Georges Kunstler, David A. Coomes, Daniel Falster, Francis Hui, Robert M. Kooyman, Daniel C. Laughlin, Lourens Poorter, Mark Vanderwel, Ghislain Vieilledent, Joseph S. Wright, Masahiro Aiba, Christopher Baraloto, John Caspersen, J. Hans C. Cornelissen, Sylvie Gourlet-Fleury, Marc Hanewinkel, Bruno Herault, Jens Kattge, Hiroko Kurokawa, Yusuke Onoda, Josep Penuelas, Hendrik Poorter, Maria Uriarte, Sarah Richardson, Paloma Ruiz-Benito, I-Fang Sun, Goran Ståhl, Nathan Swenson, Jill Thompson, Bertil Westerlund, Christian Wirth, Miguel A. Zavala, Hongcheng Zeng, Jess Zimmerman, Niklaus E. Zimmermann, and Mark Westoby. 2016. Plant functional traits have globally consistent effects on competition. Nature. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature16476. Rossetto, M., Kooyman, R.M., Yap, J-Y.S., Laffan, S. 2015. From ratites to rats: the size of fleshy fruits shapes species distributions and continental rainforest assembly. Proceedings of the Royal Society Biology B 282: 20151998 (electronic). Rossetto, M., McPherson, H., Siow, J., Kooyman, R., van der Merwe, M. and Wilson, P.D. 2015. Where did all the trees come from? A novel multispecies approach reveals the impacts of biogeographical history and functional diversity on rain forest assembly. Journal of Biogeography 42: 2172-2186. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.12571. Merkhofer, L., Wilf, P., Haas, M.T., Kooyman, R.M., Sack, L., Scoffoni, C. and Cúneo, N.R. 2015. Resolving Australian analogs for an Eocene Patagonian paleorainforest using leaf size and floristics. American Journal of Botany 102: 1160-1173. Slik, F. et al. 2015. An estimate of the number of tropical tree species. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1423147112. Kooyman, R.M., Wilf, P., Barreda, V.D., Carpenter, R.J., Jordan, G.J., Sniderman, J.M.K., Allen, A., Brodribb, T.J., Crayn, D., Feild, T.S., Laffan, S.W., Lusk, C.H., Rossetto, M., Weston, P.H. 2014). Paleo-Antarctic Rainforest into the Modern Old World Tropics: the Rich Past and Threatened Future of the ‘Southern Wet Forest Survivors’ American Journal of Botany 101:2121-2135. Wilf, P., Escapa, I.H., Cúneo, N.R., Kooyman, R.M., Johnson, K.R. and Iglesias, A. 2014. First South American Agathis (Araucariaceae), Eocene of Patagonia. American Journal of Botany 101(1): 156-179. Cornwell, W.K., Westoby, M., Falster, D.S., FitzJohn, R.G., O’Meara, B.C., Pennell, M.W., McGlinn, D.J., Eastman, J.M., Moles, A.T., Reich, P.B., Tank, D.C., Wright, I.J., Aarssen, L., Beaulieu, J.M., Kooyman, R.M., Leishman, M.R., Miller, E.T., Niinemets, Ü., Oleksyn, J., Ordonez, A., Royer, D.L., Smith, S.A., Stevens, P.F., Warman, L., Wilf, P. and Amy E. Zanne. 2014. Functional distinctiveness of major plant lineages. Journal of Ecology 102: 345-356. Kooyman, R.M., Rossetto M., Sauquet, H. and Laffan, S.W. 2013. Landscape patterns in rainforest phylogenetic signal: isolated islands of refugia or structured continental distributions? PLoS ONE 8(12): e80685. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0080685. Kooyman, R.M., Zanne, A., Gallagher, R.V., Cornwell, W., Rossetto, M., O’Connor, P., Parkes, E.A., Catterall, C.F., Laffan, S.W. and Lusk, C.H. 2013. Effects of growth form and functional traits on response of woody plants to fragmentation of subtropical rain forest. Conservation Biology 27(6): 1468-1477. Kooyman, R.M., Rossetto, M. and Laffan, S. 2012. Using Australian Virtual Herbarium data to find all the woody rain forest plants in Australia. Cunninghamia 12(3): 177-180. Kooyman, R.M. 2012. Traits and gradients influence the canopy position of small-statured rain forest trees. Australian Journal of Botany 60: 735-742. Kooyman, R.M., Rossetto, M., Allen, C. and Cornwell, W. 2012. Australian tropical and sub-tropical rainforest: phylogeny, functional biogeography and environmental gradients. Biotropica 44: 668-679. Kooyman, R.M., Rossetto, M., Cornwell, W. and Westoby, M. 2011. Phylogenetic tests of community assembly across regional to continental scales in tropical and sub-tropical rainforests. Global Ecology and Biogeography 20: 707-716. Lusk, C.H., Sendall, K. and Kooyman, R.. 2011. Latitude, solar elevation angles, and gap-regenerating rainforest pioneers. Journal of Ecology 99: 491-502. Kooyman, R.M., Cornwell, W. and Westoby, M. 2010. Plant functional traits in Australian sub-tropical rain forest: partitioning within community from cross-landscape variation. Journal of Ecology 98: 517-525. Lusk, C.H., Onoda, Y., Kooyman, R.M. and Gutiérrez-Girón, A. 2010. Reconciling species-level vs plastic responses of evergreen leaf structure to light gradients: shade leaves punch above their weight. New Phytologist. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2010.03202.x. Kooyman, R.M. and Westoby, M. 2009. Costs of height gain in rainforest saplings: main stem scaling, functional traits and strategy variation across 75 species. Annals of Botany 104: 987-993. Royer, D.L., Kooyman, R.M., Little, S.A. and Wilf, P. 2009. Ecology of leaf teeth: a multi-site analysis from an Australian sub-tropical rainforest. American Journal of Botany 96: 738-750. Kooyman, R.M. and Rossetto, M. 2008. Definition of plant functional groups for informing implementation scenarios in resource-limited multi-species recovery planning. Biodiversity and Conservation 17: 2917-2937. Maynard, D., Crayn, D., Rossetto, M., Kooyman, R. and Coode, M. 2008. Elaeocarpus sedentarius sp. nov. (Elaeocarpaceae) – morphometric analysis of a new, rare species from eastern Australia. Australian Systematic Botany 21: 192-200. Rossetto, M., Kooyman, R.M., Sherwin, W. and Jones, R. 2008. Dispersal limitations rather than bottlenecks or habitat specificity can restrict the distribution of rare and endemic rainforest trees. American Journal of Botany 95: 321-329. Kooyman, R.M. and Rossetto, M. 2006. Factors influencing species selection for littoral rainforest restoration: Do environmental gradients matter? Ecological Restoration and Management 7: 113-122. Kariuki, M., Kooyman, R.M., Brooks, L., Smith, R.G.B. and Vanclay J.K. 2006. Modelling growth, recruitments and mortality to describe and simulate dynamics of subtropical rainforests following different levels of disturbance. Forest Biometry, Modelling and Information Sciences 1: 22-46. http://www.fbmis.info/A/6_1_KariukiM_1. Kariuki, M., Rolfe, M., Smith, R.G.B., Vanclay, J.K. and Kooyman, R.M.. 2006. Diameter growth performance varies with species functional-group and habitat characteristics in subtropical rainforests. Forest Ecology and Management 225: 1-14. Kariuki, M. and Kooyman, R.M. 2006. Floristic changes and regeneration patterns for a 12-year period during the 3^rd and 4^th decades following selection logging in a subtropical rainforest. Austral Ecology 30: 844-855. Rossetto, M. and Kooyman, R.M. 2005. The tension between dispersal and persistence regulates the current distribution of rare palaeo-endemic rainforest flora: a case study. Journal of Ecology 93: 906-917. Weston, P. and Kooyman, R.M. 2002a. Systematics of Eidothea (Proteaceae), with the description of a new species, Eidothea hardeniana, from the Nightcap Range, north-eastern New South Wales. Telopea 9: 821-832. Weston, P. and Kooyman, R.M. 2002b. Eidothea hardeniana: botany and ecology of the ‘Nightcap Oak’. Australian Plants 21: 342-344. Catling, P.C., Burt, R.J. and Kooyman, R.M. 1997. A Comparison of Techniques Used in a Survey of the Ground-dwelling and Arboreal Mammals in Forests in North-eastern New South Wales. Wildlife Research 24: 417-432.