Academic Degrees

2014 Ph.D. Plant Ecology, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia. 2007 B.Sc. Hons. Biology, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia. Employment

Current: Associate Lecturer, Terrestrial Ecology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong, Australia 2013-current: Honorary Bulletin Editor, Ecological Society of Australia (http://uat.ecolsoc.org.au/) 2010-2013, Convenor of Invasive Species Research Chapter, Ecological Society of Australia 2012-2013, Sessional Lecturer, School of Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong, Australia

I am an applied plant ecologist with two broad research interests:

Ways in which anthropogenic disturbances, such as landscape modification, alien plant invasion, nutrient enrichment and climate change, disrupt the diversity and ecological function of indigenous plant communities. I am also interested in how the effects of such disturbances vary across different plant functional groups, such as species’ growth form, reproductive strategy and dispersal mechanism, and the consequences of this for the function of important ecosystem processes. Role of facilitation and mutualism amongst plants and co-resident animals and soil biota in structuring plant communities and maintaining ecosystem function.

Gooden, Ben, and Kris French. "Impacts of alien plant invasion on native plant communities are mediated by functional identity of resident species, not resource availability." Oikos (2014). Article first published online: 23 OCT 2014, DOI: 10.1111/oik.01724. Gooden, B., & French, K. (2014). Impacts of alien grass invasion in coastal seed banks vary amongst native growth forms and dispersal strategies. Biological Conservation, 171 114-126. Gooden, B., & French, K. (2014). Non-interactive effects of plant invasion and landscape modification on native communities. Diversity and Distributions. doi: 10.1111/ddi.12178. Gooden, B., French, K. and Robinson, S. A. 2014. Alien grass disrupts reproduction and post-settlement recruitment of co-occurring native vegetation: a mechanism for diversity decline in invaded forest? Plant Ecology. Volume 215, Issue 5, pp 567-580. Gooden, B., French, K., Turner, P. and Downey, P. O. 2009. Impact threshold for an alien plant invader, Lantana camara L., on native plant communities. Biological Conservation 142, 2631–2641 Gooden, B., French, K., Turner, P. 2009. Invasion and management of a woody plant, Lantana camara L., alters vegetation diversity within wet sclerophyll forest in southeastern Australia. Forest Ecology and Management 257, 960–967 French, K. Mason, T. J. and Gooden, B. in press. Invasion of woody shrubs and trees. In Prins, H. and Gordon, I. (Eds) When Continents Collide: Biological Invasions and Ecosystem Theory. Cambridge University Press, UK.