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Dr Patrick O'Farrell

 

Currently employed as a landscape ecologist at the CSIR, I have however had a diversity of work experience, having worked for a newspaper (as a delivery boy), as a waiter, a secretary, a barman, a bicycle courier, a software training manager, and grants payments officer.

 

My research career started in 2000, being employed as an ecologist with the National Botanical Institute, working in arid farming landscapes of the succulent and Nama karoo. I am employed as a principal researcher and amd the current research group leader of the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service group at the CSIR. My research is focussed on understanding the impacts and trade-offs associated with land-use change. This involves developing spatially explicit ecosystem service models that capture ecological processes and dynamics, resulting human benefits and economic values.

 

At present I am fascinated by the challenges that urbanization poses on ecological processes and the role of novel ecosystems and designed landscapes in meeting societal needs within the urban. I have been involved in a number of international think tanks, research panels and synthesis exercises relating to regional ecosystem services assessment and human wellbeing. I also have a keen interest in biomimicary and green technology. I like Campervans, cats, Greek food, and waterslides, I dislike capitalism, Top Billing, chocolate with nuts and completing surveys. 

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

 

  • Blanchard, R., O’Farrell, P.J., Richardson, D.M. (2015) Anticipating potential biodiversity conflicts for future biofuel crops in South Africa: incorporating spatial filters with species distribution models. Global Change Biology Biofuels 7, 273–287.

 

  • Nel J.L., Le Maitre D.C., Nel D.C.,  Reyers B., Archibald S., Van Wilgen, B.W., Forsyth, G.,G., Theron, A.K., O’Farrell, P.J., Mwenge Kahinda J-M., Engelbrecht F.A., Kapangaziwiri E., Van Niekerk, .L, Barwell L. (2014). Natural hazards in a changing world: a case for ecosystem-based management. PLoS ONE. 9(5) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0095942.

 

  • Le Maitre, D.C., Kotzee, I, O’Farrell, P.J. (2014). Impacts of land-cover change on the water flow regulation ecosystem service: Invasive alien plants, fire and their policy implications. Land Use Policy 36: 171- 181.

 

  • Duraiappah A.K., Asah S.T., Brondizio E.S., Kosoy N., O’Farrell P.J., Prieur-Richard A-H., Subramanian S.M., Takeuchi K. (2014). Managing the Mismatches to Provide Ecosystem Services for Human Well-being: A Conceptual framework for understanding the New Commons, Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 14(7): 94-100.

 

  • Trabucchi, M.,Comin, F.A., O’Farrell, P.(2013). Hierarchical priority setting for restoration in a watershed in NE Spain, based on assessments of soil erosion and ecosystem services. Regional Environmental Change. DOI 10.1007/s10113-012-0392-4.

 

CURRENT PROJECTS

 

  • Water Research Council

  • WISER

  • Project for Ecosystem Services (ProEcoServ)

 

NETWORKS

 

 

RESEARCH TOPICS

 

  • Multi-functional landscapes

  • ES modeling and mapping

  • Sustainable cities

  • Degradation and restoration

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