Ecology, Evolution and Conservation of Marsupials

A special issue of Diversity (ISSN 1424-2818). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal Diversity".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 December 2025 | Viewed by 117

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Honorary Associate, Centre for Compassionate Conservation, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia
Interests: animal behaviour; animal ecology; wildlife management; wildlife tourism; road ecology; marsupials; kangaroos; rangelands; aridlands; wet/dry tropics
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The world’s climate has become more variable and extreme. The current trajectory is a continuation of this ecologically challenging trend. Consequently, biodiversity is contracting, but some species may have resilience through their evolutionary and life histories. On a geological scale, the current marsupial faunas of Australia and New Guinea and South and Central America have evolved under substantial climate change with the breakup of Gondwana and continental drift to higher latitudes. They have more recently faced anthropogenic impacts on a millennial scale with the immigration of a single hominin, Homo sapiens, into their continents and on a centennial scale with a further European colonisation and rapid expansion of livestock grazing and agriculture. Species extinction has occurred with the demise of both the very large (megafauna) and many small species in the Anthropocene. Even so, many species have shown resilience. Do marsupial life histories, such as a lower basal metabolic rate and a small maternal investment at parturition, or live fast die young, advantage them under a highly variable climate with rapid cycles of droughts, floods and wildfire? We invite contributions of original research or reviews on marsupial ecology and evolution to tease out strategies that may conserve species under contemporary and future land use and climate impacts. Comparative studies between marsupial faunas or with placental mammal counterparts are welcome.

Dr. David B. Croft
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • marsupials
  • ecological resilience
  • climate change
  • life histories

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