Research interests

• Wildlife sampling methodology
• Transect/quadrat sampling theory
• Spatial environmental models
• Survey design and analysis.

Background

Gavin Melville is a Research Scientist (Biometrics) and works as a consulting biometrician at the Trangie Agricultural Research Centre. His activities include design of agricultural experiments, data analysis, survey design and statistical research. 

Gavin joined NSW Agriculture* in 1991 as a biometrician and undertakes research into sampling methodology, including issues related to surveys of wildlife and plant ecology. He has over 25 years of statistical experience including time with the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Commonwealth Department of Health and Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. He has written over 60 scientific papers, half of which are in peer-reviewed publications.

*NSW Department of Primary Industries was formed on July 1, 2004 through an amalgamation of NSW Agriculture, NSW Fisheries, State Forests of NSW and the NSW Department of Mineral Resources.

Qualifications

• B Sc  (Statistics)
• M Litt (Applied Maths) 
• Grad Dip (Statistics)
• PhD (Sampling)

Current projects

• Improvements in mark-recapture estimation 
• Model-based and design-based sampling strategies 
• Environmental sampling.

Select Publications

Waters CM, Melville G and Jacobs S (2009) Association of five Austrodanthonia species (family Poaceae) with large and small scale environmental features in central western New South Wales. Cunninghamia, 11(1), 65-80.

Bowman A, Alemseged Y, Melville G, Smith W and Syrch F (2009) Increasing the perennial grass component of native pastures through grazing management in the 400-600 mm rainfall zone in central western NSW. The Rangeland Journal, 32; 1-8.

Melville G, Tracey JP and Fleming PJS and Lukins BS (2008) Aerial surveys of multiple species: critical assumptions and sources of bias in distance and mark-recapture estimators. Wildlife Research, 35(4); 310-348.

Tracey JP, Fleming PJS and Melville GJ (2008) Accuracy of some aerial survey estimators: contrasts with known numbers. Wildlife Research, 35(4); 377-384.

Waters C, Dear B, Hackney B, Jessop P and Melville G (2008) Trangie wallaby grass^TM [Austrodanthonia caespitosa (Gaudich.) H.P.Linder]. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture, 48, 575-577.

Hacker RB, Hodgkinson KC, Melville GJ, Bean J and Clipperton SP (2006) Death model for tussock perennial grasses: thresholds for grazing-induced mortality of mulga Mitchell grass (Thyridolepis mitchelliana). The Rangeland Journal, 28; 105-114.

Kilgour RJ, Melville GJ and Greenwood PL (2006) Individual differences in the reaction of beef cattle to situations involving social isolation, close proximity of humans, restraint and novelty. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 99(1-2); 21-40.

Tracey JP, Fleming PJS, and Melville GJ (2005) Does variable probability of detection compromise the use of indices in aerial surveys of medium-sized mammals? Wildlife Research, 32; 245-252.

Melville GJ and Welsh AH (2005) Rejoinder to “Line Transect Sampling in Small and Large Regions”. Biometrics, 61; 859-861.

Melville GJ and Welsh AH (2002) Estimating Species Abundance in Encyclopaedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), Developed under the Auspices of the UNESCO, Eolss Publishers, Oxford, UK. [http://www.eolss.net]

Hall P, Melville G, Welsh AH (2001) Bias correction and bootstrap methods for a spatial sampling scheme. Bernoulli, 7(6); 829-846.

Melville GJ, and Welsh AH (2001) Line transect sampling in small regions. Biometrics, 57(4); 1130-1137.

Professional associations and activities

Member of the Statistical Society of Australia. 

Fields of Research

010404 Applied Statistics

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

Keyword/phrase list of research interests

• Ecological sampling 
• Wildlife surveys 
• Survey methodology