Associate Professor Schlesinger is an Arid Zone Ecologist at the Faculty of Science and Technology. She is based at Charles Darwin University’s desert campus in Alice Springs.
Christine’s research focuses on desert ecosystems with an emphasis on the ecology and conservation of arid zone fauna.
One of her key interests is in understanding how native animals are affected, and adjusting, to rapidly changing environments. Large parts of inland Australia are being invaded by buffel grass, an introduced C4 grass that transforms plant communities and increases the frequency and intensity of fire.
A focus of Christine’s current research is to determine the impacts on native fauna, to better manage these novel, invaded ecosystems for conservation.
More broadly, Christine seeks to understand contemporary threats to desert fauna, such as introduced predators and climate change, within the framework of a highly variable, low resource arid environment.
Christine coordinates CDU’s Bachelor of Environmental Science degree and teaches in field ecology and wildlife management. She leads the Arid Zone Wildlife Ecology & Conservation lab at the Alice Springs campus.