Alejandro de la Fuente

Research

My research measures how climate change erodes tropical biodiversity, and turns that evidence into protection decisions. In my PhD I modelled three decades of Wet Tropics monitoring to explain rainforest bird and possum declines. As a postdoctoral fellow I forecast heatwave risk for the endangered spectacled flying fox, so managers can act before the next mass mortality event.

Publications

Threatened species nominations

See the threatened species nomination record this research supported.

Editorial service

  • Functional Ecology
  • PeerJ
  • Biodiversity and Conservation
  • One Earth
  • Ecology and Evolution
  • Emu - Austral Ornithology
  • Diversity and Distributions
  • Ecography

Talks

  • 2025

    Why Canopy Microclimate Matters for Understanding Flying Fox Heat Vulnerability?

    20th National Flying Fox Forum, Cairns, Australia

    Roost canopies differ by several degrees, so standard weather data can understate the heat risk to flying foxes.

  • 2025

    Microclimatic drivers of thermoregulatory behaviour in Spectacled Flying Foxes

    International Bat Research Conference, Cairns, Australia

    Solar radiation, not air temperature alone, drives spectacled flying foxes into high-cost cooling behaviour such as fanning.

  • 2024

    The impacts of Climate Change on the Rainforest Vertebrates of the Australian Wet Tropics

    James Cook University, Townsville, Australia

    Three decades of monitoring show birds tracking gradual warming while ringtail possums collapse under extreme heatwaves.

  • 2024

    An uphill battle: the story of ringtail possums

    Cairns - Wet Tropics Management Authority, Brisbane, Australia

    Rainforest ringtail possums are declining under climate change, evidence brought to a Wet Tropics threat workshop.

  • 2023

    Possums in Peril: The Urgent Need to Address Climate Change Impacts on Tropical Montane SpeciesSecond best presentation

    TESS conference, Palm Cove, Australia

    Warming pushes ringtail possums up the mountains, and the species already near the summits have nowhere left to go.

  • 2023

    Songs of disappearance: Rainforest Montane Birds and Climate ChangeBest talk prize

    Zoology and Ecology North Queensland, Mission Beach, Australia

    Climate drivers split rainforest bird populations by elevation: lowland species gained, upland species declined under the same warming.

  • 2023

    Crisis in the tropics: Signs of an imminent collapse

    CBCS - University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

    More than 30 years of rainforest monitoring show climate change eroding montane biodiversity fastest among narrow-range species.

  • 2022

    Predicted alteration of vertebrate communities in response to climate-induced elevational shiftsBest postgraduate presentation

    ESA-SCBO conference, Wollongong, Australia · Presented earlier as a poster at the ESA conference, March 2021

    Species climb at different speeds under warming, so mountain communities reshuffle and high-elevation species face mass local extinction.

  • 2022

    Climate change threatens the future of rainforest ringtail possumsPeople's Choice award

    Zoology and Ecology North Queensland Conference, Mission Beach, Australia · Also presented at the Climate and Metabolic Ecology Lab, University of Melbourne, December 2022

    Extreme heatwaves drove a severe ringtail possum decline, and the forecast has populations below viability thresholds by 2050.

  • 2022

    Introduction to hierarchical models for abundance

    CodeR, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia

    Hierarchical models estimate population size from counts of unmarked animals, while separating real change from imperfect detection.

  • 2021

    Predicting species abundance by implementing the ecological niche theorySecond best talk

    Annual conference of the Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science, James Cook University, Cairns, Australia · Also presented at the Tropical conservation conference, British Ecological Society, November 2021

    Environmental suitability predicted local abundance for 50 endemic species, explaining 55% of deviance on average.

  • 2017

    Seasonal variation in the richness, relative frequency and diversity of birds in urban wetlands of Llanquihue, southern Chile

    XXII Congress of Chilean Ornithology, Santa Cruz, Chile

    Bird richness peaks in spring across the urban wetlands of Llanquihue, and diversity stays high all year.

Teaching

Courses

I held 11 teaching roles across 6 courses at James Cook University between 2019 and 2025. I tutored and demonstrated in undergraduate ecology, demonstrated in Master’s statistics, helped develop a course, and gave a guest lecture on conservation under climate change.

  • 2025

    Climate Change and Biodiversity

    Undergraduate · Demonstrator

  • 2023

    Fundamentals of Ecology

    Undergraduate · Demonstrator

  • 2022

    Conservation Biology

    Master's degree · Guest lecturer

    “Targeted conservation actions under climate change”

  • 2022

    Population and Community Ecology

    Undergraduate · Tutor and field demonstrator

  • 2022

    Advanced Statistics

    Master's degree · Demonstrator and tutor

  • 2022

    Fundamentals of Ecology

    Undergraduate · Demonstrator and course development

  • 2021

    Fundamentals of Ecology

    Undergraduate · Demonstrator and course development

  • 2021

    Population and Community Ecology

    Undergraduate · Tutor and field demonstrator

  • 2021

    Toolkit for the Field Biologist

    Undergraduate · Demonstrator and marking

  • 2020

    Population and Community Ecology

    Undergraduate · Tutor and field demonstrator

  • 2019

    Climate Change and Biodiversity

    Undergraduate · Demonstrator

Mentoring

  • 2025

    Olivia Bond

    James Cook University · Cairns, Australia

    Project: Microclimate drivers of thermoregulatory behaviors in spectacled flying-foxes (Pteropus conspicillatus)

Book chapters

I co-authored 14 species accounts in The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2020, published by CSIRO Publishing.

  • Grey-headed Robin Heteromyias cinereifrons

    Williams S.E., de la Fuente A., Freeman AND, Craig M, Frith DW, Frith CB, Garnett ST. (2021). In The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2020. (Eds ST Garnett and GB Baker) pp. 744-746. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.

  • Victoria’s riflebird Lophorina victoriae

    Williams S.E., de la Fuente A., Frith CB, Frith DW, Garnett ST. (2021). In The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2020. (Eds ST Garnett and GB Baker) pp. 737-739. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.

  • Wet Tropics Eastern Whipbird Psophodes olivaceus lateralis

    Williams S.E., de la Fuente A., Garnett ST. (2021). In The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2020. (Eds ST Garnett and GB Baker) pp. 722-724. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.

  • Tooth-billed Bowerbird Scenopoeetes dentirostris

    Williams S.E., de la Fuente A., Harrington GN, Frith CB, Frith DW, Chaplin D, Freeman AND, Craig M, Garnett ST. (2021). In The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2020. (Eds ST Garnett and GB Baker) pp. 483-486. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.

  • Wet Tropics Satin Bowerbird Ptilonorhynchus violaceus

    Williams S.E., de la Fuente A., Frith CB, Frith DW, Chaplin D, Garnett ST. (2021). In The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2020. (Eds ST Garnett and GB Baker) pp. 489-491. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.

  • Little Treecreeper Cormobates leucophaea minor

    Williams S.E., de la Fuente A., Garnett ST. (2021). In The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2020. (Eds ST Garnett and GB Baker) pp. 495-497. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.

  • Golden Bowerbird Prionodura newtoniana

    Williams S.E., de la Fuente A., Frith CB, Frith DW, Chaplin D, Garnett ST. (2021). In The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2020. (Eds ST Garnett and GB Baker) pp. 486-488. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.

  • Fernwren Oreoscopus gutturalis

    Williams S.E., de la Fuente A., Grant JDA, Garnett ST. (2021). In The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2020. (Eds ST Garnett and GB Baker) pp. 644-646. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.

  • Wet Tropics Brown Gerygone Gerygone mouki mouki

    Williams S.E., de la Fuente A., Freeman AND, Garnett ST. (2021). In The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2020. (Eds ST Garnett and GB Baker) pp. 649-651. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.

  • Atherton Scrubwren Sericornis keri

    Williams S.E., de la Fuente A., Garnett ST. (2021). In The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2020. (Eds ST Garnett and GB Baker) pp. 672-674. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.

  • Wet Tropics Large-billed Scrubwren Sericornis magnirostra viridior

    Williams S.E., de la Fuente A., Freeman AND, Craig M, Garnett ST. (2021). In The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2020. (Eds ST Garnett and GB Baker) pp. 676-678. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.

  • Mountain Thornbill Acanthiza katherina

    Williams S.E., de la Fuente A., Garnett ST. (2021). In The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2020. (Eds ST Garnett and GB Baker) pp. 695-697. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.

  • Bower’s Shrike-thrush Colluricincla boweri

    Williams S.E., de la Fuente A., Freeman AND, Craig M, Garnett ST. (2021). In The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2020. (Eds ST Garnett and GB Baker) pp. 744-746. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.

  • Wet Tropics Australian King-Parrot Alisterus scapularis minor

    Williams S.E., de la Fuente A., Freeman AND, Craig M, Garnett ST. (2021). In The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2020. (Eds ST Garnett and GB Baker) pp. 467-469. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.