For further information about my publications click here to jump to my profile in Google Scholar and if you’d like a copy of any of my other publications don’t hesitate to contact me directly via dwatson at csu dot edu dot eh you

Mclellan RC, Dixon K, Watson DM. 2021. Prolific or precarious: a review of the status of Australian sandalwood (Santalum spicatum [R.Br.] A.DC., Santalaceae). The Rangelands Journal pdf

Fontúrbel FE, Nespolo RF, Amico GC, Watson DM 2021. Climate change can disrupt ecological interactions in mysterious ways: Using ecological generalists to forecast community-wide effects. Climate Change Ecology 2:100044 pdf

Cowan MA, Callan MN, Watson MJ, Watson DM, Doherty TS, Michael DR, Dunlop JA, Turner JM, Moore HA, Watchorn DJ, Nimmo DG. 2021. Artificial refuges for wildlife conservation: what is the state of the science?. Biological Reviews pdf

Roe P, Eichinski P, Fuller RA, McDonald PG, Schwarzkopf L, Towsey M, Truskinger A, Tucker D, & Watson DM. 2021. The Australian Acoustic Observatory. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 00, 1– 7 pdf

Znidersic E, Towsey MW, Hand C, Watson DM. 2021. Eastern Black Rail detection using semi-automated analysis of long-duration acoustic recordings. Avian Conservation and Ecology 16(1):9 pdf

Těšitel J, Li AR, Knotková K, McLellan R, Bandaranayake PCG, Watson DM. 2021. The bright side of parasitic plants: what are they good for? Plant Physiol. 185(4):1309–1324 pdf

Krasylenko Y, Těšitel J, Ceccantini G, Oliveira-da-Silva M, Dvořák V, Steele D, Sosnovsky Y, Piwowarczyk R, Watson DM, Teixeira-Costa L. 2021. Parasites on parasites: hyper-, epi-, and autoparasitism among flowering plants. American Journal of Botany 108:8–21 pdf 

Cooney SJN, Watson DM. 2020. Response to Olsen’s question of reliability. Emu–Austral Ornithology 120: 189 pdf

Watson DM. 2020. Did mammals bring the first mistletoes into the treetops? American Naturalist 196: 769–774. pdf

Oliver JL, Brereton B, Turkay S, Watson DM, Roe P. 2020. Exploration of Aural & Visual Media About Birds Informs Lessons for Citizen Science Design. In: Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’20). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 1687–1700 pdf

Watson DM, Cook ME, Fadini RF. 2020. Towards best-practice management of mistletoes in horticulture. Botany pdf

Milner KV, Leigh A, Gladstone W, Watson DM. 2020. Subdividing the spectrum: quantifying host specialization in mistletoes. Botany pdf

Cook ME, Leigh A, Watson DM. 2020. Hiding in plain sight: experimental evidence for birds as selective agents for host mimicry in mistletoes. Botany pdf

Smith DG, Truskinger A, Roe P, Watson DM. 2020. Do acoustically detectable species reflect overall diversity? A case study from Australia’s arid zone. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation pdf

Watson MJ, Watson DM. 2020. Post-Anthropocene Conservation. Trends in Ecology and Evolution (in press) pdf

Znidersic L, Towsey M, Roy WK, Darling SE, Truskinger A, Roe P, Watson DM. 2019. Using visualization and machine learning methods to monitor low detectability species—the least bittern as a case study. Ecological Informatics (in press) pdf

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Watson DM. 2019. Mistletoes of Southern Australia. Second Edition. CSIRO Publishing

Iacona G, Ramachandra A, McGowan J, Davies A, Joppa L, Koh LP, Fegraus E, Game E, Guillera-Arroita G, Harcourt R, Indraswari K, Lahoz-Monfort JJ, Oliver JL, Possingham HP, Ward A, Watson DM, Watson JEM, Wintle BA, Chadès I. 2019. Identifying viable solutions to bring conservation into the innovation era. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment pdf.

Gosper CR, Watson SJ, Fox E, Burbidge AH, Craig MD, Douglas TK, Fitzimons JA, McNee S, Nicholls AO, O’Connor J, Prober SM, Watson DM, Yates CJ. 2019. Fire-mediated habitat change regulates woodland bird species and functional group occurrence. Ecological Applications 29 e01997 pdf

Lahoz-Monfort JL, Chadès I, Davies A, Fegraus E, Game E, Guillera-Arroita G, Harcourt R, Indrswari K, McGowan J, Oliver JL, Refisch J, Rhodes J, Roe P, Rogers A, Ward A, Watson DM, Watson JEM, Wintle BA, Joppa L. 2019. A call for international leadership and coordination to realize the potential of conservation technology. BioScience pdf

ST Garnett, SHM Butchart, GB Baker, E Bayraktarov, KL Buchanan, AA Burbidge, ALM Chauvenet, L Christidis, G Ehmke, M Grace, DG Hoccom, SM Legge, I Leiper, DB Lindenmayer, RH Loyn, M Maron, P McDonald, P Menkhorst, HP Possingham, J Radford, AE Reside, DM Watson, JEM Watson, B Wintle, JCZ Woinarski, HM Geyle. 2019
Metrics of progress in the understanding and management of threats to Australian birds
Conservation Biology 33: 456–468 pdf

Oliver JL, Brereton M, Watson DM, Roe P. 2019. Listening to save wildlife: lessons learned from use of acoustic technology by a species recovery team. Proceedings of the 2019 on Designing Interactive Systems Conference: 1335-1348 pdf

Moore HA, Dunlop JA, Valentine LE, Woinarski JCZ, Ritchie EG, Watson DM, Nimmo DG. 2019 Topographic ruggedness and rainfall mediate geographic range restriction of a threatened marsupial predator. Diversity and Distributions pdf

Mellado A, Hobby A, Lázaro-González A, Watson DM. 2019. Hemiparasites drive heterogeneity in litter-arthropods: implications for woodland insectivorous birds. Austral Ecology 44: 77–785 pdf

Gosper CR, Fox E, Burbidge AH, Craig MD, Douglas TK, Fitzimons JA, McNee S, Nicholls AO, O’Connor J, Prober SM, Watson DM, Watson SJ, Yates CJ. 2019. Multi-century periods since fire in an intact woodland landscape favour bird species declining in an adjacent agricultural region. Biological Conservation 230: 82–90 pdf

Znidersic E, Flores T, Macrae I, Woinarski JCZ, Watson DM. 2019. Camera trapping and transect counts yield complementary insights into an endangered island endemic rail. Pacific Conservation Biology pdf

Watson DM, Znidersic E, Craig M. 2018. Ethical birding, call playback and conservation. Conservation Biology   pdf

Davis RA, Watson DM. 2018. Vagrants as vanguards of range shifts in a dynamic world.  Biological Conservation 224: 238–241 pdf

Watson DM, Shaw D. 2018. Veiled polypore (Cryptoporus volvatus) as a foraging substrate for the white-headed woodpecker (Picoides albolarvatus). Northwest Naturalist 99: 58–62 pdf

Towsey M., Znidersic E, Broken-Brow J, Indraswari K, Watson DM, Phullips Y, Truskinger A, Roe P. 2018. Long-duration, false-colour spectrograms for detecting species in large audio datasets. Journal of Ecoacoustics. 2: 1–13 pdf

Thomsen MS, Altieri AH, Angelini C, Bishop MJ, Gribben PE, Lear G, He Q, Schiel BR, South PM, Watson DM, Wernberg T, Zotz G. 2018 Secondary foundation species enhance biodiversity. Nature Ecology and Evolution 2: 634–639 pdf

Watson DM, Davis RA 2017. Hopeful monsters—in defense of quests to rediscover long-lost species. Conservation Letters 10: 382–383 pdf

Griebel A, Watson D, Pendall A. 2017. Mistletoe, friend and foe: synthesizing ecosystem implications of mistletoe infection. Environmental Research Letters 12: 115012 pdf

Watson DM 2017. Sampling effort determination in bird surveys: do current norms meet best-practice recommendations. Wildlife Research 44: 183–193 pdf

Watson DM. 2017. On tropical mistletoes: tractable models for evolutionary ecology, ecosystem function and phytochemistry. Botany 95: 211–217 pdf

Watson DM, Doerr VAJ, Banks SC, Driscoll DA, van der Ree R, Doerr ED, Sunnucks P. 2017. Monitoring ecological consequences of efforts to restore landscape-scale connectivity. Biological Conservation 206: 201–09 pdf

Watson DM, Milner KV, Leigh A. 2016. Novel application of species richness estimates to predict the host range of parasites. International Journal for Parasitology  47: 31–39 pdf

Watson DM. 2016. Fleshing out facilitation-reframing interaction networks beyond top-down versus bottom-up. New Phytologist 211:803–808 pdf

Watson DM 2015. Disproportionate declines in ground-foraging insectivorous birds after mistletoe removal. PLoS ONE 10(12): e0142992. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0142992 pdf

Watson DM, Watson MJ. 2015. Wildlife restoration: mainstreaming translocations to keep common species common. Biological Conservation 191: 830–838 pdf

Watson DM, Anderson SE, Olson V. 2015. Reassessing breeding investment in birds: class-wide analysis of clutch volume reveals a single outlying family. PLoS ONE 10(1): e0117678. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0117678 pdf

Razeng E, Watson DM. 2015. Nutritional composition of the preferred prey of insectivorous birds: popularity reflects quality. Journal of Avian Biology 46: 89–96 pdf

Burns A, Taylor G, Watson DM, Cunningham S. 2015. Diversity and host-specificity of Psylloidea (Hemiptera) inhabiting box mistletoe, Amyema miquelii, and three of its host Eucalyptus species. Austral Entomology pdf

Watson S, Luck G, Spooner P and Watson DM. 2014. Effects of landscape composition and connectivity on the distribution of an endangered parrot in agricultural landscapes.In press Landscape Ecology 29: 1249–59 pdf

Watson DM, Herring M. 2014. On pluralism in ecology: seeing the forest and the trees. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 281: 20132696 pdf

Luck G, Spooner P, Watson DM, Watson S, Saunders M. 2014. Interactions between almond plantations and native ecosystems: lessons learned from north-western Victoria. Ecological Management and Restoration 14: 4–15 pdf

Ritchie EG, Bradshaw CJA, Dickman CR, Hobbs R, Johnson CN, Johnston EL, Laurance WF, Lindenmayer D, McCarthy MA, Nimmo DG, Possingham HH, Pressey RL, Watson DM, Woinarski J. 2013. Editorial: Continental-scale governance and the hastening of loss of Australia’s biodiversity. Conservation Biology 27:1133–5 pdf

Burns AE and Watson DM. 2013. Islands in a sea of foliage: mistletoes as discrete components of forest canopies. Pp. 215–222 in Treetops at Risk: challenges of Global Canopy Ecology and Conservation, ed. M Lowman. Springer, New York. pdf

Ritchie EG, Nimmo DG, Bradshaw CJA, Burgman MA, Martin JK, McCarthy MA, Parris KM, Dickman CR, French K, Hobbs R, Hughs L, Johnson CN, Johnston E, Laurance WF, Lindemayer D, Lunt ID, McIntyre S, Possingham HP, Pressey B, Watson DM, Woinarski J. 2013. Relaxed laws imperil Australian wildlife. Nature 498: 434. pdf  Author list

Watson S, Luck G, Spooner P and Watson DM. 2013. Human-induced land-cover change: incorporating the interacting effects of frequency, sequence, time-span and magnitude of changes on biota. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 12:241–249 pdf

Watson DM, Rawsthorne J. 2013. Mistletoe specialist frugivores: latterday ‘Johnny Appleseeds’ or self-serving market gardeners? Oecologia 172:925–932 pdf

Barea L, Watson DM. 2013. Trapped between popular fruit and preferred nest location—cafeterias are poor places to raise a family. Functional Ecology 27:766–74 pdf

Stevens HC, Watson DM. 2013. Reduced rainfall explains avian declines in an unfragmented landscape: incremental steps toward an empty forest? Emu: Austral Ornithology 113:112–121 pdf

Watson DM, Herring M. 2012. Mistletoe as a keystone resource: an experimental test. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 279: 3853–3860 pdf

McBride, M.F., Garnett, S.T., Szabo, J.K., Burbidge, A.H., Butchart, S.H.M., Christidis, L., Dutson, G., Ford, H.A., Loyn, R.H., Watson, D.M., and Burgman, M.A. 2012. Structured elicitation of expert judgments for threatened species assessment: a case study on a continental scale using email. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 3: 906–920 pdf

Watson DM. 2012. Painted Honeyeater. Pp. 149–152 in: Queensland’s Threatened Animals, eds. LK Curtis, AJ Dennis, KR McDonald, PM Kyne and SJS Debus. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood.

Watson DM. 2012 The relative contribution of specialists and generalists to mistletoe dispersal: insights from a Neotropical forest. Biotropica 45: 195–202 pdf

Razeng E and Watson DM. 2012 What do declining woodland birds eat? A synthesis of dietary records. Emu: Austral Ornithology 112:149–56 pdf

Rawsthorne J, Watson DM and Roshier DA. 2012. The restricted seed rain of a mistletoe specialist. Journal of Avian Biology 43:9–14 pdf

Watson DM. 2011. Mistletoes of Southern Australia. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood. 188 pp. ISBN 978 0 643 09593 9

Burns AE, Cunningham SA, Watson DM. 2011. Arthropod assemblages in tree canopies: a comparison of orders on box mistletoe (Amyema miquelii) and its host eucalypts. Australian Journal of Entomology 50: 221–30 pdf

Rawsthorne J, Watson DM and Roshier DA 2011. Implications of movement patterns of a dietary generalist for mistletoe seed dispersal. Austral Ecology 36: 650–55 pdf

Watson DM, McGregor HW and Spooner PG. 2011. Hemiparasitic shrubs increase resource availability and multi-trophic diversity of eucalypt forest birds. Functional Ecology 150: 889–99 pdf

Bennett AF and Watson DM. 2011. Declining woodland birds—is our science making a difference? Emu: Austral Ornithology 111: i–vi pdf

Watson DM. 2011. A productivity-based explanation for woodland bird declines: poorer soils yield less food. Emu: Austral Ornithology 111:10–18 pdf

March WA, Watson DM. 2010. The contribution of mistletoes to nutrient returns in a temperate eucalypt forest: evidence for a critical role in nutrient cycling. Austral Ecology 35:713–21 pdf

Preston AL, An M and Watson DM. 2010. Chemical profile differences in endemic parasitic weeds: a study of host-parasite chemical profiles in select mistletoe and eucalypt species. Proceedings of the 17th Australian Weeds Conference (Christchurch, New Zealand): 373–4 pdf

Watson DM. 2010. From pattern to process: towards understanding drivers of diversity in temperate woodlands. Pp. 159–165 in: Temperate Woodland Conservation and Management, ed. D Lindenmayer, A Bennett, R Hobbs, CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood. pdf

Watson DM. 2010. Optimizing inventories of diverse sites—insights from Barro Colorado Island birds. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 1: 280–291 pdf   click here for associated podcast

Watson DM. 2009. Parasitic plants as facilitators: more Dryad than Dracula? Journal of Ecology 97:1151–9 pdf

Watson DM. 2009. Continental Islands. Pp 180–188 in: Encyclopædia of Islands, ed. R Gillespie, D Clague. University of California Press, Berkeley. pdf

Watson DM. 2009. Determinants of parasitic plant distribution: the role of host quality. Botany 87: 16–21 pdf

Sass S, Watson DM and Wilson A. 2008. The reptile fauna of the upper Billabong Creek catchment area, NSW. Herpetofauna 38: 41–50 pdf

Mathiasen RL, Nickrent D, Shaw DC, Watson DM. 2008. Mistletoes: pathology, systematics, ecology and management. Plant Disease 93: 988–1002 pdf

Cooney SJN, Watson DM. 2008. An experimental approach to understanding the use of mistletoe as a nest substrate for birds: nest predation. Wildlife Research 35:65–71 pdf

Sass S, Watson DM. Herring M. 2007. A range extension for the blotched blue-tongue skink (Tiliqua nigrolutea; Scincidae) and implications for it’s future survival. Herpetofauna 37: 21–5 pdf

Barea L, Watson DM. 2007. Temporal variation in food resources determines onset of breeding in an Australian mistletoe specialist. Emu: Austral Ornithology 107: 203–9 pdf

March WA, Watson DM. 2007. Parasites boost productivity: effects of mistletoe on litter dynamics in a temperate Australian forest. Oecologia 154: 339–47 pdf

Watson DM, Tack EJ. 2007. Vocal diversity patterns. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 5: 406 pdf

Green R, Turnbull R, Watson DM 2007. An inland record of the Pacific baza at Tibooburra, far north-western New South Wales. Australian Field Ornithology 24: 26–29 pdf

Watson DM, Roshier DA and Wiegand T. 2007. Spatial ecology of a root parasite—from pattern to process. Austral Ecology 32: 359–69 pdf

Watson DM and Herring M 2006. Of mistletoe and mechanisms—drivers of declining biodiversity in remnant woodlands. Proceedings of Veg Futures Conference: 1–7 pdf

Stevens HC and Watson DM. 2006. Effect or rainfall on breeding of grey shrike-thrushes Colluricincla harmonica. Corella 30: 16–20 pdf

Cooney SJN, Watson DM, Young J. 2006. Mistletoe nesting in Australian birds—a review. Emu: Austral Ornithology 106: 1–12 pdf

Cooney SJN and Watson DM. 2005. Diamond firetails Stagonopleura guttata preferentially nest in mistletoe. Emu: Austral Ornithology 105: 317–22 pdf

Stevens HC and Watson DM. 2005. Breeding biology of the grey shrike-thrush, Colluricincla harmonica. Emu: Austral Ornithology 105: 223–31 pdf

Maron M, Lill A, Watson DM, Mac Nally R. 2005. Temporal variation in bird assemblages: how representative is a one-year snapshot? Austral Ecology 30: 383–94 pdf

Watson DM 2005. Response from Watson. BioScience 55:389 pdf

Watson DM. 2005. Diagnosable versus distinct: evaluating species limits in birds. BioScience 55:60–68 pdf

Watson DM 2004. Beyond impact factors: using the media to ensure our research has real impact. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 2: 289–291 pdf

Watson DM. 2004. Mistletoe—a unique constituent of canopies worldwide. Pp 212–223 in: Forest Canopies. 2nd Edition (fully revised), ed. M Loman, B Rinker. Academic Press, New York.

Maron M, Mac Nally R, Watson DM, Lill A. 2004. Can the biotic nestedness matrix be used predictively? Oikos 106:433–44 pdf

Shaw DC, Watson DM, Mathiason RL. 2004. Comparison of dwarf mistletoes (Arceuthobium spp., Viscaceae) in the western United States with mistletoes (Amyema spp., Loranthaceae) in Australia—ecological analogs and reciprocal models for ecosystem management. Australian Journal of Botany 52: 481–98 pdf

Watson DM. 2004. Comparative evaluation of new approaches to survey birds. Wildlife Research 31:1–11 pdf

Watson DM. 2003. The “standardized search”: an improved way to conduct bird surveys. Austral Ecology 28: 515–25 pdf

Watson DM. 2003. Long-term consequences of habitat fragmentation: highland birds in Oaxaca, Mexico. Biological Conservation 111: 283–303 pdf

Watson DM. 2002. Effects of mistletoe on diversity: a case-study from southern New South Wales. Emu: Austral Ornithology 102: 275–81 pdf

Restrepo C, Sargent S, Levey D and Watson DM. 2002. The role of vertebrates in the diversification of New World mistletoes. Pp 83–98 in: Seed Dispersal and Frugivory; Ecology, Evolution and Conservation, ed: DJ Levey, WR Silva, M Galetti. CABI Publishing, Wallingford, Oxfordshire pdf

Watson DM. 2002. A conceptual framework for the study of species composition in islands, fragments and other patchy habitats. Journal of Biogeography 29: 823–34 pdf

Watson DM. 2001 Mistletoe—a keystone resource in forests and woodlands worldwide. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 32:219–49 pdf

Watson DM, Mac Nally RC, Bennett AF. 2000. The avifauna of severely fragmented Buloke (Allocasuarina luehmanni) woodlands in western Victoria. Pacific Conservation Biology 6:46–60 pdf

Watson DM. 1999. Behavioural observations of pine-oak forest birds in southern Mexico. Cotinga 12:66–69

Watson DM and Peterson, AT. 1999. Determinants of diversity in a naturally fragmented landscape: bird faunas of humid montane forests in Mesoamerica. Ecography 22:582–89 pdf

Watson DM and Benz BW. 1999. The paint-billed crake breeding in Costa Rica. The Wilson Journal of Ornithology 111:422–24 pdf

Peterson AT and Watson DM. 1998. Problems with areal definitions of endemism: the effects of spatial scale. Diversity and Distributions 4:189–194 pdf

Watson DM. 1998. House sparrow as prey of the nankeen night-heron Nycticorax caledonicus. Australian Field Ornithology 17:342–43

Watson DM. 1997. The importance of mistletoe to the white-fronted honeyeater Phylidonyris albifrons in Western Victoria. Emu: Austral Ornithology 97:174–77 pdf

Mac Nally RC and Watson DM. 1997. How does habitat-island area affect species richness? Birds in Victorian Buloke remnants. Austral Ecology 22:227–32

Watson DM. 1995. Black honeyeaters in the Wimmera. Australian Field Ornithology 16:166–67

Reports and popular articles not peer-reviewed
Watson DM. 2010. Terrestrial islands. P. 6 in: The State of Australia’s Birds 2010: Islands and Birds, ed. J Kirkwood, J O’Connor. Supplement to Wingspan vol. 20, Birds Australia, Melbourne.

Watson DM. 2008. Epidemics, economics and extinction. Opinion for Science Alert

Watson DM. 2006. Invited book review. Seed fate: predation, dispersal and seedling establishment. Austral Ecology 31:106–7

Herring M. and Watson DM. 2005. Mistletoe: scourge or saviour of our threatened woodlands? Woodland Wanderings (Newsletter of the Grassy Box Woodlands Conservation Management Network) 4:9–11

Watson DM. 2005 Ornithology 101. Wingspan 13(3): 28

Watson DM. 2004. Mistletoe: scourge or saviour of our fragmented woodlands? Wingspan, 13(1): 10–13

Watson DM. 2003. Invited book review. Foundations of Tropical Forest Biology: Classic Papers with Commentaries. Austral Ecology 28: 349–50

Watson DM. 2001. Mistletoe—a natural part of our forests and woodlands. Bogong (The journal of the Canberra and South-east Region Environment Centre 22(2):10–12

Watson DM. 2001. Mistletoe—nature’s one-stop shop. Wingspan 11(3):8–11

Watson DM. 1998. Invited book review; Tropical Forest Remnants: Ecology, management and conservation of fragmented communities. Journal of Mammalogy 79:1084–8

Watson DM. 1995. The bird communities of remnant buloke woodlands—a report on their dynamics and significance. Report for the Victorian Department of Conservation and Natural Resources