Sami Rifai

Dr Sami Rifai

Lecturer

School of Biological Sciences

Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Technology

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.

My group examines how global change is affecting ecosystem processes. Our research focuses on how meteorological extremes affect the vegetation of Australia and the tropics. I am particularly interested in the usage of Earth Observation (remote sensing) to examine processes in ecophysiology and ecosystem ecology. 
 

I am happy to discuss potential Honours and Postgraduate research projects on anything vegetation and global change related. In particular, I have projects available on the following topics:

  • The impacts of increasing atmospheric aridity on vegetation
  • The interplay of photosynthesis and plant water use in response to warming and CO2 
  • Eucalypt forest recovery from bushfires
  • Remote sensing of seagrass dynamics in response to coastal turbidity 
  • Remote sensing for identifying the impact of rangeland conservation management 


My research tends to utilize: 

  • Earth observation and remote sensing
  • climate data
  • statistical modeling
  • machine learning

 

 

Global Change Biology (2880)

  • Journals
    Year Citation
    2025 Aguirre-Gutiérrez, J., Díaz, S., Rifai, S. W., Corral-Rivas, J. J., Nava-Miranda, M. G., González-M, R., . . . Malhi, Y. (2025). Tropical forests in the Americas are changing too slowly to track climate change.. Science (New York, N.Y.), 387(6738), eadl5414.
    DOI Scopus10 WoS11 Europe PMC5
    2025 Aguirre-Gutiérrez, J., Rifai, S. W., Deng, X., Ter Steege, H., Thomson, E., Corral-Rivas, J. J., . . . Malhi, Y. (2025). Canopy functional trait variation across Earth's tropical forests. Nature, 641(8061), 129-136.
    DOI Scopus6 WoS5 Europe PMC2
    2025 Sanchez-Martinez, P., Martius, L. R., Bittencourt, P., Silva, M., Binks, O., Coughlin, I., . . . Meir, P. (2025). Amazon rainforest adjusts to long-term experimental drought.. Nat Ecol Evol, 9(6), 970-979.
    DOI Scopus1 WoS1
    2025 Corbett, E., Rifai, S. W., Miot da Silva, G., & Hesp, P. A. (2025). Temporal and Spatial Distribution of 2022–2023 River Murray Major Flood Sediment Plume. Remote Sensing, 17(10), 33 pages.
    DOI
    2025 Burton, C. A., Rifai, S. W., Renzullo, L. J., & Van Dijk, A. I. J. M. (2025). Comprehensive reassessment of Australia's land-surface phenology trends (1982–2022) using circular statistics and a harmonised NDVI dataset. Remote Sensing of Environment, 329, 114940.
    DOI
    2025 Williams, L. J., Gallagher, R. V., Rifai, S. W., Adeleye, M. A., Baker, P. J., Bowman, D. M. J. S., . . . Medlyn, B. E. (2025). Detecting and attributing climate change effects on vegetation: Australia as a test case. Plants People Planet, 25 pages.
    DOI Scopus1
    2024 Retallack, A., Campbell, D., Finlayson, G., Raja Segaran, R., Ostendorf, B., Hennekam, M., . . . Lewis, M. (2024). Arid erosion mapping: comparing LiDAR and structure from motion. The Rangeland Journal, 45(4), 173-186.
    DOI
    2024 Zhang-Zheng, H., Adu-Bredu, S., Duah-Gyamfi, A., Moore, S., Addo-Danso, S. D., Amissah, L., . . . Malhi, Y. (2024). Contrasting carbon cycle along tropical forest aridity gradients in West Africa and Amazonia. Nature Communications, 15(1), 3158.
    DOI Scopus14 WoS13 Europe PMC7
    2024 Mu, M., Sabot, M. E. B., Ukkola, A. M., Rifai, S. W., De Kauwe, M. G., Hobeichi, S., & Pitman, A. J. (2024). Examining the role of biophysical feedbacks on simulated temperature extremes during the Tinderbox Drought and Black Summer bushfires in southeast Australia. Weather and Climate Extremes, 45, 100703-1-100703-13.
    DOI Scopus4 WoS4
    2024 Retallack, A., Rifai, S., Finlayson, G., Ostendorf, B., & Lewis, M. (2024). Remote sensing for rangeland conservation monitoring: Impacts of livestock removal after 15 years. Journal of Applied Ecology, 61(9), 2111-2122.
    DOI Scopus5 WoS5
    2024 Gopalakrishna, T., Rifai, S. W., Ratnam, J., Oliveras Menor, I., Stevens, N., & Malhi, Y. (2024). The distribution and drivers of tree cover in savannas and forests across India. Communications Earth and Environment, 5(1), 10 pages.
    DOI Scopus2 WoS2
    2024 Burton, C. A., Rifai, S. W., Renzullo, L. J., & Van Dijk, A. I. J. M. (2024). Enhancing long-term vegetation monitoring in Australia: a new approach for harmonising the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer normalised-difference vegetation (NVDI) with MODIS NDVI. Earth System Science Data, 16(10), 4389-4416.
    DOI Scopus4 WoS3
    2024 Devanand, A., Falster, G. M., Gillett, Z. E., Hobeichi, S., Holgate, C. M., Jin, C., . . . Ukkola, A. M. (2024). Australia's Tinderbox Drought: An extreme natural event likely worsened by human-caused climate change. Science Advances, 10(10), eadj3460-1-eadj3460-22.
    DOI Scopus33 WoS34 Europe PMC5
    2024 Morel, A. C., Demissie, S., Gonfa, T., Mehrabi, Z., Rifai, S., Hirons, M. A., . . . Norris, K. (2024). Landscape and management influences on smallholder agroforestry yields show shifts during a climate shock. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 366, 108930.
    DOI Scopus3 WoS3
    2024 Rifai, S. W., De Kauwe, M. G., Gallagher, R. V., Cernusak, L. A., Meir, P., & Pitman, A. J. (2024). Burn Severity and Post-Fire Weather Are Key to Predicting Time-To-Recover From Australian Forest Fires. Earth's Future, 12(4), e2023EF003780-1-e2023EF003780-18.
    DOI Scopus11 WoS10
    2024 Slot, M., Rifai, S. W., Eze, C. E., & Winter, K. (2024). The stomatal response to vapor pressure deficit drives the apparent temperature response of photosynthesis in tropical forests. New Phytologist, 244(4), 12 pages.
    DOI Scopus24 WoS25 Europe PMC19
    2024 Matos, I. S., Rifai, S. W., Gouveia, W. F., Oliveras, I., Mantuano, D., & Rosado, B. H. P. (2024). A causal trait model for explaining foliar water uptake capacity. Journal of Vegetation Science, 35(3), 13 pages.
    DOI Scopus3 WoS3 Europe PMC3
    2023 West, T. A. P., Wunder, S., Sills, E. O., Börner, J., Rifai, S. W., Neidermeier, A. N., . . . Kontoleon, A. (2023). Action needed to make carbon offsets from forest conservation work for climate change mitigation. Science (New York, N.Y.), 381(6660), 873-877.
    DOI Scopus173 WoS152 Europe PMC40
    2023 De Kauwe, M., Sabot, M., Medlyn, B., Pitman, A., Meir, P., Cernusak, L., . . . Choat, B. (2023). Towards species-level forecasts of drought-induced tree mortality risk.
    DOI
    2023 Matos, I. S., Rifai, S. W., & Rosado, B. H. P. (2023). 2015/16 El Niño increased water demand and pushed plants from a Mesic tropical montane grassland beyond their hydraulic safety limits. Austral Ecology, 49(1), 17 pages.
    DOI Scopus3 WoS2
    2023 Burton, C. A., Renzullo, L. J., Rifai, S. W., & Van Dijk, A. I. J. M. (2023). Empirical upscaling of OzFlux eddy covariance for high-resolution monitoring of terrestrial carbon uptake in Australia. Biogeosciences, 20(19), 4109-4134.
    DOI Scopus7 WoS6
    2023 Burton, C. A., Renzullo, L. J., Rifai, S. W., & Van Dijk, A. I. J. M. (2023). Empirical upscaling of OzFlux eddy covariance for high-resolution monitoring of terrestrial carbon uptake in Australia.
    DOI
    2023 Valle, D., Rifai, S. W., Carrero, G. C., & Meiga, A. Y. Y. (2023). An automated procedure to determine construction year of roads in forested landscapes using a least-cost path and a Before-After Control-Impact approach. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation, 10(3), 388-400.
    DOI Scopus2 WoS1
    2022 De Kauwe, M. G., Sabot, M. E. B., Medlyn, B. E., Pitman, A. J., Meir, P., Cernusak, L. A., . . . Choat, B. (2022). Towards species-level forecasts of drought-induced tree mortality risk. New Phytologist, 235(1), 94-110.
    DOI Scopus20 WoS20 Europe PMC4
    2022 Bauman, D., Fortunel, C., Delhaye, G., Malhi, Y., Cernusak, L. A., Bentley, L. P., . . . McMahon, S. M. (2022). Tropical tree mortality has increased with rising atmospheric water stress. Nature, 608(7923), 528-533.
    DOI Scopus165 WoS155 Europe PMC60
    2022 Scalon, M. C., Oliveras Menor, I., Freitag, R., Peixoto, K. S., Rifai, S. W., Marimon, B. S., . . . Malhi, Y. (2022). Contrasting strategies of nutrient demand and use between savanna and forest ecosystems in a neotropical transition zone. Biogeosciences, 19(15), 3649-3661.
    DOI Scopus8 WoS7
    2022 De Kauwe, M., Sabot, M., Medlyn, B., Pitman, A., Meir, P., Cernusak, L., . . . Choat, B. (2022). Towards species-level forecasts of drought-induced tree mortality risk.
    DOI
    2022 Scalon, M. C., Oliveras Menor, I., Freitag, R., Peixoto, K. S., Rifai, S. W., Marimon, B. S., . . . Malhi, Y. (2022). Contrasting strategies of nutrient demand and use between savanna and forest ecosystems in a Neotropical transition zone. Biogeosciences.
    DOI
    2022 Scalon, M. C., Oliveras Menor, I., Freitag, R., Peixoto, K. S., Rifai, S. W., Marimon, B. S., . . . Malhi, Y. (2022). Supplementary material to "Contrasting strategies of nutrient demand and use between savanna and forest ecosystems in a Neotropical transition zone".
    DOI
    2022 Beringer, J., Moore, C. E., Cleverly, J., Campbell, D. I., Cleugh, H., De Kauwe, M. G., . . . Woodgate, W. (2022). Bridge to the future: Important lessons from 20 years of ecosystem observations made by the OzFlux network. Global Change Biology, 28(11), 3489-3514.
    DOI Scopus34 WoS34 Europe PMC9
    2022 Rifai, S. W., De Kauwe, M. G., Ukkola, A. M., Cernusak, L. A., Meir, P., Medlyn, B. E., & Pitman, A. J. (2022). Thirty-eight years of CO₂ fertilization has outpaced growing aridity to drive greening of Australian woody ecosystems. Biogeosciences, 19(2), 491-515.
    DOI Scopus29 WoS29
    2022 Bauman, D., Fortunel, C., Cernusak, L. A., Bentley, L. P., McMahon, S. M., Rifai, S. W., . . . Malhi, Y. (2022). Tropical tree growth sensitivity to climate is driven by species intrinsic growth rate and leaf traits. Global Change Biology, 28(4), 1414-1432.
    DOI Scopus37 WoS33 Europe PMC14
    2022 Li, S., Rifai, S., Anderson, L. O., & Sparrow, S. (2022). Identifying local‐scale meteorological conditions favorable to large fires in Brazil. Climate Resilience and Sustainability, 1(1).
    DOI Scopus12
    2021 Li, S., Sparrow, S. N., Otto, F. E. L., Rifai, S. W., Oliveras, I., Krikken, F., . . . Wallom, D. (2021). Anthropogenic climate change contribution to wildfire-prone weather conditions in the Cerrado and Arc of deforestation. Environmental Research Letters, 16(9), 14 pages.
    DOI Scopus30 WoS26
    2021 David Urquiza Muñoz, J., Marra, D. M., Negrón-Juarez, R. I., Tello-Espinoza, R., Alegría-Muñoz, W., Pacheco-Gómez, T., . . . Trumbore, S. E. (2021). Recovery of forest structure following large-scale windthrows in the northwestern Amazon. Forests, 12(6), 667-1-667-15.
    DOI Scopus14 WoS15
    2021 Huaraca Huasco, W., Riutta, T., Girardin, C. A. J., Hancco Pacha, F., Puma Vilca, B. L., Moore, S., . . . Malhi, Y. (2021). Fine root dynamics across pantropical rainforest ecosystems. Global Change Biology, 27(15), 3657-3680.
    DOI Scopus26 WoS23 Europe PMC10
    2021 Slot, M., Rifai, S. W., & Winter, K. (2021). Photosynthetic plasticity of a tropical tree species, Tabebuia rosea, in response to elevated temperature and [CO₂]. Plant Cell and Environment, 44(7), 2347-2364.
    DOI Scopus29 WoS29 Europe PMC14
    2021 Malhi, Y., Girardin, C., Metcalfe, D. B., Doughty, C. E., Aragão, L. E. O. C., Rifai, S. W., . . . Phillips, O. L. (2021). The Global Ecosystems Monitoring network: Monitoring ecosystem productivity and carbon cycling across the tropics. Biological Conservation, 253, 108889-1-108889-14.
    DOI Scopus63 WoS58 Europe PMC16
    2021 Aguirre-Gutiérrez, J., Rifai, S., Shenkin, A., Oliveras, I., Bentley, L. P., Svátek, M., . . . Malhi, Y. (2021). Pantropical modelling of canopy functional traits using Sentinel-2 remote sensing data. Remote Sensing of Environment, 252, 112122-1-112122-18.
    DOI Scopus63 WoS59 Europe PMC5
    2020 De Kauwe, M. G., Medlyn, B. E., Ukkola, A. M., Mu, M., Sabot, M. E. B., Pitman, A. J., . . . Briggs, P. R. (2020). Identifying areas at risk of drought-induced tree mortality across South-Eastern Australia. Global Change Biology, 26(10), 5716-5733.
    DOI Scopus99 WoS103 Europe PMC40
    2020 Liang, B., Chen, X., Lang, W., Liu, G., Malhi, Y., & Rifai, S. (2020). Examining land surface phenology in the tropical moist forest eco-zone of South America. International Journal of Biometeorology, 64(11), 1911-1922.
    DOI Scopus1
    2020 Matos, I. S., Menor, I. O., Rifai, S. W., & Rosado, B. H. P. (2020). Deciphering the stability of grassland productivity in response to rainfall manipulation experiments. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 29(3), 558-572.
    DOI Scopus40 WoS33
    2019 Morel, A. C., Hirons, M., Demissie, S., Gonfa, T., Mehrabi, Z., Long, P. R., . . . Norris, K. (2019). The structures underpinning vulnerability: Examining landscape-society interactions in a smallholder coffee agroforestry system. Environmental Research Letters, 14(7), 075006.
    DOI Scopus12 WoS10
    2019 Park, J. Y., Muller-Landau, H. C., Lichstein, J. W., Rifai, S. W., Dandois, J. P., & Bohlman, S. A. (2019). Quantifying leaf phenology of individual trees and species in a tropical forest using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) images. Remote Sensing, 11(13), 1534-1-1534-32.
    DOI Scopus94 WoS90
    2019 Fonseca, L. D. M., Dalagnol, R., Malhi, Y., Rifai, S. W., Costa, G. B., Silva, T. S. F., . . . Borma, L. S. (2019). Phenology and seasonal ecosystem productivity in an Amazonian floodplain forest. Remote Sensing, 11(13), 1530-1-1530-17.
    DOI Scopus24 WoS25
    2019 Núñez-Regueiro, M. M., Fletcher, R. J., Pienaar, E. F., Branch, L. C., Volante, J. N., & Rifai, S. (2019). Adding the temporal dimension to spatial patterns of payment for ecosystem services enrollment. Ecosystem Services, 36, 6 pages.
    DOI Scopus22 WoS20
    2019 Aguirre-Gutiérrez, J., Oliveras, I., Rifai, S., Fauset, S., Adu-Bredu, S., Affum-Baffoe, K., . . . Malhi, Y. (2019). Drier tropical forests are susceptible to functional changes in response to a long-term drought. Ecology Letters, 22(5), 855-865.
    DOI Scopus92 WoS90 Europe PMC40
    2019 Rifai, S. W., Li, S., & Malhi, Y. (2019). Coupling of El Niño events and long-term warming leads to pervasive climate extremes in the terrestrial tropics. Environmental Research Letters, 14(10), 11 pages.
    DOI Scopus54 WoS50
    2018 Magnabosco Marra, D., Trumbore, S. E., Higuchi, N., Ribeiro, G. H. P. M., Negrón-Juárez, R. I., Holzwarth, F., . . . Wirth, C. (2018). Windthrows control biomass patterns and functional composition of Amazon forests. Global Change Biology, 24(12), 5867-5881.
    DOI Scopus46 WoS45 Europe PMC9
    2018 Visakorpi, K., Gripenberg, S., Malhi, Y., Bolas, C., Oliveras, I., Harris, N., . . . Riutta, T. (2018). Small-scale indirect plant responses to insect herbivory could have major impacts on canopy photosynthesis and isoprene emission. New Phytologist, 220(3), 799-810.
    DOI Scopus36 WoS31 Europe PMC16
    2018 Burton, C., Rifai, S., & Malhi, Y. (2018). Inter-comparison and assessment of gridded climate products over tropical forests during the 2015/2016 El Niño. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 373(1760), 20170406-1-20170406-10.
    DOI Scopus29 WoS29 Europe PMC8
    2018 Rifai, S. W., Girardin, C. A. J., Berenguer, E., Del Aguila-Pasquel, J., Dahlsjö, C. A. L., Doughty, C. E., . . . Malhi, Y. (2018). ENSO Drives interannual variation of forest woody growth across the tropics. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 373(1760), 20170410-1-20170410-13.
    DOI Scopus51 WoS47 Europe PMC24
    2018 Negrón-Juárez, R. I., Holm, J. A., Marra, D. M., Rifai, S. W., Riley, W. J., Chambers, J. Q., . . . Higuchi, N. (2018). Vulnerability of Amazon forests to storm-driven tree mortality. Environmental Research Letters, 13(5), 054021.
    DOI Scopus58 WoS57
    2017 Wilson, C. H., Caughlin, T. T., Rifai, S. W., Boughton, E. H., Mack, M. C., & Flory, S. L. (2017). Multi-decadal time series of remotely sensed vegetation improves prediction of soil carbon in a subtropical grassland. Ecological Applications, 27(5), 1646-1656.
    DOI Scopus29 WoS28 Europe PMC4
    2017 Tucker Lima, J. M., Vittor, A., Rifai, S., & Valle, D. (2017). Does deforestation promote or inhibit malaria transmission in the Amazon? A systematic literature review and critical appraisal of current evidence. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 372(1722), 20160125.
    DOI Scopus95 WoS75 Europe PMC52
    2016 Caughlin, T. T., Rifai, S. W., Graves, S. J., Asner, G. P., & Bohlman, S. A. (2016). Integrating LiDAR-derived tree height and Landsat satellite reflectance to estimate forest regrowth in a tropical agricultural landscape. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation, 2(4), 190-203.
    DOI Scopus30 WoS29
    2016 Rifai, S. W., Urquiza Muñoz, J. D., Negrón-Juárez, R. I., Ramírez Arévalo, F. R., Tello-Espinoza, R., Vanderwel, M. C., . . . Bohlman, S. A. (2016). Landscape-scale consequences of differential tree mortality from catastrophic wind disturbance in the Amazon. Ecological Applications, 26(7), 2225-2237.
    DOI Scopus44 WoS45 Europe PMC19
    2015 Rifai, S. W., West, T. A. P., & Putz, F. E. (2015). "Carbon Cowboys" could inflate REDD+ payments through positive Measurement bias. Carbon Management, 6(3-4), 151-158.
    DOI Scopus19 WoS18
    2014 Cho, A. H., Johnson, S. A., Schuman, C. E., Adler, J. M., Gonzalez, O., Graves, S. J., . . . Bruna, E. M. (2014). Women are underrepresented on the editorial boards of journals in environmental biology and natural resource management. Peerj, 2014(1), 11 pages.
    DOI Scopus84 WoS79 Europe PMC27
    2014 Graves, S. J., Rifai, S. W., & Putz, F. E. (2014). Outer bark thickness decreases more with height on stems of fire-resistant than fire-sensitive Floridian oaks (Quercus spp.; Fagaceae). American Journal of Botany, 101(12), 2183-2188.
    DOI Scopus73 WoS68 Europe PMC20
    2011 Negrón-Juárez, R. I., Chambers, J. Q., Marra, D. M., Ribeiro, G. H. P. M., Rifai, S. W., Higuchi, N., & Roberts, D. (2011). Detection of subpixel treefall gaps with Landsat imagery in Central Amazon forests. Remote Sensing of Environment, 115(12), 3322-3328.
    DOI Scopus57 WoS51 Europe PMC7
    2010 Rifai, S. W., Markewitz, D., & Borders, B. (2010). Twenty years of intensive fertilization and competing vegetation suppression in loblolly pine plantations: Impacts on soil C, N, and microbial biomass. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 42(5), 713-723.
    DOI Scopus47 WoS44 Europe PMC4
    - Morel, A. C., Demissie, S., Gonfa, T., Mehrabi, Z., Rifai, S., Hirons, M., . . . Norris, K. (n.d.). Landscape and Management Influences on Smallholder Agroforestry Yields Show Shifts During a Climate Shock. SSRN Electronic Journal.
    DOI

  • Conference Papers
    Year Citation
    2007 Santos, G. M., Mazon, M., Southon, J. R., Rifai, S., & Moore, R. (2007). Evaluation of iron and cobalt powders as catalysts for 14C-AMS target preparation. In Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms Vol. 259 (pp. 308-315). Univ Calif Berkeley, Berkeley, CA: ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV.
    DOI Scopus36 WoS38

  • Software
    Year Citation
    - Retallack, A., Rifai, S., Lewis, M., & Ostendorf, B. (n.d.). management-effects-bon-bon [Computer Software].
    DOI

  • Preprint
    Year Citation
    2025 Wang, H., Bassiouni, M., Kang, Y., Rifai, S. W., Gherardi, L. A., Ukkola, A. M., & Keenan, T. F. (2025). Soil buffers the impact of precipitation variability on ecosystem function.
    DOI
    2025 Burton, C. A., Rifai, S. W., Renzullo, L. J., & van Dijk, A. (2025). Comprehensive Reassessment of Australia's Land-Surface Phenology Trends (1982-2022) Using Circular Statistics and a Harmonised Ndvi Dataset.
    DOI
    2024 Gopalakrishna, T., Rifai, S., Ratnam, J., Menor, I. O., Stevens, N., & Malhi, Y. (2024). The distribution and drivers of tree cover in India.
    DOI
    2024 Burton, C. A., Rifai, S. W., Renzullo, L. J., & Van Dijk, A. I. J. M. (2024). Enhancing Long-Term Vegetation Monitoring in Australia: A New Approach for Harmonising and Gap-Filling AVHRR and MODIS NDVI.
    DOI
    2023 Zhang-Zheng, H., Adu-Bredu, S., Duah-Gyamfi, A., Moore, S., Addo-Danso, S., Ibrahim, F., . . . Malhi, Y. (2023). Contrasting carbon cycle along tropical forest aridity gradients in W Africa and Amazonia.
    DOI
    2023 Morel, A. C., Demissie, S., Gonfa, T., Mehrabi, Z., Hirons, M., Woldemariam Gole, T., . . . Norris, K. (2023). Landscape and Management Influences on Smallholder Agroforestry Yields Show Shifts During a Climate Shock.
    DOI
    2023 Zhang-Zheng, H., Bredu, S. A., Duah-Gyamfi, A., Moore, S., Addo-Danso, S. D., Ibrahim, F., . . . Malhi, Y. (2023). Contrasting carbon cycle along tropical forest aridity gradients in W Africa and Amazonia.
    DOI
    2021 Bauman, D., Fortunel, C., Cernusak, L., Bentley, L., McMahon, S., Rifai, S., . . . Malhi, Y. (2021). Tropical tree growth sensitivity to climate is driven by species intrinsic growth rate and leaf traits.
    DOI

Competitive Research Grants

Years Project Title Investigators Funding Body Amount
2024-2027 Australian tropical rainforests in the face of climate change. Cernusak L, Rifai SW, De Kauwe MG, Grossiord C, Slot M ARC Discovery $547,428
2024-2026 SA EcoMap Rifai SW SmartSat CRC $299,747

 

Industry Sponsored Research

Years Project Title Investigators Funding Body Amount
2023-2024 Tracing the impact of environmental disturbance on turbidity in Gulf St. Vincent’s regions of high seagrass conservation importance Rifai SW SA Water $73,514
2023-2024 Mapping of temporal benthic cover dynamics from satellite imagery for Adelaide Metropolitan Coastline: Summers of 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 Law WB, Rifai SW SA Water $46,361

SPATIAL 3010 - Earth Observation III (https://www.adelaide.edu.au/course-outlines/109293/1/sem-2/)

ENV BIOL 3121 - Concepts in Ecology III (https://www.adelaide.edu.au/course-outlines/103104/1/sem-1/)

  • Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2025 Co-Supervisor The future of birds up in the air: Understanding how vegetation change affects woodland birds in the Mount Lofty Ranges. Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Mr Alexander Sargeant
    2024 Co-Supervisor Spatiotemporal Patterns of the Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat (Lasiorhinus latifrons) and European Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) with Remote Sensing Applications Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Natarsha Jade McPherson
    2024 Principal Supervisor Advancing the Monitoring of Seagrass Dynamics with Optical Remote Sensing Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Joram Andrew Downes
    2023 Co-Supervisor Designing authentic ecologies to address the biodiversity crises: Grasslands as designed landscapes Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Maximilian Dirk McQuillan

  • Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2023 - 2024 Co-Supervisor Monitoring Arid Land Condition for Conservation Using Remote Sensing Technologies Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Angus Eugene Retallack

  • Other Supervision Activities
    Date Role Research Topic Location Program Supervision Type Student Load Student Name
    2023 - ongoing Co-Supervisor Ecological restoration strategies of a native grassland University of Adelaide - Doctorate - Maximilian Dirk McQuillan
    2022 - ongoing External Supervisor Investigating data-driven methods for characterising, understanding, and predicting Australia’s terrestrial carbon cycle The Australian National University Fenner School of Environment Doctorate - Chad Burton
  • Position: Lecturer
  • Phone: 83134451
  • Email: sami.rifai@adelaide.edu.au
  • Campus: North Terrace
  • Building: Oliphant, floor Third Floor
  • Room: 306
  • Org Unit: School of Biological Sciences
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