Currently, I am leading the University of Sydney in their engagement with the TNFD and Nature Market whilst managing biodiversity at all owned and leased locations. I have created environmental accounts for Accounting for Nature to provide co-benefits to potential Carbon Credit plantings, such as those with Canopy and Greening Australia. I am guiding the university in how we can manage what appear to be competing priorities at our farms and campus locations, and demonstrate that they do not need to compete and can compliment and enhance each other, using my extensive expertise in ecology and land use.
My work has spanned many aspects of animal behaviour with a recurrent invertebrate theme. Invertebrates are the often overlooked but significant signallers of the health of an ecosystem. They are also excellent study organisms and demonstrate numerous complex behaviours that can inform our business models, such as supply chain resilience and redundancy modelling.
I have conducted fieldwork in many locations, from heavily urbanised areas such as the Greater Sydney Metropolitan Area, NSW, and Canberra, ACT, to remote sites including the alpine areas of the Snowy Mountains, NSW and deserts surrounding Alice Springs, NT. Coupled with my upbringing on a rural property in North-Western NSW and my limited-support international travel (including tracking the Annapurna trail, Nepal, multi-day mountain bike racing in Timor Leste, and exploring Mongolia), I am have extensive ecosystem experience and understanding of the varying pressures and dynamics of each habitat.
I have managed field sites for short term fieldwork of less than 5 days, and long term fieldwork over 4 months. I cover the logistics, resource and people management, and people operations, as well as conduct and troubleshoot experiments in the field, managing projects across short term and long term delivery.
I have extensive experience in histological, SEM, and TEM techniques. As the manager of the Invertebrate Behaviour and Ecology Laboratory at the University of Sydney I trained and supported honours and postgraduate students in their research. This has entailed learning new experimental techniques, from large-scale production of experimental setups using 3D printed designs, to smaller-scale experiments in PC1 and PC2 laboratories.
Coming soon;
Middleton, EJT “Conservation status of Onychophora in Australia” In preparation
Middleton, EJT, Au, E, Hayes, A-L, Forster, CY “Social media conservation messaging in Threatened Species Bake Off; follow up study” In preparation
McCormick, J, Middleton, EJT, White, TE, Latty, T (2024) “Information cascades spread adaptive and maladaptive behaviours in group living animals” Animal Behaviour 209:53-62 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2023.12.007
Forster, CY, Middleton, EJT, Gloag, R, Hochuli, DF, White, TE, Laty, T (2023) “Impact of empty flowers on foraging choice and movement within floral patches by the Honey bee, Apis mellifera” Insectes Sociaux 70:413-422 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-023-00934-3
Chapman, KM, Richardson, FJ, Forster, CY, Middleton, EJT, White, TE, Burke, PF, Latty, T (2023) “Artificial flowers as a tool for investigating multimodal flower choice in free flying insects” Ecology and Evolution 13(11):e10687 https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10687
Middleton, EJT, Hochuli, DF, Keith, R, White, TE, Latty, T, Forster, CY* (2023) “Social media conservation messaging mirrors age-old taxonomic biases in public domain” Austral Ecology 48(4):687-698 *shared first authorship https://doi.org/10.1111/aec.13288
The Conversation “Bees can do so much more than you think – from dancing to being little art critics” 19 May 2023
The Conversation “Bagaimana cara lebah berpikir?” 10 March 2023
The Conversation “Enough with the koala cakes – the government’s annual Threatened Species Bake Off seriously neglects fish, plants and other lesser-loved species” 31 January 2023
Herringe, CA, Middleton, EJ, Boyd, KC, Latty, T, & White, TE (2022) “Benefits and costs of social foraging in velvet worms” Ethology 128(3):197-206 https://doi.org/10.1111/eth.13256
The Conversation “What constitutes a mind? Lars Chittka challenges our perception of sentience with the smallest of creatures” 19 September 2022
The Conversation “A new $2 coin features the introduced honeybee. Is this really the species we should celebrate?” 26 April 2022
Australian Geographic “Spiders are on the move thanks to the floods – but hold off on the insect spray” 25 March 2021
Australian Wildlife Society “Prehistoric Insects” 25 July 2021
The Conversation “How do Olympic athletes stack up against invertebrates? Not very well” 26 July 2021
The Conversation “‘Over the top’: backlash against TikTok’s bee lady not justified, say bee experts” 10 June 2021
The Conversation “After the floods, stand by for spiders, slugs and millipedes – but think twice before reaching for the bug spray” 25 March 2021
The Conversation “The cicada’s deafening shriek is the sound of summer, and humans have been drawn to it for thousands of years” 12 January 2021
The Conversation “Nature detectives in the backyard: 3 science activities for curious kids this summer” 23 December 2020
Oberhauser, FB, Middleton, EJT, Latty, T & Czaczkes, TJ (2019) “Meat ants cut more trail shortcuts when facing long detours” Journal of Experimental Biology 222(21) https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.205773
Middleton, EJT, Garnier, S, Latty, T & Reid, CR (2019) “Temporal and spatial pattern of trail clearing in the Australian meat ant, Iridomyrmex purpureus” Animal Behaviour 150:97-111 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2019.02.006
Middleton, EJT, Reid, CR, Mann, RP & Latty, T (2018) “Social and private information influence the decision making of Australian meat ants (Iridomyrmex purpureus) Insectes Sociaux 65(4):649-656 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-018-0656-1
Middleton, EJT & Latty, T (2016) “Resilience in social insect infrastructure systems” Journal of The Royal Society Interface 13 no.116:20151022 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2015.1022
The Conversation “What social insects can teach us about resilient infrastructure” 25 May 2016
The Sydney Morning Herald, The Canberra Times, and The Age “How busy bees and ants could help save our cities” 9 March 2016
Cheng, K, Middleton, EJT & Wehner, R (2012) “Vector-based and landmark-guided navigation in desert ants of the same species inhabiting landmark-free and landmark-rich environments” Journal of Experimental Biology 18: 3169 – 3174 https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.070417
Australian Geographic “Lost ants use visual cues to quickly navigate” 15 November 2012
Phys.org, SciNews, ScienceAlert “Sugar ants know when they’re lost” 11 November 2012
Redorbit “Australian Sugar Ants Walk in Circles When Lost” 12 November 2012
The Australian “If only warplanes had belligerent bee brains” 9 January 2009
The Australian, Discovery Buzz, and War News Updates “If only drone aircraft had belligerent bee brains” 8 January 2009