Whinam, Jennie   (fl. 1980s - 2020s)

Jennie attended Mitchell High School in Sydney and gained a BA in Geography at ANU, Canberra (1980-1983) and a PhD in plant ecology at University of Tasmania (1986-1990).

Her areas of research include the ecology and restoration of sphagnum peatlands, plant ecology of subantarctic islands, the impacts of fire on plant communities and the impacts of recreation activities in alpine environments.

She became interested in peatlands when she started her degree at the Australian National University as a mature age student in 1980 under the guidance of the late Prof Geoff Hope, a palynologist and paleoecologist.

When she moved to Tasmania with her husband (Russell Bauer, often her field assistant), she completed her Honours research on the string bogs of Mt Wellington (1985), under the supervision of Prof Jamie Kirkpatrick and onto what was to become a life-long passion, the ecology of Tasmanian sphagnum peatlands, for her PhD thesis (1990). So, technically her bryology research has focussed on mainly one genus of moss, Sphagnum, and its closely related, Tasmanian endemic, sister species Ambuchanania leucobryoides.

Her work on sphagnum peatlands led to her appointment to the Main Board of the International Mire Conservation Group (IMCG) completing a term as Chair from 2004 to 2012. Later she became the English editor of the IMCG benchmark publication 'Mires and Peatlands of Europe' (2017).

This work afforded her the opportunity to visit peatland landscapes from Tierra del Fuego, Colombia, throughout Europe and the United Kingdom, up to the mountains of Georgia and Armenia.

As part of a French RAMSAR nomination, she was invited to study the remarkable sphagnum peatlands of the French islands of St Paul and Amsterdam in 2007, where new species of Sphagnum were identified (with Prof Kjell-Ivar Flatberg).

Source: Extracted from: Bryological Times 155 - Special Edition: Women in Bryology (2022);
https://parks.tas.gov.au/be-involved/national-parks-and-wildlife-advisory-council;
www.linkedin.com/in/jennie-whinam-02258631/
Portrait Photo: https://parks.tas.gov.au/be-involved/national-parks-and-wildlife-advisory-council

Collecting localities for 'Whinam, J.' from AVH (2023)

Data from 849 specimens