DrJacquomo Monk

Dr. Jacquomo Monk is a Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Marine Management and Research Scientist at the Deakin Marine, Deakin University. He leads the Shelf Ecology Research Group (https://shelfecology.com/), which focuses on the integration of marine conservation ecoinformatics with temperate mesophotic ecosystem ecology through a coherent program that spans data standards development, technological innovation, and ecosystem management. He has pioneered the infrastructure connecting mesophotic biodiversity data to management action, co-leading SQUIDLE+ (a global imagery annotation platform applying AI/ML to automate benthic species detection) and Seamap Australia (a national habitat mapping portal), while co-authoring the GOOS-endorsed field manuals that establish standardised protocols for ROV, AUV, and stereo-BRUV surveys across Australia's marine realm. His ecological research in temperate mesophotic ecosystems (30-150m depth) addresses fundamental questions about community assembly, climate resilience, and conservation effectiveness, documenting marine heatwave impacts on sponge assemblages, quantifying decadal changes in sessile invertebrate size distributions, and evaluating marine park sanctuary zones using spatially-balanced monitoring designs. By embedding rigorous data standards and FAIR/CARE principles throughout this work, he transforms costly deep-water surveys into interoperable, machine-readable datasets that enable evidence-based adaptive management of Australia's Marine Parks, creating a replicable model where ecoinformatics tools, ecological insight, and conservation practice operate as an integrated system rather than isolated disciplines.