Jocelyn Dela-Cruz (born Philippines) is a Principal

Environmental Scientist Environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physics, biology, and geography (including ecology, chemistry, plant science, zoology, mineralogy, oceanography, limnology, soil science, geology and physical geograp ...

at the New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage, Australia. She was educated at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

(BSc. Hons1 and MSc) and

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

(Ph.D.).

Background

Dela-Cruz's background in science is diverse. She started her graduate studies as an eco-physiologist, investigating ion and water regulation and nitrogenous excretion in

land crabs A number of lineages of crabs have evolved to live predominantly on land. Examples of terrestrial crabs are found in the families Gecarcinidae and Gecarcinucidae, as well as in selected genera from other families, such as ''Sesarma'', althou ...

Christmas Island Christmas Island, officially the Territory of Christmas Island, is an Australian external territory comprising the island of the same name. It is located in the Indian Ocean, around south of Java and Sumatra and around north-west of the ...

. Jocelyn's interest in protecting the marine environment prompted her to undertake a Ph.D. investigating

pollutant A pollutant or novel entity is a substance or energy introduced into the environment that has undesired effects, or adversely affects the usefulness of a resource. These can be both naturally forming (i.e. minerals or extracted compounds like oi ...

impacts on

water quality Water quality refers to the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water based on the standards of its usage. It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which compliance, generally achieved through tr ...

and

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in Hydrosphere, water (or atmosphere, air) that are unable to propel themselves against a Ocean current, current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankt ...

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

. Soon after, she moved to the United Kingdom to travel and take up a postdoctoral position at the

University of Plymouth The University of Plymouth is a public research university based predominantly in Plymouth, England, where the main campus is located, but the university has campuses and affiliated colleges across South West England. With students, it is the ...

. It was here that Jocelyn gained skills in developing

catchment A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, the ...

models and

decision support system A decision support system (DSS) is an information system that supports business or organizational decision-making activities. DSSs serve the management, operations and planning levels of an organization (usually mid and higher management) and h ...

s to help identify and quantify sources of diffuse pollution. The modelling approaches that she developed were subsequently used for the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

Sixth Framework Programme The Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development, also called Framework Programmes or abbreviated FP1 to FP9, are funding programmes created by the European Union/European Commission to support and foster research in the Europea ...

on European Lifestyles and impacts on Marine Ecosystems (ELME). The objective of ELME was to integrate existing knowledge of environmental state changes, sectoral pressures and social and economic drivers into a common modelling platform to inform decisions and policies in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. As of 2014, Dela-Cruz's work ranged from being an

expert witness An expert witness, particularly in common law countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, is a person whose opinion by virtue of education, training, certification, skills or experience, is accepted by the judge as ...

for legal prosecutions, conducting

audit An audit is an "independent examination of financial information of any entity, whether profit oriented or not, irrespective of its size or legal form when such an examination is conducted with a view to express an opinion thereon.” Auditing ...

s, responding to pollution incidents, reviewing acts and regulations, and providing advice to other agencies on

environmental impacts Environmental issues are effects of human activity on the biophysical environment, most often of which are harmful effects that cause environmental degradation. Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment on t ...

. Her main research role at this time was to bring together best available data and develop tools for evidence based

decision making In psychology, decision-making (also spelled decision making and decisionmaking) is regarded as the cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several possible alternative options. It could be either rati ...

Publications

*Scanes P., Dela-Cruz J. and Ferguson A. (2014). Determining ecologically based targets for stormwater quality. Stormwater Australia Bulletin, 204:2-5. *van der Sterren M., Dela-Cruz J. and Walpole S. (2012). Assessment of water sensitive urban design management scenarios to manage the long-term impacts of developments on a coastal saltwater lake, Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Water Sensitive Urban Design, 21–23 February 2012, Melbourne. *Dela-Cruz J. (2011). Coastal Eutrophication Risk Assessment Tool. http://www.ozcoasts.gov.au/nrm_rpt/cerat/index.jsp *Roper T., Creese B., Scanes P., Stephens K., Williams R., Dela-Cruz J., Coade G., Coates B. and Fraser M. (2011). Assessing the condition of estuaries and coastal lake ecosystems in NSW. Monitoring, evaluation and reporting program, Technical report series, Office of Environment and Heritage, Sydney. . *Scanes P., Dela-Cruz J., Coade G., Haine B., McSorley A., van den Broek J., Evans L., Kobayashi T. and O'Donnell M. (2011). Aquatic inventory of Nadgee Lake, Nadgee River and Merrica River estuaries. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 132, 169–186. *Dela-Cruz J. (2009). Threat of eutrophication. Wetlands Australia, 17:28. *Littleboy M., Sayers J. and Dela-Cruz J. (2009). Hydrological modelling of coastal catchments in New South Wales. Proceedings of the 18th World IMACS/MODSIM Congress, Cairns, Australia 13–17 July 2009. *Scanes P., Dela-Cruz J., Coade G., Potts J., Haine B., and Carpenter, M. (2008) Protecting estuarine wetlands: Great Lakes Coastal Catchments Initiative. Wetlands Australia, 16:43-45. *Dela-Cruz J., Middleton J. and Suthers I. (2008). The influence of upwelling, coastal currents and water temperature on the distribution of the red tide dinoflagellate, Noctiluca scintillans, along the east coast of Australia. Hydrobiologia, 598:59-75 *Dela-Cruz J., Pritchard T., Gordon G. and Ajani P. (2006) The use of periphyton as a means of assessing impacts of point source inorganic nutrient pollution in south-eastern Australia. Freshwater Biology, 51 (5): 951–972. *Jackson E.L., Glanfield S.C., Dela-Cruz J., Langmead O., Arvanitidis C., Attrill M.J., Tyler-Walters H., Mee L. (2006). An objective approach to quantifying loss of seagrass in the Mediterranean: Causal chain analysis and scenario predictions. Biol. Mar. Medit., 13(4): 240–244. *Dela-Cruz J., Macleod C., Haygarth P., Glegg G., Scholefield D. and Mee L. (2003) A decision support tool for international diffuse pollution management. Proceedings of the 7th International Specialised Conference on Diffuse Pollution and Basin Management, 17–22 August, Dublin, Theme 6, pp 146–150. . *Dela-Cruz J., Middleton J. and Suthers I. (2003) Population growth and transport of the red tide dinoflagellate, Noctiluca scintillans, near Sydney Australia, using cell diameter as a tracer. Limnology and Oceanography, 48(2): 656–674. *Dela-Cruz J. (2002). Population dynamics and ecology of the red tide dinoflagellate, Noctiluca scintillans. University of New South Wales. *Dela-Cruz J., Ajani P., Lee R., Pritchard T. and Suthers I. (2002) Temporal abundance patterns of the red tide dinoflagellate, Noctiluca scintillans, along the south-east coast of Australia. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 236: 75–88. *Morris S. and Dela-Cruz J. (1998) The ecophysiological significance of lung-air retention during submersion by the air-breathing crabs Cardisoma carnifex and Cardisoma hirtipes. Experimental Biology Online, 3(10): 1-14. *Dela-Cruz L. (1997). Ion and Water Regulation in Cardisoma (Brachyura, Gecarcinidae). University of Sydney. *Dela-Cruz J. and Morris S. (1997) Water and ion balance and nitrogenous excretion as limitations to terrestrial excursion in the Christmas Island blue crab, Cardisoma hirtipes (Dana). J. exp. Zool., 279: 537-548 *Dela-Cruz J. and Morris S. (1997) Respiratory, acid-base and metabolic responses of the Christmas Island blue crab, Cardisoma hirtipes, during simulated environmental conditions. Physiol. Zool., 70(1): 100–115.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dela-Cruz, Jocelyn Living people Australian women scientists Australian ecologists Women ecologists University of Sydney alumni Year of birth missing (living people)