Jordy Groffen, PhD
Jordy Groffen is a conservation biologist with more than 15 years of international research experience specializing in climate change, behavioral ecology, and the conservation of amphibians and reptiles. For his doctoral program, he studied the ecology, parental care behavior, and climate-change vulnerability of terrestrial-breeding frogs in the Australian Wet Tropics. Groffen’s research combines field ecology, animal behavior, and innovative wildlife monitoring techniques to better understand how species respond to environmental change. Groffen has co-authored more than 35 peer-reviewed publications and collaborated with researchers across 10 countries on projects involving frogs, salamanders, crocodiles, turtles, flying foxes, insects, and other wildlife. In addition to his research, he teaches ecology and biodiversity courses and has worked in Australia, the United States, South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, and the Netherlands. He is passionate about applying ecological research to conservation and environmental management.
Select Publications
Groffen, J., Brouwer, L., Menz, M. H. M., & Hoskin, C. J. (2026). Artificial shelters as a monitoring and conservation tool for terrestrial breeding frogs. Ecology and Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.73215
Groffen, J., Hoskin, C. J., Siderhurst, M. S., & Menz, M. H. M. (2025). Tracking movement, home range, and microhabitat use in a small terrestrial breeding frog using harmonic direction-finding technology. Wildlife Research, 52, WR24111. https://doi.org/10.1071/WR24111
O’Brien, R. S. M., Groffen, J., Dayer, A. A., & Hopkins, W. A. (2025). Modulation of paternal care behaviours in response to stream conditions by eastern hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis alleganiensis). Integrative Organismal Biology, 7(1), obaf007. https://doi.org/10.1093/iob/obaf007
Hopkins, W. A., Case, B. F., Groffen, J., Brooks, G., Jachowski, C. B., Button, S., Halligan, J., O’Brien, R., & Kindsvater, H. (2023). Filial cannibalism leads to chronic nest failure of eastern hellbender salamanders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis). The American Naturalist, 202(1), 92–106. https://doi.org/10.1086/724819
Groffen, J., Andersen, D., & Borzée, A. (2022). Breeding phenology and landscape use in all amphibian species from the Republic of Korea based on open-source data. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 10, 846481. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2022.846481
Borzée, A., Messenger, K. R., Chae, S., Andersen, D., Groffen, J., Kim, Y. I., An, J., Othman, S., Kyongsin, Tu, Y. N., Bae, Y., Ren, J.-L., Li, J.-T., Chuang, M.-F., Yi, Y., Shin, Y., Kwon, T., Jang, Y., & Mi-Sook, M. (2020). Yellow Sea mediated segregation between North East Asian Dryophytes species. PLOS ONE, 15(6), e0234299. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234299
Groffen, J., Kong, S., Jang, Y., & Borzée, A. (2019). The invasive American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus) in the Republic of Korea: History and recommendation for population control. Management of Biological Invasions, 10(3), 517–535. https://doi.org/10.3391/mbi.2019.10.3.08
Groffen, J., Rethus, G., & Pettigrew, J. (2016). Promiscuous pollination of Australia’s baobab, the boab, Adansonia gregorii. Australian Journal of Botany, 64, 678–686. https://doi.org/10.1071/BT16049
Funkhouser, H. A., Case, B. F., Groffen, J., Holloway, A., & Hopkins, W. A. (2025). The influence of reduced upstream riparian forest cover on egg viability and development of embryos from eastern hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis). Freshwater Biology, 70(4). https://doi.org/10.1111/fwb.14368
Slack, K. L., Groffen, J., & Hopkins, W. A. (2024). The influence of environmental conditions and coinfection by blood-feeding parasites on red blood cell physiology of an ectothermic host. Ecological and Evolutionary Physiology, 97(4). https://doi.org/10.1086/732113
Select Presentations
Groffen, J. (2025). In search of the golden eggs: The quest to study parental care in microhylid frogs in northern Australia [Conference presentation]. Zoology and Ecology North Queensland Conference, Mission Beach, Australia.
Groffen, J. (2024). In search of the golden eggs: The quest to study parental care in microhylid frogs in northern Australia [Conference presentation]. 10th World Congress of Herpetology, Borneo, Malaysia.
Groffen, J. (2023). Mitigating climate impact: Evaluating artificial shelters as microhabitat refuges for mountain-top frog species [Conference presentation]. Australian Society of Herpetology Conference, Townsville, Australia.
Groffen, J., & Hopkins, W. A. (2019). Artificial shelters for juvenile and sub-adult hellbenders [Poster presentation]. 9th Hellbender Symposium, Blacksburg, VA, United States.
Groffen, J., Borzée, A., & Jang, Y. (2017). The Asiatic toad (Bufo gargarizans): Lungworms and water molds [Conference presentation]. Animal Communication Symposium, South Korea.
Groffen, J., Borzée, A., & Jang, Y. (2017). Positioning of two treefrog species within rice paddies in relation to different habitat borders [Poster presentation]. The 72nd Annual Meeting of the Korean Association of Biological Sciences, South Korea.
Research Interests
Ecology, behavior, and conservation biology
Education
- PhD, Zoology and Ecology, James Cook University
- MS, Animal Health and Behavior, Wageningen University and Research
- MS, Animal Welfare and Ethology, Swedish Agricultural University
- BS, Animal Husbandry, Inholland University
