ABOUT US
Solutions for Inland Waters that start with people
From our one-on-one partnership with you, to our long-term relationships with Traditional Owners, and academic and industry specialists, we’re as passionate about people as we are about Inland Waters.
Our story
After 15 years studying Inland Waters as an expert aquatic ecologist across small-medium enterprise and global corporate, Adam Harman founded Lateral Environmental in late 2020.
The goal was to create a company that reflected Adam’s passion, values, and purpose; combining technical excellence with authentic and lasting client relationships and lateral thinking for sound Inland Waters assessment and management solutions.
Inspiring other like-minded and passionate scientists with this ethos, the team at Lateral organically grew and expanded into their custom built, open plan West Perth office and laboratory in 2022.
Lateral is now home to a tight-knit group of passionate, career aquatic ecologists and taxonomists who enjoy sharing their knowledge with a range of clients and the community.
Why we’re different
We’re leaders in Inland Waters ecology and biodiversity management – it’s all we do! We’re driven by a passion for aquatic ecology, lateral thinking, and authentic connections with people.
Through our shared-learning approach we work closely alongside, learn from, and empower all Traditional Owners.
Our values
Our reputation is built on the following values:
- Passion
At our core, we’re nerds for all things Inland Waters and aquatic biota.We live and breathe the intricate details of our science – never too far from our microscopes, statistics, waders and water bugs, and gearing up for that next trip on Country.
Immersed in science
Our hand-picked team of certified environmental practitioners and taxonomists bring a strong academic lens, in-field applied experience, and technical skills to each project we support.We always strive for excellence and to make meaningful contributions to our field of science, for improved Inland Waters outcomes.
Shared learning
We’re committed to working alongside, learning from, and empowering all Traditional Owners of Inland Waters.We believe that Western and modern science is only a glass half full approach to sustainable Inland Waters outcomes and that Traditional Owner connections to Country must be preserved.
Communication
Our transparent and hands-on approach throughout the project lifecycle fosters easy understanding among team members, clients, and stakeholders.We’re focused on building long-term relationships with our clients, based on mutual respect.
Collaboration
Our work is strengthened by our close community of local, national, and global industry connections. This gives us flexibility to deliver a suite of multi-disciplinary services to our clients.Small team; large reach and big impact.
Curiosity
We’re about genuine, tailored advice; not generic, one-size-fits-all fixes.We adopt lateral and holistic thinking to better understand our clients’ problems and are committed to continuous learning to adapt and refine our strategies.
Who Are We
Our Director
Adam Harman, Principal Aquatic Ecologist, leads the team at Lateral Environmental and is a Certified Environmental Practitioner (CEnvP).
He brings over 15 years’ experience in aquatic ecosystem health assessment and management consulting services across Australia and the Asia Pacific region.
Adam’s commitment to his field of science is reflected by a certificate of excellence, International Water Centre (IWC) Water Leadership Program (WLP), Griffith University, 2022.
Adam is passionate about all things water-ecology related, driven to bring the right group of people together to create science-based and culturally sensitive solutions that protect and enhance our Inland Waters.
We nurture real relationships that enrich your business and the environment.
Our Team
The Lateral team is a tight-knit, dedicated, and highly-mobile group of eight individuals who are passionate about Inland Waters ecology and biodiversity.
Dr Andre Siebers joined the Lateral Environmental team in 2022 as a Senior Aquatic Ecologist. He has 10+ years’ experience in the research and management of a diverse range of freshwater ecosystems, from Swiss Alpine streams to the Murray-Darling Basin. Andre is an internationally-recognised expert in freshwater biogeochemistry and non-perennial river ecology, with a strong publication record in scientific journals and close links to academia.
Andre is scientifically focused and always enthusiastic about applying state-of-the-art approaches to understand drivers of the quality, habitat, and fauna of our Inland Waters.
Alex Riemer joined the Lateral Environmental team in 2024 as a Senior Aquatic Ecologist. He is an expert taxonomist of aquatic invertebrates, with 13+ years’ environmental consulting experience across northern Australia and internationally in Papua New Guinea.
Alex is passionate about entomology, and is up to date with the latest publications, approaches and methods, and is skilled at using both morphological and genetic approaches to establish species level diversity across a vast landscape of Inland Waters.
Dr. Navodha Dissanayake joined the Lateral Environmental team in 2023. She is an expert benthic ecologist, passionate about taxonomic and biological trait diversity of benthic macrofauna and their key role in ecological functioning in soft sediment habitats.
Her broad fieldwork experience was initially comprised of sampling various estuarine/coastal benthic ecosystems, from the tropical mangroves in Sri Lanka to the sub-tropical intertidal mudflats in east-coast Australia and to subtidal soft sediment habitats in the Bass Strait, Tasmania.
Navodha has now expanded her knowledge, experience and skillset to explore the ecology of freshwater Inland Waters of tropical and temperate Australia from the Pilbara and east Kimberley, to southwest WA, to central inland Australia (SA and QLD).
Dr Nadia Sloan joined the Lateral Environmental team in 2023 following completion of her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), awarded for leading research on the evolution of genital structures in native Western Australian millipedes (genus Antichiropus).
She is an experienced entomologist of invertebrates, transferring her academic research experience working with terrestrial invertebrates to freshwater macroinvertebrates of our Inland Waters. Nadia has experience undertaking baseline Inland Waters studies and compliance monitoring assessments across the Pilbara bioregion.
Olivia Blizard joined the Lateral Environmental team in 2023. Olivia has 10+ years’ experience in aquatic ecology, during which she has been involved in a variety of projects including sampling groundwater dependent ecosystems of Karijini National Park as well as monitoring the growth of larval crustaceans in a world-first sustainable aquaculture facility.
In her current role, Olivia has been leading and monitoring Lateral Environmental Health & Safety (H&S) systems, procedures and reporting in the office, laboratory and field. She is competent in the H&S considerations of environmental consulting, and more importantly potential hazards and risk assessments as they relate to working in Inland Waters.
Cait Dowley joined the Lateral Environmental team in 2023 and brings a creative outlook to her scientific practice. Cait is passionate about the protection and enhancement of aquatic ecosystems; the persistence and the prospering of the environment on every scale, from the large to the microscopic.
Cait is an experienced environmental practitioner across a variety of ecological spheres, with a strong background in flora and vegetation surveys and research. Her university studies were in botany and fine arts, exploring the natural environment through a variety of methods. Since joining the Lateral team, Cait has supported a wide range of aquatic ecology projects across Western Australia. She has a comprehensive understanding of aquatic field sampling techniques, with experience in sampling and assessing a diverse array of aquatic ecosystem types.
Jake Daviot joined the Lateral Environmental team in 2022 and has 6 years’ experience conducting detailed aquatic ecosystem health assessments across Western Australia including sampling of troglofauna, stygofauna, benthic algal communities, diatoms, macroinvertebrates and freshwater fish, as well as accurately measuring and collecting abiotic data.
Jake is currently undertaking leading research on endemic freshwater mussels at Murdoch University, researching impacts of mussels on nutrient dynamics and food web ecology.
Sofia Min joined the Lateral Environmental team in 2024 bringing with her a strong enthusiasm for freshwater ecology and aquatic fauna. With a background in Conservation and Wildlife Biology, she enjoys exploring the intricate relationships within an aquatic ecosystem.
Sofia has contributed to various conservation and monitoring projects, including volunteering with Department of Biodiversity, Conservations and Attractions, where she gained valuable experience identifying macroinvertebrates within natural and artificial environments. She has also been actively involved in bird rescue with Western Australia Seabird Rescue for over 2 years.
Sofia looks forward to continue expanding her knowledge, refining her taxonomy skills, deepening her understanding of aquatic ecosystems and contributing to meaningful solutions for inland waters with Lateral Environmental.
Erik joined the Lateral team in 2024. Erik completed his honours project in 2019 where he worked on freshwater fish parasites in the southwest of Western Australia. Since then, he has gained several years of consulting experience and has multiple years of volunteering experience in the marine environment. Erik has worked in a variety of aquatic systems, including diving with marine megafauna in the Revillagigedo Archipelago, monitoring turtle population in northern WA as well as conducting freshwater fish surveys in river systems of southwest WA. Erik is passionate and eager to learn more about the intricacies of the freshwater ecosystems Lateral survey across Western Australia and beyond, as well as strengthen his taxonomy skills. Erik has been finding the Coleoptera families very interesting so far and hopes to specialise in their identification in the future
On the ground
Our field and technical capability is delivered by eight qualified career aquatic ecologists with over 80 years’ combined experience.
In the lab
Our expert taxonomists provide species-level taxonomic services in our custom-built wet and dry lab at our Perth headquarters.
Industry reach
Our team is supported by our community of academic and industry specialists who we have long-term relationships with, helping us to deliver a range of comprehensive environmental services for our clients.
When we’re not tromping the wetlands, we love diving deep into the complexities of our research and advocating for the value of shared-learning in our field of science. Each team member at Lateral is encouraged to nurture their complementary skillsets and research studies to amplify the impact of our work.
Get To Know Us Better
We do love a good knowledge share – so be sure to read up about our discoveries and adventures, including our ‘Waterbug Wednesday’ and ‘Freshwater Friday’ LinkedIn posts!
Check out our LinkedIn page to connect with us and read more about our team’s enthusiasm for our wetlands, rivers, creeks, and springs; conservation of our aquatic biota and increasing the environmental stewardship of our unique Inland Waters.
Testimonials
-quality deliverables.”
Acknowledgement of Country
Lateral Environmental acknowledge and pay our respects to all Traditional Owners that have come before us for tens of thousands of years, those we share our current days with, and the future generations that will continue to lead the conservation, monitoring and sustainable management of our Land, Inland Waters and Sea.
We thank all Traditional Owners for sharing the cultural, spiritual, and environmental values of their Inland Waters. We are committed to working alongside, learning from, and empowering all Traditional Owners of Inland Waters across Australia.
Lateral Environmental have consent from respective Prescribed Body Corporate (PBC) / Traditional Owners to share photographs on this website.
