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My recent research projects have included:
- The sensitivity of pollinators to fragmentation of habitat, and the impact this has on the whole community.
- Managing farmland to enhance the benefits we gain from biodiversity, e.g. pollination and natural pest control.
- The use of mammals and insects as bioindicators of the effect of agriculture on our environment.
- Developing and testing methods to sample small mammals efficiently.
Species in communities in landscapes
I am interested in 'species in communities in landscapes' so my research spans traditional divides in ecology:
- Species: population ecology and comparative biology
- Communities: community ecology and complexity science
- Landscapes: spatial and macro-ecology
During the summer of 2009 I identified over 8000 insects visiting
flowers on fragments of chalk grassland
The research during my current NERC Fellowship covers all these areas.
One of the really exciting aspects of my research is combining traditional and cutting edge techniques. Much of my data collection (catching and rearing insects, marking animals and identifying plants) uses methods that have changed little over the past century. However, I use cutting-edge methods for analysis, including techniques from the rapidly-developing, multi-disciplinary science of complex systems to study the network of interactions between species.
My research has focussed on agricultural habitats, although for my latest project I am working in more natural habitats - chalk grassland and woodland.
I have studied many different types of animals and plants. I am interested in many aspects of British natural history and this means that I can choose to work on whichever group of species is best suited to answering the ecological questions that I am interested in.
find out more about my current research »
find out more about my past projects »
Photo header: A solitary bee visiting Ragwort (Senecio jacobeae) flowers. Currently there is concern about the decline of honey bees and bumblebees, but many other pollinators are also important and also probably declining.