Professor James Bullock

Current work

1. Declines in rare plant species: Funded by the EU project SCALES, we are analysing 70-year old datasets to reconstruct and explain patterns of plant population extinction at local and national scales. We are testing for metapopulation breakdown and for evidence of the extinction debt.

2. Restoration of ecosystems: We are looking at the links between restoration of biodiversity and enhancement of ecosystem services. In a new Defra project we are testing the ability of agri-environment management to deliver services including pollination, water quality and carbon sequestration.

3. Spread and control of invasive plants: We are using analytical and simulation models to assess the potential for spread of invasive plants in current and future climates. A new European project is assessing the spread of the non-native ragweed, its impacts on human health and livelihoods and possibilities for its control.

4. Improving agri-environment schemes: In the five-year RELU project FarmCAT I am coordinating an interdisciplinary team to gain a understanding of the factors determining success of agri-environment schemes by combining of ecological and social research methods.

5. Dynamics of Brassicas and their natural enemies: Using wild cabbage and mustard, we are studying: dispersal and large-scale dynamics; metacommunity dynamics of associated insects using genetic markers; and the evolution of chemical defences against invertebrate herbivores.

Research interests

Brief CV

• Visiting Professor at Liverpool and Bournemouth Universities
• Member of the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment http://www.defra.gov.uk/acre
• Lead author for semi-natural grasslands in the UK National Ecosystem Assessment
• General Secretary of the European Ecological Federation http://www.europeanecology.org
• External Examiner at Oxford University
• Editor of Dispersal Ecology 2002, Blackwell Science, Oxford

Selected publications

See also the NERC Open Research Archive.

Bullock, J.M., Aronson, J., Newton, A.C., Pywell, R.F. and Rey-Benayas, J.M. (2011). Restoration of ecosystem services and biodiversity: conflicts and opportunities. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 26, 541-549.

Bullock, J.M., Jefferson, R.G., Blackstock, T.H., Pakeman, R.J., Emmett, B.A., Pywell, R.F., Grime, J.P. and Silvertown, J. (2011). Semi-natural grasslands. In: The UK National Ecosystem Assessment Technical Report. UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge.

Pickering, C., Mount, A., Wichmann, M. and Bullock, J.M. (2011). Estimating human-mediated dispersal of seeds within an Australian protected area. Biological Invasions, 13, 1869-1880.

Bullock, J.M., Galsworthy, S.J., Manzano, P., Poschlod, P., Eichberg, C., Walker, K. and Wichmann, M.C. (2011). Process-based functions for seed retention on animals: a test of improved descriptions of dispersal using multiple data sets. Oikos, 120, 1201-1208.

Keith, S.A., Newton, A.C., Morecroft, M.D., Bealey, C.E., Golicher, D.J. and Bullock, J.M. (2011). Plant metacommunity structure remains stable during biodiversity loss in English woodlands. Oikos, 120, 302-331.

Pywell, R.F., Meek, W.R., Webb, N.R., Putwain, P.D. and Bullock, J.M. (2011). Long-term heathland restoration on former grassland: The results of a 17-year experiment. Biological Conservation, 144, 1602-1609.

Ezard, T.H.G., Bullock, J.M., Dalgleish, H.J., Millon, A., Pelletier, F. Ozgul, A. and Koons, D.N. (2010). Matrix models for a changeable world: the importance of transient dynamics in population management. Journal of Applied Ecology, 47, 515-523

Newton, E.L., Bullock, J.M. and Hodgson, D.J.  (2010). Temporal consistency in herbivore responses to glucosinolate polymorphism in populations of wild cabbage (Brassica oleracea). Oecologia, 164, 689-699

Rey Benayas, J.M., Newton, A.C., Diaz, A. and Bullock, J.M. (2009). Enhancement of biodiversity and ecosystem services by ecological restoration: a meta-analysis. Science, 325, 1121-1124.

Wichmann, M., Alexander, M., Soons, M.B., Galsworthy, S., Dunne, L., Gould, R., Fairfax, C., Niggemann, M., Hails, R.S. and Bullock, J.M. (2009). Human mediated dispersal of seeds over long distances. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 276, 523-532.