Professional summary

Research Interests

1. Corridors. I am leading a joint UK/US project: Wildlife corridors: do they work and who benefits? We are investigating how to make wildlife corridors successful for a large variety of species, bringing new understanding into species dispersal over very large scales, and providing new methods for determining where to best invest resources for conservation.

2. Restoring Resilient Ecosystems, a NERC Highlight Topic project, in which we are developing a new paradigm to assess ecosystem restoration, in terms of ecological complexity, emergent properties and resilience. I am leading the grassland component

3. BESTMAP an H2020 project developing an impact assessment models to address the complexity of decisions made by farmers and the wider impacts of policy on natural, social and cultural assets in rural areas. I am leading the WP on upscaling to the EU.

4. AgZero+ a major new five-year research programme to support the UK’s transition towards food production that is sustainable, carbon-neutral and has a positive effect on nature..I am Deputy Lead

5. AgLand project under the UKR Landscape Decisions programme. We are providing new data and models to support decision makers in the design and management of future landscapes. I am leading the WP on applying and expanding models of ecosystem services.

6. Seed dispersal. We are using experiments, modelling and meta-analysis to quantify plant dispersal, its variation among species and to address the vexed question of just how far seeds might move. We are combining dispersal kernels and demography in simulation and mathematical models to project plant spread over fragmented landscapes and under climate change.

Spatial population ecology and dispersal
Landscape dynamics of plants: metapopulation ecology and extinctions
Agricultural ecology, particularly agri-environment schemes
Restoration of biodiversity and ecosystem services
Risk assessment of invasive species
Conservation ecology: large-scale, re-wilding, policy

Brief CV

Individual Merit (IMP) Scientist at CEH

Visiting Professor at Southampton, Liverpool and Bournemouth Universities

Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022

Publications