Dr. Jo Staley

My research interests focus on the effects of abiotic factors (e.g. habitat management including agri-environment schemes, soil fertility or climate change) on communities of  plants and invertebrates, and the interactions between them. 

My projects have included research into hedgerow ecology, in which we used multi-site field experiments to test the effects of hedgerow management and rejuvenation on provision of resources for wildlife, hedge structure and invertebrate assemblages, and monitoring of Higher Level Stewardship agri-environment schemes. I currently lead a large field monitoring project testing the landscape-scale response of mobile species to agri-environment schemes, at 54 1km² survey sites across England.

Prior to CEH I worked with colleagues at Imperial College and the University of Southampton to test the idea that organically grown plants are ‘better defended’ against phytophagous insects than conventionally produced plants, due to the use of lower concentration, slower release forms of fertiliser.  

During my PhD, I investigated the impacts of climate change on invertebrate communities and plant-mediated interactions between foliar and root phytophages. 

I have supervised MRes/MSc research projects as well as PhD students (below), please get in touch if you are interested in doing a project with me or co-supervising one.