Vacancies: In addition to this webpage I typically advertise funded PhD studentships on findaphd.com and postdoctoral researchers on jobs.ac.uk. However, I am happy to discuss possibilities for joining my group at any time including potential grants, and support for studentships and fellowships.

Questions currently being asked within my research group include:

1. What measures can we use to improve agricultural landscapes for wildlife?

Agricultural intensification and expansion are regarded as major causes of worldwide declines in biodiversity during the last century. There are a number of measures that includes lower intensity agricultural systems and agri-environment schemes that may support viable wildlife populations alongside food production, and we have a several projects on-going in this area. For example:

a) Do agri-environment schemes work?

Agri-environment schemes are financial incentives paid by Governments for farmers to adopt environmentally-sensitive agricultural practices on their land aim to counteract the negative effects of intensive agriculture on biodiversity. However, most agri-environment schemes (AES) are largely designed for birds, some invertebrates and floral species, and there is little information on the contribution that current AES prescriptions make for other taxa. We have been working to assess the benefits provided by AES to bats (and their insect prey), moths and bumblebees.

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Photo: Plecotus auritus [photo credit John Altringham]

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b) Improving upland grassland systems for breeding waders

Until relatively recently, the breeding wader community of marginal, upland farmland was thought to have escaped the losses witnessed in lowland England and Wales, and Scotland is now critically important in supporting UK populations of breeding waders. However, more recent declines in such marginal upland areas have been identified, with, for example, losses of 48% of Lapwings and 55% of Curlews. Although there is evidence that agri-environment scheme (AES) management directed at waders can reverse population declines at field and farm scales in Scotland, implementation has been far too limited to stem ongoing declines nationally. In light of such severe declines, observations of unusually high lapwing densities on a livestock farm near Stirling has led to a collaborative project between Stirling and RSPB Scotland to determine the environmental drivers behind these localised high densities and how these are influenced by farm management. Management involves a combination of different activities, including planting of a fodder crop and liming, and is undertaken as part of the core farm business rather than under agri-environment support, and the farmer at this site won an RSPB Nature of Scotland award (2012) for his work.

A follow up project is now examining how the benefits of such management can be most effectively applied at other sites, funded by Scottish Natural Heritage, RSPB Scotland and University of Stirling.

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c) How do we prioritise conservation efforts to restore functioning ecological networks?
In this long-term project we are using woodland creation in the UK over the past 150 years as a natural experiment to address questions about the relative impact of local (e.g. increasing patch size & quality) versus landscape scale actions (e.g. improving connectivity) on wildlife. Woodlands provide essential ecosystem services and in the UK they support more wildlife species than any other habitat. Historic deforestation has drastically reduced our woodland cover and much of it now consists of non-native plantations or small, isolated and degraded patches immersed in an agricultural matrix that dominates the landscape. Recent woodland creation schemes were introduced over 25 years ago and are contributing to the slow return of wooded landscapes within the UK but we currently have little information on how these schemes are performing – as part of Woodland Creation and Ecological Networks (WrEN) we are addressing questions about how to prioritise efforts for conservation given limited resources For more details go to: www.wren-project.com

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Photo: Surveying woodlands for the WrEN project [photo credit: Kevin Watts]

2. How can we make plantation forests work for timber and wildlife?

Currently approximately 70% of woodland in the UK consists of forestry plantations, much of which is intensively managed, using a limited number of exotic fast-growing conifers and employing a variety of silvicultural practices to prepare sites for planting (e.g. ploughing, use of herbicides), thinning and clear-cut harvesting. A common perception of plantation forests is that they are ecological deserts and there is a long standing debate about the potential, and realised, role of plantation forestry in biodiversity conservation. There is now a body of evidence from numerous countries, however, to suggest plantation forests can provide habitat for a wide range of native forest plants, animals, and fungi. In the UK there have been fundamental changes to silvicultural practices over last 30 years as a result of policy changes which have placed a greater emphasis on maximising biodiversity benefits of plantations. There are several projects on-going at Stirling which aim to address ecological and applied conservation questions about the use of plantation forestry by wildlife species including pine marten, bats and other UKBAP priority species. Much of this work is carried out in collaboration with, and funded by, Forest Research and the Forestry Commission.

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Photo: Fiona Caryl working on pine marten ecology in coniferous plantations

3. How does wildlife respond to urbanisation?

Urbanisation is a major driver of the global loss of biodiversity the rate of urban expansion continues to accelerate. Green spaces within urban areas (e.g. parks, gardens) can hold relatively rich wildlife communities but are often threatened by development. In order to mitigate the adverse effects of urbanisation it is essential to understand what drives species’ patterns of habitat use within the urban matrix and what mitigation may promote population persistence. Projects on urban ecology and conservation at Stirling have used a range of wildlife taxa which with to address these broad questions, including bats, bumblebees and moths.

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Photo: Using GIS to classify habitat around urban woodland in central Scotland

4. What effects do small wind turbines have on bats and birds?

The wind energy sector is growing worldwide and large scale wind farms have been shown, in some situations, to have significant adverse effects on wildlife. There has been little work, however, on the rapidly growing sector of small wind turbines. Research is underway at University of Stirling to better understand the effects that small wind turbines have on birds and bats, and how they may be mitigated. To achieve these aims, we use a multidisciplinary approach including field studies, experiments, questionnaires of owners and planning officers, and public attitude surveys using choice experiments.

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Other activities and research

I also have research interests in several other areas including the effect of endocrine disrupting chemicals on wildlife, impacts and control of non-native invasive species and human-wildlife conflicts. I am a trustee for the Bat Conservation Trust, the UK's only dedicated charity for bat conservation, Chair of the Board for Bats without Borders, a charity working across southern Africa to conserve bat populations, and a member of the Mammal Society's Scientific Advisory Committee.

Research group members

Current
• Alice Broome (PhD student, part-time) "Research response to the conservation needs of UKBAP Priority and protected woodland species in Britain"
• Elisa Fuentes-Montemayor (Past PhD student and current University Research Fellow) "Woodland Creation and Ecological Networks”
• Matt Guy (PhD student) "Seabird-mediated impacts of marine environment changes on agri-ecosystem productivity"
• Eilidh McNab (PhD student) "How does large scale native woodland restoration affect biodiversity?"
• Emma Sheard (PhD student) “Translating small scale ecological studies to large scale agricultural practices: breeding waders and grassland management”
• Helen Taylor (PhD student) "Bat populations in anthropogenic landscapes in Zambia"

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I also co-supervise John Wilson (Determining the impact of future tourism scenarios on sustainable use of mountains for Norway’s wild reindeer).

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Past
• Alice Helyar (PhD student, 2011-2005) "The ecology of American mink (Mustela vison): response to control". Now a Senior Ecologist at Bowland Ecology, Lancashire.
• Fiona Caryl (PhD student, 2004-2008) "Pine marten diet and habitat use within a managed coniferous forest". Now a PDRA at the University of Glasgow.
• Rachael Cooper-Bohannon (Past PhD student and current visiting Researcher) "The distribution and conservation of cave-dwelling bats in southern Africa". Now Principal Officer at Bats without Borders, Malawi.
• Lauren Fuller (Post-doctoral Research Associate) "Woodland Creation and Ecological Networks”. Now a Data Scientist at Scottish Environment Protection Agency.
• Heather McCallum (PhD student, 2008-2012) "Identifying and implementing key habitat features for breeding waders in upland grassland systems: ecology and economics". Now a reserves ecologist at RSPB Scotland.
• Jeroen Minderman (Research Fellow, 2012-14) "Assessing the effects of micro-turbines on wildlife". Now a PDRA at University of Stirling.
• Luci Kirkpatrick (PhD student) "How do silvicultural practices influence bat populations in commercial coniferous plantations?". Now a PDRA at the University of Antwerp.
• Laura Kubasiewicz (PhD student, 2010- 2014) "Ecology and conservation management of pine martens in fragmented landscapes". Now a Researcher at the Donkey Sanctuary.
• Paul Lintott (PhD student, 2010-2015) "Ecology and conservation of urban bats". Now Lecturer at University of West England.
• Orly Razgour (Research Fellow, 2013-2015) “Bats as indicators of species response to environmental change“. Now a Lecturer at University of Southampton.
• Cerian Tatchley (PhD student, 2011-2015) "Wildlife impacts and public attitudes to small scale turbines". Now a Programmes & Policy manager at the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquarium.
• Robbie Whytock (PhD student, 2014-2018) “Assessing the effects of landscape structure on woodland birds”. Now a PDRA based at University of Stirling.

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I also co-supervised the following students who have now successfully completed their PhDs: Gillian Lye (Factors affecting nest site choice and colony success in bumblebees, 2009), Lynne Osgathorpe (Reconciling ecology and economics to conserve bumblebees, 2010), Steph O’Connor (The nesting ecology of bumblebees, 2013), Nicola Redpath (Restoration and management of wildflower-rich machair for the conservation of bumblebees, 2010), Ciaran Ellis (Biodiversity and risk management for sustainable pollination services, 2015), Hannah Feltham (Factors influencing pollination limitation and yield, 2015).

I am the co-ordinator of the Conservation Biology & Management degree and a number of modules on biological diversity and conservation (undergraduate and Masters level), I also teach on an undergraduate field course in France, on vertebrate diversity and a course on advanced analytical techniques.