Current Post: Lecturer in Ecological Effects of Climate Change

Room Number: ENV 01.11

Telephone: 01603 592721 (+44 1603 592721)

Fax: 01603 591327 (+44 1603 591327)

Email: a.franco@uea.ac.uk

Publications: EPrints Digital Repository

Research Interests

Climate change, habitat fragmentation, dispersal, selection of priority areas for conservation, agri-environmental policies, biodiversity conservation

Biography

My research focuses on understanding the role of habitat loss and climate change on species distribution changes and population declines. During my PhD at UEA I explored which factors were responsible for an endangered species (lesser kestrel) decline, determined what was limiting population growth and identified measures needed to reverse population declines. I have then helped to develop a conservation project for lesser kestrels in Portugal, which was extremely successful, as the species population tripled in a few years. I became convinced that scientific research and conservation in practice can work together to provide successful conservation outputs. From UEA I moved to the University of Leeds and University of York, where I have tried to understand the effects of habitat loss and climate change on northern butterfly species distributions, and looked at population trends at different spatial scales. I found that northern butterfly species are responding to temperature increases by shifting their distributions polewards. I have also worked on selection of priority areas for species conservation. I then moved to the USA, and worked at the Washington State University on butterfly movement in fragmented and heterogeneous landscapes.

Currently I am interested in understanding how species dispersal capacity can influence their ability to track habitat and climate change and how to select priority areas for conservation taking into account climate change. I am especially interested in the conservation of endangered species and biodiversity.


Research Group

	Audrey Zannese Post-doctoral Research Fellow (PDRA) NERC project: The role of dispersal on species’ ability to respond to climate change
	Eveliina Kallioniemi UEA PhD student Project: The role of dispersal on species ability to track climate change
	Ricardo Correia Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology PhD student Project: Climate change effects on land use and bird communities of Iberian Peninsula extensive agricultural systems: a conservation approach (with J. Palmeirim, University of Lisbon)
	Martin Sullivan NERC PhD student Project: Environmental and climatic factors that influence current and future distributions of non-native breeding bird species in Southern Europe
	Ines Catry Post-doctoral Research Fellow Project: Effects of climate on the breeding biology, habitat quality and population dynamics of steppe birds
	Nathalie Gilbert NERC PhD student Project: The role of climate and habitat changes in changing species migratory decisions and population dynamics

Significant Publications

• Catry, I., Franco, A.M.A. & Sutherland, W.J. (2012) Landscape and weather determinants of prey availability: implications for the Lesser Kestrel Falco naumanni. Ibis 154, 111-123
• Catry, I. Amano, T. Franco, A.M.A. & Sutherland, W.J. (2012) Influence of spatial and temporal dynamics of agricultural practices on the lesser kestrel. Journal of Applied Ecology 49, 99-108.
• Schultz, C.B., Franco, A.M.A. & Crone, E.E. (2012) Response of butterflies to structural and resource boundaries. Journal of Animal Ecology doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2656.2011.01947.x
• Franco, A.M.A., Anderson, B. Roy, D.B., Gillings, S. Fox, R., Moilanen, A. & Thomas, C.D. (2009) Surrogacy and persistence in reserve selection: landscape prioritisation for multiple taxa in Britain. Journal of Applied Ecology, 46, 82-91.
• Franco, A.M.A., Palmeirim, J.M. & Sutherland, W.J. (2007) A method for comparing effectiveness of research techniques. Biological Conservation 134(1), 96-105.
• Thomas, C.D., Franco, A.M.A. & Hill, J.K. (2006) Range retractions and extinction in the face of climate warming. Trends for Ecology and Evolution 21(8), 688-689.
• Franco, A.M.A., Hill, J.K., Kitschke, C., Collingham, Y.C., Roy, D.B., Fox, R., Huntley, B. & Thomas, C.D. (2006) Impacts of climate warming and habitat loss on extinctions at species’ low-latitude range boundaries. Global Change Biology 12, 1545-1553.
• Moilanen, A., Franco, A.M.A., Early, R.I., Fox, R. Wintle, B. & Thomas, C.D. (2005) Prioritizing multiple-use landscapes for large multi-species planning problems. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 272 (1575), 1885-1891.
• Franco, A.M.A., Marques, J.T. & Sutherland, W.J. (2005). Is nest site availability limiting Lesser Kestrel populations? a multiple scale approach. Ibis 147, (4), 657-666.
• Franco, A.M.A. & Sutherland, W.J. (2004) Modelling the foraging habitat selection of lesser kestrels: conservation implications of European agricultural policies. Biological Conservation 120, 63-74.

Page last updated 1 February 2012