We study the way in which environmental processes impact on living organisms, including humans, and the ways in which organisms modify their environments.

Photo of a dense forest

Our biological and ecological research covers all scales from the genetic and microscopic to the global, deals with plants, animals and micro-organisms, and examines the ecology of terrestrial, freshwater and marine systems. Our research includes field studies, and laboratory based work on invertebrates and plankton. It encompasses work that examines fundamental ecological principles, as well as addressing applied and management questions. Much of our research is international in scope, and includes projects in Amazonian Brazil, the Caribbean, and Asia. Members often work closely with conservation NGOs, international agencies, and government departments.

The work of the group focuses on two major areas:
(i) the response of ecological systems to the drivers of environmental change, particularly in relation to climate, pollution, anthropogenic land use change and over-exploitation; 
(ii) the role of biological processes in the delivery of key ecosystem goods and services. Climate change related research includes direct impacts such as the effects of changes in hurricane frequency and sea surface temperatures on coral reefs, the physiological and dispersal responses of invertebrates to changing temperatures, and the role of biological processes in key ocean-atmosphere interactions.

Our research topics include:

  • Population dynamics and life history biology, and the influence of environmental fluctuations and environmental and climatic change on these;
  • The impacts of pollution on terrestrial, freshwater and marine systems, and methods to remediate contaminated land;
  • Landscape ecology and conservation, with a particular focus on temperate and tropical forests
  • Mammal and avian ecology and conservation.
  • Biological oceanography and the links between biogeochemical cycling and plankton ecology and ecophysiology

We collaborate with researchers within the School in a number of areas, for example with chemists to examine the impact of pollutants on terrestrial, freshwater and marine systems and the contributions of living organisms to biogeochemical cycling. In landscape ecology, we collaborate with social scientists on work involving Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and also  on a number of issues at the interface between ecology and environmental management of coastal zones.

Research in ecology and evolutionary biology also takes place in the School of Biological Sciences and the Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation (CEEC) brings together research and teaching activities within a number of Schools. Our external collaborators include the British Trust for Ornithology, the RSPB, the John Innes Centre, CEFAS and the Plymouth Marine Laboratory. We are also members of the NERC funded UK Population Biology Network (UKpopNET), which is a collaboration between six of the UK's leading groups of ecologists and evolutionary biologists.

We take on a number of research students every year, and welcome enquiries from potential PhD applicants and visitors. We also contribute to the teaching of the MSc in Applied Ecology and Conservation.

Members of faculty contribute to editing several scientific journals, including: Plant Species Biology, PloS Biology, Biotropica, Nature and Society, Primates, Natureza & Sociedade, Ecology and Society, and Frontiers in Ecology and Environment.