Macroscope Lab

Research interests

My research interests lie in ecology and evolution. I am interested in developing methods through which we can utilise and combine historical observational datasets to quantify and understand the variation that exists in past species responses to human induced environmental change. I hope that such research will contribute to facilitating a much need transition from research describing past species responses, to research aiming to predict future species responses and in turn, guide conservation action.

I am currently studying the effects of environmental change on migrant species phenology. I am working with an exceptional dataset spanning > 60 years, to investigate how the migratory schedules and phenology of multiple bird species have changed through time. This dataset, collected by Fair Isle Bird Observatory using a standardised methodology since 1955, provides a rare opportunity to quantify inter-species differences in the magnitude of phenological responses across species with diverse ecologies and life histories. I use the findings from this to investigate whether specific species traits (e.g. migration distance, habitat requirements, feeding ecology etc.) are effective in predicting observed variance in species phenological responses.

Given that diversity metrics are commonly used as a metric by which we measure success in conservation, I also aim to quantify how the structure and composition of the migratory community assemblage passing through Fair Isle has changed throughout the study period. To this end, I will investigate whether diversity metrics, quantified at varying temporal scales, can resolve the changes in phenology that are known to be driving differences in species interactions in this transient community assemblage.