The environment is changing faster than at any time in recorded history due to a range of factors including climate change, habitat loss, renewable energy developments, pollution and over-exploitation of natural resources. These changes are having profound effects on biodiversity and human and animal health, and we need to be able to predict the consequences.
Our School integrates studies of the effects of environmental change operating at all levels of biological organisation. For instance, at the cellular level we are investigating how environmental conditions influence physiological and molecular processes including metabolism, oxidative damage, telomere loss and the rate of ageing. This is linked to studies of how individual animals and plants cope with environmental fluctuations, and how in turn this influences population dynamics, species interactions (including those between parasites, vectors and their hosts) and community structure. We conduct both short-term experiments and long-term monitoring of wild populations (at a range of field sites including loch and woodland research programmes at SCENE, our field station on the banks of Loch Lomond).
We have many links to other research being undertaken both within the School and the wider university. For example:
the effect of environmental conditions on disease transmission or food production
investigation of how animals evolve in the face of changing environments
links with geographers, statisticians and mathematicians in the College of Science and Engineering
A variety of approaches are used, including collection of experimental and observational data, epidemiological, mathematical, computational and statistical modelling, bioinformatics, physiology, parasitology, immunology and polyomics (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics). Individual research projects are tailored around the expertise of principal investigators within our Schools. Basic and applied science projects are available involving field, laboratory and in silico approaches within research programs underway in both the UK and overseas.
Specific areas of interest include:
conservation management of African ecosystems
protected area management
measuring biodiversity and abundance (this presumably overlaps with other themes)
human dimensions of conservationAquatic ecosystem connectivity
sustainable aquaculture
behavioural and physiological approaches to improved production and welfare of farmed fish
evolutionary ecology, life-history trade-offs and phenotypic evolution
long-term effects of early environments on adult performance
phenotypic plasticity and flexibility in variable environments
ecology and physiology of marine animals
effects of Marine Protected Areas
effects of climate change on the abundance, body size, physiology and behaviour of aquatic organisms
fisheries-induced evolution
applied poultry science
evolutionary processes within rare fish populations
conservation strategies for rare and endangered fish and bird species
control of invasive non-native species
impact of freshwater and marine renewable technologies on fish
evolutionary and ecological impacts on parasite life cycles
avian behaviour and ecology, including both marine and terrestrial birds
changes in phenology and in daily rhythms
migration and movement of birds, mammals and fish
understanding how biological clocks affect organisms' response to environmental change
effects of urbanisation on health of individuals, populations and ecosystems
effects of light pollution
understanding how biological clocks help or hinder organisms' adjustment to environmental change
cold adaptation in marine mammals and birds
the effect of environmental stress on the physiology, behaviour and life histories
applied poultry science
ecology of neotropical rainforest birds
the effect of fishing practices on the evolution of wild fish populations (fisheries induced evolution)
the effects of animal physiology and environmental change on animal social behaviour and collective decision-making
effects of exposure to pollutants on physiological systems
possible transmission of antimicrobial resistance between species through environmental pollution
effect of climate change and deforestation on vector-borne disease
data-driven modelling of population dynamics and epidemics
developing new methods for species distribution modelling
We aim to predict the consequences of rapid environmental change such as that due to climate, habitat loss, renewable energy growth, pollution and over-exploitation of natural resources on biodiversity and human and animal health.