School of Life Sciences

I was appointed as a Lecturer in Ecology at Keele University in 2008, almost a decade to the day after graduating from Keele with dual honours BSc (Hons) in Biology and Geology and the John Myers medal for academic achievement. My time away from Keele has been fruitfully spent pursuing various graduate programs including an MSc in Ecology at Aberdeen, a Diploma in Statistics and a research-based MSc in Geology at Trinity College Dublin. I moved to Canada in 2002 to complete a Commonwealth Scholarship funded PhD at the University of New Brunswick on forest stand dynamics after a spruce budworm outbreak. I moved back to the UK in 2007, and took up a short term contract with Forest Research to work on spatial rhododendron invasion models with Colin Edwards before returning to Keele.

My research focuses on plant ecology, with specialisation in tree-insect interactions, dead wood ecology, disturbance dynamics, forest mensuration, and the application of GIS in landscape ecology, landscape processes, and geomorphology. I am currently working on three research projects: remote sensing as a tool to map invasive rhododendron in collaboration with Forest Research and Bournemouth University; effect of spruce budworm defoliation on balsam fir foliage production in collaboration with the University of New Brunswick; and the effect of climate change on cacti fire ecology in collaboration with Dr Peter A. Thomas, also at Keele University. The rhododendron project aims to highlight the need for strategic management in order to achieve eradication. This research has application in the control of other invasive species, such as Japanese knotweed, and the identification of future invasive species that may become more of a threat to biodiversity with climate change. Prof Andrew Dobson (Keele University), Dr Kezia Barker (Birkbeck College) and I are running an ESRC funded seminar series on the “Sociopolitics of biosecurity: science, policy and practice”. The second seminar of the series focusing on the native/alien paradigm will be held at Keele University in June 2010.

I am part of the Environmental Research Cluster in the Research Institute for the Environment, Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics (EPSAM), which promotes interdisciplinary research.

I have always been interested in conservation, and am an active member of the Staffordshire Regionally Important Geological and Geomorphological Sites Group and the Victoria Angling Club management committee.

Year 1

• LSC-10037 : Diversity of Life

• LSC-10033 : Ecology and Environment

• ESC-10028 : Environmental Science Skills

Year 2

• LSC-20055 : Life at the Extremes (Module Manager)

• ESC-20038 : Integrated Environmental Field Studies (Manager for Apedale section)

• ESC-20017 : Human Impact of the Environment, Scientific Perspectives

• ESC-20032 : Environmental Analytical Methods (Supervisor)

Year 3

• LSC-30004 : Research Project (Biology) (Supervisor)

• LSC-30007 : Dissertation for Biology (Supervisor)

• LSC-30017 : Trees in their Environment

• ESC-30019 : Applied Environmental Science Independent Research Project (Supervisor)

Year 4 (MSc)

• ESC-400XX : An Introduction to Sustainable Technologies

• LSC-40026 : Trees, Forests and Global Change