People
There are three categories of people involved in ACES. Core Staff and Research Students are those directly involved in ACES projects. Associated Staff are those with an enthusiasm for interdisciplinary research located across our partner organisations.
Prof. Simon Thirgood (in memoriam)
ACES Staff
Dr. Ben Davies
Ben is an ecological economist working in the fields of environmental management, institutional economics and agri-environmental policy. His interests are in the relationships between individual decision making, institutions, and theories of governance related particularly to environmental issues. Past research has included work on multi-criteria analysis, environmental valuation, industrial organisation, and agri-environmental policy design, and more broadly addressed theories of human agency and social organisation. He is co-author of the first textbook on ecological economics published in the UK, and served as a Board Member of the European Society for Ecological Economics (ESEE) from 2000 to 2006.
Dr. Antonio A R Ioris
Antonio is a human geographer with a particular interest in the interface between the physical and social dimensions of environmental policy-making. His research is mainly focused on water and catchment management. He has a special interest in understanding the socionatural consequences of contemporary water legislation, such as the Water Framework Directive. Most of his publications have covered the interaction of local and global processes and their influence on water use and conservation, exploring issues of identity, efficiency, environmental justice and political representation. He is currently undertaking research projects in Portugal, Spain, Brazil and Peru, as well as a long term research on the Scottish regulatory context.
Dr. Eva Krupp
Eva is an analytical chemist, whose expertise is the biogeochemicalcycle of anthropogenic and natural pollutants. Her particular field ofanalytical chemistry is trace element speciation, a discipline which enables the determination of the molecular form of elements such as metals, metalloids andheteroelements in trace amounts in biologicaland environmental samples. The molecules of interest can be of low molecular mass range and purely of inorganic nature such Cr(III) / Cr(VI), or organometallic compounds such as methylmercury, arsenosugars, tributyltin. Also high molecular mass species such as selenoproteins or metalloproteins, ormercury and arsenic peptide complexes belong to this group.
Prof. Steve Redpath
Steve is Director of ACES. He is an ecologist whose core research interests lie in the fields of animal ecology and conservation science. His work focuses on long-term and large-scale field systems, using experiments to tease out the impact of population processes and land use on individual behaviour, populations and communities. He is increasingly exploring ways of linking ecology with the social sciences to find sustainable solutions to conservation problems. Much of his work is currently focused on upland and Mediterranean ecosystems. He has published ~80 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, edited a book on birds of prey, and is an Editor of Animal Conservation. He sits on the board of the Heather Trust and on Scotland's Moorland Forum.
a.taylor@macaulay.ac.uk
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Dr. Andy Taylor
Andy’s research focus is on the roles of fungi in the environment, in particular mutualistic soil fungi that are essential for the healthy growth of most terrestrial plant species. His varied research topics mirror the diversity of fungi as a group and the many functional roles that they carry out in most ecosystems. A key aspect of the work is the detection and identification of fungi in environmental samples. Since even those species that produce visible structures above ground can present considerable problems for identification, a significant part of the research is focused on the development and use of molecular tools for accurate species identifications. These tools are also used to examine spatial structuring of populations and communities at both local and continental scales. Mutualistic or mycorrhizal fungi are integral to the growth and health of many of our crop plants and for all of our forest trees. Unfortunately, these fungi are also very sensitive to pollution and many of the current management practices used in cultivation. Several of the research projects focus on how we can minimize negative impacts on the biodiversity and functioning of fungal communities. Increased interest in wild harvesting of natural products including fungi may also have potential negative influences on fungi. At present, we are ignorant of the extent of this wild harvesting in Scotland and this is a developing field of interest for Andy and other researchers across disciplines. Increasing the awareness of the general public to both the importance of fungi in our environment but also to the potential dangers of eating poisonous fungi is also a major interest that is conveyed through different media e.g. radio, TV and photographic exhibitions.
Dr. René van der Walr.vanderwal@abdn.ac.uk
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Rene is an ecologist whose research aims at understanding how ecosystems function, thereby crosscutting trophic levels and traditional natural scientific disciplines. As many of his research questions are either influenced by or central to people, an increasing part of his work is conducted in close collaboration with social scientists and involves a wide range of stakeholders and/or members of the general public. Current studies focus on the causes and consequences of ecosystem perturbations from changes in land-use, nitrogen enrichment, climate change and invasive species in temperate and arctic areas.
Prof. Colin Hunter
Chair in Rural & Environmental Sustainability, Geography & Environment
at the School of Geosciences, Aberdeen University, with research interests on sustainable tourism, sustainable households, water management, risk perception and e-Social Science and interdisciplinarity.
He currently oversees a number of research projects employing quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods approaches, encompassing large scale questionnaire survey work, key informant interviews, and focus group analyses.
Dr. Mark Reed
Mark is an interdisciplinary environmental researcher, working with stakeholders to better understand, monitor and adapt to environmental change in a range of developed and developing world contexts, mainly focusing on preventing and overcoming land degradation in mountain and desert regions. He has played a leadership role in research worth £9.5M, and been a funded member in teams that have secured a further £2M since completing his PhD in 2005. He is currently writing two books and developing a third: one on land degradation and climate change (with Lindsay Stringer); one on conservation conflicts (with ACES colleagues); and one on research impact (with the Rural Economy and Land Use programme, at proposal stage). His work has been covered by the Guardian, Radio 4, Radio Scotland and international media. He has have conducted international consultancy work for UNDP/UNEP and the Global Environment Facility, and was invited as a lead author to the “Socio-Economic and Knowledge Management” Working Group to provide a synthesis of current research and make recommendations for the last Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. He is a member of the Rural Economy and Land Use programme's Policy Analysts' Advisory Group, the Advisory Network for the Foresight Land Use Futures project (Government Office for Science), and the science-policy working group of DesertNet International. He has also led teams contracted to provide input to the UK Government Commission for Rural Communities’ Uplands Inquiry and the uplands review for the Government Office for Science Foresight Land Use Futures project. He is a contributing author to the upland chapter of the UK National Ecosystem Assessment, and has contributed to research that is part of the Scottish Government’s Rural Land Use study, which reported to their Land Use Summit in 2009. In 2008, he became the first UK researcher to be awarded a joint fellowship by the US Social Science Research Council and ESRC, and in 2009 was awarded the ESRC’s Michael Young Prize, “rewarding the very best early career social scientists whose research has the potential to make a positive and far-reaching impact beyond academia”. He is a grant reviewer for ESRC, Swiss Science Foundation and Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research, a reviewer for 15 journals and Oxford University Press, and is on the Editorial Board of an ISI-listed journal. He supervises 3 PhD students and 4 Post-Doctoral Research Assistants.
Dr. Anna Evelyanna_evely@abdn.ac.uk
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Anna is an interdisciplinary researcher working on issues of Environmental Sustainability. She recently completed her Phd which analysed the integration of knowledge (disciplinary, expert and lay) for conservation. Specifically, I looking at: a) how the knowledge of social and natural sciences can be integrated to better manage social–ecological systems; b) what the barriers are to integrating different types of knowledge; c) what the outcomes are of integrating different forms of knowledge; d) what type of participation can best sustain action; and e) how participation can improve adaptive capacity
Dr. Iain Mackie i.mackie@abdn.ac.uk
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Dr. Michelle Pinard m.a.pinard@abdn.ac.uk
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Michelles primary research interests are in natural forest management, tropical forest ecology, and the interface between management and ecology. She also has an interest in tropical forest's role in rural development.
Michelle is best known for her work on regeneration issues in logged forests, carbon offsets in forestry, and reduced-impact logging. She has recently completed several experiments with colleagues in Brazil, Ghana and Malaysia that examined silvicultural problems related to the selection of trees for felling and retention in natural forests managed for timber. Currently, Michelle is working with colleagues in Sri Lanka and Ethiopia developing systems that allow rural people living in and near the forest to generate livelihoods in ways that are compatible with forest conservation.
Dr. Ros Bryce r.bryce@abdn.ac.uk
Dr. Justin Irvine j.irvine@macaulay.ac.uk
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Dr. Sarah Dalrymple s.e.dalrymple@abdn.ac.uk
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Sarah is a conservation ecologist working on restoration of threatened plant species and their habitats. She is a Teaching Fellow in Ecology and programme coordinator for BSc Conservation Biology at the University of Aberdeen and became interested in pedagogic research as a way of gaining an insight into her own teaching. She initally focussed on engagement in the ecological disciplines before looking into interdisciplinary education. These interests stem from the recognition that students choose environmental and ecological subjects in order to 'make a difference' and whilst their educational experience can enhance their motivation for scholarship, it sometimes fails to do so, thereby failing the ecological discipline as a whole. Sarah is grappling with ideas of discipline engagement and interdisciplinary perspective as ways of helping students achieve their potential, and contributing to environmental protection by nurturing excellent graduates.
Lesley Kirton lesley.kirton@abdn.ac.uk
Post-graduate students (funded through ACES)
Sebastian Selges.selge@macaulay.ac.uk
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Project: Understanding public perceptions of non-native species: values and discourses.
This PhD sets out to examine the attitudes towards non-native plants and animals through the application of discourse theoretical frameworks, embedding these in the scientific debates on ‘images of nature’ and value-attitude-behaviour theories. It aims to answer questions such as “Why are non-native species not a welcome contribution to biodiversity?” and “What value judgments inform attitudes towards non-native species?” Moreover, the project aims to reveal whether such underlying principles differ principally among societal groups, notably policy makers, environmental scientist and members of the general public. Supervisors: Rene van der Wal and Anke Fischer.
Heather Smith
Spatial planning and the water framework directive.
This project involves studying how the land use planning system in Scotland can both inform and help deliver river basin management planning, as required under the European Water Framework Directive. Heather has an undergraduate background in environmental science. Her general research interests include studying the links between emerging science and the development of environmental policy, with a particular focus on water resources management. As a researcher at Canadian NGO, she was involved in a multi-stakeholder process for implementing watershed (catchment) planning in Ontario. She also holds an MSc from the University of Oxford in Water Science, Policy and Management, for which she studied how a growing understanding of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) could help mountain communities in Nepal reduce their vulnerability to these catastrophic events. Supervisors: Alister Scott & Kirsty Blackstock.
d.feliciano@macaulay.ac.uk
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Diana Feliciano
The Contribution of the Rural Land use Sector to Greenhouse Gas Neutral Regions
The PhD project aims to improve the understanding of the management of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and storage at the regional level (North east of Scotland) with particular emphasis on agriculture, forestry and other rural land uses. The work follows four key stages:
1. The construction of a general GHG baseline ‘balance’ sheet for the North East of Scotland, with major GHG sources and sinks, using existing software tools;
2. The formulation of credible potential GHG abatement and mitigation strategies for the North East of Scotland;
3. An economic evaluation of abatement cost scenarios, including the potential for GHG trading mechanisms between sectors and activities in the rural region;
4. A stakeholder analysis of the suitability and practicality of potential GHG trading mechanisms identified. Diana has a 5 years degree is in Forestry Engineering and MSc in Economics. Her dissertation was the ‘Effectiveness Assessment of Forest Owners Organisations in the North and Centre of Portugal’. Other interests are renewable energy, rural development and small scale forestry. Supervisors are Prof. Colin Hunter (School of Geosciences, ACES), Professor Bill Slee (Macaulay Institute) and Professor Pete Smith (School of Biological Sciences at Aberdeen University).
Koen Arts
Koen Arts is a PhD student registered with the University of Aberdeen (School of Biological Sciences) and the Macaulay Research Institute (Socio-Economic Research Group) in Aberdeen. He works on the issues of ecological restoration, reintroduction and the concept of wilderness. Koen has completed a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Forest and Nature Conservation at Wageningen University and a B.A. and M.A. in Philosophy at Radboud University Nijmegen. His general research interests include the intrinsic value of nature, attitudes towards nature conservation, exotic species, and philosophy and theory of nature conservation. Supervisors: Anke Fischer and Rene van der Wal
Public participation in renewable energy and energy efficiency: Understanding the roles of Environmental and Social Impact Assessments
Steven is conducting an interdisciplinary PhD within the Department of Anthropology and the Department of Geography and Environment, University of Aberdeen, with a Masters in Visual Anthropology from the Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology, University of Manchester. In his doctoral research he is attempting to bring together his two passions, the environment and visual media with his professional background as a Social Impact Assessment practitioner on the Mediterranean island of Malta. Broadly speaking, the doctoral research will investigate the linkages between different practices and approaches to knowledge formation, contextualisation and transfer, and the affects on stakeholder and public participation and involvement within environmental planning decision-making processes. Themes of power, governance, governmentality, expert knowledge production by “hard” and “soft” scientists, local expertise and issues of “planning knowledge”, “local knowledge” and representation will be explored. These themes delineate the decisions that are taken both as on-the-ground practices, such as top-down and bottom-up approaches to public participation and local knowledge within the environmental socio-political policy framework and as end results or outcomes of these processes, at project and policy levels.
This PhD project will attempt to answer these questions and explore the above themes in the context of the implementation of renewable energy and energy efficiency policies in the EU nation state of Malta. Insights predominantly from Anthropology and Geography will be used to explore ways of integrating visual representations of environmental change and the assessment of cultural and emotional processes that accompany it (the ‘felt’ dimensions of sustainability), in order to improve public engagement in environmental governance. The research aims to assist the development of more flexible, responsive and horizontal policy tools that are open to the cultural and emotional, and not only rational or visual practices of public participation in environmental management. Steven is funded by an ACES studentship and a EU/Maltese Government scholarship (STEPS). Supervisors: Dr. Jo Vergunst (Department of Anthropology) and Dr. Sergei Shubin (Department of Geography and Environment), University of Aberdeen, with technical support for the Virtual Landscape Theatre by Prof. David Miller at the Integrated Land Use Systems Science Group and the Socio-Economic Research Group, Macaulay Institute.
The traditional practices and uses of mangrove forests in the Philippines have been in the most part perceived as in as a driver of forest degradation. Yet there is a clear underlying historical basis that these practices only become harmful once they have become large-scale commercial operations. By examining these traditional practices I will identify those that can be developed on a small-scale community basis to help in management of the mangrove systems. In turn the use of traditional practice can then be preserved and used to help generate livelihood opportunities, reducing other forms of pressure on the mangrove forest system. To determine this I will examine the historic drivers of mangrove changes in the Philippines to determine what impact each one has had on the mangrove and to map the true extent of the mangrove degradation across the Philippines.
My study comprises of 3 main components, analysis of remote sensing data (past and present), rural participatory assessment and ground truthing. The results will be combined to give completer overall picture of traditional uses and their past impacts on mangroves and to identify those practices that can be developed to help protect and enhance the mangroves forests.
Understanding Landscape Change and Environmental Sustainability: The Role of Attention, Working Memory, and Restorative Processes in Environmental Preference
This project combines theoretical and methodological perspectives from psychology, geography, and topographic science to further empirical understanding of environmental preference. It is vital for sustainable management that planners, policymakers, and general members of the public understand the environmental impact of landscape change. However, little systematic research has examined how attentional and restorative processes interact in determining environmental preference. The control of attention is an integral aspect of working memory, and allocation of attention to different objects in a perceived scene may influence subsequent decision-making and expressed preference. This research will aim to provide valuable insights into the cognitive systems that underlie people's understanding of landscape change, with some studies making use of the Virtual Landscape Theatre facility based at the Macaulay Institute. Theoretical predictions made by attention restoration theory will be directly tested by systematically examining how the presence of man-made objects in a natural scene interacts with attentional allocation and the storage of representations in working memory. The research will also identify how emotions, associations, and values impact on the perceived restorative potential of particular environmental scenes. This will allow more detailed cognitive modelling of the relationship between attention, perceived restorative quality, and environmental preference than is currently available.
Diana is a PhD student in Geography & Environment (School of Geosciences) with an MA (Honours) in Environmental Management from the University of Aberdeen. Her thesis will be exploring the reasons behind the apparent disconnect between ‘what we know to be right’ and ‘what we actually do’ in ‘green/non-green’ behaviour choices (also known as the action/value gap). She will be applying methods from Psychology to issues in Human Geography to address the challenge of engaging the public in environmental behaviour. She is funded through an ACES studentship. Supervisors: Antonio Ioris and Lynden Miles.
Georgina Maffey
gmaffey@abdn.ac.uk
The use of digital technology in traditional landscapes
Gina is a PhD student based in the Rural Digital Economies Hub. Her study aims to determine how digital technology can impact on management initiatives in rural settings. The project takes an interdisciplinary approach and will use deer movement as a framework to initially understand conflicting views on land use in the UK. Exploration will follow into how digital technology can subsequently be used to enhance future sustainability within this area. Supervisors: Prof Steve Redpath (University of Aberdeen), Dr Mark Reed (University of Aberdeen), Dr René Van der Wal (University of Aberdeen) and Dr Justin Irvine (Macaulay Institute).
Post-graduate students (associated to ACES)
c.pita@abdn.ac.uk
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Cristina Pita
Socio-economic impact of marine protected areas
Cristina is a PhD student at the School of Biological Sciences and at the Business School. She works on socio-economics and Marine Protected Areas. The study aims to evaluate stakeholder's attitudes towards MPAs (including willingness for labour and geographical mobility, perceptions of involvement in management, etc.). Her general research interests include Marine Protected Areas; Small-Scale Fisheries management; Coastal Community Development; Community-Based Resource Management; Sustainable Coastal Activities; Aquaculture; Integrated Coastal Zone Management; Ecosystem-Based Coastal Management.
petermoore@abdn.ac.uk
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Pete Moore
Pete is a part time PhD student at School of Social Sciences. His research is using case studies to investigate ways in which photography and rephotography can be used to explore change in the contexts of space, time and place. Part of the work is practice-based, returning to the precise locations of vintage photographs to repeat the image and collect additional information which can be used as a tool to reveal change, foster connections and understanding of the landscape. Pete is a full time area officer with Scottish Natural Heritage, based in the Cairngorms.
emily.lambert@abdn.ac.uk
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Emily Lambert
Emily is a PhD student based in the School of Biological Sciences and the School of Geosciences. Her study aims to determine how climate change may influence the sustainability of cetacean-based wildlife tourism (or whale watching tourism) through its effect on cetacean distribution and abundance. The project takes on an interdisciplinary approach, working with whale watching operators and their tourists in combination with ecological modelling of potential climate change impacts on cetacean species in Scottish waters. Supervisors: Dr Colin Hunter (School of Geosciences), Dr Colin MacLeod and Prof Graham Pierce (School of Biological Sciences).
Habitat use by Pink Footed Geese in Svalbard
The factors influencing habitat quality and selection can have profound effects on long distance migratory herbivores. For arctic breeding species, such as pink footed geese, early access to food resources and nest sites can be restricted by snow cover, with the timing of snow melt having previously been shown to significantly affect breeding success. However, relatively little is known about what factors affect pink footed goose habitat use during the short pre-nesting period in Svalbard; a time which may be crucial for maintaining/improving body condition prior to breeding. In addition, there is also a lack of knowledge about how habitat and nest site quality, in addition to timing of snow melt, affects breeding success. This study aims to understand the way in which herbivores such as pink footed geese use habitats to their advantage, and how a changing climate may affect this migratory species.
Supervisors: René van der Wal (UoA); Sarah Woodin (UoA); Jesper Madsen (NERI – Denmark); Christiaane Hübner (Svalbard Science Forum - Norway).
Associated Staff
j.farrington@abdn.ac.uk
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Prof. John Farrington
A member of University of Aberdeen since 1969. Promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1988, and received a University of Aberdeen Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1996. Promoted to Professor of Transport and Environment in 2001. Appointed Director of the Institute for Transport and Rural Research (ITRR) in 2006.
Prof. Maggie Gill
Chief Scientific Adviser for Rural Affairs and the Environment (RERAD). Former Chief Executive of the Macaulay Institute. Professor of the School of Geosciences, Aberdeen University.
Prof. Tim Ingold
Chair in Social Anthropology at the School of Social Science, Aberdeen University, with research interests on, among others, work, environment and identity, domestic organisation and rural economy, migration and rural depopulation, social and environmental aspects of technical change.
Prof. Pete Smith
Professor of Soils & Global Change at the School of Biological Sciences, Aberdeen University, with research interests on
soil modelling, global change impacts on ecosystems, soils and agricultural options to mitigate climate change, soil and agricultural sustainability, soils in the global carbon cycle and ecosystem modelling.
k.j.thomson@abdn.ac.uk
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Prof. Ken Thomson
Emeritus Professor at the School of Geosciences, Aberdeen University, with research interests on policy analysis for agriculture and rural areas/economies, modelling land use, trade, etc., and economics of forestry, aquaculture, rural tourism.
Prof. Pete Stollery
Professor of Electroacoustic Music and Composition at the School of Education, Aberdeen University. Prof. Stollery is a composer, sound artist and teacher who is passionate about the lost art of listening (conscious of the fact that we do not posses earlids, he wants people to think very carefully about what they listen to). Additional web pages: www.petestollery.com; www.gordonsoundscape.net
Dr. Deborah Randall
Deborah is a conservation biologist whose research aims to link ecosystem monitoring and conservation decisions. Previous research focused on Ethiopian wolf behavioural ecology, disease management and conservation genetics. Her more recent work with Frankfurt Zoological Society in protected area planning and management in Ethiopia's Bale Mountains National Park and Simien Mountains National Park have focused on designing and implementing ecosystem monitoring programmes with park ecologists, local communities, and other stakeholders. Because people and natural resource use are a predominant feature in the Ethiopian environment, her work in ecosystem monitoring and management seeks to balance long-term conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem function with human livelihoods.
Dr. David Burslem
David Burslem is an ecologist and conservation biologist in the School of Biological Sciences at Aberdeen University. Current research projects focus on gene flow and population genetics of tropical tree species, mechanistic modelling of tree seedling recruitment, and restoration ecology. These techniques are applied to monitoring and management of forest resources in tropical landscapes, and to species assessments at larger scales.
Dr. Mark Young
Mark Young is interested in two main areas of research, namely the factors that influence the occurrence, reproductive status and abundance of freshwater mussels and the conservation ecology of rare lepidoptera, especially in relation to changing land-use. Mark has been widely involved in policy and the application of science to conservation and sustainable land-use. He has been on the Advisory Committee on SSSIs, the North Board of SEPA, the Action Plan and Science Group acting for the Scottish Biodiversity Forum and other more local committees. Currently he is also Chairman of the Advisory Board for NERC's Biological Records Centre and is a Trustee of Butterfly Conservation and its Scottish Chairman.'
Dr. Liz Baggs
Liz Baggs is a NERC Advanced Research Fellow in the Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, at the University of Aberdeen, with research interests in greenhouse gas production in soils, rhizosphere processes, soil biogeochemistry, development and application of stable isotope techniques, and soil and agricultural sustainability.
Prof. Christopher J. Secombes
Chris is a fish immunologist, who works on factors important in the regulation of their immune responses. Fish farming has expanded enormously over the last two decades, paralleled by many disease problems. For successful control of disease in aquaculture a multifaceted approach is needed, with the use of vaccines and immunostimulants of value in improving fish health.
Dr. Adam Price
Adam Price is senior lecturer at the School of Biological Sciences with research interests in the genetics of stress resistance in crop plants including genetic mapping physiological traits and biotic interactions with a goal of contributing to agricultural sustainability.
Dr. Scott Newey
Scott is a wildlife ecologist based at the Macaulay Institute in Aberdeen whose reserch aims to understand how natural and anthropogenic factors interact to drive wildlife population dynamics. Using mountain hares in the Scottish uplands as a model system Scott’s current work combines large scale, replicated field experiments with cross-sectional and modelling studies to investigate the role of natural factors - such as parasites and food availability, management, and habitat fragmentation on mountain hare population dynamics.
Dr. Justin Irvine
Justin is an ecologist whose research is based on understanding the mechanisms governing the regulation of free ranging herbivore populations and the consequences this can have for grazing impacts and biodiversity in the context of environmental change. Current work focuses on a) How herbivore habitat and range use is affected by competition for resources and how competitive interactions between domestic and wild herbivores may influence the transmission of disease. b) Investigating the relative impacts of wild and domestic herbivores on the biodiversity of the Scottish uplands in relation to current land use changes. c) Linking population dynamics and grazing ecology with social and economic scientists to develop an interdisciplinary approach for natural resource management. He is a member of the Deer Commission for Scotland’s Deer Management Round Table.
d.s.gray@abdn.ac.uk
WebpageDr. Donald Gray
Donald is a senior lecturer in the School of Education. He has a degree in zoology, and a background in science, environmental and outdoor education. He is currently research director for the Scottish Teachers for a New Era initiative in the School of Education. He has collaborative links with colleagues in Turin University and is a member of the Interdisciplinary Research Institute on Sustainability at Turin (http://www.iris-sostenibilita.net/iris/index.asp) and is co-editor, with Laura Colucci-Gray and Elena Camino, of the book Science, Society and Sustainability: Education and Empowerment for an Uncertain World. (http://www.routledgepolitics.com/books/Science-Society-and-Sustainability-isbn9780415995955).
Prof. Paul Thompson
Paul is an ecologist within the School of Biological Sciences, and Director of University’s Lighthouse Field Station in the Moray Firth. His group explore how environmental changes affect the ecology of marine mammal and seabird populations. Much of this work is built upon long-term field studies of populations in Scottish waters, but comparative studies have been conducted in coastal and offshore systems across the world. He is currently an Associate Editor for Journal of Applied Ecology and serves as a member of the IUCN Seal Specialist Group and the Committee of Scientific Advisors for the Society of Marine Mammalogy. He has previously served on the Scientific Committees of the International Whaling Commission and Scottish Natural Heritage, and is currently Scientific Advisor for the multi-agency management group for the Moray Firth Special Area of Conservation. Rob Brooker
r.brooker@macaulay.ac.uk
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Dr. Rob Brooker
Rob is an unrepentant plant community ecologist working in the Ecology group at the Macaulay Institute. He has a particular interest in plant interactions, their relationship to environmental drivers such as climate and land use change, and their impacts on biodiversity. He has published a number of articles on the role of facilitation (beneficial plant-plant interactions) in plant communities, and also on the topic of the importance – rather than simply the occurrence – of plant interactions. He is currently involved in an NERC funded project with David Robinson, University of Aberdeen, exploring the direct measurement of resource competition by plants along environmental gradients. He is the coordinator of the 2009 BES Symposium on Facilitation in Plant Communities. Rob is currently working on the ecology of rarity in Scottish vascular plants, including work on the Scottish primrose Primula scotica. He is extremely interested in the process of science-policy communication and has been working to improve his understanding of these issues, as well as the communication process itself.
Prof. Jim Prosser
Jim Prosser is a microbial ecologist investigating the diversity and ecosystem function of microbial communities. His research focuses on the use of molecular techniques to characterise natural communities of microorganisms in soil and in aquatic environments. This research has uncovered novel microbial groups involved in biogeochemical cycling processes, in particular nitrification, which plays a central in the global nitrogen cycle.
Prof. Andrew A. Meharg
Andrew's present research activity is currently focussed on arsenic biogeochemistry. Much of this work is driven by human exposure to arsenic through groundwaters in SE Asia, and through food-chain exposures of humans and wild-life. Paddy rice naturally has high levels of inorganic arsenic, a non-threshold class 1 carcinogen, making it the dominant source of inorganic arsenic exposure globally. Arsenic studies integrate environmental pathways from soil/sediment biogeochemistry, plant physiology through to human/wild-life exposure. Besides the work in SE Asia, arsenic dynamics have been studied in the arsenic polluted regions of SW England; Donana, Spain; arsenic impacted EU & US paddies. Development of cutting edge analytical technology is central to this work, deploying HPLC with simultaneous organic (ion trap ESI) and inorganic (ICP) MS detection, GC-MS, laser ablation ICP-MS and synchrotron techniques. Current research interests also focus on other geogenic elements, both nutrients and toxicants, and organic pollutants, in human food-chains and in natural ecosystems. This includes studies on crop ecosystem biogeochemistry and movement of pollutants into wildlife, including those consumed in human diets such as game and seabirds. Have worked on lead (isotope) exposure of protected wild birds, and the decline of the Indian vulture due to food chain exposure to NSAIDs.
Prof. Xavier Lambin
The current research is focused on: 1) the roles of dispersal, predation, herbivory and pathogens on the spatial and temporal dynamics of cyclic field vole populations in an highly fragmented environment; 2) the behavioural and demographic and genetic processes in small semi-isolated populations where localised extinction and dispersal are common place; 3) adaptive management for mitigating the impact of an invasive predators; 4) dynamical feedback between plants and herbivores through silica induction; 5) kinship-induced instability in population dynamics; and 6) disease dynamics in host population dynamics and the role of (single and multiple) host dynamics in (single and multiple) disease dynamics.
ricbraun@compuland.com.br
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Dr. Ricardo Braun
Ricardo is an environmentalist with over 26 years of experience in governmental and non-governmental organisations. He is an associate researcher at the Centre for Environmental Analysis (NASA), Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). He coordinated the 92’ Global Forum during the UN Conference on Environmental and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro. He also developed the first environmental audit in Tanzania in 1989. Some of his recent professional engagements include consultancy on the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (OTCA); Amazon Region Protected Areas Program (ARPA); Brazil-Germany Financial Cooperation (PPMA/IEF/KFW); International Labour Office (ILO/UN) in Geneva; Centre for Environmental Management and Planning (CEMP) in Scotland; Organisation of American States (OAS), United Nation Development Programme (UNDP), Brazilian Ministry of Tourism (MTur), Brazilian Environment Institute (IBAMA), State Institute of Forestry (IEF) and CODEVASF in Brasília. Also developed several assignments in the Oil Sector with Kerr McGee Oil and Gas, SHELL Brazil, Enterprise Oil, and PETROBRAS. His side interests are eco-design, new forms of sustainable technologies and the development of films of natural ecosystems. There is a second edition of his successful book "New Environmental Paradigms" published in 2005.
Dr. Hilary Homans hilary.homans@abdn.ac.uk
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