IGS: Current and Recent Graduate Research
Thomas Matthews
Analysing, modelling and mitigating the impact of habitat destruction and fragmentation on species diversity: a global perspective
Supervisor(s):
Contact Info:
Academic Profile
Tom is a DPhil candidate with an interest in biogeography and biodiversity conservation. He completed his BSc in Environmental Management at the University of Birmingham in 2009, before undertaking a year as a researcher at Birmingham, under the supervision of Dr Jon Sadler. His research focus was urban ecology and incorporating GIS spatial analysis into this field; in particular analysing the effects of light pollution on bat species and the impact of urbanisation on pollinator assemblages. He then progressed to study an MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management on a NERC scholarship at the School of Geography and the Environment at Oxford. The research component of this MSc course comprised a meta-analysis focused on analysing how the effects of habitat fragmentation on avian species richness vary depending on a species' level of habitat dependency.
Current Research
DPhil Research
The primary aim of Tom's DPhil project is to model avifaunal responses to habitat fragmentation in a sub-tropical landscape (Assam, India). More specifically, the thesis aims to critically evaluate existing models and frameworks used to model habitat fragmentation, with particular focus on the species-area relationship, whilst simultaneously generating a novel assemblage of models. The project will integrate the following themes:
- Anthropogenic activities have created a complex mosaic of land use types which have had a myriad of implications for biodiversity. Tom's research aims to discern how avian species are affected by habitat fragmentation and how avian communities are structured in fragmented landscapes.
- Assessing the differences between true isolates and habitat islands, and how these differences can be incorporated into the application of island theory in the study of habitat islands. The existing framework for studying habitat fragments is heavily reliant on techniques and models which consider fragments to be analogous to true isolates, that is, the landscape is viewed as a binary of suitable and non-suitable habitat. Tom's research aims to demonstrate this is an erroneous lens for viewing fragmented landscapes through and any modelling technique must be calibrated to incorporate the complexities of habitat islands. These include the permeability of the surrounding habitat matrix, the occurrence of habitat corridors and edge effects.
- The use of GIS to accurately map the studied landscape and objectively classify the different levels of landscape connectivity, matrix permeability, and various matrix types between habitat fragments, and ascertain how these variables vary spatially and temporally. Tom's research will involve a substantial GIS component and various techniques will be employed in Arc GIS in order to accurately measure the aforementioned variables. This will help circumvent criticisms often levelled at fragmentation studies, namely that such variables are often measured in an inaccurate and subjective manner.
- Additionally, the thesis aims to discern if species responses to fragmentation are constant across the range. Species behaviour has been theorised to vary at the range margins as a result of responses to climatic change. However, it has not been empirically tested whether individual species occurrence patterns are constant across different fragmented landscapes.
- An examination of critical spatial thresholds in habitat islands. This involves the application of piecewise regression to determine if a breakpoint is present in the species-area relationship for a variety of fragmented landscapes.
Current Teaching
Tom has been involved in running a series of biogeography tutorials and reading groups for the MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management, in addition to organising a workshop for MSc students on the topic of academic writing. He has also lectured on ecological sampling techniques.
Publications
In peer-reviewed journals
- Hale, J.D., Fairbrass, A.J., Matthews, T.J. and Sadler, J.P. (2012) Habitat composition and connectivity predicts bat presence and activity at foraging sites in a large UK conurbation. PloS ONE, 7: e33300.
- Bates, A.J., Sadler, J.P., Fairbrass, A.J., Falk, S.J., Hale, J.D. and Matthews, T.J. (2011) Changing bee and hoverfly pollinator assemblages along an urban-rural gradient. PloS ONE, 6(8), e23459.