Watch Prof Yadvinder Malhi provide an overview of the Biodiversity, Ecosystems and Conservation research cluster at the SEED 2015 event.
Members of this research cluster work on both scientific and social scientific dimensions of the functioning of ecological and biogeographical systems, with principal interests in macroecology, island biogeography, diversity theory, ecosystem dynamics, conservation biogeography, conservation governance, biodiversity and climate adaptation and conservation and traditional ecological knowledge.
Our principal themes of interest are:
| Biodiversity: | macroecology; island biogeography; diversity theory; in which areas our work involves multi-scale ecological and evolutionary approaches to understanding patterns in biodiversity. |
| Ecosystems: | ecosystem dynamics; understanding what makes contemporary ecosystems; and how they may be affected by direct human pressures and global atmospheric change. |
| Conservation: | conservation biogeography; conservation governance; biodiversity and climate adaptation; conservation and traditional ecological knowledge. |
The research cluster has active links with the Oxford Long-Term Ecology Laboratory and Oxford Centre for Tropical Forests.
News and Research Highlights
- 10/01/22 10 January 2022 - read more + Leverhulme Trust awards £10 million to new Oxford nature recovery centre A new £10 million Oxford-based Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery has today [10 Jan] been announced - one of three UK centres established with a hotly-contested Leverhulme Trust 2021 award. On top of the 10-year Leverhulme funding, the centre, led by Professor Yadvinder Malhi, will receive £5 million in co-funding from the University of Oxford, which will support fundamental cross-disciplinary research.
- 30/11/21 30 November 2021 - read more + Satellites reveal Ethiopian elephants under threat Tens of thousands of illegal human settlements pose a real threat to the continued existence of an endangered elephant population, according to satellite analysis of the Babile Elephant Sanctuary in eastern Ethiopia by University of Oxford researchers and the Born Free Foundation.
- 11/10/21 11 October 2021 - read more + The natural world is critical to climate - Professor Yadvinder Malhi The living world is not a sideshow in the climate debate. Our climate benefits from a healthy and flourishing biosphere, just as ecosystems and the diversity of living organisms depend on climate.
- 07/09/21 7 September 2021 - read more + As nature climbs up the political agenda, how can researchers better engage with policy on biodiversity? Researchers from the University of Oxford's School of Geography and the Environment, Jasper Montana, Rosaria, Trisha Gopalakrishna and E. A. Welden, explore how academics can help inform policy on biodiversity following a series of three seminars and a workshop in early Summer 2021, which brought together academics from across the Oxford Biodiversity Network to share their experience working with policymakers.
Events
Latest Publications
- Ettinger, J., McGivern, A., Spiegel, M.P., King, B., Shawoo, Z., Chapin, A. and Finnegan, W. (2023) Breaking the climate spiral of silence: lessons from a COP26 climate conversations campaign. Climatic Change, 176(22).
- Gueiros, C., Jodoin, S. and McDermott, C.L. (2023) Jurisdictional approaches to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in Brazil: Why do states adopt jurisdictional policies? Land Use Policy, 127. 106582.
- Kjaer, K.H., Winther Pedersen, M., De Sanctis, B., De Cahsan, B., Korneliussen, T.S., Michelsen, C.S., Sand, K.K., Jelavic, S., Ruter, A.H., Schmidt, A.M.A., Kjeldsen, K.K., Tesakov, A.S., Snowball, I., Gosse, J.C., Alsos, I.G., Wang, Y., Dockter, C., Rasmussen, M., Jorgensen, M.E., Skadhauge, B., Prohaska, A., Kristensen, J.A., Bjerager, M., Allentoft, M.E., Coissac, E., Rouillard, A., Simakova, A., Fernandez-Guerra, A., Bowler, C., Macias-Fauria, M., Vinner, L., Welch, J.J., Hidy, A.J., Sikora, M., Collins, M.J., Durbin, R., Larsen, N.K., Willerslev, E. and PhyloNorway, C. (2022) A 2-million-year-old ecosystem in Greenland uncovered by environmental DNA. Nature, 612(7939)(283-291).
- Windirsch, T., Grosse, G., Ulrich, M., Forbes, B.C., Göckede, M., Wolter, J., Macias-Fauria, M., Olofsson, J., Zimov, N. and Strauss, J. (2022) Large herbivores on permafrost - a pilot study of grazing impacts on permafrost soil carbon storage in northeastern Siberia. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 10. 893478.
- Kühn, N., Spiegel, M.P., Tovar, C., Willis, K.J. and Macias-Fauria, M. (2022) Seeing roots from space: aboveground fingerprints of root depth in vegetation sensitivity to climate in dry biomes. Environmental Research Letters, 17(11)(114062).
