Dr Nicola Stevens

Trapnell Research Fellow in African Environments

Academic Profile

Nicola is the current Trapnell Fellow in African Environments. My current research interests are centred around understanding the dynamics of African grassy ecosystems and how they are changing in the Anthropocene. I'm especially interested in understanding how altered fire and herbivory regimes against a backdrop of changing CO2 concentrations are driving changes. Along this vein I have become particularly interested in the phenomenon of woody encroachment where open ecosystems across the tropics are being invaded by native woody species. It has also driven me to improve our ability to predict future species ranges under global change by improving our mechanistic understanding of range edges in disturbance limited systems. I have ongoing projects in Southern and East Africa.

Selected Publications

For a full publications list, please see Google Scholar

White, J., Stevens, N., Fisher, J. and Reynolds, C. (2024) Global change biology, 30(6), p. e17340.
2005755 - Woody plant encroachment drives population decline...
Loft, T., Cardoso, A., Bond, W., Gonçalves, F., Machado, M., Oliveras Menor, I., Staver, C. and Stevens, N. (2024) Global change biology, 30(6), p. e17369.
2004654 - Central Africa's mesic savannas should be conserve...
Ernst, Y., Archibald, S., Balzter, H., Chevallier, F., Ciais, P., Fischer, C., Gaubert, B., Higginbottom, T., Higgins, S., Lawal, S., Lacroix, F., Lauerwald, R., Lourenco, M., Martens, C., Mengistu, A., Merbold, L., Mitchard, E., Moyo, M., Nguyen, H., O’Sullivan, M., Rodríguez‐Veiga, P., Rosan, T., Rosentreter, J., Ryan, C., Scheiter, S., Sitch, S., Stevens, N., Tagesson, T., Tian, H., Wang, M., Woon, J., Zheng, B., Zhou, Y. and Scholes, R. (2024) Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 38(4).
1989271 - The African Regional Greenhouse Gases Budget (2010...
Millan, M., Ottaviani, G., Beckett, H., Archibald, S., Mangena, H. and Stevens, N. (2024) Plant Biology [Preprint].
1842374 - Disentangling the effect of growth from developmen...
Loft, T., Stevens, N., Gonçalves, F. and Menor, I. (2024) Global Change Biology, 30(2).
1616723 - Extensive woody encroachment altering Angolan miom...
Clements, H., Do Linh San, E., Hempson, G., Linden, B., Maritz, B., Monadjem, A., Reynolds, C., Siebert, F., Stevens, N., Biggs, R., De Vos, A., Blanchard, R., Child, M., Esler, K., Hamann, M., Loft, T., Reyers, B., Selomane, O., Skowno, A., Tshoke, T., Abdoulaye, D., Aebischer, T., Aguirre-Gutiérrez, J., Alexander, G., Ali, A., Allan, D., Amoako, E., Angedakin, S., Aruna, E., Avenant, N., Badjedjea, G., Bakayoko, A., Bamba-Kaya, A., Bates, M., Bates, P., Belmain, S., Bennitt, E., Bradley, J., Brewster, C., Brown, M., Brown, M., Bryja, J., Butynski, T., Carvalho, F., Channing, A., Chapman, C., Cohen, C., Cords, M., Cramer, J., Cronk, N., Cunneyworth, P., Dalerum, F., Danquah, E., Davies-Mostert, H., de Blocq, A., De Jong, Y., Demos, T., Denys, C., Djagoun, C., Doherty-Bone, T., Drouilly, M., du Toit, J., Ehlers Smith, D., Ehlers Smith, Y., Eiseb, S., Fashing, P., Ferguson, A., Fernández-García, J., Finckh, M., Fischer, C., Gandiwa, E., Gaubert, P., Gaugris, J., Gibbs, D., Gilchrist, J., Gil-Sánchez, J., Githitho, A., Goodman, P., Granjon, L., Grobler, J., Gumbi, B., Gvozdik, V., Harvey, J., Hauptfleisch, M., Hayder, F., Hema, E., Herbst, M., Houngbédji, M., Huntley, B., Hutterer, R., Ivande, S., Jackson, K., Jongsma, G., Juste, J., Kadjo, B., Kaleme, P., Kamugisha, E., Kaplin, B., Kato, H., Kiffner, C., Kimuyu, D., Kityo, R., Kouamé, N., Kouete T, M., le Roux, A., Lee, A., Lötter, M., Lykke, A., MacFadyen, D., Macharia, G., Madikiza, Z., Mahlaba, T., Mallon, D., Mamba, M., Mande, C., Marchant, R., Maritz, R., Markotter, W., McIntyre, T., Measey, J., Mekonnen, A., Meller, P., Melville, H., Mganga, K., Mills, M., Minnie, L., Missoup, A., Mohammad, A., Moinde, N., Moise, B., Monterroso, P., Moore, J., Musila, S., Nago, S., Namoto, M., Niang, F., Nicolas, V., Nkenku, J., Nkrumah, E., Nono, G., Norbert, M., Nowak, K., Obitte, B., Okoni-Williams, A., Onongo, J., O’Riain, M., Osinubi, S., Parker, D., Parrini, F., Peel, M., Penner, J., Pietersen, D., Plumptre, A., Ponsonby, D., Porembski, S., Power, R., Radloff, F., Rambau, R., Ramesh, T., Richards, L., Rödel, M.-O., Rollinson, D., Rovero, F., Saleh, M., Schmiedel, U., Schoeman, M., Scholte, P., Serfass, T., Shapiro, J., Shema, S., Siebert, S., Slingsby, J., Sliwa, A., Smit-Robinson, H., Sogbohossou, E., Somers, M., Spawls, S., Streicher, J., Swanepoel, L., Tanshi, I., Taylor, P., Taylor, W., Te Beest, M., Telfer, P., Thompson, D., Tobi, E., Tolley, K., Turner, A., Twine, W., Van Cakenberghe, V., Van de Perre, F., van der Merwe, H., van Niekerk, C., van Wyk, P., Venter, J., Verburgt, L., Veron, G., Vetter, S., Vorontsova, M., Wagner, T., Webala, P., Weber, N., Weier, S., White, P., Whitecross, M., Wigley, B., Willems, F., Winterbach, C. and Woodhouse, G. (2024) Scientific data, 11(1), p. 191.
1616554 - The bii4africa dataset of faunal and floral popula...
Parr, C., Te Beest, M. and Stevens, N. (2024) Science (New York, N.Y.), 383(6684), pp. 698–701.
1633321 - Conflation of reforestation with restoration is wi...
Gopalakrishna, T., Rifai, S., Ratnam, J., Menor, I., Stevens, N. and Malhi, Y. (2024) Research Square.
1620041 - The distribution and drivers of tree cover in Indi...
Stevens, N. and Bond, W. (2024) Trends in ecology & evolution, 39(1), pp. 1–4.
1548140 - A trillion trees: carbon capture or fuelling fires...
Loft, T., Menor, I., Stevens, N., Clements, H., Santini, L., Thomas, S., Tobias, J. and Malhi, Y. (2024) Research Square.
1620040 - Energy flows reveal declining ecosystem functions ...
Dr Nicola Stevens
Environmental Change Institute