Overview

Having worked with and studied globally threatened species, persecuted raptors, and the response of wildlife to urban landscapes, I am experienced and passionate in determining how species respond to human-disturbed environments. I am particularly interested in assessing how human interactions determine the behavior, habitat preferences and distribution of species and developing practical conservation and management solutions for problems that result from human – animal conflict.

Broad research specialisms:

• Applied ecology
• Conservation biology
• Human-wildlife conflicts
• Urban ecology

Qualifications

2007 BSc with Honours (1st Class) in Biological Sciences at the University of Edinburgh
2010 MSc in Environmental Management (Distinction) at the University of Stirling
2015 PhD on 'The distribution and habitat preferences of bats in a temperate urban landscape' at the University of Stirling

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Research

Research interests

In my role at Exeter I will be investigating if wind turbines potentially pose a threat of disturbance and collision to bats. Working with stakeholders including wind energy developers, ecological consultants, local government ecologists and Statutory Nature Conservation Organisations I will be providing guidance on how to design best-practice guidelines for future commercial surveys and monitoring of bats. This will include creating species- and region-specific reference ranges for bat activity levels which will allow stakeholders the opportunity to contextualise and interpret the bat activity levels routinely recorded in wind farm surveys conducted by ecological consultants. Given that offshore wind energy generation is rapidly expanding and there is currently little information on the potential impact they may be having on bats, I will also be assessing the potential of using survey methods developed onshore to assess how bats are being impacted in the offshore environment.

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