Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

Professor Frank Van Veen

Professor Frank Van Veen

Professor of Ecology & Conservation

 F.J.F.Van-Veen@exeter.ac.uk

 Peter Lanyon A093

 

Peter Lanyon Building, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Treliever Road, Penryn, Cornwall, TR10 9FE, UK

Overview

My background is in Biology and in Ecology in particular, but my interest in biodiversity conservation means that I have a very much interdisciplinary perspective

Currently, most of my research is focussed on forest and biodiversity conservation in the context of sustainable development in Indonesian Borneo, including the restoration of tropical peatland forests to prevent regular devastating wild fires (see https://darwinborneo.org/ and https://kali-project.com/). As part of this, we (with PGR students and collaborators) are developing AI applications for bioacoustic data for rapid large-scale assessments of biodiversity.

I am also interested in the fundamental processes that determine the structure and dynamics of networks of interacting species (food webs). By gaining a mechanistic understanding of these complex ecological systems I hope to be able to make predictions on how they, and the services they provide, will respond to environmental change. This aspect of my research mostly uses insect model systems and theory.

Qualifications

1999 PhD (Imperial College London)
1994 MSc (Leiden University, The Netherlands)

Career

2020 - present Professor of Ecology & Conservation, University of Exeter

2016 - 2020 Associate Professor of Ecology & Conservation, University of Exeter
2009-2015 Senior Lecturer in Climate Change Biology, University of Exeter
2006-2009 Research Fellow, NERC Centre for Population Biology, Imperial College London, Silwood Park
2005-2006 Postdoctoral Research Associate, NERC Centre for Population Biology, Imperial College London, Silwood Park
2000-2005 Postdoctoral Research Associate, Imperial College London, Silwood Park

Research group links

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Research

Research interests

Currently, most of my research is focussed on forest and biodiversity conservation in the context of sustainable development in Indonesian Borneo, including the restoration of tropical peatland forests to prevent regular devastating wild fires (see https://darwinborneo.org/ and https://kali-project.com/). As part of this, we (with PGR students and collaborators) are developing AI applications for bioacoustic data for rapid large-scale assessments of biodiversity.

I am also interested in the fundamental processes that determine the structure and dynamics of networks of interacting species (food webs). By gaining a mechanistic understanding of these complex ecological systems I hope to be able to make predictions on how they, and the services they provide, will respond to environmental change. This aspect of my research mostly uses insect model systems and theory.

Research projects

https://kali-project.com

https://darwinborneo.org/

Research grants

  • 2020 GCRF, NERC
    Drought and peatland fires in Indonesian Borneo: Understanding drivers and impacts to build resilience through sustainable development
  • 2018 The British Academy
    Visiting Fellowship Dr Wendy Erb: “Integrating Ecological and Ethnographic Research to Develop Effective & Socially Just Conservation in a Threatened Bornean Landscape”
  • 2018 Darwin Initiative for the Survival of Species
    “Preventing Borneo's peatland fires to protect health, livelihoods and biodiversity"
  • 2018 NERC
    “Determining causal links between interaction type and network structure in microbial communities”
  • 2017 NERC Life Sciences Mass Spectrometry Facility
    Drivers of food chain length in parasitoid‐hyperparasitoid networks
  • 2016 BBSRC
    GCRF Impact Accelerator Award “Improving sustainability of agricultural development in peat ecosystems in Indonesia”
  • 2015 NERC CASE Studentship (open competition)
    NERC Industrial CASE studentship with CEFAS
  • 2015 NERC
    Daphne Jackson Fellowship for Dr Helen Morrogh-Bernard. “Social network of a Bornean orang-utan population”
  • 2015 NERC
    "Effects of artificial light on multi-trophic population dynamics” (PI Kevin Gaston)
  • 2013 NERC Life Sciences Mass Spectrometry Facility
    Forest-litter food webs and decomposition
  • 2012 NERC
    Cascading extinctions due to loss of indirect ecological interactions
  • 2012 Marie Curie International Research Staff Exchange Scheme
    �NETWORK�
  • 2012 Marie Curie Fellowship
    "FUNCTION"
  • 2010 Systematics Association
    Resolving Alloxystini taxonomy to facilitate the geographic comparison of insect food webs
  • 2010 NERC Life Sciences Mass Spectrometry Facility
    Tertiary parasitism in aphid-parasitoid food webs
  • 2009 FERA
    Novel Technologies for Quantifying Ecosystems Function and Biodiversity.
  • 2008 NERC New Investigator Grant
    Phylogenetic analysis of a highly resolved insect food web
  • 2008 European Science Foundation SIZEMIC programme
    Human impact on food webs: Are there common patterns across ecosystems?
  • 2006 BBSRC
    Aphid secondary symbionts: from model system to agricultural pest.

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Publications

Journal articles

Henri DC, Van Veen FJF (In Press). Link flexibility: evidence for environment-dependent adaptive foraging in a food web time-series. Abstract.
Sanders D, Kehoe R, Cruse D, Van Veen F, Gaston KJ (In Press). Low levels of artificial light at night strengthen top-down control in insect food web. Current Biology
Henri DC, Jones O, Tsiattalos A, Thebault E, Seymour CL, Van Veen FJF (In Press). Natural vegetation benefits synergistic control of the three main insect and pathogen pests of fruit crop in southern Africa. Journal of Applied Ecology Abstract.
Harrison ME, Brugues Sintes P, Kusin K, Katoppo DR, Marchant NC, Morrogh-Bernard HC, Nasir D, Ripoll Capilla B, Salahudin, Suppan L, et al (2023). Accounting for seedling performance from nursery to outplanting when reforesting degraded tropical peatlands. Restoration Ecology, 31(8). Abstract.
Davies-Barnard T, Catto JL, Harper AB, Imron MA, Frank van Veen FJ (2023). Future fire risk under climate change and deforestation scenarios in tropical Borneo. Environmental Research Letters, 18(2), 024015-024015. Abstract.
Kehoe R, van Veen F (2022). Longer daylengths associated with poleward range shifts accelerate aphid extinction by parasitoid wasps. Ecological Entomology, 47(3), 475-480. Abstract.
Sanders D, Baker DJ, Cruse D, Bell F, van Veen FJF, Gaston KJ (2022). Spectrum of artificial light at night drives impact of a diurnal species in insect food web. Sci Total Environ, 831 Abstract.  Author URL.
Kehoe R, Sanders D, van Veen FJ (2022). Towards a mechanistic understanding of the effects of artificial light at night on insect populations and communities. Curr Opin Insect Sci, 53 Abstract.  Author URL.
Kawatsu K, Ushio M, van Veen FJF, Kondoh M (2021). Are networks of trophic interactions sufficient for understanding the dynamics of multi-trophic communities? Analysis of a tri-trophic insect food-web time-series. Ecol Lett, 24(3), 543-552. Abstract.  Author URL.
Thurstan R, Hockings K, Hedlund J, Bersacola E, Collins C, Early R, Harrison M, Kaiser-Bunbury C, Nuno A, Van Veen F, et al (2021). Envisioning a resilient future for biodiversity conservation in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. People and Nature
Kehoe R, Sanders D, Cruse D, Silk M, Gaston KJ, Bridle JR, van Veen F (2020). Longer photoperiods through range shifts and artificial light lead to a destabilizing increase in host–parasitoid interaction strength. Journal of Animal Ecology, 89(11), 2508-2516. Abstract.
Knox A, Markx J, How E, Azis A, Hobaiter C, van Veen FJF, Morrogh-Bernard H (2019). Gesture Use in Communication between Mothers and Offspring in Wild Orang-Utans (Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii) from the Sabangau Peat-Swamp Forest, Borneo. International Journal of Primatology, 40(3), 393-416. Abstract.
Harrison ME, Ottay JB, D’Arcy LJ, Cheyne SM, Anggodo, Belcher C, Cole L, Dohong A, Ermiasi Y, Feldpausch T, et al (2019). Tropical forest and peatland conservation in Indonesia: Challenges and directions. People and Nature, 2(1), 4-28. Abstract.
Karp DS, Chaplin-Kramer R, Meehan TD, Martin EA, DeClerck F, Grab H, Gratton C, Hunt L, Larsen AE, Martinez-Salinas A, et al (2018). Crop pests and predators exhibit inconsistent responses to surrounding landscape composition. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 115(33), E7863-E7870.  Author URL.
Simba LD, Foord SH, Thébault E, van Veen FJF, Joseph GS, Seymour CL (2018). Indirect interactions between crops and natural vegetation through flower visitors: the importance of temporal as well as spatial spillover. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 253, 148-156. Abstract.
Kehoe RC, Cruse D, Sanders D, Gaston KJ, van Veen FJF (2018). Shifting daylength regimes associated with range shifts alter aphid-parasitoid community dynamics. Ecology and Evolution, 8(17), 8761-8769. Abstract.
Sanders D, Kehoe R, Thebault E, Van Veen FJF (2018). Trophic redundancy reduces vulnerability to extinction cascades. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Moxley C, Lammers W, van Veen FJF, Thébault E, Esler KJ, Seymour CL (2017). A major subtropical fruit pest accumulates in crop fields and spills over to a wild host. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 242, 102-109. Abstract.
Hansen S, Roets F, Seymour CL, Thébault E, van Veen FJF, Pryke JS (2017). Alien plants have greater impact than habitat fragmentation on native insect flower visitation networks. Diversity and Distributions, 24(1), 58-68. Abstract.
Forshage M, Bowdrey J, Broad GR, Spooner BM, van Veen F (2017). Checklist of British and Irish Hymenoptera - Cynipoidea. Biodiversity Data Journal, 5(1). Abstract.
Morgan WH, Thébault E, Seymour CL, van Veen FJF (2017). Density dependence and environmental factors affect population stability of an agricultural pest and its specialist parasitoid. BioControl, 62(2), 175-184. Abstract.
Nel L, Pryke JS, Carvalheiro LG, Thébault E, van Veen FJF, Seymour CL (2017). Exotic plants growing in crop field margins provide little support to mango crop flower visitors. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 250, 72-80. Abstract.
Sanders D, Kehoe R, van Veen FF, McLean A, Godfray HCJ, Dicke M, Gols R, Frago E (2016). Defensive insect symbiont leads to cascading extinctions and community collapse. Ecol Lett, 19(7), 789-799. Abstract.  Author URL.
Kehoe R, Frago E, Barten C, Jecker F, van Veen F, Sanders D (2016). Nonhost diversity and density reduce the strength of parasitoid–host interactions. Ecology and Evolution, 6(12), 4041-4049. Abstract.
Geslin B, Oddie M, Folschweiller M, Legras G, Seymour CL, van Veen FJF, Thébault E (2016). Spatiotemporal changes in flying insect abundance and their functional diversity as a function of distance to natural habitats in a mass flowering crop. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 229, 21-29. Abstract.
Sanders D, Moser A, Newton J, van Veen FJF (2016). Trophic assimilation efficiency markedly increases at higher trophic levels in four-level host-parasitoid food chain. Proc Biol Sci, 283(1826). Abstract.  Author URL.
Sanders D, Kehoe R, Tiley K, Bennie J, Cruse D, Davies TW, Frank van Veen FJ, Gaston KJ (2015). Artificial nighttime light changes aphid-parasitoid population dynamics. Sci Rep, 5 Abstract.  Author URL.
Sanders D, Kehoe R, van Veen FJF (2015). Experimental Evidence for the Population-Dynamic Mechanisms Underlying Extinction Cascades of Carnivores. Curr Biol, 25(23), 3106-3109. Abstract.  Author URL.
Henri DC, Jones O, Tsiattalos A, Thébault E, Seymour CL, van Veen FJF (2015). Natural vegetation benefits synergistic control of the three main insect and pathogen pests of a fruit crop in southern Africa. Journal of Applied Ecology, 52(4), 1092-1101. Abstract.
Van Veen FJF (2015). Plant-modified trophic interactions. Current Opinion in Insect Science Abstract.
Ehlers Smith YC, Ehlers Smith DA, Seymour CL, Thébault E, Van Veen FJF (2015). Response of avian diversity to habitat modification can be predicted from life-history traits and ecological attributes. Landscape Ecology Abstract.
Perkins MJ, McDonald RA, van Veen FJF, Kelly SD, Rees G, Bearhop S (2014). Application of nitrogen and carbon stable isotopes (δ(15)N and δ(13)C) to quantify food chain length and trophic structure. PLoS One, 9(3). Abstract.  Author URL.
Ferrer-Suay M, Janković M, Selfa J, Van Veen FJF, Tomanović Ž, Kos K, Rakhshani E, Pujade-Villar J (2014). Qualitative analysis of aphid and primary parasitoid trophic relations of genus Alloxysta (Hymenoptera: Cynipoidea: Figitidae: Charipinae). Environmental Entomology, 43(6), 1485-1495. Abstract.
Elias M, Fontaine C, Van Veen FJF (2013). Evolutionary history and ecological processes shape a local multilevel antagonistic network. Current Biology, 23, 1-5. Abstract.
Elias M, Fontaine C, Frank Van Veen FJ (2013). Evolutionary history and ecological processes shape a local multilevel antagonistic network. Current Biology, 23(14), 1355-1359. Abstract.
van Veen FJF, Sanders D (2013). Herbivore identity mediates the strength of trophic cascades on individual plants. ECOSPHERE, 4(5).  Author URL.
Perkins MJ, Mcdonald RA, van Veen FJF, Kelly SD, Rees G, Bearhop S (2013). Important impacts of tissue selection and lipid extraction on ecological parameters derived from stable isotope ratios. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 4(10), 944-953. Abstract.
Sanders D, Sutter L, van Veen FJF (2013). The loss of indirect interactions leads to cascading extinctions of carnivores. Ecology Letters, 16(5), 664-669. Abstract.
Sanders D, Sutter L, van Veen FJF (2013). The loss of indirect interactions leads to cascading extinctions of carnivores. Ecol Lett, 16(5), 664-669. Abstract.  Author URL.
Sanders D, Van Veen FJF (2012). Indirect commensalism promotes persistence of secondary consumer species. Biology Letters, 8(6), 960-963. Abstract.
Rand TA, van Veen FJF, Tscharntke T (2012). Landscape complexity differentially benefits generalized fourth, over specialized third, trophic level natural enemies. Ecography, 35, 97-104. Abstract.
Henri DC, Seager D, Weller T, van Veen FJF (2012). Potential for climate effects on the size-structure of host-parasitoid indirect interaction networks. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 367(1605), 3018-3024. Abstract.
von Burg S, van Veen FJF, Álvarez-Alfageme F, Romeis J (2011). Aphid-parasitoid community structure on genetically modified wheat. Biology Letters, 7(3), 387-391. Abstract.
Henri DC, van Veen FJF (2011). Body Size, Life History and the Structure of Host-Parasitoid Networks. Adv. Ecol. Res., 45, 135-180. Abstract.
Sanders D, van Veen FJF (2011). Ecosystem engineering and predation: the multi-trophic impact of two ant species. Journal of Animal Ecology, 80(3), 569-576.
Jones TS, Allen E, Haerri SA, Krauss J, Mueller CB, van Veen FJF (2011). Effects of genetic diversity of grass on insect species diversity at higher trophic levels are not due to cascading diversity effects. Oikos, 120(7), 1031-1036. Abstract.
Fontaine F, Guimaraes PRJ, Kefi S, Loeuille N, Memmott J, van der Putten WH, van Veen FJF, Thebault E (2011). The ecological and evolutionary implications of merging different types of networks. Ecology Letters, 14, 1170-1181. Abstract.
Woodward G, Benstead JP, Beveridge OS, Blanchard J, Brey T, Brown LE, Cross WF, Friberg N, Ings TC, Jacob U, et al (2010). Ecological Networks in a Changing Climate. Advances in Ecological Research, 42(C), 71-138. Abstract.
Sanders D, van Veen FJF (2010). The impact of an ant–aphid mutualism on the functional composition of the secondary parasitoid community. Ecological Entomology, 35(6), 704-710. Abstract.
van Veen FJF, Brandon CE, Godfray HCJ (2009). A positive trait-mediated indirect effect involving the natural enemies of competing herbivores. OECOLOGIA, 160(1), 195-205.  Author URL.
Ings TC, Montoya JM, Bascompte J, Bluethgen N, Brown L, Dormann CF, Edwards F, Figueroa D, Jacob U, Jones JI, et al (2009). Ecological networks - beyond food webs. JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY, 78(1), 253-269.  Author URL.
van Veen FJF (2009). Food webs. Current Biology, 19, R281-R283.
Jones TS, Godfray HCJ, van Veen FJF (2009). Resource competition and shared natural enemies in experimental insect communities. OECOLOGIA, 159(3), 627-635.  Author URL.
Bukovinszky T, van Veen FJF, Jongema Y, Dicke M (2008). Direct and indirect effects of resource quality on food web structure. SCIENCE, 319(5864), 804-807.  Author URL.
Traugott M, Bell JR, Broad GR, Powell W, Van Veen FJF, Vollhardt IMG, Symondson WOC (2008). Endoparasitism in cereal aphids: Molecular analysis of a whole parasitoid community. Molecular Ecology, 17(17), 3928-3938. Abstract.
Van Veen FJF, Mueller CB, Pell JK, Godfray HCJ (2008). Food web structure of three guilds of natural enemies: predators, parasitoids and pathogens of aphids. JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY, 77(1), 191-200.  Author URL.
van Veen FJF, Morris RJ, Godfray HCJ (2006). Apparent competition, quantitative food webs, and the structure of phytophagous insect communities. ANNUAL REVIEW OF ENTOMOLOGY, 51, 187-208.  Author URL.
van Veen FJF, Murrell DJ (2005). A simple explanation for universal scaling relations in food webs. ECOLOGY, 86(12), 3258-3263.  Author URL.
van Veen FJF, van Holland PD, Godfray HCJ (2005). Stable coexistence in insect communities due to density- and trait-mediated indirect effects. ECOLOGY, 86(12), 3182-3189.  Author URL.
Haynes S, Darby AC, Daniell TJ, Webster G, van Veen FJF, Godfray HCJ, Prosser JI, Douglas AE (2003). Diversity of bacteria associated with natural aphid populations. APPLIED AND ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY, 69(12), 7216-7223.  Author URL.
Jordán F, Liu W-C, van Veen FJF (2003). Quantifying the importance of species and their interactions in a host-parasitoid community. Community Ecology, 4, 79-88.
Van Veen FJF, Belshaw R, Godfray HCJ (2003). The value of the ITS2 region for the identification of species boundaries between <i>Alloxysta</i> hyperparasitoids (Hymenoptera: Charipidae) of aphids. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ENTOMOLOGY, 100(3), 449-453.  Author URL.
Van Veen FJF, Müller CB, Adriaanse ICT, Godfray HCJ (2002). Spatial heterogeneity in risk of secondary parasitism in a natural population of an aphid parasitoid. JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY, 71(3), 463-469.  Author URL.
van Veen FJF, Rajkumar A, Müller CB, Godfray HCJ (2001). Increased reproduction by pea aphids in the presence of secondary parasitoids. ECOLOGICAL ENTOMOLOGY, 26(4), 425-429.  Author URL.
Smits JD, Witte F, Veen FG (1996). Functional changes in the anatomy of the pharyngeal jaw apparatus of Astatoreochromis alluaudi (Pisces, Cichlidae), and their effects on adjacent structures. Biological journal of the Linnean Society., 59(4), 389-409. Abstract.
SMITS J (1996). Functional changes in the anatomy of the pharyngeal jaw apparatus ofAstatoreochromis alluaudi(Pisces, Cichlidae), and their effects on adjacent structures. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 59(4), 389-409.

Chapters

van Veen FJF, Godfray HCJ (In Press). Consequences of trait changes in host-parasitoid interactions in insect communities. In Ohgushi T, Schmitz O, Holt RD (Eds.) Interaction Richness and Complexity: Ecological and Evolutionary Aspects of Trait-Mediated Indirect Interactions, Cambridge University Press. Abstract.
Woodward G, Benstead JP, Beveridge OS, Blanchard J, Brey T, Brown LE, Cross WF, Friberg N, Ings TC, Jacob U, et al (2010). Chapter 2 Ecological Networks in a Changing Climate. In  (Ed) Ecological Networks, Elsevier, 71-138.
Woodward G, Benstead JP, Beveridge OS, Blanchard J, Brey T, Brown LE, Cross WF, Friberg N, Ings TC, Jacob U, et al (2010). Ecological Networks in a Changing Climate. In  (Ed) Advances in Ecological Research, Elsevier, 71-138.
Holt RD, Holdo RM, Van Veen FJF (2010). Theoretical Perspectives on Trophic Cascades: Current Trends and Future Directions. In Terborgh J, Estes J (Eds.) The Science of Trophic Cascades, Island Press, 301-318.

Conferences

Cheyne SM, Capilla BR, Van Veen FJF, Boyd N, Adul, Husson SJ, Harrison ME, Morrogh-Bernard HC, Maimunah S (2017). Conserving Non-Protected Primate Habitat: the Rungan River Conservation Programme of the Borneo Nature Foundation, Indonesia.  Author URL.
Cheyne SM, Capilla BR, Van Veen FJF, Boyd N, Adul, Husson SJ, Harrison ME, Morrogh-Bernard HC, Maimunah S (2017). Conserving Non-Protected Primate Habitat: the Rungan River Conservation Programme of the Borneo Nature Foundation, Indonesia.  Author URL.
Van Veen FJF, Memmott J, Godfray HCJ (2006). Indirect effects, apparent competition and biological control.  Author URL.

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External Engagement and Impact

Committee/panel activities

Member of the Natural Environment Research Council Peer Review College

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Supervision / Group

Postdoctoral researchers

Postgraduate researchers

Research Technicians

  • Rachel Kehoe

Alumni

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Office Hours:

My office hours are Mondays and Thursdays 16:00-17:00, in my office in Peter Lanyon (A093) or on Teams: Click here to join the meeting

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