Durham University
The Institute of Ecosystem Science (IES) at Durham University carries out a comprehensive research programme that provides insights into ecosystem patterns, processes and functioning in a changing world that help inform society about issues of global importance and assist mitigation of the adverse affects of anthropogenic environmental changes. The studies carried out especially address issues relating to: climate change impacts; biodiversity conservation; ecosystem health and the provision of ecosystem services; and the health of the human population. IES is a leading international authority in the modelling of the geographical distributions of plants and animals, particularly with respect to climate change.
Much recent IES research is tied to the role of climate and habitat in determining species distributions. A major emphasis is examining the effects of environmental change, particularly global climate change, on ecosystems and the mechanisms by which environmental change acts upon species. In addition, how environmental change impacts upon factors such as biodiversity and causes range shifts in both native and invasive species is a key research component.
IES is at the forefront of research using spatially explicit ecological modelling in conjunction with GIS, often incorporating remote-sensed data. Simulation models are applied to predict the impacts of climatic change on biodiversity and to inform the development of biodiversity conservation strategies resilient to climatic change, as well as to the many other pressures causing biodiversity loss. Statistical and mechanistic models, especially spatially and/or temporally explicit models of ecological and evolutionary processes, are being developed and applied to make robust predictions of the responses of species and ecosystems to climatic change.
IES research has been supported by grants from various bodies including NERC, NATO and the Leverhulme Trust, as well as by research contracts from the European Commission, WWF and RSPB, inter alia. Current research projects include investigations of: responses of African and European birds to climatic change; the potential effectiveness of protected area networks as a tool for biodiversity conservation in the face of climatic change; heterogeneity of snow cover and land surface - atmosphere interactions in tundra areas; Holocene climatic variability in Finnmark; late-Pleistocene vegetation and environmental history in Eurasia and the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna; and the impacts of tephra deposition on vegetation.
IES research has involved collaboration with many research institutions e.g. NERC Centres for Ecology and Hydrology at Monks Wood, Banchory and Dorset, Universities of York, Leeds, Birmingham, Cambridge and Copenhagen and non-academic bodies such as English Nature, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, BirdLife International, Scottish Natural Heritage, British Trust for Ornithology, Environment Agency & Butterfly Conservation.
Within the BICCO-Net project, IES will take a lead on identifying the most appropriate analytical techniques to identify potentially climate-sensitive species, which will be achieved through a literature review and application of statistical techniques identified as potentially useful to a sub-set of the collated data. They will also have a major input into the design, practical application and interpretation of all analyses involving the collated data sets. Furthermore, IES have access to several different climate data sets and also some biodiversity data sets at a European scale which will provide an invaluable wider context to the project.
