Welcome to the Conservation Ecology Research Group! We are a group of researchers based at Durham University, in Durham, United Kingdom. Our work ranges from the evolutionary ecology of individual behaviour to the drivers of global biogeographic patterns, usually with a strong applied focus. 
Recent News
  • Emily, Phil and Jonathan have a new paper out in Citizen Science: Theory & Practice, presenting the first systematic analysis of approaches to verification of ecological citizen science data. This review assesses the current trends in verification approaches across citizen science schemes and proposes an idealised system for verification, which can be used as a resource for evaluating verification approaches, allowing schemes to ensure data quality and increase confidence in citizen science approaches.
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  • Mark and Steve have a new paper out in PNAS, which analyses the impacts of climate change on birds and mammals in the context of important socio-political considerations. This paper highlights the global inequalities of climate change impacts on nature and the importance of trans-boundary conservation. The paper can be found here, and a blog by Mark and Steve can be found here.
 
  • Steve, Phil, Christine, and CEG alumnus Tom Mason have a new paper out with collaborators at the RSPB. This study  investigated how the distribution of bird species found in Great Britain has been shaped by human activities such as agriculture and wetland drainage. The paper, out in Ecological Indicators, can be found here and a blog by the RSPB about the study can be found here. 
 
  • Welcome to all of our new PhD and Masters students! To read about their research projects, take a look at their profiles on our People page.
 
  • Wayne has co-authored a new paper out in Nature Communications, which analyses the role of economic uses of plant species in explaining their naturalisation success across the globe. The full open access paper can be found here, and a blog by the lead author about the study can be found here.
 
  • Christine and Phil, together with Curt Flather from the USDA Forest Service, have a new paper out in Nature Communications. This paper explores the role of environmental features and human activities on driving patterns of global threatened species richness. The full open access paper can be found here, or read about our motivation and some of the findings in this blog post.
 
  • CEG members (and alumni) have been busy lately! This new paper, that Sian, Jonathan and Phil wrote with colleagues, considers the contributions that machine learning and citizen science can make to studies using camera trapping. Meanwhile, together with others, Teegan, Phil and Steve have published the first of the work emerging from Teegan’s thesis. This paper considers the impact of South African savanna burning regimes on avian diversity, showing that the highest diversity occurs where there is a mixture of recently burned and old, unburned habitat. Elsewhere, Solène Marion (a PhD student at St Andrews, and co-supervised by Phil) has published a systematic review of methods for studying the impacts of outdoor recreation on terrestrial wildlife. This review, showing the importance of measuring the disturbance and the responses simultaneously, will serve as a great guide for ongoing work on the Glen Lyon red deer project.
See additional group news here or follow us on Twitter @CEGDurham