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
  • 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.
     
  • This year we have welcomed a number of new PhD and Masters students to the group. To read about their research projects, take a look at their profiles on our People page.
 
  • ​Courtney has a new  open access paper out in Animal Biotelemetry, identifying best practice recommendations for the use of external telemetry devices on pinnipeds. Read all about it in Courtney's blog published on the Alaska Sea Life Center website.

  • Sian has recently written an article for 'The Conversation'. The article outlines why mammal monitoring is important and how MammalWeb is helping to build a better understanding of UK mammals through camera trapping. The article also highlights some of the findings from numerous projects on MammalWeb so far. To read the article click here. A version of the article also appeared in 'The i Newspaper', and Sian did a short interview with 'talkRADIO' following the article being published.
  
  • Together with colleagues at the Institute of Zoology in London, and Brazil's federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Phil and Steve have a new paper out in Ecology Letters, looking at the limits to population density in birds and mammals. The paper is here. Read about the motivation for this work, as well as some of the findings in this blog post.
See additional group news here or follow us on Twitter @CEGDurham