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. 

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Recent News

• Steve Willis and CEG alumni Alke Voskamp have a new paper out in Proceedings B that investigates the impacts of climate change on the phylogenetic diversity of the world's terrestrial birds. See here for the paper, and for the associated news coverage in Science and Durham University's news page.

• Peter Stewart, Steve Willis and CEG alumni Alke Voskamp have a new paper out in Ecology Letters, entitled Global impacts of climate change on avian functional diversity. They combined species distribution models with morphological data from the AVONET trait dataset to estimate the impact of climate change on avian functional diversity. They found that climate change has the potential to drive continental-scale shifts in avian functional diversity, with implications for ecosystem function and resilience. See here for the paper.

• CEG alumni Michelle Gibson, along with Steve and Phil have a new paper out in Landscape Ecology titled: Where nothing stands still: quantifying nomadism in Australian arid-zone birds. In the paper, they highlight the continuum of movement strategies in birds that occur in the driest parts of the Australian outback, suggesting that in such environments species typically classified as residents may have to be more adaptable in their movement than currently recognised. See here for the paper 

• Job alert! We're advertising for a new post-doc to look at the impacts of climate change on Antarctic Snow Petrels. The PDRA will be working with Erin McClymont (Durham, Geography), Richard Phillips (British Antarctic Survey) and our own Steve Willis.  See here for more information!

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• Steve and CEG alumnus, Alke Voskamp, have just published an article on Isipedia on the impacts of climate change emission reductions on biodiversity - see here.
  
  
• Congratulations to Nicolas Fuentes-Allende on passing his PhD, with his thesis entitled 'Ecology or South African large herbivores in a managed arid savanna: body mass, local distribution, and parasites.' Nico is now back in Chile, where he is establishing a new charity 'Sudamérica Diversa'. Wishing you lots of luck for the future Nico!

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• Steve, with former CEGs members Alke Voskamp and David Baker have just had a paper published on Site-based conservation of terrestrial bird species in the Caribbean and Central and South America under climate change. Published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.

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