Conservation Ecology Group @ Durham University
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Christine Howard
Primarily my research focuses around understanding the drivers of population dynamics both spatially and temporally, with the goal of improving our knowledge on how to implement effective conservation strategies under various scenarios of environmental change. Prior to my PhD my studies concentrated on assessing the impacts of finer scale environmental change on avian populations, through both behavioural trade-offs and varying survival rates. For my PhD, I investigated the relative importance of climate and land use change for determining the recent population trends of breeding birds across Europe. Currently, I am working on a project to identify the environmental and anthropogenic correlates of rarity, to develop recommendations for conservation policy.


Position:  Postdoctoral Research Associate

Supervised by: Dr. Philip Stephens, Dr. Curtis Flather (USDA Forest Service)

Membership: 
Behaviour, Ecology and Evolution Research (BEER) Centre, 
                        British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), 
                        British Ornithological Union (BOU), 
                        British Ecological Society (BES)

Contact Details: Department of Biosciences,
                             Durham University, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE.
                             Email: christine.howard@durham.ac.uk


Research Gate
Personal Website

Education

2011-2015       PhD Biology, Durham University & British Trust for Ornithology
2010-2011      MRes Environmental Biology, University of St Andrews & University of Dundee
2006-2010     BSc(hons) Ecology & Conservation, University of St Andrews

Publications

Mason, T.H., Stephens, P.A., Gilbert, G., Green, R.E., Wilson, J.D., Jennings, K., Allen, J.R., Huntley, B., Howard, C. and Willis, S.G., (2021). Using indices of species’ potential range to inform conservation status. Ecological Indicators, 123, p.107343.
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Howard, C., Stephens, P.A., Pearce-Higgins, J.W., Gregory, R.D, Butchart, S.H.M., & Willis, S.G. (2020) Disentangling the relative roles of climate and land cover change in driving the long-term population trends of European migratory birds. Diversity and Distributions 00, 1-14

Howard, C., Flather, C.H. & Stephens, P.A.  (2020) A global assessment of the drivers of threatened terrestrial species richness. Nature Communications 11, 993. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14771-6

Mason, L.R., Green, R.E., Howard, C., … & Gregory R.D., (2019) Population responses of bird populations to climate change on two continent vary with species’ ecological traits but now with direction of change in climate suitability. Climatic Change  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-019-02549-9

Howard, C., Flather, C.H., and Stephens, P.A. (2018) What drives at-risk species richness? Environmental factors are more influential than anthropogenic factors or biological traits. Conservation Letters, 9: 172-180. doi:10.1111/conl.12196

Howard, C., Stephens, P.A., Tobias, J.A., Sheard, C., Butchart, S.H.M., & Willis, S.G., (2018) Flight range, fuel load, and the impact of climate change on the journeys of migrant birds Proc. R. Soc. B Biol. Sci.285

Sanderson F.J., Pople R.G., Ieronymidou C., Burfield I.J., Gregory R.D., Willis S.G., Howard C., Stephens P.A., Beresford A.E. & Donald P.F. (2016). Assessing the performance of EU nature legislation in protecting target bird species in an era of climate change. Conservation Letters (DOI: 10.1111/conl.12196)

Howard, C., Stephens, P.A., Pearce-Higgins, J.W., Gregory, R.D, & Willis, S.G. (2015) The drivers of avian abundance: patterns in the relative importance of climate and land use, Global Ecology and Biogeography (DOI: 10.1111/geb.12377)

Howard, C., Stephens, P.A., Pearce-Higgins, J.W., Gregory, R.D. & Willis, S.G. Improving species distribution models: the value of data on abundance. Methods in Ecology and Evolution (DOI: 10.1111/2041-210X.12184)
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 Selected Awards and Fellowships

Hatfield College MCR Research Award, 2015 and 2016
Poster prize and grant, SBBS Research Away day, Durham University 2015 and 2019
Highly commended for the Robert May prize as part of the BES Young Investigator Awards 2014

NERC PhD Studentship award with BTO CASE partnership, 2011
St. Andrews Dean's List Award, 2007-2010

Additional Information 

2011-present      BTO C-permit bird ringer with the Tees Ringing Group
2011-2015          Research assistant estimating survival rates of tropical passerines in the forests of Trinidad (Universities of Dundee and St. Andrews)
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