Kieran Lawrence
My research focuses on the impact of climatic changes on migratory birds. Migrants are declining more rapidly than their resident counterparts, which is likely due to their dependence on multiple sites throughout the year, rendering them particularly vulnerable. An aim of my PhD is to identify the major threats to long-distance migrants and the stages of their annual cycle that have the greatest impact on populations. Among European breeding migrants, those that travel furthest, e.g. between Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, show steeper population declines than do those that migrate within Europe. This contrast could arise as a result of survival being particularly low during the migratory phase for long distance migrants or, alternatively, could be a result of changes on the non-breeding grounds.. I will explore how climate change could affect the migratory journeys of species and also the extent to which changes in climate and/or habitat on the non-breeding grounds might be driving population declines. Currently, models developed to simulate migration are relatively basic. I intend to build on such models, increasing their biological realism to improve their predictive ability. In my spare time, I am a birder and BTO C-permit ringer, with a particular interest in seabirds. I have worked at numerous bird observatories, in the UK and abroad, including Kartong, Gambia and Kvismaren, Sweden. Position: PhD Sudent in the Department of Biosciences
Supervised by: Prof. Stephen G. Willis and Dr Philip Stephens Memberships: Behaviour, Ecology and Evolution Research (BEER) Centre British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) Contact Details: Department of Biosciences Durham University South Road, Durham DH1 3LE Phone: + 44 (0) 191 334 1266 Email: kieran.b.lawrence@durham.ac.uk |
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Education
2015 - 2018 BSc (Hons) Biological Sciences, Durham University
2018 - Present PhD Biological Sciences, Durham University
2015 - 2018 BSc (Hons) Biological Sciences, Durham University
2018 - Present PhD Biological Sciences, Durham University
