Our work spans terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems across the following themes. Please use the following links to explore the Centre themes.
Biodiversity Challenges
Biodiversity loss is driven by habitat degradation and fragmentation, pollution, exploitation, the spread of invasive species and increasingly by climate change. We work on all these challenges to understand short-term and long-term responses of terrestrial, freshwater and marine life, and also investigate how biodiversity interacts with human health through the emergence of novel disease.
Explore research areas and activities: All | Terrestrial | Freshwater | Marine
Biodiversity Assessment & Tool Development
Biodiversity is the variety of all life in any given area and must be evaluated to understand change in the natural world. The most common measurement of biodiversity is the number of species in a habitat (species richness), but there are many other informative metrics including relative abundance, the strength of species’ interactions and their ecological functions. Adequately assessing biodiversity requires multifaceted field and analytical approaches and tools and data collection methods ranging from traditional field observation to sampling environmental DNA (eDNA) and recording of sound. Data analysis is greatly facilitated through environmental informatics and can involve smart technology.
Find research topics: All | Terrestrial | Freshwater | Marine
Biodiversity Solutions
Reversing nature’s decline requires filling critical knowledge gaps and implementing innovative tools to re-discover and re-enforce communities, organisations and business’ ability to work with nature. Circular economies have underpinned most human societies in the past and can do so again in the future. Natural processes can be cheaper and more effective than artificial substitutes and understanding how best to use them in novel and changing contexts is part of our work. Innovation can only promote change if it works in real contexts; hence understanding people’s motivations and behaviours, individually and collectively, is important. Our work therefore engages not only with the science but also with the politics, economics, business, funding and philosophy of biodiversity conservation and restoration, to ensure it can be applied.
Find research topics: All | Terrestrial | Freshwater | Marine
Education and Knowledge Exchange
We deliver excellent teaching and training (including for industry and business), informed by our research, discussions with the next generation and the wider society, and by scholarship of teaching and learning (the centre includes experts in pedagogy) to understand how we can transform understanding and engage students and the public in our mission to help reverse nature’s decline.
Learn more about Education and Knowledge Exchange.