Emilio Pagani-Nunez
emilio pagani nunez

Dr Emilio Pagani-Nunez

Lecturer

 0131 455 3812

  E.Pagani-Nunez@napier.ac.uk

   

Biography

I work as a Lecturer in Ecology and Conservation at the School of Applied Sciences of Edinburgh Napier University, where I also am a member of the Centre for Conservation and Restoration Science (CCRS). Prior to working at Edinburgh Napier University, I was Assistant Professor at the Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) of Suzhou, China (2019-2022). In China, I also worked as a postdoc at Guangxi University (2015-2016) and Sun Yat-sen University (2016-2019). I obtained my PhD from the University of Barcelona (2014). My PhD project, developed at the Natural Sciences Museum of Barcelona, focused on the relationships between diet, ecology, and plumage colouration, using Great Tits (Parus major) as model. Since 2020, I serve as an Associate Editor at Ecology and Evolution and Ornithological Applications.

RESEARCH
I am a field ecologist with broad interests in ecology, evolution and behaviour. I enjoy studying birds to understand how our activities impact biodiversity and to think in ways in which these impacts can be minimized. I employ an array of methodologies and techniques in my research. I am especially keen to conduct experiments and observations in the field but have also explored lab techniques such as stable isotopes and deep genomic sequencing. I also use citizen data sources. To date, I have published over 40 manuscripts in conservation, ecology and ornithology journals such as Conservation Biology, Ecography, Oecologia, Ibis or Journal of Avian Biology.

GRANTS AND SUPERVISION
I have recently completed the project 3177020270 “The impact of urbanization on genotypes and phenotypes of Barn Swallows” funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China with RMB640,000 (approx. £76,500). Linked to this project, I am supervising the PhD project "Resource use and genetic divergence in urban and rural populations of Barn Swallows (Hirunda rustica)" led by Sihao Chen, which is funded by XJTLU. I am also supervising the PhD project “Urbanization and community structure: the impact of habitat transformation on competition and predation in avian assemblages”, led by Yu Zeng and also funded by XJTLU.

MEDIA OUTPUT
My last publication, Trade-offs between economic development and biodiversity conservation on a tropical island, published in Conservation Biology (https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.13912) was picked up by several media outlets such as Phys.org, Science Magazine or UK Today News.

School

Research Groups

Themes

Research Areas

Esteem

Editorial Activity

  • Associate Editor, Ornithological Applications (2020-now)
  • Associate Editor, Ecology and Evolution (2020-now)
  • Guest Editor, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution – Conservation: Research Topic “Impacts of Habitat Transformation on Species, Biodiversity and Ecosystems in Asia” https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/14235 (2021-2022)

 

Fellowships and Awards

  • PhD Scholarship FPI grant BES-2010-040359 (2010-2014)

 

Invited Speaker

  • A commentary on the recent update of China’s wildlife conservation list - RICE - Cervantes Institute of Shanghai (Online) (2022)
  • Disentangling the community ecology mess - Xishuangbanna Botanical Garden CAS Seminars, Menla (Yunnan, China) (2021)
  • Why urban biodiversity matters - Elefam NGO Summer School (Online) (2021)
  • Stable Isotopes in Ecological Research - Youth Ornithologists Symposium of China (Changchun, China) (2019)

 

Media Activity

  • Phys.org , Science Magazine, UK Today News - featuring article in Conservation Biology "Trade‐offs between economic development and biodiversity conservation on a tropical island" (2022)

 

Membership of Professional Body

  • Member, Ecological Society of China (ESC) (2020-now)
  • Member, British Ecological Society (BES) (2020-now)
  • Member, Spanish Association of Terrestrial Ecology (AEET) (2020)
  • Member, Spanish Ornithological Society (SEO/Birdlife) (2010-now)
  • Member, Spanish Society of Ethology (SEE) (2010-now)

 

Reviewing

  • I have reviewed paper for Methods in Ecology and Evolution, Journal of Animal Ecology, Conservation Biology, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, Global Ecology and Conservation, Behavioral Ecology, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, Biological Invasions, Biotropica, Scientific Reports, Ecology and Evolution, Ecosphere, Ecoscience, Behavior, Animal Microbiome, Condor, Bird Study, Ardea, Ornis Fennica, Avian Research, Wilson Journal of Ornithology, Animal Biodiversity and Conservation, Journal of Urban Ecology, African Journal of Ecology, Pakistan Journal of Zoology, Animals Cells and Systems, Ringing & Migration, Catalan Journal of Ornithology

 

Filter by

Date


45 results

Editorial: Impacts of Habitat Transformation on Species, Biodiversity and Ecosystems in Asia

Journal Article
Pagani-Núñez, E., Barnett, C. R., Dingle, C., Goodale, E., Hu, J., Li, Y., …Zou, Y. (2021)
Editorial: Impacts of Habitat Transformation on Species, Biodiversity and Ecosystems in Asia. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 9, Article 777175. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.777175

Breeding Great Tit Parus major Individuals have Moderately Consistent Foraging Niches Across Years

Journal Article
Olivé-Muñiz, M., Pagani-Núñez, E., & Senar, J. C. (2021)
Breeding Great Tit Parus major Individuals have Moderately Consistent Foraging Niches Across Years. Ardeola, 68(2), 409-422. https://doi.org/10.13157/arla.68.2.2021.ra6
Diet specialisation during brood rearing has important consequences on parental reproductive success and on the recruitment rate of offspring. However, very little is known ab...

How to become a generalist species? Individual niche variation across habitat transformation gradients

Journal Article
Liang, D., Yang, S., Pagani-Núñez, E., He, C., Liu, Y., Goodale, E., …Hu, J. (2020)
How to become a generalist species? Individual niche variation across habitat transformation gradients. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 8, Article 597450. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2020.597450
Species in transformed habitats, frequently labeled as environmental generalists, tend to show broader niches than species in natural habitats. However, how population niche e...

The impact of urbanization on body size of Barn Swallows Hirundo rustica gutturalis

Journal Article
Zhao, Y., Liu, Y., Scordato, E. S., Lee, M., Xing, X., Pan, X., …Pagani‐Núñez, E. (2021)
The impact of urbanization on body size of Barn Swallows Hirundo rustica gutturalis. Ecology and Evolution, 11(7), 612-625. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7088
Urbanization implies a dramatic impact on ecosystems, which may lead to drastic phenotypic differences between urban and nonurban individuals. For instance, urbanization is as...

The truth is in the detail: predators attack aposematic prey with less aggression than other prey types

Journal Article
Yamazaki, Y., Pagani-Núñez, E., Sota, T., & Barnett, C. R. (2020)
The truth is in the detail: predators attack aposematic prey with less aggression than other prey types. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 131(2), 332-343. https://doi.org/10.1093/biolinnean/blaa119
Aposematic organisms are often unprofitable to predators (e.g. because of defensive chemicals) which they advertise with a conspicuous signal (e.g. bright and conspicuous colo...

Differences in dietary specialization, habitat use and susceptibility to human disturbance influence feeding rates and resource partitioning between two migratory Numenius curlew species

Journal Article
Li, D., Zhang, J., Liu, Y., Lloyd, H., Pagani-Núñez, E., & Zhang, Z. (2020)
Differences in dietary specialization, habitat use and susceptibility to human disturbance influence feeding rates and resource partitioning between two migratory Numenius curlew species. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 245, Article 106990. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2020.106990
Migratory shorebirds select stopover sites to fuel their migration across heterogeneous coastal landscapes with abundant prey resources. Quantifying the degree of dietary spec...

COVID-19: ban 'orientalism' by critics of wildlife trade

Journal Article
Pagani-Núñez, E. (2020)
COVID-19: ban 'orientalism' by critics of wildlife trade. Nature, 579(7800), https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-00870-3

Genetic, phenotypic and ecological differentiation suggests incipient speciation in two Charadrius plovers along the Chinese coast

Journal Article
Wang, X., Que, P., Heckel, G., Hu, J., Zhang, X., Chiang, C., …Liu, Y. (2019)
Genetic, phenotypic and ecological differentiation suggests incipient speciation in two Charadrius plovers along the Chinese coast. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 19(1), Article 135. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-019-1449-5
Background Speciation with gene flow is an alternative to the nascence of new taxa in strict allopatric separation. Indeed, many taxa have parapatric distributions at present....

Niches in the Anthropocene: passerine assemblages show niche expansion from natural to urban habitats

Journal Article
Pagani‐Núñez, E., Liang, D., He, C., Zhou, X., Luo, X., Liu, Y., & Goodale, E. (2019)
Niches in the Anthropocene: passerine assemblages show niche expansion from natural to urban habitats. Ecography, 42(8), 1360-1369. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.04203
Human-mediated habitat transformation is increasingly evident around the world. Yet, how this transformation influences species’ niche width and overlap remains unclear. On th...

Isotopic niche overlap between the invasive leiothrix and potential native competitors

Journal Article
Pagani–Núñez, E., Renom, M., Furquet, C., Rodríguez, J., Llimona, F., & Senar, J. (2018)
Isotopic niche overlap between the invasive leiothrix and potential native competitors. Animal Biodiversity and Conservation, 41(2), 427-434. https://doi.org/10.32800/abc.2018.41.0427
We analysed niche overlap between the red–billed leiothrix Leiothrix lutea, a spreading exotic invasive bird, and the European robin Erithacus rubecula and the blackcap Sylvia...

Pre-Napier Funded Projects

  • PI, External, 3177020270, “The impact of urbanization on genotypes and phenotypes of Barn Swallows”, National Natural Science Foundation of China, £76,000 (2018-2021)

Current Post Grad projects

Non-Napier PhD or MSc by Research supervisions

  • PS, Sihao Chen, XJTLU, Resource use and genetic divergence in urban and rural populations of Barn Swallows (Hirunda rustica) (2020-now)
  • PS, Yu Zeng, XJTLU, Urbanization and community structure: the impact of habitat transformation on competition and predation in avian assemblages (2020-now)