research interests

* Biodiversity mapping & surveying
* Biodiversity monitoring
* Biodiversity Action Planning for farms
* Community Links To Land
* Releasing agriculture from fossil fuel dependence
* Comparison between organic, biodynamic and permaculture methods
* Effects of grazing on biodiversity of grassland habitats
* The efficiency of food production with or without livestock
* Use of farms as local education catalysts for the arts and sciences

The Conservation Conversation

I am interested in conversations around molecular ecology, environment and evolution.

Where to start? Well how about the molecular reality we are living in! Each one of us consist of about 200 billion cells living in metazoan community. Each cell contains millions of macro-molecules recognised as part of the biochemical cyctoplasmic metabolism. Each protein may chaperone or direct the reactions of thousands of much smaller molecules which form part of the earth's natural atmospheric, aqueous and mineral environment. These small molecules criss cross between the dynamic context of membranes between cells, tissues, individuals, populations and the abiotic and biotic factors of our planet. Due to counterbalancing positive and negative feedback effects, subtle changes to the concentrations of any of these components can effect large or micro changes to the overall balance of these systems - at vastly differing scales. Understanding how these processes have contributed to evolution may enable us to better conserve the diversity of species we share our beautiful planet with.

Ecology as a branch of biological science

Here is a link to a document I once wrote for some Masters Students who had all done Arts degrees but were interested to find out more about the scientific method.

Ecology as a branch of biology

It has occurred to me that my training as a field biologist has given me a particularly science focused idea of what the word 'ecology' actually means. To me it is simply the science (by which I mean nothing more sinister than the study of) relationship. And since it is living organisms which relate in the most complex ways, ecology is therefore about answering fundamental questions about the nature of relationship, and complex relationships at that - for example between species in a food web, or between sources and sinks within an elemental cycle such as the Carbon or Nitrogen cycle. Equally it could be a greater or lesser scales, from living molecules and their interactions within the complex ecosystem of a single cell, or cycles of energy, nutrient and mineral flux between habitats, ecosystems and biomes.

Education for Sustainable Development

2014 sees the culmination of the work of UNESCO's International Decade for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Rural Arts In Science Education is an attempt to bring ESD from the classroom into school grounds, sports fields, allotment sites, parkland, farms, smallholdings and woodlands. see www.raise-education.com

Molecular Ecology and Environment

The World stands at the end of an era of mankind - the end of the oil age. Molecules such as CO2 (g), SO2(g),CFC's and pesticides have dominated environmental concerns for many years. Meanwhile, our understanding of ecological relationships between species, and our understanding of evolution of life itself, has been greatly enhanced by work on molecules such as DNA, RNA, proteins (including enzymes, hormones and pheramones), amino acids, phospho-lipids and sugars. At the same time, concerns exist as to ethical and ecological implications of cloning and of inserting engineered DNA fragments into the genomes of existing species of bacteria, virus, crops, livestock and humans. Perhaps it is by understanding the role of these molecules in the big picture of ecology, evolution over geological time that our understanding of nature and of our place amongst the 100 million or so other species may be enlightened. In addition, this may produce a philosophy of the biological sciences which has yet to pervade current political, economic and mainstream environmental thinking.