Organisms and environment
Find out more about our Danau Girang Field Centre in Malaysia
We focus on the biology of whole organisms and their roles and interactions in changing ecosystems, in infection and health and at the genetic level.
Our aim is to understand the ecological, health and genetic consequences of environmental change on biological diversity. Our approach is to focus on processes and prediction, combining ecological, experimental and molecular approaches, in contrasting groups of organisms. PhD projects tend to be multidisciplinary in nature, and range from field ecology to experimental microbiology to population genomics.
We have a field centre in Sabah, Malaysia and we are also responsible for maintaining the School's Molecular Biology and Analytical support facilities. Many projects are run in collaboration with Universities and Research Institutes elsewhere in the UK and abroad as well as with other departments within Cardiff University (such as Earth and Ocean Sciences, Chemistry, Engineering, Social Sciences, City and Regional Planning).
Research areas
All the major groups are studied, including animals, plants, and microorganisms; bacteria, archaea, protozoa, and fungi. Research is broadly divided into three groups:
- Genomes, Diversity and Adaptation
- Individuals, Ecosystems and Global Change
- Microbes, Infection and Communities
Our research areas include:
- Microbial and soil ecology
- Microbial communities in sediments and deep sub-seafloor
- Endangered species research
- Genomics, metagenomics, population and environmental genetics of plants, animals and microbes
- Ecotoxicology in aquatic and terrestrial environments
- Community ecology including pest management
- Interactions between organisms and their food resources
- Behavioural and evolutionary ecology
- Chemical ecology, waste management and bioremediation
- Population dynamics in freshwater and terrestrial systems
- Predator-prey and host-parasite interactions
- Epidemiology and pathogenesis, including medically important bacteria
Staff members
| Name | Area of interest |
|---|---|
| Professor Andy Weightman - Head of Division | Genetic adaptation of microbes to environmental challenges, sub-surface molecular microbiology, molecular systematics and metagenomics. |
| Dr Hefin Jones - Deputy Head of Division | Community ecology, climate change, entomology, microbial/soil ecology. |
| Dr Cedric Berger | Host-pathogen interactions, molecular and cellular microbiology. |
| Dr Colin Berry | Enzyme targets for antiparasitic drugs. Insecticidal protein toxins from Bacillus species. |
| Dr Kelly BéruBé | Toxicogenomics of airborne pollutants. |
| Professor Lynne Boddy | Fungal community ecology, forest pathology, use of neural networks in species identification. |
| Professor Michael W. Bruford | Molecular ecology, conservation biology, adaptation. |
| Professor Jo Cable - Divisional Postgraduate Tutor | Host-parasite interactions, molecular and behavioural ecology. |
| Dr Elizabeth Chadwick | Cardiff University Otter Project. |
| Dr Tom Connor | Population genomics of bacterial pathogens, bioinformatics and translational microbiology. |
| Dr Isabelle Durance | Ecosystem ecology, landscape ecology, sustainability. |
| Dr Benoit Goossens | Molecular evolution, molecular ecology and behavioural ecology. |
| Dr Sian Griffiths | Fish biology, behavioural ecology. |
| Dr Frank Hailer | Molecular ecology. Evolutionary genetics. Conservation biology. Phylogeography. Hybridization. Mammals, birds. |
| Dr Rhys Jones | Herpetology. |
| Professor Peter Kille | Heavy metal stress, metallobiology, eco-toxico-genomics. |
| Dr Joanne Lello | Co-infection biology, host pathogen relationships, community ecology. |
| Professor David Lloyd | Eukaryotic microbiology, control of energy metabolism; oscillations, rhythms and clocks. |
| Professor Esh Mahenthiralingam | Bacterial infectious diseases and molecular microbiology. |
| Professor Julian Marchesi | Microbiology of the gut, bioactive agents from marine sponges. |
| Dr Carsten Müller | Chemical ecology, environmental chemistry, waste management. |
| Professor Steve Ormerod | River catchment ecology and avian biology. |
| Dr Pablo Orozco ter Wengel | Genomics, adaptation, conservation. |
| Dr Sarah Perkins | Ecology of wildlife diseases, network science, real-time dynamics of infections using reporters, invasive species of ecology. |
| Dr Peter Randerson | Landscape ecology. |
| Dr Julia Sanchez Vilas | Ecology and evolution of plant sexual systems, sexual dimorphism, cost of reproduction, plant responses to stress, plant ecophysiology, plant population dynamics. |
| Professor Bill Symondson | Community ecology, predator prey relationships, pest management. |
| Dr Rob Thomas | Avian behaviour, ecosystems and climate. |
| Dr Ian Vaughan | Community and freshwater ecology |
