Positions, responsibilities and other activities

• Council Member of the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour (ASAB, 2009-2016). 
• Education Secretary of the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour (2011-2016). 
• Member of the Ethics Committee of the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour (2006-2013, acting Secretary 2007, 2009). 
• Contributor to BBC Radio 4 programmes (e.g. Nature, Material World, Planet Earth Under Threat) and many Radio Wales programmes.
• Co-organiser of the annual "Storm Petrels in Portugal" expedition, at A Rocha Bird Observatory, Portugal. This long-running research project investigates the impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems, using the smallest Atlantic seabird, the European Storm Petrel as a sensitive bio-indicator of environmental change. [ http://stormies-online.blogspot.co.uk ]
• Co-director of Eco-explore [ http://www.eco-explore.co.uk ], a research-led scientific education, engagement and publishing enterprise; a spin out from Cardiff School of Biosciences. Since its formation in 2009, Eco-explore has been involved in a wide range of activities, including:
  • Development of ecological education materials for use in schools
  • Grant-winning and crowd-funding for community-based education and practical conservation work
  • Publication of a guidebook to Data Analysis with R Statistical Software
  • Data analysis training courses.
  • Guided tours of wildlife sites in South Wales
  • Overseas research experience expeditions. 

• Date
• Type
• Selected

MRes

Research techniques – climate change biology (1 lecture)

Final year

• Advanced Topics in Animal Behaviour (module leader)
• Global Change Biology (1 lecture)
• Final-year project supervision (7 fieldwork projects per year)

Professional Training Year (PTY)

I provide a substantial contribution to Cardiff School of Biosciences work-placement programme for undergraduates, supervising 2-3 PTY students per year as Cardiff University academic supervisor, plus 1-3 placements per year as Eco-explore co-director.

Second year

• Animal Behaviour; an introduction (module leader)
• Animal Diversity (3 lectures)
• Animal Physiological Adaptations (2 lectures)
• Research techniques tutorials (5 students per year)

Field course

• Island Ecology (Skokhom Island, Wales)

First year

• Evolution (1 lecture)

Data analysis and statistics

I provide non-timetabled statistical support for students and staff across the School of Biosciences, including overall responsibility for statistics teaching of 1^st and 2^nd year undergraduates, provision of informal statistics courses to field course students, final-year undergraduates, staff and postgraduates, and I developed approximately 50% of the material used in the current MRes module in Data Analysis.

Zoology degree scheme coordinator

• 3 lectures and other duties

Projects

Climate change biology

What are the biological impacts of climate change? My research group is investigating the effects of climate on individuals, populations and ecological processes - particularly how such effects may be mediated by the behaviour of individual animals. Our current work in this field focuses on major study systems that use migratory birds as sensitive bio-indicators of climate-driven changes in trophic relationships.

Effects of climate changes on trophic relationships in marine ecosystems

The body mass regulation behaviour of the smallest Atlantic seabird (the European storm petrel) changes between years in response to climate-driven changes in sea temperatures. Together with Renata Medeiros and collaborators, we coordinate a long-term monitoring project investigating how these changes are mediated by changes in the marine food webs on which storm petrels rely. Read the project blog [ http://stormies-online.blogspot.co.uk ] for all the latest news from the project.

The speciation of the band-rumped storm petrel "super-species" is the first documented example of sympatric speciation in a bird (and indeed in any tetrapod). Renata Medeiros and collaborators are investigating how diet and foraging ecology varies between sibling-species breeding in different seasons and locations and years, with the aim of understanding how foraging traits are linked to speciation events.

Three species of Pterodroma petrels (Trindade, Kermadec and Herald petrels) breed on Round Island, Mauritius, and hybridise with each other. Together with collaborators from Reading University, the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation and the Mauritius National Parks & Conservation Service, Renata Medeiros is beginning to investigate the diet and foraging ecology of this "hybrid swarm", with the goal of understanding how the birds are affected by –and cope with- short and long-term changes in food availability and climatic conditions.

Effects of climate changes on migrant songbirds

Migration is one of the major challenges to survival faced by many animals, and the availability of food and other resources along the migration route is of critical importance to successfully completing the journey. Furthermore, climate may impact individuals in different ways in different parts of the annual cycle (breeding grounds, migration stopover sites and wintering areas). Together with Adam Seward, James Vafidis, Rich Facey and collaborators, we combine observational studies in the field, lab and field mesocosm experiments, experimental manipulations of food availability and analyses of long-term climate and bird ringing databases, to examine the effects of climate changes on breeding behaviour, reproductive success, migration decisions, wintering ecology and annual survival of migrant songbirds. The species studied to date are primarily northern wheatears and various species of reedbed warblers, with a new project on barn swallows now underway. This work is carried out at breeding locations (Wales for warblers and swallows, Shetland and Greenland for wheatears), migration stopovers (Portugal and Shetland) and wintering areas (Senegal).

Sensory constraints on behaviour

How do animals decide when to be active? My research collaboration with Alex Pollard, Rhian Newman and others focuses on the role of eye design and visual constraints in an animal's behavioural decisions, particularly under varying light levels at twilight and at night. Specific projects have examined eye size and the timing of singing (in songbirds) and foraging (in shorebirds), as well as aviary and field studies of the impacts of light pollution, using night-singing in European robins as a case-study.

Dietary wariness and foraging ecology

When a forager encounters an unfamiliar object, it must decide whether to eat it and risk being poisoned (if it is toxic) or avoid it and risk missing out on a valuable food source (if it is palatable). Foragers generally show brief aversions to novel objects (neophobia) but some individuals also show a much more persistent aversion to eating novel foods (dietary conservatism), which can last for weeks or even years. In collaboration with Nicola Marples, Jo Cable, Loys Richards and others, we are currently investigating the function, control and evolutionary consequences of these aspects of dietary wariness, in a range of taxonomic groups –primarily birds and fish. Related to this, I am also interested in the foraging decisions underlying the strategic regulation of energy reserves in foraging birds, over minutes, days, seasons and years.

Impacts of human activities on wild animals

Large numbers of wild animals are captured, handled, often marked for individual identification, and released in the course of scientific research and conservation monitoring programmes. Surprisingly, little is known about the effects of capture and handling on the animals themselves. Together with Leila Duarte and others, I am investigating the impact of capture and handling on the body mass regulation and foraging behaviour of animals throughout the annual cycle, and on breeding behaviour and fitness parameters. This work has implications for the design and implementation of ethical field studies on wild animals. Other studies of human impacts include evaluating and minimising the impacts of eco-tourism, and monitoring habitat use and foraging ecology of birds and other animals, in areas earmarked for –or currently undergoing- development.