Tom Oliver

Organisation: 
University of Reading
Location: 
Whiteknights Campus, Reading
Offer: 

Available to host placements who are interested in working in the area of the role of biodiversity and ecosystem services in human health and wellbeing.
My group works with large scale datasets (e.g. citizen science biological records), and has been linking trends in UK wildlife with impacts on ecosystem functions and services. A particular area of emerging interest is cultural ecosystem services- i.e. understanding how changes to biodiversity impact the well-being of people through their direct experiences and non-use values. Projection of future impacts is also a possibility. An ideal cross-disciplinary placement would be a numerate social scientist or economist, but certainly open to discussion.
Relevant recent papers are:
Oliver, T.H., Isaac, N.J.B., August, T.A., Woodcock, B.A., Roy, D.B. & Bullock, J.M. (in press). Declining resilience of ecosystem functions under biodiversity loss. Nature Communications.

Oliver, T.H., Heard, M.S., Isaac, N.J.B., Roy, D.B., Procter, D.A., Eigenbrod, F., Freckleton, R.P., Hector, A., Orme, C.D.L., Petchey, O.L., Proenca, V., Raffaelli, D., Suttle, K.B., Mace, G.M., Martin-Lopez, B., Woodcock, B.A. & Bullock, J.M. (2015). Biodiversity and the resilience of ecosystem services. Trends Ecol. Evol., 30, 673-684.

Oliver, T.H., Marshall, H.H., Morecroft, M.D., Brereton, T.M., Prudhomme, C. & Huntingford, C. (2015). Interacting effects of climate change and habitat fragmentation on drought-sensitive butterflies. Nature Climate Change, 5, 941–945.

Role: 
Research provider
Discipline: 
Economic Research
Natural Sciences
Social Sciences
Research Area: 
Natural hazards & extreme weather events
Urban ecosystems
Opportunity: 
Health and wellbeing
Placement