April 2014 – Ambroise Baker's Research

Lake BESS scientists Nigel Willby and Ambroise Baker attended the BESS Science meeting on April 1^st and 2^ndin York. It was extremely interesting to hear about the progress of other projects part of the same research programme about Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services and Sustainablility.

We presented our research plans and highlighted the complex relationship between drivers of change and ecosystem services with this slide:

The BESS programme addresses a broad range of services but we were impressed by the prominent role of cultural ecosystem services across projects, research areas and ecosystem types. Their quantification and mapping remains an arduous task and much work is on the way.

We also heard sobering thoughts about alternative regimes and tipping points in ecosystems by Adrian Newton from the University of Bournemouth. It will be important to better understand how such rapid and unpredictable changes in ecosystems can have an impact on service delivery over time.

About Me

My work focuses on how plants, biodiversity and complex ecosystems respond to environmental change. Answering this question is critical to developing: 1) guidance to accelerate ecological recovery and 2) evidence-based policies to protect the environment and human well-being in the context of global change. New evidences in my research chiefly come directly from studying plants, the natural environment and large-scale, long-term ecological systems.

Google Scholar Profile

Teesside University Profile

I am a Senior Lecturer in Ecology at Teesside University, UK. I was previously a post-doctoral researcher based in UCL (University College London), UK, working on landscape connectivity, biodiversity and ecosystem function in freshwater networks (projects: Lake BESS, Hydroscape). My PhD, completed in the Oxford Long-term Ecology Lab at the University of Oxford, UK, was a contribution to the hotly debated conservation practice of rewilding, using a long-term perspective.

Month: April 2014

A short film about the management of biodiversity and water in the Broads.

BESS Science meeting