Biodiversity and behaviour
Group Highlights
Our research is aimed at understanding the causes and consequences of change in biological diversity. We focus on multiple levels and types of diversity: within and among species, communities and ecosystems, and including taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity. We are also concerned with understanding behaviour, how it evolves and is maintained, how it shapes evolution, and its role in generating and maintaining biodiversity.
We conduct research on a wide range of taxa including corals, fish, birds, aquatic invertebrates, and plants.
We are an international group of people and have ongoing projects and collaborations distributed worldwide.
We also have our own group website: https://biodiversity.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/
Research
Research Themes
| Temporal and spatial change in biodiversity | |
We study biodiversity to quantify and identify drivers of global change. We undertake studies at local and global scales, and focus on long term trends as well as short-term fluctuations. Our study systems range from fish in Trinidad to farms in Fife. We are interested in the following topics:
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| coral reefs |
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| fish and invertebrates | birds on Fair Isle |
| tundra vegetation | plants in Brazil |
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| guppies in St Andrews! | reef fish |
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| Our research informs conservation policy at national and international scales. | |
Group Members
Principal Investigators
Prof Anne Magurran
Prof Maria Dornelas
Dr Iain Matthews
Dr Miguel Barbosa
Research Staff
Faye Moyes
Inês Martins
Samanta Lop
Viviana Brambilla
Philippe Fernandez-Fournier
Cher Chow
James Cant
Research Students
Haley Arnold
Victoria Dale
Isaac Trinidade Santos
Jessica Haghkerdar
Garrett Fundakowski
Ada F. Eslava
Publications
Irrigation dams threaten Brazilian biodiversity
Azevedo-Santos, V. M., Fearnside, P. M., Arcifa, M. S., Tonella, L. H., Giarrizzo, T., Pelicice, F. M., Agostinho, A. A., Magurran, A. E. & Poff, N. L., 29 Feb 2024, In: Environmental Management. 7 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Synthesis reveals approximately balanced biotic differentiation and homogenization
Blowes, S. A., McGill, B., Brambilla, V., Chow, C. F. Y., Engel, T., Fontrodona-Eslava, A., Martins, I. S., McGlinn, D., Moyes, F., Sagouis, A., Shimadzu, H., van Klink, R., Xu, W. B., Gotelli, N. J., Magurran, A., Dornelas, M. & Chase, J. M., 21 Feb 2024, In: Science Advances. 10, 8, 10 p., eadj9395.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Three major steps toward the conservation of freshwater and riparian biodiversity
Hoppenreijs, J. H. T., Marker, J., Maliao, R. J., Hansen, H. H., Juhász, E., Lõhmus, A., Altanov, V. Y., Horká, P., Larsen, A., Malm‐Renöfält, B., Runnel, K., Piccolo, J. J. & Magurran, A. E., 13 Mar 2024, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Conservation Biology. Early View, 9 p., e14226.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Comparing temporal dynamics of compositional reorganization in long-term studies of birds and fish
Penny, A., Dornelas, M. & Magurran, A., 22 Jun 2023, In: Ecology Letters. 26, 7, p. 1071-1083 13 p., 14214.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Elevated compositional change in plant assemblages linked to invasion
Kortz, A. R., Moyes, F., Pivello, V. R., Pyšek, P., Dornelas, M., Visconti, P. & Magurran, A. E., 10 May 2023, In: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 290, 1998, 6 p., 20222450.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Geomorphological habitat type drives variation in temporal species turnover but not temporal nestedness in Amazonian fish assemblages
Bogotá-Gregory, J. D., Jenkins, D. G., Lima, F. C. T., Magurran, A. E. & Crampton, W. G. R., Nov 2023, In: Oikos. 2023, 11, e09967.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Higher alpha and gamma, but not beta diversity in tropical than in Mediterranean temporary ponds: a multi‐taxon spatiotemporal approach
Gálvez, Á., Castillo‐Escrivà, A., Magurran, A., Alambiaga, I., Bonilla, F., Camacho, A., García‐Roger, E. M., Iepure, S., Miralles‐Lorenzo, J., Monrós, J. S., Olmo, C., Picazo, A., Rojo, C., Rueda, J., Sasa, M., Segura, M., Armengol, X. & Mesquita‐Joanes, F., 7 Sept 2023, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Limnology and Oceanography.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Looking back on biodiversity change: lessons for the road ahead
Dornelas, M., Chase, J. M., Gotelli, N. J., Magurran, A., McGill, B. J., Antão, L. H., Blowes, S. A., Daskalova, G. N., Leung, B., Martins, I. S., Moyes, F. H., Myers-Smith, I. H., Thomas, C. D. & Vellend, M., 17 Jul 2023, In: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 378, 1881, 15 p., 20220199.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review
Rarefaction and extrapolation with beta diversity under a framework of Hill numbers: the iNEXT.beta3D standardization
Chao, A., Thorn, S., Chiu, C-H., Moyes, F., Hu, K-H., Chazdon, R. L., Wu, J., Magnago, L. F. S., Dornelas, M., Zelený, D., Colwell, R. K. & Magurran, A. E., 1 Nov 2023, In: Ecological Monographs. 93, 4, 32 p., e1588.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Regional occupancy increases for widespread species but decreases for narrowly distributed species in metacommunity time series
Xu, W-B., Blowes, S. A., Brambilla, V., Chow, C. F. Y., Fontrodona-Eslava, A., Martins, I. S., McGlinn, D., Moyes, F., Sagouis, A., Shimadzu, H., van Klink, R., Magurran, A. E., Gotelli, N. J., McGill, B. J., Dornelas, M. & Chase, J. M., 16 Mar 2023, In: Nature Communications. 14, 11 p., 1463.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Contact
We are currently all based in the Centre for Biological Diversity (CBD):
Sir Harold Mitchell Building, Greenside Place, KY16 9TH, St Andrews
We welcome interactions with other research groups and encourage enquiries from prospective volunteers, Senior Honours, MRes and PhD students as well as post-doctoral researchers.
For specific enquiries please contact the relevant PIs.
Related themes:
Related Centre: