Past awards – Research Grants

Spring 2023

Small Research (20)

  • Fountain of youth? Exploring the use of artificial reefs to encourage restored juvenile mussel survival
  • Understanding primate distribution, behaviour and human interactions through focus-group interviews inside and outside protected areas in Guinea-Bissau.
  • Synthesizing the mechanisms of stressor interactions in freshwater ecosystems using natural language processing and an interactive database.
  • Multispectral plant metabolome indexes to assess grassland responses to multiple disturbances
  • In the shadow of big cats: how intraguild interactions and anthropogenic pressures influence medium carnivores in East African savannahs.
  • Inferring the evolutionary drivers of richness, assembly, and diversification patterns of woody plants in the Western Ghats, India
  • GIANTS: Disentangling how dinosaurian megaherbivores ruled their ecosystems
  • Determining the foraging tactics of the Saharan horned viper
  • Impacts of triazole consumption on health, reproductive success and immunocompetence of passerine birds.
  • Epigenetic and dietary diversity in Alaskan coastal wolves: Harnessing DNA methylation to help delineate conservation units in North American wolf populations
  • An endangered scavenger as a health regulator for Andean páramo ecosystem
  • Restoring functional ecosystems: the reassembly of seed dispersal networks over a time-since recovery chronosequence in the Chocó Rainforest of Northwest Ecuador
  • Characterization of color variation and mesophotic Paramuricea clavata assemblages
  • Applying a bioacoustic framework to monitor and improve the conservation of amphibians in
  • Tobago, a Small Island Developing State with high amphibian endemism
  • Seeds of (Global) Change: Impact of four global change drivers on seed and dispersal traits
    Susceptibility of black bream to climate warming: Considerations of body size and populations
  • Fire-flooding Interactions in Parque Nacional Da Gorongosa, Mozambique
  • Linking intraspecific trait variation to eco-evolutionary dynamics of Daphnia populations
  • Wildfire impacts on freshwater ecosystems in Canada
  • Time-dependent effects of plant-microbe interactions

Large Research (6)

  • Historic population structure and foraging ecology of fin whales in the North Atlantic during the industrial revolution
  • The social dynamics of archerfish in the wild
  • Do cleaner fish help buffer against coral reef degradation?
  • Community Structure and Activity Pattern of Bats Along a Gradient of Landscape Composition in Central Regions of Kenya
  • Consequences of night-time climate warming on leaf respiration in tropical forests (TropResp).
  • Sowing the spores of sustainability: Linking fungal community ecology and functional outcomes to promote sustainable crop production

Spring 2022

Small Research (11)

  • A dead giveaway: Experimentally simulating the effect of apex scavenger presence on small carnivores and ecosystem function in a recovering African savanna
  • Does faster metamorphosis lead to poorer microbiome? The case of amphibian populations under drought stress.
  • Ecology and Conservation status of an endemic and highly threatened lizard (Lacertaspis lepesmei) in Mount Bamboutos, Cameroon.
  • Ecosystem dynamics, animal movements, and the energetic footprint of marine consumers
  • Exploring the effects of fire severity on ecosystem multifunctionality in fire-prone landscapes
  • Genetic diversity as a driver of centre-periphery dynamics for a tropical plant, Thunbergia atacorensis
  • Interactions at the edge: how soil microbes shape plant coexistence in tropical forest fragments
  • Restoration with Optical Seed Assemblages (ROSA)
  • Testing the purodiversity-biodiversity hypothesis in central Madagascar grasslands
  • TimeCapsule – studying rapid evolution of selfing syndrome in plants using resurrection ecology
  • Wild Soundscape Research 2022

Autumn 2021

Small Research (14)

  • Ecological Survey of Freshwater Macroinvertebrates and Freshwater-dependent Odonatans in the Nigeria-Cameroon Border and Biodiversity Hotspots.
  • Determining allocation to anti-herbivore silicon versus Epichloë-endophyte defences using an established native grass common garden – synergy or trade-off?
  • Seasonal variation of the bobtail squid Sepiola atlantica bacterial ratio and in response to marine heatwaves.
  • The importance of baselines in phase-shifts: comparison of historic and current macroalgal dynamics on the Great Barrier Reef.
  • Topographic analysis as a tool for ecological and functional classification of shark scales.
  • Dormant immunity – investigation of active immune expression and function during bumblebee queen diapause.
  • Filter bridge and local factor’s role in shaping chironomid assemblages; a study in pristine tropical streams along a biogeographical transition.
  • Population Dynamics of Feral Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) across Illinois.
  • Heterocyst counts as an alternative, low-cost method for assessing biological nitrogen fixation by tropical lichens.
  • Exploring the threat of the invasive Paper Mulberry on timber-producing forests in Ghana.
  • Cataloguing and Digitising the University of Sheffield Herbarium.
  • Feeding preferences and nutritional profile of shell-less clams (Teredinidae).
  • Testing the plasticity of cave adaptations: Characterization of the web architecture of an exclusively epigean Meta spider.
  • Spatial ecology of territorial species and its consequences for metapopulation dynamics.

Large Research (3)

  • How do high temperatures influence prey consumption by an endangered African carnivore?
  • Energy efficiency during early life: exploring the role of mitochondrial efficiency as an adaptation to a warming world in Brown trout.
  • A trait-based approach to investigate the effects of roadside verges on pollinator biodiversity and on ecosystem function.

Spring 2021

Small Research (13)

  • Statistical models for relative abundance in species-rich communities.
  • Forest recovery over 47 years after bauxite mining.
  • Species-specific soil modification by ectomycorrhizal fungi.
  • Could climate-driven changes in breeding phenology explain the declines in abundance of fin whales (Balenoptera physalus) in the northwest Atlantic?
  • Algae Attacks! Method and consequences of Cladoceran brood chamber colonisation by a microplankton.
  • MethaneTraits – Assessing plant functional traits as determinants of tree stem methane fluxes.
  • Reconciling urban bat conservation and public accessibility: ‘bat-friendly’ lighting in UK parkland.
  • Automated audio detection and monitoring of birds in Galápagos.
  • Plasticity of dominant boreal conifers to warming temperatures and thawing permafrost.
  • The role of hybridisation in the rapid range expansion of wall lizards in Switzerland.
  • Effects of local and landscape-scale habitat attributes on the use of golf courses by bats.
  • Improving our understanding of biodiversity trends by collecting data in multiple languages.
  • More siliceous but less nutritious: is this a tactic for legumes to anticipate future attacks?

Large Research (3)

  • Unravelling the extent and impacts of plant invasion in the last pristine landscapes of Europe: linking monitoring and conservation management.
  • Physiological and cognitive responses of fishes and cephalopods to hypoxia.
  • Escalating effects of multiple perturbations on soil biodiversity and function.

Autumn 2020

Small Research (13)

  • Paleoecology translated for modern management: calibrating pollen-vegetation relationships for understanding woody vegetation change through time in African savannas.
  • Signature Whistles for Occurrence, Recapture and Density – Developing the SWORD method for Namibian Coastal Bottlenose Dolphins.
  • Distribution Pattern and Conservation Status of two poorly known and endemic lizards of Nigeria – Cynisca gansi and Cynisca kigomensis.
  • Population structure and conservation of the endangered Great Green Macaw.
  • Disentangling seasonal and reproductive status effects on trophic interactions of European Free-tailed bats.
  • Diversity of migration in European Blackcaps Sylvia atricapilla.
  • Doomed to fail? Describing the extent of species reintroductions that have succumbed to negative climate change.
  • The SPOT Project: Sponge-Plastic-Oil-Temperature.
  • Social Effects on the Transmission and Acquisition of Gut Microbiota.
  • Impact of demographic history and recent population dynamics on inbreeding in coastal bottlenose dolphins.
  • Gecko Adaptation to Surface Textures in Mauritius.
  • Role of local evolutionary history on tropical forest diversity and functioning.
  • eDNA fragment lengths across different biomes.

Large Research (3)

  • Drivers of Animal Life-History Decisions in a Changing World.
  • Heat waves: is butterfly fertility affected? A transgenerational field trial in Pieris brassicae.
  • Landscape effects on endosymbionts of the Cabbage stem flea beetle Psylliodes chrysocephala.

Spring 2020

Small Research (14)

  • DNA based tools to understand diet and its role in community assembly for a group of endemic island beetles.
  • Finding fungal friends for a fight: How do different mycorrhizal fungal communities alter plant defenses?
  • A Toolkit for Ageing Wild Animals.
  • Drivers of gut microbiome and parasite community assemblage in Chernobyl’s Przewalski horses.
  • Solving the Last Great Bird Mystery.
  • Flying with the seasons: a population genomic analysis of seasonal migration in Amazonian butterflies.
  • Circulation of infectious agents in the world population of an endangered penguin and implications for conservation.
  • Is mate choice in amphibians MHC dependent?
  • Blowing in the wind: Dust dispersal and microbial meta-communities in a semi-arid landscape.
  • Tundra vegetation response to recent climate warming.
  • ISLANDER: Island Sustainability: the Legacy of Anthropogenic and Natural Disturbance on Ecological Resources.
  • Does genome size limit plant growth rate under nutrient limitation?
  • Testing invasive species management models: can you trust your model?
  • Early-life physiology and range limits: investigating the mechanisms underlying adaptation to climate in the delicate skink.

Large Research (3)

  • Global perspectives on termite functional biogeography.
  • Measuring carbon stocks and fluxes across a successional gradient in Sundarbans – the world’s largest mangrove forest.
  • Effects of multiple disturbances on plant community functional composition: A quantitative review.