MSc by Research in Ecology and Evolution - Ecology and Conservation

University of Leeds

At the largest scale, we seek to understand ecosystems and biodiversity in a holistic sense. Fundamental research into spatial and temporal patterns of biodiversity, and how those patterns change under changing environmental conditions, is a core part of our work. Academics within the group work on a range of theoretical problems in biodiversity science to understand how animals and plants are distributed in the landscape and how best they can be measured and quantified. Applied projects seek to understand some of the most important but threatened ecosystems on earth. Work on the plant communities in the African savannah examines the combined roles of large herbivore grazing and long-term climate change in the determination of plant communities and their function as a store of carbon. Research projects on tropical and temperate coral reefs are monitoring coral bleaching events in real-time, with long-term data that central to understanding the resilience of these highly productive communities to extreme heat waves.