Biodiversification

The speed and geographic extent of change provide science and society with unique opportunities to study and understand the processes involved.

This programme evaluates the extent to which we are living through a mass diversification event, as well as through a mass extinction. We carry out research on the human, ecological and evolutionary underpinnings of diversification; concentrating on the interacting effects of the transport of species around the world, exploitation, habitat transformation and climatic changes.

Areas of interest

• Ecological enrichment, investigating how biological and societal processes determine the rates at which species accumulate in human-altered environments.
• Evolutionary origination, evaluating whether the rate at which new species are coming into existence has been accelerating during the Anthropocene, arguably to its highest level ever.
• Ecosystem diversification, considering how societal development and biological ‘rules’ underpin the emergence of unprecedented ‘novel ecosystems’ and the balance of diversity gains and losses.

Our researchers

Jonny Gordon - My PhD research will use a range of biological and archaeological datasets to examine past human impact on biodiversity over the Anthropocene.

Dr Jack Hatfield - My research background is in community and landscape ecology, investigating how species communities are altered by land-use change.

Alex Payne - My PhD research considers evolutionary acceleration in the Anthropocene.

Professor Chris Thomas - I am interested in understanding biological and human processes that give rise to species being successful, the ways people exploit them, and the ways successful species exploit humans.