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Dr Ross Macleod

School of Biological and Environmental Sciences

Faculty of Science

Email: R.C.Macleod@ljmu.ac.uk

Telephone: 0151 231 8024

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ORCID

Predictive Ecology
I am fascinated by the emerging science of predictive ecology (how to accurately forecast future population, fitness and ecosystem impacts of changing environmental conditions). I apply behavioural ecology theory and field research as keys to understanding and predicting how ecological responses across different scales are connected. Especially, how behavioural and physiological responses can be used to forecast population and ecosystem responses to different types of environmental change. Understanding how these links function helps us to solve many applied conservation and environmental challenges, such as how to manage habitats to conserve populations or to mitigate the future impacts of climate change on the natural world. These themes provide the basis for my teaching across the Animal Behaviour, Wildlife Conservation, Zoology and Biology degrees. Including as module leader of the Animal Behaviour and International Expedition modules and teaching on the Behavioural Ecology and Ecology modules. I supervise undergraduate and post-graduate research projects on behavioural ecology and wildlife conservation.

Behavioural & Population Ecology Research
Much of my behavioural ecology research is based on applying starvation-predation risk-trade-off theory to predator prey-interactions, using common birds and marine mammals as model systems (currently urban House Sparrows and Blue Tits). My work is built on strong collaborations with conservation and scientific NGOs, such as the RSPB and British Trust for Ornithology, and uses a wide range of approaches. From specially designed, automated environmental monitoring systems (based on using tiny PIT or RFID tags) to non-invasively track individual body mass change and behavioural responses to environmental conditions. To field experiments, to behavioural observations and to the analysis of big data from national scale datasets such as the BTO ringing and population monitoring schemes. One feature that all my approaches share is that they are highly accessible for student research projects and for students wanting to learn transferable skills. I am increasingly using urban ecosystems (with a particular focus on the UK conservation red-listed species, the House Sparrow) for their research and teaching opportunities. The simplified nature of urban environments makes them ideal model systems for testing new predictive ecology approaches for predicting population dynamics (e.g. Matthipoulos, Field & MacLeod, 2019) that can help us forecast the impacts of accelerating human-linked environmental change (e.g. MacLeod et al 2007 Ecology Letters, MacLeod et al. 2014 Ecology).

Conservation Biology & Methods Research
I also have strong interests in applied conservation and in developing new methods and techniques for conservation monitoring (MacLeod et al 2011, Whitworth et al. 2016), both in the UK and in the tropics especially in Bolivia and Peru. I work with projects focusing on the conservation of threatened species and ecosystems, including the critically endangered Blue-throated Macaw in Bolivia. In Peru, much of my work focuses on how rainforest regeneration can drive the restoration of tropical forest ecosystems (Whitworth et al. 2016) and be used to deliver both high-value biodiversity conservation (Whitworth et al. 2018) and sustainable development for impoverished local communities.

Languages

Spanish - Latin American

Degrees

2004, University of Oxford, United Kingdom, D.Phil., Behavioural Ecology
1999, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom, B.Sc. (Hons), Zoology

Academic appointments

Senior Lecturer in Behavioural Ecology, School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, 2021 - present
Lecturer in Behavioural Ecology, School of Biological & Environmental Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, 2018 - 2021
Project Leader Darwin Initiative Sustainable Manu Project, University of Glasgow, 2015 - 2018
Royal Society of Edinburgh Research Fellow, University of Glasgow, 2010 - 2015
NERC Post-doctoral Reseach Associate, University of St Andrews, 2005 - 2006
Pooject Leader Darwin Initiative Bolivian Key Biodiversity Areas Project, University of Glasgow, 2003 - 2006

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