City Clocks Group

I am an ecologist interested in how animals colonise, cope with, and adapt to urban environments. I am fascinated by research questions rather than by species or habitats. I like to challenge mine and other people's mind. I also like the outdoors, and my best time of my life is when I travel and explore new parts of our world. But just as my research, I like to merge the passion for nature with city life. I love music, pubs, and team sports. I can hardly play guitar, but I can prove myself on football and basketball courts, and on bar stools...

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My research approach is highly integrative and collaborative and combines questions, tools and methods from different disciplines such as chronobiology (analysis of circadian and seasonal rhythms), movement ecology (tracking technologies), molecular ecology (gene expression analyses) and eco-physiology (hormone analyses). I also integrate different levels of biological organisation, from genes to metabolites, to behaviour and populations.

 

A big focus of my work is to understand organisms' responses to artificial light at night, and especially how light at night can affect biological rhythms of behaviour and physiology. This research is done in both the field and the lab on organisms as diverse as birds, mussels and phytoplankton. 

 

Moreover, I have recently established a system of study sites to investigate changes in activity, diet and phenology in the passerine blue tit (Cyanistes caureleus). This system consists of 15 study sites spread along an urban to rural gradient of habitats from Glasgow City centre to oak woodlands on the shores of Loch Lomond.