Population ecology and conservation
We include in our concept of population health the sustainability and persistence of populations, and we are therefore interested in aspects of population ecology that touch on population change, and population conservation. The Centre has research programs examining the impacts of livestock grazing in the Bale Mountains National Park in Ethiopia (Flavie Vial, with WILDCRU, Oxford), the population ecology of upland birds in the UK (Douglas Kerlin, with Simon Thirgood at the Macaulay Institute); the population dynamics of Scottish mountain hares (Sunny Townsend, Annabel Harrison, with Scott Newey, and Simon Thirgood, Macaulay), the cumulative impacts of wind farms on bird populations (Liz Masden with SNH and Bob Furness); and at a more theoretical level, the use of game theory to understand host-pathogen interactions and their emergent effects on population dynamics (Dan Haydon with Steve Redpath - Aberdeen, and Sasha Dall - Cornwall); and how the stability of food-webs varies as a function of ecological complexity (Sunny Townsend).