Insect-flower interactions
Insects underpin a third of the world’s major crops and the vast majority of flowering plants, and our work seeks to understand the ecological and evolutionary forces that shape these relationships. We study how pollinator communities function across rural, urban and agricultural landscapes, and how to design environments that support both biodiversity and sustained pollination. We are particularly interested in the contributions of native insects such as bees and hoverflies, the pressures they face under urbanisation, and the ways introduced species—especially honey bees and African carder bees—reshape local networks. This extends to questions of colony resilience and collapse, and to the sensory and behavioural foundations of pollination itself: how insects choose among flowers, how these choices influence neighbouring plants, and how such interactions scale to affect both crops and threatened flora.
Invertebrate experience, welfare, and ethics
Do invertebrates have a felt experience of the world? Do insects respond reflexively, or do they bear the capacity for flexibility and evaluations that suggest a richer internal life? What are the welfare impacts of animal production, including the rapidly expanding use of invertebrates? We are deeply interested in probing both the inner lives and outward interactions of animals. These questions promise insight into the fundamentals of perception and sentience, while also carrying profound practical and ethical consequences for how we responsibly engage with the majority of animal life, especially at scale through agriculture, recreation, and management.
Invertebrate conservation and resilience
How do ecosystems maintain their function under stress, and what does it take to protect the interactions that hold them together? Our work focuses on the resilience and fragility of ecological networks, with a particular emphasis on the invertebrates that quietly anchor biodiversity and ecosystem function. We aim to conserve not only species but the relationships that sustain communities, especially in landscapes facing rapid environmental change. Current work includes understanding the role of nocturnal insects in pollination network resilience, conserving and managing saproxylic invertebrates in fragmented habitats, illuminating the food webs that support endangered shorebirds, and detailing the mutualism between wolf spiders and critically endangered earless dragons. We are drawn to systems where behavioural and sensory biology intersect with conservation needs, and where safeguarding function requires a deep understanding of the full richness of biotic interactions.
Communication, cognition, and deception
All organisms need to gather and exchange information with the world at large, and we are broadly interested in understanding the mechanisms, causes and evolutionary consequences of this basic challenge. Current projects are focused on understanding how suites of traits coevolve to enable communication in ‘noisy’ natural environments, how the information encoded in diverse visual cues (colour, pattern, motion) is integrated to inform crucial decisions, and the vital role of communication in shaping local adaptation and survival amidst unpredictable environmental change. We also have longstanding interests in dis- and misinformation, how it flows through biological and social networks, and its evolutionary consequences.
