Ross Quick

Profile

My principal research interests lie in investigating how anthropogenic influences affect species interactions, with a particular focus on pollination networks. I am also interested in the provision of pollination services to agri-food inititatives and the interplay this has with crop yield and food security. Through modelling species interaction networks and by taking an interdisciplinary approach to study, I aim to better understand how the increasingly intensified anthropogenic world affects the dynamics of ecological networks and how this, in turn, affects us. I have a wider interest in Nature’s Contribution to People (NCPs), ecosystem services, biodiversity conservation and agroecology, and exploring the links between these.

As a member of the Urban Ecology team of the interdisciplinary and transnational COMMONPATHS research project, I am investigating how the quality of urban environments might facilitate, or hinder, the emergence, organisation and perpetuation of Urban Commons Initiatives (UCIs) as a form of governance and management in Ghana.
I aim to address the following questions: (1) To what extent do biodiversity and Nature's Contributions to People (NCPs) co-vary within and between three types of UCIs (green spaces, housing, and urban agri-food initiatives)? (2) How are biodiversity and NCPs perceived by urban residents and decision makers? Do perceptions vary according to involvement with UCIs? and (3) What trade-offs and synergies between NCPs do urban residents and decision makers perceive?

My work is funded by the COMMONPATHS research project through the Swiss National Science Federation (SNSF), which focuses on urban resources managed as commons – in Ghana and Switzerland – and examines how the collectives that manage them contribute to addressing the challenges of overconsumption and inequality. This project in is a collaboration between the University of Bern, University of Leeds, University of Ghana, John Cabot University and the Erasmus University Rotterdam, as well as an additional private partner, sanu durabilitas.

Research interests

• Agroecology
• Urban ecology
• Biodiversity conservation
• Ecosystem services
• Nature’s Contribution to People (NCP)
• Common resource management

Qualifications

• MSc Biodiversity and Conservation, University of Leeds
• BSc Biology (Ecology and Conservation), Newcastle University

Research groups and institutes

• Sustainability Research Institute
• Ecology and Global Change