Benjamin Hodgson

Profile

I am a PhD student in the School of Earth and Environment within the NERC Panorama DTP. Previously, I completed an Integrated Master’s degree in Ecology and Conservation Biology in the School of Biology, with my final project examining the effects of habitat cover and configuration on the resilience of pollinator metacommunity dynamics across agricultural landscapes.

Research interests

My research interests are quite broad, with my project drawing on the fields of theoretical, spatial, and conservation ecology. More specifically, I am interested in how human-modified landscapes structure populations and communities across space and time, and how we can leverage this information to inform biodiversity conservation.

Spatial modelling of land sparing/sharing

My PhD project aims to combine the fields of spatial and conservation ecology by incorporating spatially explicit metapopulation and metacommunity dynamics modelling into the land sparing/sharing framework. The sparing/sharing framework asks whether biodiversity is least impacted by land sparing, where food is produced by a small amount of high-yield farmland, or land sharing, where food is produced by a large amount of low-yield farmland. Whilst empirical studies suggest land sparing will be less detrimental to biodiversity, these studies have been spatially implicit, and it is often argued that some land sharing will be necessary to ensure connectivity between natural habitat patches. By incorporating spatial ecological dynamics, my project will focus on the role of habitat configuration, cover, and quality in designing landscapes that are effective for biodiversity conservation whilst still producing a given amount of food.

Qualifications

• MBiol and BSc (Hons) Ecology and Conservation Biology, University of Leeds