DR CHRISTOPHER KAISER-BUNBURY

I'm a community ecologist by training who specialises on using a network approach and island ecosystems to address urgent conservation questions. A central part of my work aims to quantify the impact of humans on mutualistic interactions and their functions. I am particularly interested in the drivers of mutualistic interactions, such as pollination and seed dispersal, which contribute substantially to biodiversity organisation and persistence. Most of my work so far focussed on the islands nations of Mauritius and Seychelles in the Western Indian Ocean, which are ideal study systems of ecological complexity and are in urgent need of conservation. I am also working with brilliant collaborators across Europe to identify common patterns of ecosystem response to human disturbance globally by studying biotic interactions on other tropical and subtropical archipelagos. I'm keen to use the insights gained here to improve the conservation and restoration of ecosystem functions globally and locally (in Cornwall), helping to transition towards a management approach that considers the interdependency between species as core to any conservation effort.