I am interested in questions related to biodiversity and conservation science in general, rather than a specific taxa or research fields. As such I have worked on topics a broad as the social ecology of taxonomist and wildlife trade over the internet, to climate change and extinction modeling. My most recent work focusses on developing method of estimating the date of extinctions and investigating wildlife trade over the internet.

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Recent Publications

Joppa, L.N., Roberts, D.L., Pimm, S.L. (2011) How many species of flowering plants are there? Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 278: 554-559.

Robbirt, K.M., Davy, A.J., Hutchings, M.J., Roberts, D.L. (2011) Validation of biological collections as a source of phenological data for use in climate change studies: a case study with the orchid Ophrys sphegodes. Journal of Ecology, 99:235-241.

Roberts, D.L., Elphick, C.S., Reed, J.M. (2010) Identifying anomalous reports of putatively extinct species and why it matters. Conservation Biology, 24: 189-196.

Full list of publications

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Teaching

I convene the following Undergraduate modules:

DI311: The Green Planet

DI505 Topics in Conservation Biology

DI508 Skills for Conservation Biologists

 

Taught Masters Modules

DI871: International Wildlife Trade - Achieving Sustainability

DI881: Advanced Topics in Conservation Ecology and Management

SE836: Introduction to Botanical Ethnobotany

 

Research Postgraduates:

DICE G-R Social Seminar

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Research

Most of my research focuses on questions relating to species detectability and extinction, and orchid ecology; in particular the response of orchids to climate change, epiphyte community ecology and modelling epiphyte seed dispersal. In pursuit of these goals, I have travelled widely, focusing on study systems in the western Indian Ocean islands and Africa.

Although I am primarily an "orchid" person, I work on a diverse range of taxa including, ants, the dodo, mammoths and the North Atlantic Right Whale. More recently I have moved into wildlife trade and the role of the internet. Further details can be found on my website.

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Supervision

Amy Hinsley (PhD): 'Characterising the formation and structure of international wildlife trade networks in the age of online communication'

Susanne Masters (PhD): Global Salep trade

Karen Robbirt (PhD - PT at Kew/UEA): 'Will climate warming present British orchids with a pollination crisis?'

Lydia Yeo (PhD): 'Application of mark-recapture models in assessing wildlife crime'

Emma Ford (MSc by Research): Investigating the demand for captive bred vs wild collected chameleons

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Other Activities

Deputy Director of Graduate Studies (DICE research)

Editorial Board of Endangered Species Research

Advisor – Malesian Orchid Journal

Herbier de la Réunion – associate

Association pour l’Étude Taxonomique de la Flore d’Afrique Tropicale – member

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