Dr Jake Bicknell

Dr Jake Bicknell is a conservation scientist broadly interested in conservation of biodiversity throughout the globe and across taxonomic groups. Much of his work focuses on degraded tropical forests, primarily in Guyana and Borneo, but he has also conducted research across Europe, Africa and central America.

Dr Jake Bicknell is a member of the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology. 

Ever wondered: Is it too late to save our planet? | Why is our planet so special? | How can I help? Find out by watching Dr Bicknells' TEDx talk. 

Environmental change in tropical forests

• Species and assemblage responses to logging (reduced-impact logging in particular), conversion (for palm oil, mining etc), habitat fragmentation, climate change and urbanisation.
• Focus on vertebrates, in particular birds and mammals, but also fish and invertebrates such as dung beetles.
• Habitat restoration, in particular forest restoration following conversion or degradation.
• Relationships between biodiversity and the provision of ecosystem services, particularly carbon in forests.
• Using machine learning to detect environmental change in tropical forests.

Conservation practice and policy

• Conservation planning, implementation and protected area development.
• Land-use planning to mitigate the impacts of habitat change on biodiversity.

Other

• Rewilding the UK.
• Meta-analysis in conservation.
• Environmental change in relationship to infrastructure development, and how to minimise impacts to biodiversity.
• Reconciling food production with biodiversity conservation in tropical areas.
• The role of local communities in conserving tropical forests.
• All things conservation-related in Guyana.

Undergraduate

• HECO3030: Survey and Monitoring for Biodiversity
  
• WCON5050: Key Issues in Conservation Science
  
• WCON5350: Tropical Conservation Science Field Course
• WCON5380: Data Analysis for Conservation Biologists
• WCON5390: Applied Ecology and Conservation

Postgraduate

• DICE8410: Managing Protected Areas
• DICE8840: Research Skills for Natural Sciences
  

Current PhD students

• Sean Glynn (primary supervisor with Dr Matthew Struebig and Professor Zoe Davies): After the gold rush: Vertebrate Communities in Abandoned Gold Mines and Implications for Restoration
• Will Hayes (primary supervisor with Professor Zoe Davies and Dr Janine Robinson): Predicting and navigating future discord between gold mining and other livelihoods in Guyana's rainforest (GCDC).
  
• Lawrence Hills (co-supervised with Prof. Jim Groombridge): Assessing the ecological impacts of non-native gamebird release on reptiles in the UK (NERC).
  

Past PhD students

• Jessica Fisher (co-supervised with Professor Zoe Davies, Professor Jay Mistry and Damian Fernandes): The benefits people derive from interacting with biodiversity in urban Guyana (ESRC).
• Natalie Yoh (co-supervised with Dr Matthew Struebig): Monitoring responses of tropical vertebrates to land-use change using acoustic technologies (NERC).

Dr Bicknell is available to provide commentary on issues related to land-use change in tropical forests, particularly regarding forestry and mining, and the conservation of biodiversity.

• Palm oil boycott could actually increase deforestation - sustainable products are the solution
• China's Trans-Amazonian railway might be the lesser of two evils
• Boosting the conservation value of 4m sq km of rainforest logging concessions
• In Carbon sequestration, money grows on trees