Christopher Hassall (Principal Investigator)

I am Associate Professor of Animal Biology in the School of Biology at the University of Leeds. My research interests cover the range of biological organisation from molecular genetics through to macroecology. Particular projects at present focus on urban aquatic biodiversity, the evolution of mimicry, global change biology and the relationship between people and nature. More about my research interests can be found on the Research page.

​I have been running my lab at the University of Leeds since I joined the institution in 2012. My work involves collaborations across the University of Leeds, where I am based in the Ecology and Evolution Research Group. I am also an active member of Water@Leeds - a research hub containing 150 researchers focusing on all aspects of water research. I am also an active member of the University of Leeds Biology Education Research Group (ULBERG), which leads pedagogical innovation within the faculty. I maintain collaborations with the Institute of Psychological Sciences, where I work with psychologists to use humans as model systems to investigate evolutionary questions. Finally, I collaborate extensively with staff in the School of Geography to answer landscape scale environmental questions concerning the ecology of freshwaters. The Hassall Lab website describes my research interests in great detail and an up-to-date CV can be downloaded on the left. From time to time I blog at www.katatrepsis.com. You can also find me on ResearchGate, Twitter, Slideshare, LinkedIn, Figshare, Google Scholar, Academia.edu, Flickr and Google+. Below is some further information on the rest of the lab (who do most of the work and make me look good!).

Graduate students

The Hassall Lab has a fairly sprawling membership, with a number of students either core to the group and for whom Chris is a primary supervisor (Becky, Seb, Myrna, Oloyede, Carrie) and a peripheral group for whom Chris is a secondary supervisor contributing particular skills and experience to the project (Daniel, Ben, Harri, Dominic). This makes the wider lab group highly diverse, but linked by the common themes of ecology, evolution, global change, and the interactions between people and nature.

Lab members

Sebastian Stroud (NERC DTP PhD student, 2019-2023

Seb joined the lab with a strong interest in botany. His project explores the ecology of urban plants with a focus on aquatic habitats and the ecosystem services that aquatic plants provide. Seb is co-supervised with Dr Julie Peacock.

Rebecca Robertson (NERC DTP PhD student, 2017-2022)

Becky is working on the links between urban green space biodiversity and human health. Co-supervised by me, Martin Dallimer, Ian Kellar and Rosie McEachan, the project is being run with the Better Start Bradford project as the CASE partner. You can read Becky's publications here, 

Oloyede Adekolurejo (TET-FUND PhD student, 2017-2021)

The expansion of toxic microcystin-producing cyanobacterial blooms in freshwater systems is now a ubiquitous phenomenon, impacting on human health, biodiversity and ecosystems globally. Approximately, 75% of freshwater blooms are dominated by the notorious species, Microcystis aeruginosa and have been reportedly toxic. The specific ecological roles of microcystin, a major cyanobacterial toxin produced during toxic blooms in freshwater ecosystems is unclear. The potential impacts of this cyanotoxin on the patterns and processes that define the structure and function of aquatic ecosystems are unknown. Therefore, my PhD research explores the effects of microcystins on how biotic communities are structured and on the fundamental ecological processes underpinning the key ecosystem functions they mediate. The project employs a broad range of designs including individual-level microcosms, community experiments and ecosystem field surveys.

Myrna Barjau (CONACyT PhD student, 2017-21)

My PhD focuses on the interaction between climate change (e.g. warming, drought) and biotic stressors (e.g. biological invasions). My aim is to analyse resistance and resilience to interacting environmental stressors in terms of the structure (survival, abundance, species richness) and function (organic matter processing) of aquatic ecosystems. For this, I am using a well-established amphipod system: Gammarus pulex, a native species in the UK that has a high leaf shredding efficiency and low thermal tolerance, and Dikerogammarus villosus, a Ponto-Caspian invader that has a lower leaf shredding efficiency and higher thermal tolerance. I am using different experimental approaches, from lab microcosms to field mesocosms. My primary supervisor is Chris Hassall and co-supervisors are Alison Dunn (SoB, Leeds) and Lee Brown (SoG, Leeds). 

Carrie Easter (PhD student, 2017-20)

Carrie is investigating patterns of social learning in animals and extending some of those experiments to humans by using simulated encounters in virtual reality. Co-supervised with Will Hoppitt.

Thomas Dally ​(PhD student, 2015-19; Postdoc 2019-2022) 

Tom’s PhD project focused on an empirical approach to pollinator monitoring, using fundamental and applied research. Bill Kunin was Tom's primary supervisor. Tom then joined the BioDAR team as a postdoc working on field, lab, and computational entomology

Dominic Muenzel (PhD student, 2018-22)

Dominic is working on the computational aspects of spatial conservation planning of coral reefs, supervised by Maria Beger.

Harrison Tan ​(PhD Student 2018-22)

My primary interests revolve around how we can most appropriately represent ecological systems within computational simulations, to improve the accuracy of our predictions in regards to the implications of ecosystem change upon threatened species. I am currently working on developing our understanding of the interacting pressures of climate change and anthropogenic disturbance, and how they may impact the demography and distribution of ice-breeding pinnipeds. Primary supervisor: Simon Goodman.

Benjamin Pile ​(PhD student 2017-22)

Ben's project is testing how multiple stressors influence biodiversity structure and function, supervised by Alison Dunn

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Lab Alumni

Dr Daniel Warren (University of Leeds funded PhD student, 2016-2019) Dan explored the impacts of invasive species on aquatic ecosystems, using a variety of laboratory and field approaches. 

Tom Wookey (MSc By Research 2018-2019) Tom worked on the evolution of mimicry in terms of network theory and the influence of social networks. On completion of his MSc, Tom trained to be a teacher.

​Dr Jonathan Carruthers-Jones (EU ITN PhD student 2015-2019) Jonathan was an interdisciplinary PhD student who worked to understand novel methods to measure and describe wildness. He was co-supervised with George Holmes. Jonathan is now a postdoc on an AHRC project, still based at Leeds.

​Dr Sonja Wild (PhD student, 2016-19) - Sonja tested hypotheses concerning the spread of behaviours through the social networks of Australian dolphins. Sonja's primary supervisor was Will Hoppitt.

​Dr Robert Williams (NERC DTP PhD student, 2015-19) Rob tested ecological theories around biological invasions using invasive reptiles in the UK. Rob was co-supervised with Alison Dunn,

​Dr Zak Mitchell (NERC DTP PhD student, 2014-18) - Zak did a cracking project on odonate flight ecology that produced a series of fascinating papers. Those papers will be coming out soon, meanwhile Zak is working as a Research Scientist at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. 

James Hunter (Industry-funded Masters By Research student, 2016-17) - James was only with the lab for a year, but he accomplished an enormous amount in his project on connectivity in the Humberhead Levels. James is now a PhD student at the University of Otago in New Zealand.

Dr Giovanna Villalobos (CONACyT PhD student, 2014-18) - Gio was my first PhD student and was a dream to work with. She has produced several papers already with a couple more still to go. Now back in Mexico, she is a postdoc working on the geographical patterns of polarised light at the University of Aguascalientes.

Dr Elizabeth Morgan ​(NERC PhD student, 2013-17) - Liz worked on the the spatial foraging ecology and behaviour of sea birds (particularly the shags on the Farne Isles). Keith Hamer was Liz's primary supervisor.

A long list of former project students:

David (body size and latitude), Nicole (urban ponds), Alex (schools and nature), Oliver (chemical defence), Ned (size and mimicry), Tom (relaxed selection), Andrew (imperfect mimicry), Milin (intelligence and attractiveness), Simon (beetle ecology), Denny (dragonflies and biodiversity), Jenny (evolution of mimicry), Alex (ladybird mimicry), Tom (phenology and mimicry), Lucy (death feigning), Jenny (small mammal movement), Sarah (butterfly conservation), Laura (butterfly conservation), Dan (invasive geckos), Andrew (urban ponds), Marie (butterfly conservation), Liz (butterfly conservation), Doug (hoverfly evolution), Alice (quarry ecology), Mel (urban butterflies), Chrissie (evolution of mimicry), Jane (poison dart frog mimicry), Isobel (insect reintroductions), Danielle (noise and behaviour in aquatic insects), Anna (damselfly polymorphisms), Lucy (pond biodiversity), Gary (snake mimicry), Calum (turtle nesting), Danny (thermal ecology), Imanol (freshwater ecology), Rochelle (ecological traps), Samuel (brown field site ecology), Stuart (dragonfly flight), Joe (glacial streams), Ellie (reptile ecology), Harry (biodiversity and wellbeing), Sarah (environmental attitudes), Sarah (stormwater pond biodiversity), Jennette (damselfly polymorphisms), Alice (urban green space), Emma (also urban green space), Blanca (arid ecology), Shannon (pond ecology), Kate (urban pollinators), Joel (lizard behaviour), Hannah (lizard biomechanics), Miguel (lizard parasites), Ben (science communication), Tessa (entomological education), Lizzie (reptile diets), Jack (lizard distributions), Lily (urban lizard populations), Hannah (species distribution models), Zara (lizard citizen science), Rachel (newt conservation), Evan (VR and green space), Verity (ecology of urban parks), Emma (social ecology of parks), Megan (fish welfare), Robbie (bat ecology), Emma (environmental noise), Daisy (citizen science), Hannah (green space and health), Isobel (cyanotoxins), Lucy (science communication), Maja (science communication), Shangning (extreme events), Yuechun (urban freshwater restoration), Alana (ponds and dragonflies), Bethany (allotment production), Eboni (climate change and the media), Ella (pond connectivity), Laura (urban community gardens), Mateo (culturally significant species), Ben (mimicry), Eva (fencing and water quality), Aashra (algae and macrophytes), Marnie (solar farms and insects), Holly (reservoirs and invasive species), Hannah (urban tree demography), Gaia (decolonisation), Kate (science communication), Laura (podcasting and science communication).