James Hodson

Profile

I completed my BSC in Psychology and Biology at the University of Newcastle, and following a years period working in Science Outreach completed my MSc in Biodiversity and Conservation at the University of Leeds. My MSc dissertation looked at modelling the spread of, and predicting the impact of Narrow-clawed crayfish (Pontastacus leptodactylus); the modelling spread element has been published, and the impact prediction element has been submitted. Unable to resist the pull of problem solving and further learning (or apparently the grasp of crayfish) I am now doing a PhD in Freshwater Invasive Species in the South Aquatic Interactions Lab.

Research interests

I am interested in how we can predict impact of invasive species, taking into account context. By context I mean water temperature, flow speed, pH etc. (these would be considered spatial context) or time since invasion (this would be considered a temporal context) at a certain location. Therefore, I am passionate about research which investigates whether we can identify areas or species for which management is a priority based on a combination of the species, and the observed context. This is often applied in the context of climate change, or across seasonal or latitudinal changes in context. More broadly I am fascinated by systems, and understanding how many different elements of them interact, and influence each other. Currently this places me (happily I should add) in freshwaters, but I am also keen to explore interactions across the aquatic and terrestrial boundary.