Dr. Dongbo Li

Profile

The natural world is undergoing profound environmental change. Habitat loss, land-use shift, and climatic warming are reshaping how species interact, persist and function within ecosystems. My research aims to understand how populations and communities respond to environmental change, and how we can safeguard the ecological interactions, such as plant-pollinator and host–parasitoid, that underpin biodiversity and ecosystem resilience.

I am an experimental ecologist, currently a visiting research fellow at University of Leeds. My work spans multiple biological systems, from soil Collembola and insect pollinators to moths and parasitoids. Across these systems, I use laboratory- and field-controlled experiments with ecological theories to explore how populations and their interactions respond to environmental change. I am particularly interested in the mechanisms that allow species to persist or collapse.

I completed my PhD at University of Bristol, where I investigated wildlife corridors both as a theoretical concept and as a practical conservation tool, evaluating how corridor-mediated landscape connectivity can support pollinator communities and ecosystem services. I completed my first postdoc in the Sait Lab, where I focused on how climate warming and environmental variation shape host–parasitoid dynamics, with implications for community stability and predatory-prey oscillations.

Ultimately, my goal is to contribute knowledge that helps build landscapes and management strategies capable of supporting biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in a rapidly changing world.

For my most recent updates, please visit my Github website.

Professional memberships

• British Ecological Society 2019-
• Ecological Society of America 2025-