Dr Christopher Hassall

Profile

I joined the University of Leeds as a Lecturer in Animal Biology in September 2012 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2018.

I completed my undergraduate degree in Zoology at the University of Liverpool in 2005, and stayed on there for my PhD on the impacts of environmental warming on dragonflies which I finished in 2009. I then held two postdoctoral fellowship positions at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, from 2009-2010 on global change ecology (funded by the Canadian Government) and 2010-2012 on urban freshwater ecology (funded by the Ontario Government). 

Responsibilities

• Digital Education Academic Lead

Research interests

Biological responses to global change

My primary interests lie in the biological impacts of (i) climate change and (ii) urbanisation. My work investigates changing geographical (distributions) and temporal (phenology) patterns of species occurrence using historical datasets.  It is vital to evaluate the capacity of different species to respond to environmental change, as those species that cannot respond face an uncertain future.  Principally I have used insects (Odonata, Hymenoptera, and Syrphidae) as well as mammals as model systems for investigating these topics.

Key papers:

• Hassall, C. (2015) Odonata as candidate macroecological barometers for global climate change, Freshwater Science,  34 (3): 1040-1049.
• Hassall, C., Keat, S., Thompson, D.J., and Watts, P.C. (2014) Bergmann’s rule is maintained during a rapid range expansion in a damselfly, Global Change Biology, 20: 475–482.
• Hassall, C., Thompson, D.J., French, G.C. and Harvey, I.F. (2007) Historical changes in the phenology of British Odonata are related to climate. Global Change Biology, 13, 933-941.

Freshwater ecology and conservation

Freshwater ecosystems contain a disproportionate amount of biodiversity but are complex to manage and conserve. My work has focused on the conservation and ecology of small water bodies such as ponds and canals to understand both the applied conservation issues that are faced when protecting small water bodies that are scattered through a landscape, as well as using those habitats as a model system to tackle fundamental questions in community ecology and functional connectivity. The key findings have been that urban ponds represent important biodiversity resources in modified landscapes.

Key papers:

• Hassall, C. and Anderson, S. (2015) Stormwater ponds can contain comparable biodiversity to unmanaged wetlands in urban areas. Hydrobiologia, 745: 137-149.
• Hassall, C. (2014) The ecology and biodiversity of urban ponds, WIREs Water, 1: 187–206.
• Hassall, C., Hollinshead, J. and Hull, A. (2012) Temporal dynamics of aquatic communities and implications for pond conservation, Biodiversity and Conservation, 21 (3): 829-852.

Evolution of insects

Alongside my ecological research, I am involved in work on a number of evolutionary topics. It has often been said that wild animals (and insects in particular) do not live long enough to experience aging in the wild. I have been involved in work that has demonstrated that wild damselfly populations do show aging in the wild. I am also involved in work on the evolution of mimicry, using the hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae) that mimic stinging bees and wasps (Hymenoptera) as a model system.  Finally, I am interested in the ways that form and function interact with the environment in the case of insect flight.

Key papers:

• Hassall, C., Sherratt, T. N., Watts, P. C., Thompson, D. J. (2015), Live fast, die old: no evidence of reproductive senescence or costs of mating in a damselfly (Odonata: Zygoptera). Journal of Animal Ecology, 84: 1542–1554.
• Penney, H.D., Hassall, C., Skevington, J.H., Abbott, K.R. and Sherratt, T.N. (2012) A comparative analysis of the evolution of imperfect mimicry. Nature, 483: 461-464.
• Thompson, D.J., Hassall, C., Lowe, C.D. and Watts, P.C. (2011) Field estimates of reproductive success in a model insect: behavioural surrogates are poor predictors of fitness, Ecology Letters, 14: 905-913.

Higher education pedagogy

As well as scientific research, I maintain a funded program of research on pedagogical advances Higher Education. Particular areas of interest include identifying and breaking down barriers to the use of technology, and testing the effectiveness of teaching interventions.

Key papers:

• Hassall, C., Lewis, D.I. (2017) Institutional and technological barriers to the use of open educational resources (OERs) in physiology and medical education, Advances in Physiology Education, 41: 77-81.

Collaborations

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 – and a 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.

• DRUID:Drivers and Repercussions of UK Insect Declines

Qualifications

• BSc (Hons) Zoology, University of Liverpool
• PhD, University of Liverpool
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
• Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society

Professional memberships

• Royal Entomological Society
• British Ecological Society
• Freshwater Biological Association

Student education

I teach on a variety of modules on the Biology, Zoology, Genetics, and Ecology and Conservation Biology programmes, as well as on the MSc/MRes Biodiversity and Conservation programme. My teaching incorporates computer-based analytical modules that teach contemporary approaches to environmental and statistical analysis, lecture and discussion based modules that explore innovative research across the biological sciences, and international field trips where students gain a first-hand experience of the ecosystems about which they have been learning back at the university. I also supervise a large number of postgraduate researchers and taught postgraduate students. Example project areas can be seen below:

Undergraduate project topics:

• Aquatic invertebrate community ecology
• Terrestrial insect ecology
• Evolution of mimicry and camouflage
• Insect morphology and function
• Climate change impacts on biological systems
• Urban ecology
• Environmental attitudes
• Educational research

Postgraduate studentship areas:

• Radar aeroecology
• Insect flight ecology
• Ecology of freshwaters
• Evolution of mimicry and camouflage
• Biological impacts of global change
• Urban ecology and socio-ecology
• Environmental attitudes

Research groups and institutes

• Ecology and Evolution

Current postgraduate researchers

• Thomas Dally
• Ben Pile
• Rebecca J. Robertson
• Sebastian Stroud
• Sicily Fiennes
• Tommy

Projects

<li><a href="//phd.leeds.ac.uk/project/1666-spatio-temporal-drivers-of-insect-biodiversity-and-conservation">Spatio-temporal drivers of insect biodiversity and conservation</a></li>