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Dr Christopher Hassall

Dr Christopher Hassall

Profile

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

Responsibilities

  • Digital Education Academic Lead

Research interests

While my research began examining the consequences of global environmental change for the conservation of insects, I now work on a wide range of interdisciplinary projects that are broadly focused on understanding and solving biodiversity challenges.

Radar Aeroecology
Beginning with a University of Leeds pump priming grant in 2017, I have been working with colleagues from the School of Biology and the National Centre for Atmospheric Science to quantify biodiversity using weather radars (the BioDAR Project). This work is focused on attempting to classify radar signals to extract taxonomic information about animals that flying through the radar beam. Outputs so far have focused on proof-of-concept studies to quantify the diversity and abundance of insects flying across a given part of the UK where radars are active, and have now reached the stage of generating national-scale insect abundance metrics. The results have shown that radar measures of insect abundance and diversity correlate with ground level observations based on traditional ecological trapping. I am grateful to my wide range of excellent, interdisciplinary collaborators and to a range of funding bodies: work developed considerably under a Natural Environment Research Council grant (BioDAR, NE/S001298/1) and has continued under subsequent funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (PestDAR, OPP1212006), a NERC Seedcorn Partnership Fund Award (UpBRAIN, NE/W004534/1) and a NERC Highlight Topics Award (DRUID, NE/V006916/1).
 
Extinction Studies
I am currently Co-Director of the Leverhulme-funded Extinction Studies Doctoral Training Programme at the University of Leeds. This programme involves 19 PhD students you are working on diverse areas of extinction studies from the Environmental Humanities to conservation biology. As a part of that programme, I not only supervise students working on different interdisciplinary topics focused on extinction, but also help coordinate some programme-level events and outputs to disseminate the work of the students. Research projects that I'm involved with include the role of technology in the illegal songbird trade in Indonesia, the role of shadow diversity in ecological practise and policy, and the sustainability of medicinal plant trade in the UK.
 
Global Change Ecology
Much of my past work has investigated how organisms respond to changes in their environment. This has included macroecological studies of range and phenological shifts in a wide variety of taxa, examining the rate of change and a traits-based approach to understanding variability. I have also worked extensively in cities, particularly in relation to ponds, canals, and urban green spaces. My urban work has also led to collaborations with social scientists to understand the social and political contexts within which natural resources are managed.
 
Evolutionary Ecology
In addition to my work on patterns of biodiversity, I'm also interested in evolutionary process is that underlie insect colouration and morphology. This work has been pursued along two lines: firstly, uninterested in how insect flight has evolved and how that flight behaviour relates to a species ability to move through the landscape in response to change. Those cities have mostly used dragonflies as a model system. I've also done work on the evolution of mimicry camouflage in insects, combining insights from comparative biological approaches and experimental methods from the psychological sciences.
<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Some research projects I'm currently working on, or have worked on, will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://biologicalsciences.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>

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
  • Extinction Studies
  • 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

<h4>Postgraduate research opportunities</h4> <p>We welcome enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study. Our <a href="https://phd.leeds.ac.uk">research opportunities</a> allow you to search for projects and scholarships.</p>
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>