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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

The wider lab group is diverse and covers a range of different topics. The unifying theme is a creative approach to bringing together different disciplinary approaches to understand the environment and to promote positive environmental change.

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). Some key papers:

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. This work is being taken forward in a new handbook on Extinction Studies that will be published in 2028. Here are some of the brilliant outputs that have been produced:

Fundamental ecology and conservation

Despite a strong focus on interdisciplinarity, the lab still maintains three fundamental, disciplinary themes. Firstly, part of our work focuses on the ecology of urban freshwaters (particularly ponds). We are interested in how these habitats are relatively poorly understood both in terms of what drives their biodiversity and how that diversity changes over time, as well as the ecosystem services that they provide. Secondly, we are interested in how existing and novel datasets can be analysed to detect and diagnose insect declines. Some of this work has involved complex statistical modelling, while other components draw heavily from the BioDAR Project described above. Thirdly, we have a long standing interest in dragonflies in particular. Since Chris' PhD in 2005, he has been fortunate to have studied dragonflies in a number of contexts around climate change impacts and behavioural ecology. Here are some key recent papers:

Biodiversity and Health

Recent work in the lab has tended to involve health benefits of contact with nature as a key focus. Two key projects are currently ongoing that pursue these ideas. Firstly, the SYNERGIA Project, kindly funded by a donation from Dr David Fine and run in collaboration with colleagues at Wits University in South Africa, seeks to understand how people react to urban data on the environment. SYNERGIA has a particular focus on air quality, but we hope to generate insights that are transferable across different environmental concerns. Secondly, Laura Caley has joined the lab funded through a Summerhayes Fellowship to explore interdisciplinary approaches to understanding urban health inequalities in Bradford. That work extends existing collaborations that the lab has with the Born in Bradford health cohort study. Both studies build on a decade of work that has been building around how ecologists can contribute greater insights to the area of nature and health. Some key papers are:

Application of technology to teaching

As well as scientific research, the lab maintains a funded program of research on pedagogical advances in digital education. Current work focuses on the use of virtual field trips, funded by a Living Labs grant from the University of Leeds. Particular areas of interest include barriers to the use of technology, and testing the effectiveness of teaching interventions. Key papers include:
<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>
Primary investigator (PI)
Co-investigator (Co-I)

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. I am currently module manager for Introduction to GIS (BLGY5119M) and Equitable Sustainability (BLGY5231M). 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
  • Sustainable ecosystems and adaptation

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>