OUR MEMBERS
Our core members, academic collaborators, and industry partners
PROF RACHEL STUBBINGTON
I am a freshwater community ecologist. My research explores temporary streams, especially those in cool, wet places like the UK. I consider these streams to be dynamic aquatic-terrestrial ecosystems and am particularly interested in better characterizing dry phases and the terrestrial biodiversity they support. I collaborate with industry partners, in particular at the Environment Agency, to ensure that scientific advances made by our collaborative research inform improvements to ecosystem management.
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I became a Fellow of the Freshwater Biological Association in 2020 - see my inaugural webinar here. I led the Community Ecology and Biomonitoring Working Group in the COST Action Science and Management of Intermittent Rivers and Ephemeral Streams from 2016 to 2020.
KIERAN GETHING
My PhD focused on recognizing and protecting both aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity in dynamic river ecosystems, with a particular emphasis on temporary stream specialists. I am now leading the project Refuges: the key to unlocking drought resilience, a collaboration between NTU and the Environment Agency. We're characterizing the quality of dry-phase refuges for aquatic invertebrates in chalk winterbourne streams. Project findings will inform actions that help these ecosystems adapt to climate change.
ROB COLLIER
Rob's PhD research is characterizing the biodiversity within the winterbourne springs and streams emerging from the chalk aquifer in south England. A particular focus is to characterize aquatic and terrestrial invertebrate community responses to pioneering restoration work that is being done in (or is planned for) three winterbourne chalk streams in south England.
DR ROMAIN SARREMEJANE
Ro is back! He was with us from 2018-19, then completed post-doctoral research fellowships at INRAE, France and the Ruhi lab at UC Berkeley. He started his senior fellowship at NTU in January 2023.
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Ro is a freshwater community ecologist. His current research is characterizing the independent and interacting effects of climate change and other pressures on riverine communities. He uses long-term and large-scale datasets to better understand the drivers of spatiotemporal variability in community composition. We want to identify communities and ecosystems approaching tipping points, to enable timely actions that enhance ecological resilience.
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Ro's research seeks to better understand how metacommunities respond to and recover from extreme events in network-wide contexts.
OLIVER LONGSTAFFE
I started as a research assistant on the Small Streams Network Methods Development project. In this role, I identified freshwater invertebrates to family level and analysed the resultant dataset to determine how invertebrate communities captured by kick sampling change with sampling duration in small streams. I now work alongside Kieran on the Refuges project, a role which involves species-level invertebrate identification.
HALLAM MASON
I started my PhD in October 2023, under the supervision of Erika Whiteford and Rachel and with input from the Environment Agency. I'm studying how microbial biofilms respond to intermittence in chalk streams. I will use taxonomic, structural, metabolic and functional approaches to compare biofilm assemblages in winterbourne and perennial chalk streams.
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PAST MEMBERS
PHILLIPA BATES
I was a research assistant on the Small Streams Network Methods Development project, a collaborative project between NTU and the Environment Agency. We developed methods to effectively assess the ecological health of England’s small streams. In particular, based on a wide range of sites representing our small stream resource, we are testing and refining the kick sampling method used to characterize macroinvertebrate communities.
Pip is now studying for a Masters at NTU.
CHLOE HAYES
My PhD is entitled Ecological responses to environmental dynamism in wet and dry chalk streams: towards better temporary river monitoring and management. I collected new data to characterize dry phase communities in temporary chalk streams and evaluate their potential use as biomonitors. In addition, I used extensive existing data to investigate the success of restoration activities conducted in these dynamic ecosystems. My interest in river ecology and restoration ecology developed while working as a restoration technician at North Cave Wetlands with the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and Humberside Aggregates.
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Chloe successfully defended her thesis in 2022 and now works for the Environment Agency.
GIULIO BIONDI
I joined the team in June 2020. My research explored the physical and biological diversity of dynamic freshwaters, in particular, the headwater springs and streams hidden in chalklands across south England. I hope that by characterizing their aquatic-terrestrial biodiversity, my research will inspire and inform improvements to ecosystem management.
Giulio is now a Research Technician at Edinburgh Napier University
JAMAL KABIR
Jamal analysed the data collected by Giulio and Jess in autumn 2021. His research characterized the factors influencing the aquatic invertebrate biodiversity in winterbourne and perennial chalk springs and streams.
Jamal is now doing a PhD at the University of Nottingham.
JAKE DIMON
Jake joined us in April 2022 for an NTU Innovative Knowledge Exchange Pilot-funded fellowship. We worked in collaboration with scientists at the Environment Agency to develop evidence-informed predictions of how chalk river ecosystems are responding to climate change. Building on our team's recent research, we compared biodiversity responses in perennial and winterbourne reaches.
Jake is now doing a PhD at the University of Nottingham.
DR GEORGE BUNTING
George worked on a collaborative project with the Environment Agency, exploring 'winterbourne' chalk streams in south England. His research informed the development of a monitoring programme to better manage these dynamic streams.
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George's post ended in December 2019. He now works for the Environment Agency.
JED WEAVER
Graduate Intern
jed.weaver@ntu.ac.uk
Jed worked alongside George as a field and lab assistant contributing to our research characterizing winterbourne chalk streams, to inform their monitoring.
Jed left in 2019 and is now an Ecologist at Baker Consultants
MIRIAM COLLS
Visiting researcher
mcolls@icra.cat
I am a freshwater ecologist studying for a PhD at the Catalan Institute for Water Research. My research investigates the effects of no-flow periods on biofilm communities in Mediterranean temporary streams, which play a major role in the bottom-up supply of energy and organic matter to stream food webs. I am visiting the Dynamic Streams Research Group to further explore how ecosystems shape the structure and functioning of biofilm communities in temporary streams.
Miriam visited us in 2019.
KATHERINE KEATES
Research Assistant
katherine.keates@ntu.ac.uk
I am part of the NTU team working with Environment Agency to study 'winterbourne' chalk streams, to inform monitoring and management practices. I have an MSc in Aquatic Science. My MSc project explored organic matter decomposition in a chalk stream. My research aims were to evaluate methods for citizen science and how decomposition rates can be used to monitor water quality
Katherine's post ended in May 2019
BECKY JARVIS
BSc Researcher
becky.jarvis2018@my.ntu.ac.uk
Becky is an undergraduate studying for a BSc in Environmental Biology at Nottingham Trent University. She is working alongside George and Jed to characterize winterbourne chalk streams, with the goal of informing improvements to their monitoring and management.
Becky's post ended in August 2019
JESS GOLDRING
Jess is working alongside Giulio as a field and lab assistant contributing to our research characterizing winterbourne chalk springs and streams, to inform their monitoring.
Jess's post ended in September 2021
OUR COLLABORATORS
National and international academic collaborators, industry partners and recent members
( [at] replaces @ in email addresses in an attempt to outwit pesky spambots)
Industry partners
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Richard Chadd (to 2021, RIP Richard)
Senior Environmental Monitoring Officer
Environment Agency of England, UK
richard.chadd [at] environment-agency.gov.uk
Judy England
Senior Specialist
Environment Agency of England, UK
Tim Sykes
Biodiversity Technical Specialist
Environment Agency of England, UK
tim.sykes [at] environment-agency.gov.uk
​Dr Chris Westwood
Independent Consultant
Environmental Research Associates
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National collaborators
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Dr Tory Milner
Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography
University of Huddersfield, UK
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Catherine Sefton
Hydrologist
Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
cafseh [at] ceh.ac.uk
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Prof Paul Wood
Professor of Ecohydrology
Loughborough University, UK
International collaborators
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Dr Núria Bonada
Assistant Professor
University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
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Dr Núria Cid
Researcher in Freshwater Ecology
INRAE: National Research Institute of Science and Technology for Environment and Agriculture, Lyon, France
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Dr Thibault Datry
Freshwater Ecologist
INRAE: National Research Institute of Science and Technology for Environment and Agriculture, Lyon, France
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Dr Marie-Jo Dole-Olivier
Chargée de Recherche CNRS
Claude Bernard University Lyon 1, Lyon, France
marie-jose.olivier [at] univ-lyon1.fr
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Dr Cath Leigh
Lecturer in Aquatic Ecology
RMIT University
catherine.leigh [at] rmit.edu.au
Dr Jonathan C. Marshall
Principal Scientist (Aquatic Ecosystems)
Water Planning Ecology, Department of Environment and Science
onathan.marshall [at] des.qld.gov.au
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Dr Petr Pařil
Specialist
Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
Dr Albert Ruhi
Assistant Professor
UC Berkeley, California, USA
Dr Ross Vander Vorste
Postdoctoral Researcher
UC Berkeley, California, USA
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Recent members
2018
Project: Is the dry-phase flora of temporary rivers more than “non-aquatic”? The biodiversity contribution of terrestrial taxa
Lilly Harvey
Research Assistant in Environmental Biology
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Emma Malpass
BSc Researcher in Freshwater Ecology
Nottingham Trent University
2017
Project: Do local habitat characteristics influence colonization of dry riverbeds?
Bryony Carling
BSc Researcher in Freshwater Ecology
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Patrick Doyle
BSc Researcher in Freshwater Ecology
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2016
Project: Aquatic and terrestrial contributions to total biodiversity in temporary streams
Matt Bursnell
BSc Researcher in Freshwater Ecology
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Alex Southern
BSc Researcher in Freshwater Ecology
2015
Project: Aquatic invertebrate persistence in temporary river refuges
Chris Howell
BSc Researcher in Freshwater Ecology
Lauri Leivers
BSc Researcher in Freshwater Ecology
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2014
Project: A comparison of two methods for sampling invertebrates in the hyporheic zone.
John-Paul Hogan
BSc Researcher in Freshwater Ecology
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Ben Stevens
BSc Researcher in Freshwater Ecology
