Department of Zoology

Principal Investigators

Research area - Ecology and Conservation Science

Richard Barnes studies benthic invertebrate ecology in coastal marine soft sediments. Of especial current interest are the patterns of variation across space — from latitudinal scales at one extreme to sub-1 m ones at the other — in biodiversity, abundance, composition and structure of the macrofaunal assemblages that dominate intertidal seagrass beds.  The fieldwork for this study is conducted in a variety of geographical regions, including the Scolt Head National Nature Reserve (UK, EU), the Garden Route National Park (Western Cape, RSA), and the Moreton Bay Marine Park (Queensland, Australia).  Data analysis is conducted in collaboration with Farnon Ellwood (q.v.), a Research Associate within the Department, and Morvan Barnes at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory.

Besides carrying out the work on Scolt Head through the Department, Richard is an Honorary Research Fellow of the School of Biological Sciences of the University of Queensland, permitting the Australian part of the research to be carried out from the Moreton Bay Research Station on North Stradbroke Island, and likewise the South African part is undertaken from the Knysna Field Laboratory in the Western Cape, through his Honorary Research Associateship of Rhodes University's Department of Zoology & Entomology.  The Australian site and the Pusat Penelitian Bawah Laut in the Taman Nasional Wakatobi, Indonesia, also host his interests in the ecology of macrophthalmid and ocypodid crabs. 

At various times in the recent past Richard has been Chairman of the European Union for Coastal Conservation (U.K.) and Secretary of the Estuarine & Coastal Sciences Association.  He is also the author of several books, including An Introduction to Marine Ecology (with Roger Hughes of Bangor) and The Invertebrates (with Peter Calow of Sheffield and Peter Olive of Newcastle), both of which are in their third edition, Estuarine Biology, Coastal Lagoons and The Brackish-Water Fauna of Northwestern Europe.

Selected publications

• Barnes, D.K.A., Barnes, R.S.K., Smith, D.J. & Rothery, P.  2009. Littoral biodiversity across scales in the Seychelles, Indian Ocean. Marine Biodiversity, 39, 109-119.
• Barnes, R.S.K.  2010.  A remarkable case of fiddler crab (Uca spp,) alpha diversity in Wallacea.  Hydrobiologia, 637, 249-253.
• Barnes, R.S.K.  2010.  Regional and latitudinal variation in the diversity, dominance and abundance of microphagous microgastropods and other benthos in intertidal beds of dwarf eelgrass, Nanozostera spp.  Marine Biodiversity, 40, 95-106.
• Vieira, S., Coelho, H., Nolasco, R., Serodio, J., Barnes, R.S.K. & Queiroga, H.  2010.  The circatidal rhythm of the estuarine gastropod Hydrobia ulvae (Gastropoda, Hydrobiidae).  Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 100, 439-450.
• Barnes, R.S.K.  2010. Spatial variation in abundance and diversity of the smaller surface and near-surface eelgrass-associated intertidal macrobenthos within a warm-temperate estuarine bay in the Garden Route National Park, RSA.  Aquatic Conservation, 20, 762-772. Barnes, R.S.K. & Barnes, M.K.S.  2011. Hierarchical scales of spatial variation in the smaller surface and near-surface macrobenthos of a subtropical intertidal seagrass system in Moreton Bay, Queensland.  Hydrobiologia, 673, 169-178.
• Vieira, S., Coelho, H., Nolasco, R., Serodio, J., Barnes, R.S.K. & Queiroga, H.  2011.  Repeated cycles of immersion and emersion amplify the crawling rhythm of the intertidal gastropod Hydrobia ulvae (Pennant, 1777).  Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the U.K., doi:10.1017/S0025315411000853.
• Clifton, J., Etienne, M., Barnes, D.K.A., Barnes, R.S.K., Suggett, D.J. & Smith, D.J. 2011. Improving marine conservation and protected area management in Seychelles.  Submitted
• Barnes, R.S.K. & Ellwood, M.D.F.  2011. Barnes, R.S.K. & Ellwood, M.D.F. The critical scale of small-scale spatial variation in ecological patterns and processes in intertidal macrobenthic seagrass assemblages.  Submitted.
• Smale, D.A., Barnes, D.K.A., Barnes, R.S.K., Smith, D.J. & Suggett, D.J. 2011.  Littoral biodiversity across spatial scales within the Seychelles archipelago (Indian Ocean).  Submitted
• Barnes, R.S.K. & Ellwood, M.D.F. 2011. Macrobenthic assemblage structure in a cool-temperate intertidal dwarf-eelgrass bed in comparison to those in lower latitudes. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, doi: 10.1111/j.1095-8312.2011.01738.x.
• Barnes, R.S.K. & Ellwood, M.D.F. 2012. The significance of shore height in intertidal macrobenthic seagrass ecology and conservation. Aquatic Conservation, in press.