Department of Zoology

 

Ecology and Conservation Science

Toby Gardner

NERC Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Email: tobyagardner@gmail.com

Tel.: +44 (0)1223 336675

I am interested in the ways in which science and the scientific process can contribute to solving real-world social-environmental problems. What conceptual and empirical support is necessary to help reconcile conflicts over environmental resources, encourage genuine dialogue amongst decision makers and lead to lasting changes in human behaviour? 

My current work is focused on evaluating conservation-development trade-offs in different land-use systems in Brazilian Amazonia. Working with a large team of collaborators we are sampling spatial patterns of biodiversity (terrestrial and aquatic), above and below-ground carbon, soil fertility and the economic and social benefits of agricultural and forestry activities across multiple watersheds that are characterized by different dominant land-uses, namely; cattle ranching; arable croplands; plantation forestry and selective logging of native forest. Field work is focused in two regions of eastern Amazonia (Santarém and Paragominas, Pará), both of which are currently undergoing rapid changes in land-use. The long-term goals of the project are to employ these data to evaluate opportunities for more sustainable development strategies in managed tropical forest landscapes, including both regulation and market based conservation strategies

More broadly I am very interested in the ways in which conservation science is conducted, including how research priorities are identified and how scientific knowledge is shared and transferred among disciplines and between science and the process of managing ecosystems and developing environmental policy.

I collaborate extensively with colleagues from many Brazilian research institutions, governmental and non-governmental agencies, as well as scientists from elsewhere across the world. The project is being coordinated and developed in partnership with The Nature Conservancy (Amazonia program) and EMBRAPA (Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária). Research is supported by funding from NERC, the Brazilian Research Council (CNPq), The Nature Conservancy, USAID, and the Royal Society.

Selected publications

  • Barlow, J., Gardner, T.A., Parry, L., Silveira, J.M., Louzada, J., Peres, C.A., in press. Quantifying biodiversity in Eucalyptus plantations and primary and secondary tropical forests: results from a multi-taxa comparison from the Brazilian Amazon, In Biodiversity conservation in agroforestry landscapes: challenges and opportunities. Eds J.A. Simonetti, A.A. Grez, C.F. Estades, Universidad de Chile press (Editorial Universitaria)
  • Pullin, A.S., Sutherland, W., Gardner, T.A., Kapos, V., and Fa, J.E. in press. Conservation priorities: identifying need, taking action and evaluating success. in Key Topics in Conservation, ed. MacDonald, D.
  • Peres, C.A., Barlow, J., Gardner, T.A., and Vieira, I.C.G. in press. Conservação da biodiversidade em paisagens florestais antropizadas do Brasil. Edited volume. Fundação O Boticário / Editora da Universidade Federal do Paraná. In Portuguese.
  • Lees, A.V., de Moura, N.G., Santana, A., Aleixo, A., Barlow, J., Berenguer, E., Ferreira, J. and Gardner, T.A. in press. A quantitative baseline of an Eastern Amazonian avifauna. Ornitologia Neotropical.
  • Barlow, J., Gardner, T.A., Lees, A., Parry, L. and Peres, C.A. in press. Developing evidence based arguments to assess the pristine nature of tropical forests. Biological Conservation
  • Barlow, J., Parry, L., Gardner, T.A., Ferreira, J., Aragao, L.E.O.C., Carmenta, R., Berenguer, E., Vieira, I.C.G., Souza, C., and Cochrane, M.A. in press. The critical importance of considering fire in REDD+ programs. Biological conservation 
  • Gardner, T.A., Burgess, N.D., Aguiar-Amuschastegui, N., Barlow, J., Berenguer, E., Clements, T., Danielsen, F., Ferreira, J., Foden, W., Kapos, V., Khan, S.M., Lees, A.C., Parry, L., Roman-Cuesta, R.M., Schmitt, C.B., Strange, N., Theilade, I., Vieira, I.C.G. (in press). A framework for integrating biodiversity concerns into national REDD+ programmes. Biological Conservation. Distributed as an official Information Document in English, French and Spanish to parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity
  • Barlow, J., Gardner, T.A., Lees, A., Parry, L., and Peres, C.A. (in press). How pristine are tropical forests? An ecological perspective on the pre-Columbian human footprint in Amazonia and implications for contemporary conservation. Biological Conservation.
  • Caro, T., Evans, O., Fitzherbert, E.B., Gardner, T.A., Howell, K., Drewes, R., Shaffer, H.S. (2011). Reptiles of Katavi National Park, western Tanzania, are from different biomes. Journal of African Ecology. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2028.2011.01261.x
  • Gibson, L., Lee, M.L., Koh, L.P., Brook, B.W., Gardner, T.A., Barlow, J., Peres, C.A., Bradshaw, C.J.A., Laurance, W.F., Lovejoy, T.E. and Sodhi, N.S. (2011). Primary forests are irreplaceable for sustaining tropical biodiversity. Nature, 478, 378-381
  • Pardini, R., A. d. A. Bueno, T. A. Gardner, P. I. Prado, and J. P. Metzger (2010) Beyond the fragmentation threshold hypothesis: regime shifts in biodiversity across fragmented landscapes. PlOS One 5:e13666.
  • Gardner, T. A. (2010) Monitoring Forest Biodiversity: improving conservation through ecologically responsible management. Earthscan, London.
  • Gardner, T. A., J. Barlow, N. S. Sodhi, and C. A. Peres (2010) A multi-region assessment of tropical forest biodiversity in a human-modified world Biological Conservation 143:2293-2300.
  • Barlow, J., R. Ewers, L. Anderson, L. E. O. C. Aragao, T. R. Baker, E. Boyd, T. R. Feldpausch, E. Gloor, A. Hall, Y. Malhi, W. Milliken, M. Mulligan, L. Parry, T. Pennington, C. A. Peres, O. L. Phillips, R. M. Roman-Cuesta, J. A. Tobias, and T. A. Gardner (2010) Using learning networks to understand complex systems: a case study of biological, geophysical and social research in the Amazon. Biological Reviews DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-185X.2010.00155.x.
  • Gardner, T. A., J. Barlow, R. L. Chazdon, R. Ewers, C. A. Harvey, C. A. Peres, and N. S. Sodhi (2009) Prospects for tropical forest biodiversity in a human-modified world. Ecology Letters 12:561-582.
  • Fischer, J., G. D. Peterson, T. A. Gardner, L. J. Gordon, I. Fazey, T. Elmqvist, A. Felton, C. Folke, and S. Dovers (2009) Integrating resilience thinking and optimisation for conservation. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 24:549-554.
  • Gardner, T. A., J. Barlow, I. S. Araujo, T. C. S. Avila-Pires, A. B. Bonaldo, J. E. Costa, M. C. Esposito, L. V. Ferreira, J. Hawes, M. I. M. Hernandez, M. Hoogmoed, R. N. Leite, N. F. Lo-Man-Hung, J. R. Malcolm, M. B. Martins, L. A. M. Mestre, R. Miranda-Santos, A. L. Nunes-Gutjahr, W. L. Overal, L. T. W. Parry, S. L. Peters, M. A. Ribeiro-Junior, M. N. F. da Silva, C. da Silva Motta, and C. Peres (2008) The cost-effectiveness of biodiversity surveys in tropical forests. Ecology Letters 11:139-150.
  • Barlow, J., T. A. Gardner, I. S. Araujo, T. C. S. Avila-Pires, A. B. Bonaldo, J. E. Costa, M. C. Esposito, L. V. Ferreira, J. Hawes, M. I. M. Hernandez, M. Hoogmoed, R. N. Leite, N. F. Lo-Man-Hung, J. R. Malcolm, M. B. Martins, L. A. M. Mestre, R. Miranda-Santos, A. L. Nunes-Gutjahr, W. L. Overal, L. T. W. Parry, S. L. Peters, M. A. Ribeiro-Junior, M. N. F. da Silva, C. da Silva Motta, and C. Peres (2007) Quantifying the biodiversity value of tropical primary, secondary and plantation forests. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 104:18555-18560.
  • Gardner, T. A., J. Barlow, L. T. W. Parry, and C. A. Peres (2007) Predicting the uncertain future of tropical forest species in a data vacuum. Biotropica 39:25-30.
  • Gardner, T. A., T. Caro, E. B. Fitzherbert, T. Banda, and P. Lalbhai (2007) Conservation value of multiple-use areas in East Africa. Conservation Biology 21:1516-1525.
  • Gardner, T. A. (2006) Tree-grass coexistence in the Brazilian cerrado: demographic consequences of environmental instability. Journal of Biogeography 33:448-463.
  • Gardner, T. A., J. A. Gill, A. Grant, A. R. Watkinson, and I. M. Côté (2005) Hurricanes and Caribbean coral reefs: immediate impacts, recovery trajectories and contribution to long-term decline. Ecology 86:174-184.
  • Gardner, T. A., I. M. Côté, J. A. Gill, A. Grant, and A. R. Watkinson (2003) Long-term region wide declines in Caribbean coral reefs. Science 301:958-960.
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