Biography
I am a PhD student looking at oil palm plantation management and its impact on ant populations in both peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra. I graduated from the University of East Anglia in 2011 with a BSc in Environmental Science. For my final year dissertation project, I investigated the effect varying land treatment had on ground beetle species diversity and abundance in a UK forest; this is really what sparked my interest in sustainable agriculture and habitat management. For the three and a half years previous to my PhD I worked as a Research Entomologist at the John Innes Centre, specializing in insect-plant interactions and crop protection.
Research
My main interest is in how developing a greater understanding of interspecific interactions within ecological communities can potentially influence and improve future conservation strategy. My PhD will focus on analysing the effect that different management strategies have on ant abundance, species richness and composition within oil palm landscapes. It will also look at evaluating the potential impact that ant communities have on key ecosystem functions and oil palm yield. My data collection will be based in smallholding systems in both Sumatra, Indonesia and peninsular Malaysia.
Publications
Stone, J., Advento, A.D., Pashkevich, M.D., Aryawan, A.A.K., Caliman, J.-P., Hood, A.S.C., Foster, W.A., Naim, M., Pujianto, Purnomo, D., Suhardi, Tarigan, R. S., Rambe, T.D.S., Widodo, R.H., Luke, S.H., Snaddon, J.L., & Turner, E.C. (2023). Maintaining understory vegetation in oil palm plantations supports higher assassin bug numbers. Ecological Solutions and Evidence, 4, e12293. https://doi.org/10.1002/2688-8319.12293
Hood, A.S.C., Advento, A.D., Stone, J., Fayle, T.M., Fairnie, A.L., Waters, H.S., Foster, W.A., Snaddon, J.L., Caliman, J.P., Niam, M., & Turner, E.C.(2020). Removing understory vegetation in oil palm agroforestry reduces ground-foraging ant abundance but not species richness. Basic and Applied Ecology, 48, 26-36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2020.07.002
Reiss-Woolever, V.J., Luke, S.H., Stone, J., Shackelford, G.E., & Turner, E.C. (2021). Systematic mapping shows the need for increased socio-ecological research on oil palm. Environmental Research Letters, 16. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abfc77
Denan, N., Norhisham, A.R., Sanusi, R., Stone, J., & Azhar, B. (2023). Stand-level habitat characteristics and edge habitats drive biological pest control services in the understory of oil palm plantations. Biological Control, 183, 105261. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocontrol.2023.105261
Jordan, A.P., Broad, G.R., Stigenberg, J., Hughes, J.J., Stone, J., Bedford, I.D., Penfield, S.D., & Wells, R. (2020). The potential of the solitary parasitoid Microctonus brassicae for the biological control of the adult cabbage stem flea beetle, Psylliodes chrysocephala. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata, 168, 360-370. https://doi.org/10.1111/eea.12910
