About Us

We are a team of researchers based at the Department of Biology at the University of Oxford. We study a broad range of interrelated questions in community ecology, with a strong emphasis on empirical work. Our research interests include tropical forest diversity, ecological networks, ecosystem functioning, inter-specific interactions, conservation biology, agro-ecology and the impact of human activities on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. On this website you can find information about our research, the people involved, and our collaborators in Oxford and more widely.

Recent Publications

• Wang, H., Liu, T, Sun, S., Lewis, O.T. &  Xi, X (2024). Temporal variability in host availability alters the outcome of competition between two parasitoid species. Journal of Animal Ecology, https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.14191.

• Twyford AD, Beasley J, Barnes I et al. (2024). A DNA barcoding framework for taxonomic verification in the Darwin Tree of Life Project [version 1; peer review: awaiting peer review]. Wellcome Open Res 9:339 (https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.21143.1)

• Ewers, R.M et al. (2024). Thresholds for adding degraded tropical forest to the conservation estate. Nature 631, 808–813. 

• Mulhair, P.O., Crowley, L., Boyes, D.H., Lewis, O.T., Holland, P.W.H. (2023). Opsin gene duplication in Lepidoptera: retrotransposition, sex linkage, and gene expression. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 2023;, msad241, https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msad241

News

• Job opportunity: Research Assistant
• New paper on optimising oil palm landscapes for biodiversity in Nature Sustainability
• Congratulations to Jamal!
• Paper accepted: Diversity, duplication and genomic organisation of homeobox genes in Lepidoptera