Dr Eleanor Slade

Formerly: Researcher (University of Oxford), Senior Research Associate (Lancaster University) Now: Assistant Professor, NTU Singapore

  • email eleanor.slade@ntu.edu.sg

Research interests

I am broadly interested in the ecology and conservation of tropical and temperate forest and agro- ecosystems, and the impact of human activities on the diversity and functioning of these ecosystems. My current research focuses on the effects of habitat fragmentation and oil palm expansion on dung beetle and soil faunal communities and associated ecosystem functioning. I am the co-ordinator of the NERC-funded LOMBOK consortium of the Human Modified Tropical Forests programme, which investigates the links between biodiversity and biogeochemical cycles in tropical forests, with fieldwork based at the Stability of Altered Forest Ecosystems (SAFE) project in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo and in the Atlantic forests of Brazil. I am a PI on the UNDP-GEF funded Biodiversity Conservation in Multiple-Use Forest Landscapes in Sabah project, and I also work in the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning in Tropical Agriculture (BEFTA) project in Sumatra, Indonesia. In Finland, I am exploring the relationship between decreased dung beetle diversity and ecosystem functioning in agricultural landscapes, and co-running a citizen science project to look at predation of insect herbivores across a latitudinal gradient.

 

Selected publications

For a full list of publications, please click here.

  • Slade, E.M. & Roslin, T. (2016) Dung beetle species interactions and multifunctionality are affected by an experimentally warmed climate. Oikos, 125, 1607-1616.
  • Slade, E.M., Riutta, T., Roslin, T. & Tuomisto, H.L. (2016). The role of dung beetles in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from cattle farming. Nature Scientific Reports, 6, 18140.
  • Schilthuizen, M., Vairappan, C.S., Slade, E.M., Mann, D.J. & Miller, J.A. (2015) Specimens as primary data: museums and ‘open science’. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2015.03.002.
  • Gagic, V., Bartomeus, I., Jonsson, T., Taylor, A., Winqvist, C., Fischer, C., Slade, E.M., Steffan-Dewenter, I., Emmerson, M., Potts, S.G., Tscharntke, T., Weisser, W. & Bommarco, R. (2015) Functional identity and diversity of animals predict ecosystem functioning better than species-based indices. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 282 (1801), doi: 10.1098/rspb.2014.2620.
  • Riutta, T., Slade, E. M., Morecroft, M. D., Bebber, D. P. & Malhi, Y. (2014) Living on the edge: quantifying the structure of a fragmented forest landscape in England. Landscape Ecology, doi: 10.1007/s10980-014-0025-z.
  • Gray, C. L., Slade, E. M., Mann, D. J. & Lewis, O. T. (2014) Do riparian reserves support dung beetle biodiversity and ecosystem services in oil palm-dominated tropical landscapes? Ecology and Evolution, doi: 10.1002/ece1003.1003.
  • Slade, E. M., Merckx, T., Riutta, T., Bebber, D. P., Redhead, D., Riordan, P., Macdonald, D. W. (2013) Life-history traits and landscape characteristics predict macro-moth responses to forest fragmentation. Ecology, 94: 1519-1530.
  • Nichols, E., Uriarte, M., Bunker, D. E., Favila, M. E., Slade, E. M., Vulinec, K., Larsen, T., Vaz de Mello, F. Z., Louzada, J., Naeem, S. & Spector, S. H. (2012) Trait-dependent response of dung beetle populations to tropical forest conversion at local and regional scales. Ecology, 94: 180-189.
  • Slade, E. M. & Riutta, T. (2012) Interacting effects of leaf litter species and macrofauna on decomposition in different litter environments. Basic and Applied Ecology, 13: 423-431.
  • Slade, E. M., Mann, D. J. & Lewis, O. T. (2011) Biodiversity and ecosystem function of dung beetles under contrasting logging regimes.  Biological Conservation, 144: 166-174.
  • Slade, E. M., Mann, D. J., Villanueva, J. F. & Lewis, O. T. (2007) Experimental evidence for the effects of dung beetle functional group richness and composition on ecosystem function in a tropical forest. Journal of Animal Ecology, 76: 1094-1104.