We use laboratory, field, and computational approaches to tackle our research questions. We are particularly interested in applying new (or old!) technology to emerging topics in trait research and ecology more broadly. 

Trait-based ecology is the idea that biodiversity is not just a collection of species names, but also a distribution of different traits. A trait is a measurable morphological, physiological or behavioural characteristic that affects an organisms’ performance. These traits may be able to tell us more about the underlying ecological processes that drive patterns in biodiversity than a set of species names alone.

Our research to date has been supported by the Cardiff School of Biosciences, the Royal Society, the Human Frontier Science Program, the British Ecological Society, the South African National Research Foundation, the Australian Research Council, and the Leverhulme Trust. 

For information on the HFSP funded MicroMaze project click here!

Thermoregulatory Traits

Colour variation across the ant phylogeny (family tree). Purples represent ants which are dark, yellow represents ants which are pale. From Idec et al (2023) Ecography.

Temperature is important for life at all scales – it drives metabolic rates and cellular processes, and often strongly corresponds with species diversity at regional and global levels. 

Our work looks at how different morphological, behavioural, or physiological traits that control how organisms respond to temperature dictate when and where different species exist. For example, within ectotherms (cold-blooded organisms) darker skin or cuticle colours heat up much more quickly than pale colours do. This gives darker coloured individuals a thermal advantage in cold environments. Our work shoes how this effect plays out in tandem with other thermal traits and a variety of environmental constraints across elevational, continental, and vertical gradients. We have also explored how this colour-temperature relationship may decide which species will be winners or losers in the face of climate change. 

We are also piloting new technological approaches to measure how different species respond and perform in the face of both lethal and sublethal temperatures. To do this, we are using a range of video tracking and infrared detection techniques.​

Social Insect Strategies

An illustration of some of the morphological traits that we use to quantify ant strategy.

Social insects (typically defined as bees, wasps, ants, and termites) are a diverse group of insects. They are distributed worldwide and are highly abundant across nearly all terrestrial habitats. They also play crucial roles in ecosystems, being involved in recycling, decomposition, herbivory, seed dispersal, and the control of numerous other insect populations. 

Social insects, however, do not all do the same thing! They possess a diverse range of strategies. For example, focussing on ants, some species are solitary predators hunting for specific prey items, while others forage in huge swarms eating anything they can. Some species tend flocks of plant-feeding insects in the same way that humans rear cattle, while others are rarely exposed to the outside world and nest under the bark of trees. Alongside a global collaboration of ant ecologists, we have been building global datasets of ant traits in an attempt to quantify and understand the diversity of ant strategies. We have also been deploying this global traits approach to termites with collaborators at the Natural History Museum London. ​

Patterns of Biodiversity

The Sani Pass on the border of South Africa and Lesotho, where much of our "ants on mountains" work takes place.

Why do some parts of the globe have more species than others? The tropics and lowlands teem with life, but the polar and mountainous regions have few species, and comparatively less biological activity. 

Much of our work in this area makes use of mountains or elevational gradients. Mountain environments make up around ~20% of the Earth’s terrestrial surface and are hotspots of biological diversity. Furthermore, they act as natural ecological laboratories by providing large changes in environmental conditions over relatively small distances. Our work in mountains has show how an understanding of temporal variation may allow us to better understand spatial diversity patterns, and also how entire ecological communities shift and change across elevation in terms of species identities and their traits. ​