Dr Tom Oliver

Ecologist and Modeller

Current work

I currently work on a NERC funded EHFI (Ecology and Hydrology Funding Initiative) project considering the impact of climate change on the habitat associations of butterflies. We have quantified spatial shifts in butterfly habitat specialisation across climate surfaces in Britain. Species tend to be more specialised towards the edges of their leading range margins. Such spatial variation in habitat associations has implications for applied conservation management as well as predictive species distribution modelling. For more information click here:

I am also researching how the landscape context around monitoring sites can affect the robustness of species populations. We have found that butterfly populations tend to be more stable in heterogeneous landscapes. For more information click here:

Other research interests

I am also interested in climate change adaptation, especially by improving the functional connectivity of landscapes. We are currently testing ideas for measuring functional connectivity using long-term monitoring data, as represented for example by the UKBMS (United Kingdom Butterfly Monitoring Scheme) transect data or the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) breeding birds survey.

Brief CV

• 2007-present: Ecologist and Modeller, CEH
• 2004-2007: PhD Ecology of Ant-Aphid Interactions,   Imperial College London
• 2000-2003: BSc Zoology, Imperial College London   

Further Academic Training

• Developing conservation decision frameworks workshop, November 2008 / June 2009, University of York, UK
• Geostatistics summer school, May 2009, MEDILS institute, Croatia
• Introduction to ArcGIS, May 2009, CEH
• Bayesian methods for predicting species distributions workshop, August 2008 / March 2009, University of York, UK
• GBIF Ecological niche modelling workshop, November 2007, University of Warsaw, Poland
• Advances in Ecology, September 2006, Silwood Park, Ascot, UK
• Statistical Computing with R, February 2005, Silwood Park, Ascot, UK

Selected publications

See also the NERC Open Research Archive

Macroecology

Oliver, T.H., J.K. Hill, C.D. Thomas, T. Brereton and D.B. Roy. 2009. Changes in habitat specificity of species at their climatic range boundaries. Ecology Letters 12:1091-1102. doi: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2009.01367.x

Oliver, T.H., D.B. Roy, J.K. Hill, T. Brereton, and C.D. Thomas. 2010. Heterogeneous landscapes promote population stability. Ecology Letters Online early. doi: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2010.01441.x

Powney, G., D.B. Roy, D.Chapman, and T. H. Oliver. 2010. Synchrony of butterfly populations across species’ geographic ranges. Oikos. In press.

Dispersal

Mashanova, A, Oliver, T.H., Jansen, V.A (2010) Evidence for intermittency and a truncated power law from highly resolved aphid movement data. Journal of the Royal Society Interface. 7: 199-208 doi: 10.1098/rsif.2009.0121

Oliver, T.H., Mashanova, A.. Cook, J.M., Leather, S.R., Jansen, V.A.A. (2007) Ant semiochemicals limit apterous aphid dispersal. Proceedings of the Royal Society: B 274: 3127-3131. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2007.1251

Species interactions

Oliver, T.H., Cook, J.M., Leather, S.R. (2009) Tolerance traits and the stability of mutualism. Oikos. 118: 346-352. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0706.2008.17045.x,

Oliver, T.H., Cook, J.M., Leather, S.R. (2008) Macroevolutionary patterns in the origin of mutualisms involving ants. Journal of Evolutionary Biology. 21: 1597-1608. doi:10.1111/j.1420-9101.2008.01600.x

Oliver, T.H., Cook, J.M., Leather, S.R. (2008) Numerical abundance of invasive ants and monopolisation of exudate producing resources- a chicken and egg situation. Journal of Insect Biodiversity and Conservation. 1, 208-214. doi: 10.1111/j.1752-4598.2008.00026.x

Oliver, T.H., Cook, J.M., Leather, S.R. (2008) Avoidance responses of an aphidophagous ladybird, Adalia bipunctata, to aphid- tending ants. Ecological Entomology 33: 523-528. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2311.2008.01009.x

Oliver, T.H., Cook, J.M., Leather, S.R. (2007) When are ant-attractant devices a worthwhile investment? Vicia faba extrafloral nectaries and Lasius niger ants. Population Ecology 46: 265-273. DOI 10.1007/s10144-007-0044-6

Oliver, T.H., Timms, J.L., Taylor, A. and Leather, S.R. (2006). Oviposition responses to patch quality in the larch ladybird, Aphidecta obliterata: effects of aphid density and con- and heterospecific tracks. Bulletin of Entomological research 96: 25-34. doi: 10.1079/BER2005395

Applied Entomology

Timms, J. E., T. H. Oliver, N. A. Straw and S. R. Leather. 2008. The effects of host plant on the coccinellid functional response: Is the conifer specialist Aphidecta obliterata (L.) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) better adapted to spruce than the generalist Adalia bipunctata (L.) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae)? Biological Control 47:273-281. doi:10.1016/j.biocontrol.2008.08.009

Fuller, R. J., T. H. Oliver, and S. R. Leather. 2008. Forest management effects on carabid beetle communities in coniferous and broadleaved forests: implications for conservation. Journal of Insect Conservation and Diversity 1:242-252. doi: 10.1111/j.1752-4598.2008.00032.x

Leahy, M. J. A., T. H. Oliver, and S. R. Leather. 2007. Feeding behaviour of the black pine beetle, Hylastes ater (Coleoptera: Scolytidae). Agricultural and Forest Entomology 9:115-124. doi: 10.1111/j.1461-9563.2007.00328.x