Personal Chair
- About
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- Email Address
- justin.travis@abdn.ac.uk
- Telephone Number
- +44 (0)1224 274483
- Office Address
Room 407 Zoology Building
- School/Department
- School of Biological Sciences
Biography
2006 – Lecturer (from 2008, Senior lecturer, and from, 2013 Professor) in Ecological and Evolutionary Modellinf, University of Aberdeen.
2004 – 2006 Senior Scientific Officer, NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Banchory, UK
2001- 2004 University of St Andrews, UK. Research Fellow in the Centre for Conservation Science.
1999 -2001 University of Lund, Sweden, Research fellow within the Climate Impacts Group
Degrees: PhD 1999 Imperial College London. MSc 1996 University of York. BSc(hons)1994 University of York
Memberships and Affiliations
- Internal Memberships
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Advisor of Studies ( 2009 - ).
- External Memberships
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Full member of NERC Peer Review College ( 2011 - ).
Subject Editor for Oikos ( 2010 - ).
Associate Editor for BMC Ecology ( 2011 - ).
- Research
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Research Overview
Much of my research uses models to study the population and evolutionary dynamics of spatially structured populations. Key interests include (1) the evolutionary ecology and population genetics of range expansions, (2) incorporating greater realism into the dispersal process within spatial population models, (3) evolvability (including the causes and consequences of mutation rate) and (4) the evolutionary ecology of longevity. While most of my group's work focusses on using stochastic individual-based models, I am increasingly interested in how these can be combined both with modern statistical methods (including Bayesian approaches) and analytical approximations to gain greater insights and predictive capabilities.
Funding and Grants
Substantial Grants Awarded Since 2012:
2018-2022 NERC Research Grant, "Forecasting biodiversity losses in Wallacea from ecological and evolutionary patterns and processes". PI of international team. (£850,000)
2018-2022 BBSRC Studentship Grant, "Using artificial intelligence to improve the forecast for biodiversity under environmental change" (£99,000)
2017-2021 NERC Research Grant, “Linking demographic theory and data to forecast the dynamics of spatially-structured seasonally-mobile populations” (£650,000). Co-I responsible for developing mechanistic migration models.
2017-2019 Marie Curie International Fellowship (Є215,000) Scientist in charge for Dr Aurore Ponchon.
2015-2016 STFC Newton AgriTech (£350,000) Local PI responsible for systems modelling of fire risk in China.
2015-2017 Marie Curie International Fellowship (Є220,000). Scientist in Charge for Dr Job Aben.
2012-2014 Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship (Є190,000). Scientist in Charge for Dr Kamil Barton.
2012-2015 NERC Responsive, PI “Managing Landscapes for Biodiversity Under Climate Change” (£355,000)
- Teaching
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Teaching Responsibilities
Most of my teaching is at Masters level. In particular, I co-ordinate two modules, one on Population Ecology and one on Advanced Ecological Modelling. At undergraduate level, I contribute to several courses at both 3rd and 4th year, most substantially to 3rd year Population Ecology where I introduce ecological modelling.
Teaching Philosophy: I enjoy the challenge of making quantitative topics and programming accessible to as many students as possible, and this is the focus of most of my teaching. I believe that almost all students are capable of learning to program, and that many obtain considerable satisfaction from the realisation that they can master it. I am interested in employing active learning methods within quantitative courses that have traditionally relied heavily on often dry lectures. In my Masters teaching I have been using 'learning through teaching' methods where individuals are each guided in putting together material to teach their peers about a particular aspect of modeling. This is proving a very successful way of improving understanding and creates considerable enthusiasm.
- Publications
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Page 1 of 7 Results 1 to 25 of 166
The genetic structure of the ash obligate moth prays fraxinella suggests that it is not affected by current habitat fragmentation
Journal of Insect Conservation, vol. 29, 10Contributions to Journals: ArticlesTracking Small Animals in Complex Landscapes: A Comparison of Localisation Workflows for Automated Radio Telemetry Systems
Ecology and Evolution, vol. 14, no. 10, e70405Contributions to Journals: ArticlesAccounting for extinction dynamics unifies the geological and biological histories of Indo-Australian Archipelago
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 291, no. 2031, 20240966Contributions to Journals: ArticlesDisentangling evolutionary, geometric and ecological components of the elevational gradient of diversity
Evolution Letters, qrae04Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/evlett/qrae048
Capacity for recovery in Bornean orangutan populations when limiting offtake and retaining forest
Diversity and Distributions, e13852Contributions to Journals: ArticlesSpatial patterns of within-stock connectivity provide novel insights for fisheries management
Marine Ecology Progress Series, vol. 731, pp. 159-178Contributions to Journals: ArticlesCitizen science data reveal altitudinal movement and seasonal ecosystem use by hummingbirds in the Andes Mountains
Ecography, vol. 2024, no. 3, e06735Contributions to Journals: ArticlesModelling the surprising recolonisation of an understudied aquatic mammal in a highly urbanised area: fortune favoured the smooth-coated otter in Singapore
Wildlife Biology, e01200Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/wlb3.01200
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Integrating learning into animal range dynamics under rapid human-induced environmental change
Ecology Letters, vol. 27, no. 2, e14367Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.14367
Introducing LandScaleR: A novel method for spatial downscaling of land use projections
Environmental Modelling and Software, vol. 169, 105826Contributions to Journals: ArticlesExperimental evolution of dispersal: unifying theory, experiments and natural systems
Journal of Animal Ecology, vol. 92, no. 6, pp. 1113-1123Contributions to Journals: ArticlesImpact of Phylogenetic Tree Completeness and Misspecification of Sampling Fractions on Trait Dependent Diversification Models
Systematic Biology, vol. 72, no. 1, pp. 106-119Contributions to Journals: ArticlesThe consequences of tree disease and pre-emptive felling on functional and genetic connectivity for woodland invertebrates
Ecological Informatics, vol. 72, 101820Contributions to Journals: ArticlesSafeguarding imperiled biodiversity and evolutionary processes in the Wallacea center of endemism
BioScience, vol. 72, no. 11, pp. 1118-1130Contributions to Journals: ArticlesThe missing link in biogeographic reconstruction: Accounting for lineage extinction rewrites history
Journal of Biogeography, vol. 49, no. 11, pp. 1941-1951Contributions to Journals: ArticlesGetting lost in the matrix? On how the characteristics and arrangement of linear landscape elements influence ecological connectivity
Landscape Ecology, vol. 37, pp. 2503–2517Contributions to Journals: ArticlesReconstruction of State-Dependent Diversification: Integrating Phenotypic Traits into Molecular Phylogenies
Environmental Microbial Evolution: Methods and Protocols. Luo, H. (ed.). 1 edition. Springer, pp. 305-326, 22 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2691-7_15
Modelling the responses of partially-migratory metapopulations to changing seasonal migration rates: from theory to data.
Journal of Animal EcologyContributions to Journals: ArticlesFauxcurrence: simulating multi-species occurrences for null models in species distribution modelling and biogeography
Ecography, vol. 2022, no. 7, e05880Contributions to Journals: ArticlesPredicting spatially heterogeneous invasive spread: Pyracantha angustifolia invading a dry Andean valley in northern Argentina
Biological Invasions, vol. 24, no. 12, pp. 2201–2216Contributions to Journals: ArticlesInformed dispersal based on prospecting impacts the rate and shape of range expansions
Ecography, vol. 2022, no. 5, e06190Contributions to Journals: ArticlesSpatially explicit models for decision-making in animal conservation and restoration
Ecography, vol. 2022, no. 4Contributions to Journals: ArticlesPredicting the influence of river network configuration, biological traits and habitat quality interactions on riverine fish invasions.
Diversity and Distributions, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 257-270Contributions to Journals: ArticlesCoding for Life: Designing a platform for projecting and protecting global biodiversity
BioScience, vol. 72, no. 1, pp. 91-104Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biab127
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/19809/1/Urban_etal_B_Coding_For_Life_AAM.pdf
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Editorial: Applications of Machine Learning to Evolutionary Ecology Data
Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, vol. 9, 797319Contributions to Journals: Editorials- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.797319
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus