School of Geography - Faculty of Environment

RESEARCH OVERVIEW

Through my research I aim to increase understanding of how aquatic ecosystem biodiversity and functional processes respond to environmental change.

I am a freshwater ecologist with a particular interest in river ecosystems. My work crosses several research fields (population and community ecology, hydrology and geomorphology). I am particularly interested in river ecosystems in cold regions (alpine, sub-alpine, arctic), the effects of catchment management (e.g. artificial drainage, vegetation burning) on rivers in the UK uplands, and aquatic food webs.

Feel free to contact me for reprints of papers, or if you are interested in studying/working in our research group.

CURRENT PROJECTS

EMBER: Effects of Moorland Burning on the Ecohydrology of River Basins (link) Funded by a 38 month NERC standard grant.

Biodiversity of natural and artificial upland blanket peat bog-pools. Funded by Esmee Fairbairn Foundation

The influence of major FLOOD disturbance on River EcoSystem Evolution Trajectories (FLOODRESET) in recently deglaciated terrain. Funded by a NERC urgency grant (with Milner [Bham] and Robertson [Roehampton].

RESEARCH AFFILIATIONS

• River Basin Processes and Management
• Ecology and Global Change

PUBLICATIONS

• Ramchunder, S.J., Brown, L.E. & Holden, J. (in press) Catchment scale peatland restoration benefits stream macroinvertebrate biodiversity. Journal of Applied Ecology
• Brown, L.E., Edwards, F., Woodward, G., Milner, A.M. & Ledger, M.E. (2011) Food web complexity and allometric scaling relationships in stream mesocosms. Journal of Animal Ecology 80: 884-895 (link)
• Milner, A.M., Robertson, A., Brown, L.E., Sonderland, S., McDermott, M. & Veal, A.J. 2011. Evolution of a stream ecosystem in recently deglaciated terrain. Ecology 92: 1924-1935 (link)
• Ledger, M.E., Edwards, F., Brown, L.E., Woodward, G. & Milner, A.M. 2011. Impact of simulated drought on ecosystem biomass production: an experimental test. Global Change Biology 17: 2288-2297 (link)

CURRICULUM VITAE

PRESENTATIONS

TEACHING