Meet the scientists!

I have always been interested in nature and this has often been a source of inspiration for me. I am very lucky to work on the edge of Dartmoor on a research farm

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A local breed of cattle : a Ruby Red

Work is a little off the beaten track so I have to drive there but I pass beautiful flower rich hedges.

As an ecologist I passionately believe that it is very important to protect our wildlife from the microscopic bacteria in the soil to the more majestic looking bird the red kite.

A field on the farm which we have managed so that there are a range of different plant species present in the grassland sward

Pollinators such as this Bumblebee play a vital role in transferring pollen from one red clover to another. Pollinators like nectar rich plants

This Painted Lady is a migratory butterfly found on North Wyke farm in the field pictured above. Butterflies are also pollinators

However the land surrounding us has to provide us with nutritous food, homes and maybe in the not too dim and distant future energy from biofuels. My work is looking at ways to try and ensure that farmers can produce enough food in a way that ensures they can make a decent living and in a way which will not have a bad impact on the environment. Many people now believe that many of th the ancient civilisations such as the Aztecs, Incas etc were lost as they over-exploited their natural resources and it is very important that we learn from their mistakes.

This is a Belgian Blue steer

All these photos have been taken at North Wyke by my very talented colleague Bruce Griffith

I am a field ecologist so what I love to be doing is being out and about in the countryside.

This is a picture of a rare cattle breed the British Longhorn

Sadly it is getting more difficult to find the money for such work and these days most of my research work is now in a greenhouse or a lab. I have three different projects on the go at the moment and much of my time is spent managing these to make sure that I have all the right equipment for the project, the experiment can be set up on time and any other staff involved in the project know what they are doing and when they need to do it by.

In my line of work it is also very important that we publish our results in peer-reviewed journals. This means that the papers, in which our results are written, are read by other highly respected scientists in the same field i.e. ecology and they decide whether they think both the work and the paper are fit for publication. It can be quite a frustrating proceedure, but the more papers you have published, particularly in the highly respected journals such as Nature or Science, the more chances you have of progressing in your career.