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Palaeobiology, Macroecology, Corals, Climate, Fossil Record Bias, R programming
NERC Independent Research Fellow in Palaeobiology
Appointment: | Room: |
|---|---|
| NERC Independent Research Fellow | K. Lonsdale Building, G08 |
Courses Taught: | |
non-teaching appointment | |
Research Group(s): | |
Email Address: | Telephone Number: |
| lewis.jones@ucl.ac.uk | MS Teams |
Research Summary
I am a Computational Palaeobiologist examining the macroecological and macroevolutionary history of reef-building organisms through the integration of interdisciplinary tools and diverse sources of information, such as ecological modelling, Earth System modelling, and fossil and extant occurrence datasets. An additional significant theme of my research is the evaluation of the influence of data incompleteness on perceptions of the geological past, such as biodiversity trends. I also work on developing software tools and resources for the palaeobiological community with the aim of improving research reproducibility in the field.
I am currently a NERC Independent Research Fellow focusing on the project “Elucidating Diversity Dynamics in Marine Tropical Hotspots”.
Current research projects
Elucidating Diversity Dynamics in Marine Tropical Hotspots (EDiTH)
Life on Earth is extraordinarily diverse. More than eight million species are recognised today, and yet they represent a tiny fragment of the total number of species that have ever existed. Today, this richness is unevenly distributed across the Earth’s surface with biodiversity hotspots—areas of particularly high species richness—a macroecological phenomenon of the biosphere. Within the marine realm, biodiversity is concentrated in the Indo-Australian Archipelago, where corals and other reef groups achieve their greatest species richness. Although such spatial disparity in biodiversity has been recognised for centuries, we still do not understand the formation and drivers of such biodiversity hotspots, which is critical to forecasting species’ responses to ongoing global change.
The fossil record tells us that biodiversity hotspots have waxed and waned through time, with the existence of at least four marine biodiversity hotspots throughout the Cenozoic—the last 66 million years. But what is the evolutionary history of these biodiversity hotspots? And are there any general rules governing the emergence, maintenance, and decline of these macroecological phenomena? In the EDiTH project, I am addressing these questions by integrating the rich fossil record of corals with ecological and Earth System modelling to reconstruct their macroecological and macroevolutionary history.
Mesophotic and turbid reefs as key ecosystems for the future (MURKY)
Shallow warm-water coral reef ecosystems are experiencing rapid ecological declines in response to accelerated anthropogenic climate change. However, reefs found in “marginal” settings, including deep mesophotic and shallow turbid mesophotic habitats are currently displaying higher resilience to on-going global climatic change. If such marginal habitats provide suitable conditions to escape the effects of climate change, then they may have the potential to act as critical ecological refugia. In the MURKY research project, I collaborate with a large international team to study the palaeontological record—the only source of long-term empirical data—to understand if, and to what extent, these marginal habitats provided a long-term ecological refugia for corals throughout past climatic perturbations.
Palaeoverse
