Dr Karl Evans
School of Biosciences
Senior Lecturer
Full contact details
School of Biosciences
B2 210
Alfred Denny Building
Western Bank
Sheffield
S10 2TN
- Profile
 - 
    
- Senior Lecturer in Conservation Biology, University of Sheffield (2015-present)
 - Lecturer in Conservation Biology, University of Sheffield (2011-2014)
 - Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, University of Sheffield (2009-2011)
 - Post-doctoral researcher, University of Sheffield (2003-2008)
 - Royal Society Travelling Research Fellow, University of Lincoln, New Zealand (2002)
 - DPhil, University of Oxford (2001)
 
 
- Research interests
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My research focuses on biodiversity responses to environmental change, and how negative impacts of human activity can be minimised through conservation interventions and policy. This research considers a wide range of environmental change drivers and environments but urbanisation and climate change are two major themes. I am also interested in how biodiversity responds to natural environmental gradients. My research is increasingly multi-disciplinary and often combines large scale approaches with intensive fieldwork at more local scales.
 
- Publications
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Show: Featured publications All publications
Featured publications
Journal articles
- . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(34), 20511-20519.
 - . Journal of Animal Ecology, 89(7), 1570-1580.
 - . Animal Conservation, 23(3), 235-238.
 - . Global Change Biology, 26(5), 2814-2828.
 - . Conservation Letters, 11(6), ---.
 - . Landscape and Urban Planning, 172, 1-10.
 - . BioScience, 67(9), 799-807.
 - . Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 15(4), 189-196.
 - . Conservation Biology, 30(1), 133-141.
 - . Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2(6), 970-975.
 - . Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 5.
 
All publications
Journal articles
- . Landscape and Urban Planning, 264, 105493-105493.
 - . Ecology Letters, 28(7).
 - . Ecology and Evolution, 15(5).
 - . Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 8(2), 742-769.
 - . Ecology and Evolution, 15(2).
 - . Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 104, 128669-128669.
 - . Conservation Biology, 39(2).
 - . Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 101, 128532-128532.
 - . Urban Ecosystems, 27, 2557-2567.
 - . Nature Ecology & Evolution, 8, 1482-1492.
 - . Animal Conservation, 27(2), 139-140.
 - . Nature, 628, 788-794.
 - . Geography Compass, 17(10).
 - . Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 85, 127951-127951.
 - . Landscape and Urban Planning, 238.
 - . Biological Conservation, 278, 109884-109884.
 - . Oryx, 57(1), 1-2.
 - . Diversity, 15(1).
 - . Diversity and Distributions, 28(9), 1979-1992.
 - . Nature Communications, 13.
 - . Ecological Applications, 32(6).
 - . Animal Conservation.
 - . Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 70.
 - . People and Nature, 4(1), 243-259.
 - . People and Nature, 4(1), 166-179.
 - . Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 9.
 - . Animal Conservation, 24(4), 646-658.
 - . The Lancet Planetary Health, 5(7), e479-e486.
 - . Oikos, 130(6), 969-978.
 - . Ecological Applications, 30(7).
 - . Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 8.
 - . Journal of Avian Biology, 51(9).
 - . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(34), 20511-20519.
 - . Journal of Animal Ecology, 89(7), 1570-1580.
 - . Animal Conservation, 23(3), 235-238.
 - . Global Change Biology, 26(5), 2814-2828.
 - . Ecological Applications, 29(6), ---.
 - . Landscape and Urban Planning, 189, 382-395.
 - . Conservation Letters, 11(6), ---.
 - . Ecological Applications, 28(6), 1581-1593.
 - . Frontiers in Microbiology, 9.
 - . Landscape and Urban Planning, 175, 114-122.
 - . Ecological Applications, 28(5), 1143-1156.
 - . Landscape and Urban Planning, 172, 1-10.
 - . Global Ecology and Biogeography, 26(12), 1374-1385.
 - . BioScience, 67(9), 799-807.
 - . Urban Forestry and Urban Greening, 25, 139-149.
 - . Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 15(4), 189-196.
 - . Journal of Environmental Management, 191, 162-171.
 - . PLOS ONE, 12(3).
 - . Global Environmental Change, 43, 92-106.
 - . Landscape and Urban Planning, 158, 105-118.
 - . Global Environmental Change, 42, 136-147.
 - . Current Landscape Ecology Reports, 1(4), 178-192.
 - . Landscape Ecology, 31(7), 1509-1522.
 - . Conservation Biology, 30(1), 133-141.
 - . Functional Ecology, 29(7), 863-867.
 - . Food Security, 7(4), 779-793.
 - . Journal of Avian Biology, 46(5), 441-451.
 - . Animal Conservation, 18(6), 529-538.
 - . PLoS ONE, 9(10).
 - . Animal Behaviour, 93, 119-119.
 - . Biodiversity and Conservation.
 - . Ecology and Evolution, 4(8), 1413-1422.
 - . Oikos, 123(4), 389-400.
 - . Ibis, 156(1), 220-226.
 - . Urban Ecosystems, 1-14.
 - Bristling with potential. Planet Earth(AUTUMN), 20-21.
 - . Ecology and Evolution, 3(7), 1864-1877.
 - . Mol Ecol, 22(13), 3629-3637.
 - . Ecography, 36(7), 809-818.
 - . Journal of Applied Ecology, 50(1), 15-24.
 - . Ecography, 35(11), 1024-1032.
 - . Plos One, 7(4).
 - Colonisation of urban environments is associated with reduced migratory behaviour, facilitating divergence from ancestral populations. Oikos.
 - . Biological Conservation, 144(11), 2728-2732.
 - Rapid monitoring of species abundance for biodiversity conservation: Consistency and reliability of the MacKinnon lists technique. Biological Conservation.
 - . Global Change Biology, 17(1), 32-44.
 - . Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc, 85(3), 643-667.
 - . MOL ECOL RESOUR, 9(6), 1520-1526.
 - . J BIOGEOGR, 36(8), 1613-1614.
 - . Proc Biol Sci, 276(1666), 2403-2410.
 - . CONSERV LETT, 2(2), 74-81.
 - . OIKOS, 118(5), 774-782.
 - Latitudinal and seasonal patterns in clutch size of some single-brooded British birds. BIRD STUDY, 56, 75-85.
 - . BIODIVERS CONSERV, 18(8), 2143-2151.
 - . OIKOS, 118(2), 251-259.
 - VOCALIZATIONS, DISTRIBUTION, AND ECOLOGY OF THE CLOUD-FOREST SCREECH OWL (MEGASCOPS MARSHALLI). WILSON J ORNITHOL, 121(2), 240-252.
 - . IBIS, 151(1), 19-39.
 - . J APPL ECOL, 45(5), 1330-1338.
 - . CONSERV BIOL, 22(2), 492-494.
 - . DIVERS DISTRIB, 14(2), 387-399.
 - . J Anim Ecol, 77(2), 395-405.
 - . AGR ECOSYST ENVIRON, 122(2), 267-273.
 - . J Anim Ecol, 76(5), 977-985.
 - . GLOBAL CHANGE BIOL, 13(8), 1685-1695.
 - . GLOBAL ECOL BIOGEOGR, 16(3), 300-304.
 - Slopes of Avian Species-Area Relationships, Human Population Density, and Environmental Factors. AVIAN CONSERVATION AND ECOLOGY, 2(2).
 - . GLOBAL ECOL BIOGEOGR, 15(6), 625-636.
 - . Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 273(1595), 1779-1787.
 - . GLOBAL ECOL BIOGEOGR, 15(4), 372-385.
 - . Biol Lett, 2(2), 184-188.
 - . Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc, 80(1), 1-25.
 - . Bird Conservation International, 15(4), 361-382.
 - Changes in egg size of exotic passerines introduced to New Zealand. Notornis, 52(4), 243-246.
 - . FUNCT ECOL, 19(6), 899-915.
 - . P ROY SOC B-BIOL SCI, 272(1578), 2305-2311.
 - . Proc Biol Sci, 272(1577), 2155-2163.
 - . FUNCT ECOL, 19(4), 616-624.
 - . J ANIM ECOL, 74(3), 498-507.
 - . Biol Lett, 1(1), 87-90.
 - . ECOL LETT, 8(5), 487-492.
 - . SCIENCE, 307(5714), 1412-1412.
 - People, energy and avian species richness. GLOBAL ECOL BIOGEOGR, 14(2), 187-196.
 - . Environmental Biology of Fishes, 72(1), 1-12.
 - Does energy availability influence classical patterns of spatial variation in exotic species richness?. GLOBAL ECOL BIOGEOGR, 14(1), 57-65.
 - Avian extinction and mammalian introductions on oceanic islands. SCIENCE, 305(5692), 1955-1958.
 - . Proc Biol Sci, 271(1548), 1649-1655.
 - . Behavioral Ecology, 15(4), 699-700.
 - Barn Swallows and agriculture. British Birds, 97(5), 218-230.
 - . Behaviour, 141(2), 141-156.
 - The potential for interactions between predation and habitat change to cause population declines of farmland birds. IBIS, 146(1), 1-13.
 - . EMU, 103(3), 215-220.
 - Segregation in the African wintering ranges of English and Swiss Swallow Hirundo rustica populations: a stable isotope study. BIRD STUDY, 50, 294-299.
 - . Bird Study, 50(1), 8-14.
 - . Bird Study, 50(2), 178-181.
 - . Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2(6), 970-975.
 - . Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 5.
 
Book chapters
- , Routledge Handbook of Urban Biodiversity (pp. 85-97). Routledge
 - In Díaz-Porras D (Ed.), Urban Forests (pp. 189-210). Apple Academic Press
 - , Silent Summer (pp. 72-83). Cambridge University Press
 
Conference proceedings
- . JOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY, Vol. 35(3) (pp 483-500)
 - The effects of habitat structure on predation risk of birds in agricultural landscapes. IBIS, Vol. 146 (pp 210-220)
 
Preprints
- , Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
 
 
- Research group
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Postdoctoral researchers
- Dr Georgina Southon - Urban ecosystem services: fragments, functions and flows project. NERC funded through the Biodiversity & Ecosystem Service Sustainability (BESS) research programme.
 - Dr Briony Norton - Urban ecosystem services: fragments, functions and flows project. NERC funded through the Biodiversity & Ecosystem Service Sustainability (BESS) research programme.
 - Dr Odhran O'Sulivan - Improving road side verges for biodiversity and ecosystem services (NERC Impact accelerator
 
PhD students
- Despina Berdeni - Balancing food security and biodiversity - are fungi the answer?
 - Cecilie Dyngeland - Delivering food security through small scale farmers - lessons from Brazil.
 - Simon Mills - Impacts of extreme climatic events on European bird and butterfly populations.
 - Joli Borah - Cost-effectively enhancing the carbon and biodiversity value of shifting cultivation under REDD plus.
 - Nada Badruddin - Environmental determinants of Malaysian firefly assemblage structure.
 - Caitlin Higgot - Evolutionary ecology of an extended phenotype: nest construction and function in a variable environment.
 - Vicki Senior - Developing a mechanistic understanding of the ecological impacts of climate change: neglected woodland insects.
 - Olivia Richardson
 - Bowy den Braber - Protected areas economic constraint or opportunity?
 
 
- Teaching activities
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My teaching is strongly connected to my environmental change research
At level 2 I am module co-ordinator for , which uses a diverse array of case-studies to introduce students to the ecological principles that underpin conservation action. The overall aim is to equip students with the skills required to derive solutions to many of the problems faced by those working in conservation.
At level 3 I teach on which provides students opportunities to develop (i) their knowledge of topical issues in conservation, (ii) their ability to identify potential solutions to real-world conservation problems and assess the likely effectiveness of these, (iii) their skills in accessing, interpreting and synthesising the primary scientific literature in the field of conservation, and (iv) their ability to think independently.
I give tutorials to level 1 and level 2 students, and supervise ecology and conservation research projects and dissertations at level 3, level 4 and for our MRes courses.
I have a Certificate in Learning and Teaching (CiLT) qualification (modules 1 & 2)
 
- Professional activities and memberships
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- Associated editor of Animal Conservation (2012 onwards)
 - Associate editor of Global Ecology and Biogeography (2010 onwards)
 - Member of British Ornithologists' Union committee (2013 onwards)