Mini profile: Richard Gill

Dr Richard Gill discusses his research and his involvement in the GCEE initiative

What’s your specialist research interest and what first attracted you to it?

Ant and bee colonies can contain tens of thousands of individuals. Is it fascinating to see the number and complexity of tasks that they are able to perform, and the seemingly harmonious manner in which they achieve it. Indeed, ants are amazing creatures, turning over more soil than earthworms, and bees are so incredibly important, pollinating around 75% of our agricultural crops! Facts such as these are what have fuelled my fascination and desire to study social insect behaviour and the roles they play in the environment. My research interests are relatively diverse, but I have been particularly interested in two primary questions: 1) What effect do environmental stressors (such as pesticides) have on the behaviour, survival and population dynamics of bees, and what are the consequences on community networks and ecosystems services (such as pollination)? 2) How have certain social strategies in the animal kingdom evolved, and what cooperative and conflict resolving mechanisms are needed to ensure successful group living?

What does your research involve?

I believe it is important to gain information on the behavioural mechanisms and responses of animal individuals and groups if we are to understand both the dynamics and the vulnerability of populations and communities. To investigate this, my work involves experimental biology, behavioural observations and molecular approaches to study reactions to changes in environmental variables; whether this be abiotic (e.g. pesticide exposure, land-use change) or biotic (e.g. social and genetic environment, disease).

What are you working on at the moment?

My current focus is looking at the effect that stress (or specific stressors such as pesticide exposure), has on bee behaviour, colony success and pollination ability. I am carrying out laboratory, meoscosm and field experiments and gaining data on foraging patterns using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology (same technology as found in a London Oyster card). Using such data I can then help to test and inform models about where risk hotspots may be found at local and national scales, and to predict environmental and economic impacts.

What attracted you to the Grand Challenges in Ecosystem and the Environment Initiative?

The GCEE initiative is an exciting and significant move to answering some of the most important questions in ecology. The initiative has invested significantly into ensuring a world leading group of scientists addressing important global issues, and I feel very honoured to be a part of such a great community of internationally recognised researchers. I feel strongly that the research to come out of this initiative will have implications to our understanding of ecosystem functioning and environmental sustainability and a far reaching impact to a plethora of interested parties worldwide.

What Grand Challenge will you be tackling under the initiative?

It is my group’s objective to better understand the ecosystem services that particular animal groups provide (such as insect pollinators), and importantly to also understand what environmental stressors can detrimentally affect such groups and how best to mitigate such risks. This is important if we are going to maintain biodiversity in a changing world, and provide food security to a global human population of 9 billion by 2050.