Summary
Research Interests
The scientific interests of my research group are on a broad scale. Our research generally involves the study of animal responses to environmental stressors to address ecologically applied issues, as well as taking an evolutionary biology approach to understanding trends in ecology.
In particular, we are interested in how human activities affect insect populations, biodiversity, and function. We primarily study the effects of agricultural land use and the impacts of climate change. This has involved focusing on how specific factors, such as aspects of habitat loss, chemical applications and temperature changes can influence individual molecular responses, physiology, behaviour(s) and fitness, and how this scales to shape populations and communities.
Whilst not wedded to a particular study organism/system, social insects (bumblebees in particular) have been the focus of our research. Their large and intricate societies exhibit efficient and often complex cooperative behaviours making them not only interesting for the study of animal behaviour, but also a dominant insect group in the environment that provide vital ecosystem functions and crucial ecosystem services important for human welfare.
Please find my research group website on insect ecology & evolution here: www.gillinsectresearch.com
News
Congrats to Andres and Aoife for their paper finding evidence for increasing stress in bumblebees over the 20th century, and revealing how climatic conditions can contribute to this. Out in Journal of Animal Ecology.
Checkout out our paper showcasing genome sequencing of specimens dating back to the late 19th century, in collaboration with the Barnes group from NHM London. Out in Methods in Ecology & Evolution
Celebrating UN World Bee Day 2022, Rich was interviewed by the BBC in the Arctic. Click to see the video.
Aug 2022 - we are getting close to the end of our fourth field season studying Arctic bumblebees. This is in collaboration with Keith Larsen, and is affiliated with CIRC. Please also listen to a podcast covering earlier Masters student's work.
Congrats to Monika for getting the first paper from her PhD published, reviewing the threat of pesticide and disease co-exposure to managed and wild bee larvae.
Congrats to Aoife for being awarded 1st prize for her presentation at the NW IUSSI conference (Dec 2021) for her Masters work; studying signatures of stress in bumblebee museum specimens.
Collaborating with Joe Colgan and Yanick Wurm, our bumblebee genome paper is out in Molecular Biology & Evolution.
Cecylia Watrobska published her UG project work, investigating if pollen source richness predicts bumblebee colony growth
Danny Kenna now has a 2nd publication from his PhD, investigating the thermal performance curves of bumblebee flight and the implications of this for colony foraging potential and bumblebee responses to climate change (doi: 10.1111/1365-2435.13887). Well done Danny!
In collaboration with the Pfeiffer group, we have produced the first bumblebee brain atlas, and the first insect brain atlas using microCT scanning. Click here to explore the brain.
Current Group (see 'research' page for more details)
Independent Fellow hosted by Gill lab: Dr Peter Graystock
NERC funded DTP PhD students: Aoife Cantwell-Jones (in 2nd year)
Dept. PhD: Catherine Parry (in 1st year)
PhD co-supervisor: Joe Palmer (Sup. Dr Vincent Jansen, RHUL, BBSRC); Mahika Dixit (Sup. Will Pearse, Imperial, NERC)
Masters students: Yuming Shi, Fereozah Mahmood, Lucia Hudson, Suzannah Eggleston, Juliet Everson, Li Wang
Previous Group Members
Associated Fellow: Dr Jacob Johansson
NERC funded PDRA: Dr Andres Arce
Grantham funded PDRA: Dr Kirsty Yule
BBSRC funded PhD student: Ana Ramos-Rodrigues (2016-2020)
NERC funded DTP PhD students: Danny Kenna (2017-2021); Dylan Smith (2014-2019)
Masters project students: Sarah Hudson, Nerea Montes Perez, Claire Tsui, Charlotte McGinty, Oonagh Barker, Mahika Dixit (2021); Michael Tansley, Aoife Cantwell-Jones, Connor Lovell, Henrique Galante Nunes de Sousa, Sarah Hudson, Sebastian Pipins, Alan Ward (2020); Emma Eatough, Xeuni Bian, Lottie Gibbons, Rach Dawson, Freja Gjerstad, Chloe Sargent and Stephen Bishop (2019); Jacob Birkenhead, Marcus Rhodes, Tara Cox, Libby Bates, Miranda Burke, Flo Coulmance--Gayrard (2018); Koorosh McCormack, Cecylia Watrobska, Nicholas Tew, Elspeth MacKeller, Jenny Dawson, John Paterson (2017), Ross Gray, Laura Bentley, Chun (Harris) Tso (2016); Jiajun (Stanley) Yu, Katie Taylor, Sarah Gougeon (2015), Emma Randall, Thomas David (2014)
Selected Publications
Journal Articles
Yordanova M, Evison SEF, Gill RJ, et al., 2022, The threat of pesticide and disease co-exposure to managed and wild bee larvae, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife, Vol:17, ISSN:2213-2244, Pages:319-326
Colgan TJ, Arce AN, Gill RJ, et al., 2022, Genomic Signatures of Recent Adaptation in a Wild Bumblebee, Molecular Biology and Evolution, Vol:39, ISSN:0737-4038
Kenna D, Pawar S, Gill R, 2021, Thermal flight performance reveals impact of warming on bumblebee foraging potential, Functional Ecology, Vol:35, ISSN:0269-8463, Pages:2508-2522
Smith D, Arce A, Ana RR, et al., 2020, Insecticide exposure during brood or early-adult development reduces brain growth and impairs adult learning in bumblebees, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Vol:287, ISSN:0962-8452
Kenna D, Cooley H, Pretelli I, et al., 2019, Pesticide exposure affects flight dynamics and reduces flight endurance in bumblebees, Ecology and Evolution, Vol:9, ISSN:2045-7758, Pages:5637-5650
Colgan TJ, Fletcher IK, Arce AA, et al., 2019, Caste- and pesticide-specific effects of neonicotinoid pesticide exposure on gene expression in bumblebees, Molecular Ecology, Vol:28, ISSN:0962-1083, Pages:1964-1974
Arce A, Ramos Rodrigues A, Yu J, et al., 2018, Foraging bumblebees acquire a preference for neonicotinoid treated food with prolonged exposure, Proceedings - Royal Society. Biological sciences, Vol:285, ISSN:1471-2954
Samuelson A, Gill RJ, Brown M, et al., 2018, Lower bumblebee colony reproductive success in agricultural compared with urban environments, Proceedings - Royal Society. Biological sciences, Vol:285, ISSN:1471-2954
Arce AN, David TI, Randall E, et al., 2016, Impact of controlled neonicotinoid exposure on bumblebees in a realistic field setting, Journal of Applied Ecology, Vol:54, ISSN:1365-2664, Pages:1199-1208
Gill RJ, Smith DB, Raine NE, et al., 2016, Exploring miniature insect brains using micro-CT scanning techniques, Scientific Reports, Vol:6, ISSN:2045-2322
Gill RJ, Baldock KCR, Brown MJF, et al., 2016, Protecting an Ecosystem Service: Approaches to Understanding and Mitigating Threats to Wild Insect Pollinators, Advances in Ecological Research, Vol:54, ISSN:0065-2504, Pages:135-206
Gill RJ, Raine NE, 2014, Chronic impairment of bumblebee natural foraging behaviour induced by sublethal pesticide exposure, Functional Ecology, Vol:28, ISSN:0269-8463, Pages:1459-1471
Bryden J, Gill RJ, Mitton RAA, et al., 2013, Chronic sublethal stress causes bee colony failure, Ecology Letters, Vol:16, ISSN:1461-023X, Pages:1463-1469
Gill RJ, Ramos-Rodriguez O, Raine NE, 2012, Combined pesticide exposure severely affects individual- and colony-level traits in bees, Nature, Vol:491, ISSN:0028-0836, Pages:105-U119