Research Overview

Rosa is an insect ecologist interested in the effects of human induced environmental change (climate change and land use changes) on insect diversity and the ecosystem functions they drive. Butterflies and dung beetles are her primary groups of interest and she carries out research in both temperate and tropical regions. Her research also has a conservation focus, aiming to provide advice on the best management practices for promoting the conservation of insects.

Published research

Rosa’s research has made significant advances in the understanding of how climate change affects insect diversity, including evidence that recent changes in climate correlate with changes in species richness, using butterflies in the UK as the model system. This work also quantified the extent to which biodiversity changes, at a community level, appears to be lagging behind climate change and provided the first experimental test that species are exhibiting climate-lags. She has published several papers on how insects are responding to climate warming and how habitat fragmentation affects species persistence (see link to publications).

Current research themes include:

• Species altitudinal distributions: range shifts in response to climate warming.
• Host-parasitoid interactions: potential disruption due to climate warming.
• Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning: effects of climate change/habitat loss on functional diversity.

Roles

Rosa’s primary administrative responsibility in the department is Director of Studies for the MSc Conservation & Biodiversity.

Rosa is currently:

• associate editor of the journal Ecological Entomology
• regular research review panel member for the Spanish Research Council

Teaching

Rosa’s teaching includes:

• running the residential undergraduate field course in Spain. Read the blogs from last year’s trip.
• a range of undergraduate courses in ecology and conservation as well as insect taxonomy, as part of the Biology and Ecology undergraduate programmes.
• a skills based Master’s course on wildlife monitoring techniques as part of the Master’s level programmes.