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Group Overview
The Spatial and Population Ecology Research Group (SpacePop) is based in the Biosciences Department, within the College of Science. We are interested in all aspects of population ecology where space and spatial structure are important. This includes the causes of spatial distributions of organisms, as well as the effects of spatial structure on population dynamics. We use a wide range of approaches, investigating spatially structured dynamic processes through statistical modelling of monitoring data, laboratory and field-based ecological experiments, and molecular tools. Much of our work is curiosity driven but we also address important applied problems, including interactions between mobile species and renewable energy installations, insect pollinator disease ecology, and environmental monitoring. Current themes include understanding distributions and trends in grey seal populations around Wales and the Irish sea, developing seagrass as a field-based model system to explore ecological processes and dynamics, as well as insect metapopulation and community dynamics.