Professor Luca Borger

Professor Luca Borger
Professor
Biosciences
Telephone: (01792) 513112
Room: Academic Office - 137
First Floor
Wallace Building
Singleton Campus
My Homepage

Areas of Expertise

  • Movement ecology
  • Population ecology
  • Community ecology
  • statistics
  • spatial ecology
  • Agroecology
  • Biodiversity
  • Applied ecology
  • roe deer
  • animal movements
  • habitat use
  • home range
  • biodiversity

Publications

  1. et. al. (2019). Estimates for energy expenditure in free‐living animals using acceleration proxies; a reappraisal. Journal of Animal Ecology
  2. & (2019). A comprehensive assessment of stream fragmentation in Great Britain. Science of The Total Environment 673, 756-762.
  3. & (2019). The Ornithodolite as a tool to quantify animal space use and habitat selection: a case study with birds diving in tidal waters. Integrative Zoology 14(1), 4-16.
  4. & (2018). Social eavesdropping allows for a more risky gliding strategy by thermal-soaring birds. Journal of The Royal Society Interface 15(148), 20180578
  5. & (2018). Finding turning-points in ultra-high-resolution animal movement data. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 9(10), 2091-2101.

See more...

Teaching

  • BIO252 Ecological Data Analysis

    This module introduces students to the basics of analyzing ecological data, using the R Software Environment for Statistical Computing. The topics covered will be also broad enough to be equally applicable to basic data analysis across biology. Students will receive 8 computer-based workshops/practicals, complemented by 9 lectures before each workshop. Furthermore, a weekly drop-in stats help session will be provided, as well as help through a course Facebook page. The module will cover 5 key themes: 1). Data analysis and statistics, reproducibility and the R Software Environment; 2). Data management; 3). Data visualization; 4). Data analysis - The general linear model; 5). Data analysis - Presentation of results and outline of more advanced methods. The module will be subject to continuous assessment consisting of 3 pieces of computer-based work (60% of final mark), which will require the students to carefully complete all course work assigned on a weekly basis ('independent learning'), in order to be able to complete the assignments. A further 40% of the final mark will consist in a data analysis report, to be completed after the end of the course. Weekly readings and non-assessed computer-based exercises will be assigned, too.

  • BIO318 Ecology of Marine Animals

    This is a research-led module that explores the free-living behaviour of a range of marine animals through recent advances in biotelemetry such as satellite tracking and use of miniaturized dive computers and activity sensors attached to animals ranging from fish to air-breathing vertebrates.

Supervision

  • Resolving fine scale movement and behaviour sequences across species with contrasting life histories (current)

    Student name:
    MRes
    Other supervisor: Prof Rory Wilson

  • Global distribution of Helminth parasites and congruence with vertebrate assemblages (current)

    Student name:
    MRes
    Other supervisor: Dr Konstans Wells

  • Solving the MOVement Rubik’s Cube: uncovering intra and interspecific movement strategies of large herbivores subjected to 6 major movement constraints (current)

    Student name:
    PhD
    Other supervisor: Dr Rowan Brown

  • Linking plant demography, ecological dynamics and population genetics across space and time. (current)

    Student name:
    PhD
    Other supervisor: Dr James Bull

  • Habitat selection and movement energetics of giant tortoises on Round Island, Mauritius. (current)

    Student name:
    MRes
    Other supervisor: Prof Rory Wilson

  • A reef in motion; space-time-species interactions in a coral-based community (current)

    Student name:
    PhD
    Other supervisor: Prof Rory Wilson

  • How does the weather influence bird flight energy expenditure? Disentangling habitat, behaviour and flight style. (current)

    Student name:
    PhD
    Other supervisor: Dr Emily Shepard

  • Alpine ungulates movement (ALPEN): Quantification of spatiotemporal environmental energetics and social interaction. (current)

    Student name:
    PhD
    Other supervisor: Dr Rowan Brown

  • Seal movements across multiple scales: models, methods and management applications (current)

    Student name:
    PhD
    Other supervisor: Dr James Bull

  • Determinants of fine-scale movements in the trajectories of Magellanic penguins Spheniscus magellanicus navigating between their nests and the sea (awarded 2019)

    Student name:
    MRes
    Other supervisor: Prof Rory Wilson
    Other supervisor: Prof Rory Wilson

  • The distribution and site fidelity of a rare, non-commercial elashmobranch (awarded 2019)

    Student name:
    MRes
    Other supervisor: Dr James Bull

  • The role of polymorphism, mutation and trade-offs in spreading speeds of biological invasions (awarded 2019)

    Student name:
    PhD
    Other supervisor: Prof Elaine Crooks

  • ''Behaviour, energetics and movement through biologging in the Canidae'' (awarded 2018)

    Student name:
    MRes
    Other supervisor: Prof Rory Wilson

  • 'Life in the slow lane: The sloth niche, divine or dangerous?' (awarded 2018)

    Student name:
    PhD
    Other supervisor: Dr Emily Shepard
    Other supervisor: Prof Rory Wilson

  • 'Ecological engineers on the move: Identifying the environmental factors controlling the movement and dispersal of the Aldabra tortoise (Aldabrachelys gigantea) on Round Island, Mauritius.' (awarded 2018)

    Student name:
    MRes
    Other supervisor: Prof Rory Wilson

  • 'The movement and space-use of grey seals, Halichoerus grypus, in the Pembrokeshire Marine SAC (awarded 2018)

    Student name:
    MRes
    Other supervisor: Dr James Bull

  • COMPADRE PREDICTS: Demographic traits mediate plant population responses to local land use change (awarded 2018)

    Student name:
    MRes
    Other supervisor: Dr Cynthia Froyd

  • 'Can vulture distributions be predicted according to their body size, and the environmental parameters they currently operate in?' (awarded 2017)

    Student name:
    MRes
    Other supervisor: Dr Emily Shepard

  • 'The role of PCBs on parasitism in harbour porpoise using UK strandings data' (awarded 2017)

    Student name:
    MRes
    Other supervisor: Dr James Bull

  • 'Ecological proxies in a half shell: What dictates the movement of ecological analogue, Aldabra Tortoise (Aldabrachelys gigantea) on Round Island, Mauritius' (awarded 2017)

    Student name:
    MRes
    Other supervisor: Prof Rory Wilson

  • 'Dynamic ungulates and the use of accelerometry to define movement patterns' (awarded 2017)

    Student name:
    MRes
    Other supervisor: Prof Rory Wilson

Calling from outside the UK?

+44 1792 513112