Professor Alistair Jump

Professor Alistair Jump joined the University of Stirling in 2008 and is a plant ecologist focussing on the impacts of environmental change. His research is fundamentally interdisciplinary and incorporates information from sources as diverse as historical accounts and palynology, through to population genetics and remote sensing.  The integration of diverse data types is essential to understand the response of populations, communities and biomes to changing environmental conditions in the past in order to improve our understanding of how they may change in the future.

Following his PhD (2003) at the University of Sheffield, Alistair worked as a consultant for the Peak District National Park Authority to prioritise conservation of historic lead mine sites in the Peak District region of England. He then pursued a Marie Curie Fellowship at the Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF) in Barcelona, Spain.  His interest in the legacy of human - environment interactions has played an important role in shaping his approach to contemporary ecological questions, where past management activity (often dating back many centuries) shapes the composition of biological communities and influences how they respond to current environmental changes.

Much of Alistair’s current research focuses on quantifying and predicting climate change impacts on forests and the implications of such changes for human populations through changes to resources and risk. He is a member, and past leader of, the University’s interdisciplinary Extremes in Science and Society Research Programme.