Senior Research Fellow
Biological and Environmental Sciences University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA
I am a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and PI of The Beacon Project (MR/T019018/1). I work across the environmental and social sciences to understand complex human-environment interactions in order to address global to local challenges.
Brief Biography
I am Chair of the British Ecological Society Scottish Policy Group, working to link ecological science and policy-makers in Scotland. I am also a Methods Expert for EKLIPSE, bridging the gap between policy and knowledge on biodiversity in Europe.
My goal is to find new, positive ways to tackle global and local challenges involving people and biodiversity as we pursue sustainable development, biodiversity conservation and action on climate change.
In my UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship - The Beacon Project - I combine biodiversity and energy justice to identify and manage conflicts between Sustainable Development Goals, using hydropower as a model system (MR/T019018/1).
I am a community ecologist by training and now work across the environmental and social sciences to understand socio-environmental interactions in relation to natural resource use and decision-making. Boosting equity and justice in global-to-local decision-making is a core driver of my research.
Please visit The Beacon Project website to learn more about my research!
PhD: My PhD focused on the biodiversity impacts of hydropower in Amazonia, and the carbon dynamics of regenerating secondary tropical forests in Panama. I continue to pursue research under the broad umbrella of biodiversity response to environmental change and anthropogenic disturbance, and collaborate with researchers in the UK, USA, Brazil, and Panama.
Postdocs: As a Postdoc I developed my interdisciplinary skills and interest in conservation conflicts. For example, I worked with project partners in Kazakhstan and the UN-AEWA to assess motivations for the illegal hunting of Lesser White-fronted geese. I also worked with Scottish farmers to understand their values and preferences in terms of managing the goose-agriculture conflict in Orkney. Alongside these projects, I also worked on projects relating to tropical forest regeneration and carbon storage.
Principal Investigator (GCRF 100684)
Principal Investigator for GCRF-funded project "Dam-B: investigating the environmental and social dimensions of dam construction in Brazil"
Funding awarded: £30, 715
GCRF 100684
Committee Member: British Ecological Society Scottish Policy Group
Chair: British Ecological Society Scottish Policy Group
The British Ecological Society
Methods Expert for EKLIPSE
https://eklipse.eu/
MTA Summer Mountain Leader
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Higher Education Academy
The Beacon Project: Using Biodiversity and Energy justice to resolve Conflicts between Sustainable Development Goals
PI: Dr Isabel Jones
Funded by: Medical Research Council
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Article
Littleboy C, Jones I, Subke J & Bunnefeld N (2024) WorldSeasons: a seasonal classification system interpolating biome classifications within the year for better temporal aggregation in climate science. Scientific Data, 11, Art. No.: 927. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03732-z
Article
Gupta G, Kotiyal R & Jones I (2024) Dual ecological and socio-cultural fragmentation induced by hydropower dams: case studies from the Greater Himalayan region of India. Zoological Research Diversity and Conservation. https://doi.org/10.24272/j.issn.2097-3772.2023.008
Article
Palmeirim AF, Benchimol M, Storck-Tonon D, Bueno AS, Jones IL, Klein G & Peres CA (2024) Biodiversity responses to insular fragmentation in Amazonia: two decades of research in the Balbina Hydroelectric Reservoir. Zoological Research Diversity and Conservation. https://doi.org/10.24272/j.issn.2097-3772.2023.007
Article
Elsy AD, Pfeifer M, Jones IL, DeWalt SJ, Lopez OR & Dent DH (2023) Incomplete recovery of tree community composition and rare species after 120 years of tropical forest succession in Panama. Biotropica. https://doi.org/10.1111/btp.13275
Article
Soil resistance and recovery during Neotropical forest succession
van der Sande MT, Powers JS, Kuyper TW, Norden N, Salgado-Negret B, Silva de Almeida J, Bongers F, Delgado D, Dent DH, Derroire G, Marcos do Espírito Santo M, Dupuy JM, Wilson Fernandes G, Jones IL & Poorter L (2023) Soil resistance and recovery during Neotropical forest succession. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 378 (1867), Art. No.: 20210074. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0074
Article
Can diet niche partitioning enhance sexual dimorphism?
Bauld JT, Abernethy KA, Newton J, Lehmann D, Jones IL & Bussière LF (2022) Can diet niche partitioning enhance sexual dimorphism?. Ecology and Evolution, 12 (12), Art. No.: e9599. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9599
Article
Jones IL, Timoshenko A, Zuban I, Zhadan K, Cusack JJ, Duthie AB, Hodgson ID, Minderman J, Pozo RA, Whytock RC & Bunnefeld N (2022) Achieving international biodiversity targets: learning from local norms, values and actions regarding migratory waterfowl management in Kazakhstan. Journal of Applied Ecology, 59 (7), pp. 1911-1924. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.14198
Manual / Guide
The NCRM wayfinder guide to equitable research relations in and after Covid-19
Healy A, Kadungure A, Smith C, McFee E, Nakebembe E, Jones I, Fledderjohann J, McQuaid K, Le Doare K, Contractor S & Rashid S (2022) The NCRM wayfinder guide to equitable research relations in and after Covid-19. Southampton: National Centre for Research Methods. https://eprints.ncrm.ac.uk/id/eprint/4561/
Book Chapter
Building Peace to Save Nature: Multi-disciplinary Approaches to Managing Conflicts in Conservation
Hodgson ID, Cusack J, Jones I, Minderman J, Nilsson L, Pozo RA, Rakotonarivo OS & Bunnefeld N (2021) Building Peace to Save Nature: Multi-disciplinary Approaches to Managing Conflicts in Conservation. In: Underkoffler SC & Adams HR (eds.) Wildlife Biodiversity Conservation: Multidisciplinary and Forensic Approaches. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, pp. 3-22. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64682-0_1
Article
The role of incentive-based instruments and social equity in conservation conflict interventions
Rakotonarivo SO, Bell AR, Abernethy K, Minderman J, Duthie AB, Redpath S, Keane A, Travers H, Bourgeois S, Moukagni L, Cusack JJ, Jones IL, Pozo RA & Bunnefeld N (2021) The role of incentive-based instruments and social equity in conservation conflict interventions. Ecology and Society, 26 (2), Art. No.: 8. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-12306-260208
Book Chapter
Jones IL, Saldanha Bueno A, Benchimol M, Palmeirim AF, Storck-Tonon D & Peres CA (2021) Using relict species-area relationships to estimate the conservation value of reservoir islands to improve environmental impact assessments of dams. In: Matthews TJ, Triantis KA & Whittaker RJ (eds.) The Species-Area Relationship: Theory and Application. Ecology, Biodiversity and Conservation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 417-437. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108569422.023
Article
Rakotonarivo OS, Jones II, Bell AR, Duthie AB, Cusack JJ, Minderman J, Hogan J, Hodgson I & Bunnefeld N (2021) Experimental evidence for conservation conflict interventions: the importance of financial payments, community trust and equity attitudes. People and Nature, 3 (1), pp. 162-175. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10155
Article
A multispecies assessment of wildlife impacts on local community livelihoods
Pozo RA, LeFlore EG, Duthie AB, Bunnefeld N, Jones IL, Minderman J, Rakotonarivo S & Cusack JJ (2021) A multispecies assessment of wildlife impacts on local community livelihoods. Conservation Biology, 35 (1), pp. 297-306. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13565
Article
Integrating conflict, lobbying, and compliance to predict the sustainability of natural resource use
Cusack JJ, Duthie AB, Minderman J, Jones IL, Pozo RA, Rakotonarivo OS, Redpath S & Bunnefeld N (2020) Integrating conflict, lobbying, and compliance to predict the sustainability of natural resource use. Ecology and Society, 25 (2), Art. No.: 13. https://doi.org/10.5751/es-11552-250213
Article
Major dams and the challenge of achieving "No Net Loss" of biodiversity in the tropics
Jones IL & Bull JW (2020) Major dams and the challenge of achieving "No Net Loss" of biodiversity in the tropics. Sustainable Development, 28 (2), pp. 435-443. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.1997
Article
Jones IL, DeWalt SJ, Lopez OR, Bunnefeld L, Pattison Z & Dent DH (2019) Above- and belowground carbon stocks are decoupled in secondary tropical forests and are positively related to forest age and soil nutrients respectively. Science of The Total Environment, 697, Art. No.: 133987. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.133987
Article
Jones I, Peres C, Benchimol M, Bunnefeld L & Dent D (2019) Instability of insular tree communities in an Amazonian mega-dam is driven by impaired recruitment and altered species composition. Journal of Applied Ecology, 56 (3), pp. 779-791. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13313
Letter
Decision Trees for Data Publishing May Exacerbate Conservation Conflict
Minderman J, Cusack JJ, Duthie AB, Jones IL, Pozo RA, Rakotonarivo OS & Bunnefeld N (2019) Decision Trees for Data Publishing May Exacerbate Conservation Conflict. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 3, p. 318. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0804-7
Article
GMSE: an R package for generalised management strategy evaluation
Duthie AB, Cusack JJ, Jones IL, Minderman J, Nilsen EB, Pozo RA, Rakotonarivo OS, Van Moorter B & Bunnefeld N (2018) GMSE: an R package for generalised management strategy evaluation. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 9 (12), pp. 2396-2401. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210x.13091
Research Report
Jones I, Whytock R & Bunnefeld N (2017) Assessing Motivations for the Illegal Killing of Lesser White-fronted Geese at Key Sites in Kazakhstan (2017). UN-AEWA. AEWA Lesser White-fronted Goose International Working Group Report Series, 6. Bonn, Germany. https://www.unep-aewa.org/en/publication/assessing-motivations-illegal-killing-lesser-white-fronted-geese-key-sites-kazakhstan
Article
Jones IL, Peres CA, Benchimol M, Bunnefeld L & Dent DH (2017) Woody lianas increase in dominance and maintain compositional integrity across an Amazonian dam-induced fragmented landscape. PLoS ONE, 12 (10), Art. No.: e0185527. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0185527
Article
Extinction debt on reservoir land-bridge islands
Jones IL, Bunnefeld N, Jump A, Peres CA & Dent D (2016) Extinction debt on reservoir land-bridge islands. Biological Conservation, 199, pp. 75-83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2016.04.036
Article
Quantifying habitat impacts of natural gas infrastructure to facilitate biodiversity offsetting
Jones IL, Bull JW, Milner-Gulland EJ, Esipov AV & Suttle KB (2014) Quantifying habitat impacts of natural gas infrastructure to facilitate biodiversity offsetting. Ecology and Evolution, 4 (1), pp. 79-90. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.884
Lecturer in Biodiversity and Conservation (2018-2020; fixed-term maternity cover position).
As a lecturer I coordinated three Undergraduate modules: Field Biology, Biogeography, Conservation Management. I contributed to additional modules in Statistics, Plant Ecology, and The Biosphere.
As a Senior Research Fellow I now give guest lectures for various modules across Biological and Environmental Sciences. I also supervise three Undergraduate dissertation students who are focusing their research on biodiversity, carbon and sustainability. I co-supervise PhD students researching forest ecology and conservation.
I gained Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) in 2020.
