We are pleased to announce that this year’s DICE Annual Lecture is being given by Professor Chris Thomas FRS from the University of York, titled ‘Surviving the Anthropocene: a story of biological gains and losses.’
It is accepted wisdom today that human beings have irrevocably damaged the natural world. Yet what if this narrative obscures a more complicated truth? Combining a naturalist’s eye for wildlife with an ecologist’s wide lens, Chris Thomas re-examines humanity’s relationship with nature, and reminds us that the story of life is the story of change.
The lecture will be held on Thursday 7th March between 18:30 and 20:00 in Keynes Lecture Theatre 1 on the Canterbury campus. The event is free and open to all.
Biography
Professor Chris Thomas is interested in understanding how humans have transformed the biological world and how humans might protect the world’s remaining biodiversity. Chris was the first to estimate how climate change might endanger biodiversity at a global scale and has provided evidence that species move their geographic distributions as the climate changes. He is interested in how climate change, land use change (habitat fragmentation), the arrival of non-native species (invasions) and persecution (hunting) alter the distributions of species, aiming to quantify gains in diversity as well as losses.
Chris has had strong influence on the development of policy and practical conservation strategies in the areas of climate change and habitat fragmentation, and has developed conservation strategies (including the benefits of connected landscapes and moving species where required) that will enable species to survive climate change, biological invasions and other environmental challenges.