Mick Hanley

My research career began at the University of Southampton where I completed a PhD on seedling/herbivore interactions in 1995. This has spawned a career-long interest in how plants defend themselves against herbivores, and more recently, how they attract the pollinators essential to their reproduction. I have been lucky enough to live and work in Australia, secure a tenured position as Associate Professor in Plant-Animal Interactions at the University of Plymouth, travel the word to do and present my research and work alongside some fantastic scientists on topics and ecosystems as diverse as Fire Ecology; kangaroo feeding behavior, limpet distribution in the Rocky Inter-tidal, and even how to control flies in rubbish tips.

The general focus of my work is to show how ecosystem processes and services are influenced by man’s activities. This is reflected in recent projects on the influence of agriculture on hedgerow pollinators, the effects of sea-level rise and flooding on coastal ecosystems, and how we can look to expand woodlands to help mitigate some of the impacts of climate change.