Imperial College London
Division of Biology
Silwood Park Campus
Ascot
SL5 7PY

e: j.bull10 @ imperial.ac.uk
t: +44 20 7594 2494

Research Overview

My overall research interest lies in exploring potential mechanisms for effective landscape-scale ecological management; meaning management that achieves both conservation and sustainable natural resource use objectives.

I am also interested in investigating the impacts of the private sector upon biodiversity, and the ways in which business can manage those impacts.

Current research

Biodiversity Offsets are increasing in popularity worldwide, as a mechanism that could potentially deliver robust biodiversity conservation alongside socio-economic development. However numerous problems, both theoretical and practical, have been identified with the Offset approach.  These problems must be explored, and somehow resolved, if Biodiversity Offsets are ever to prove successful. 

Despite the fact that Offsets must necessarily endure for decades, Offsets are currently designed as if landscapes were static.  Little has been published on how best to structure and implement them in the context of environmental change (such as climate change) and socio-economic development (such as population movements, population growth, and changing industrial or agricultural land-use).  Equally, Offset schemes are not generally designed with due consideration to the requirements of highly mobile or migratory species, where these are affected by development.

A Biodiversity Offset scheme has been proposed to conserve the Ustyurt Saiga antelope (Saiga tartarica) population and associated desert habitat in Uzbekistan, as compensation for the impacts of extractive industrial activity elsewhere on the Ustyurt plateau.  The Saiga antelope is critically endangered and represents a key research priority for the ICCS group.  It is significantly threatened by anthropogenic pressures as well as environmental stochasticity throughout its current Eurasian range.  The fundamental dynamics of the trans-boundary population that inhabits the Ustyurt plateau have yet to be fully understood.

This PhD study aims to contribute towards the global research effort into the methodological basis for Biodiversity Offsets.  I explore problems with employing Offset mechanisms under change and uncertainty, using the Uzbekistan example as the prime case study.  The research aims to contribute towards the broader problems associated with achieving conservation and sustainable natural resource use objectives in the context of highly dynamic systems.

Brief CV

2010 – current         PhD student, Imperial College London/Fauna and Flora Int’l
2006 – 2010            Environmental consultant, Bureau Veritas UK Ltd
2005 – 2006            MSc Environmental Technology, Imperial College London
2002 – 2005            BSc Physics, Imperial College London

Publications

Sandom, C., Bull, J., Canney, S., Macdonald, D. (2011). “Exploring the Value of Wolves (Canis lupus) in Landscape-Scale Fenced Reserves for Ecological Restoration in the Scottish Highlands”. In: M. Hayward & M. Somers (eds) Fencing for Conservation. Springer

Bull, J., Nilsen, E., Mysterud, A., Milner-Gulland, E.J., (2009) “Survival on the Border: a population model to evaluate management options for Norway’s wolves Canis lupus” Wildl. Biol. 15: 412-424;