As an interdisciplinary ecologist with a core background in zoology and conservation, Ella works on providing evidence for effective biodiversity restoration measures. Introduced to the fascinating hidden world of bats during her undergraduate Zoology degree, she was hooked, and has been studying bats ever since using them to understand impacts of anthropogenic environmental change on biodiversity.
Bats’ use of echolocation led Ella to a deeper exploration of the use of passive acoustic monitoring techniques for gathering vital ecological data, and she co-wrote the first guidelines for conservation practitioners on using passive acoustics. Ella continues to work on developing and improving tools for collecting passive acoustic data and extracting ecologically information from audio using machine learning methods. Ella is more widely interested in combining conservation technologies, Internet of Things systems, and AI tools for enabling automation, to improve the efficiency of biodiversity data collection and assessment of biodiversity recovery measures.
Related Research Themes
Ecology
Testing the effectiveness of different ecological approaches for nature recovery to support biodiversity and the delivery of ecosystem services such as climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Scale and Technology
Tracking and evaluating nature recovery at both fine resolution and large spatial scales utilising state-of-the-art remote sensing, big data, and deep machine learning techniques.
Related Toolkits
Artificial Intelligence
Developing AI algorithms to monitor, predict, simulate and contrast the baseline change in nature with the impact of interventions.
Remote Sensing
Working across pristine and human modified temperate and tropical forest ecosystems to understand and generate new knowledge about their functionality, health and resilience.
Related Projects
Ecoacoustics for assessing ecosystem health and function, from air to soil
Developing scaleable, transferable, and open approaches for ecoacoustics to assess nature recovery across global ecosystems
Ecoacoustic Data Analytics
Advancing AI methods to determine ecosystem composition from acoustic recordings, distinguishing species, geophonic & anthropogenic sounds in soundscapes as well as flagging unusual or unanticipated sounds.
Healthy Ecosystem Restoration in Oxfordshire
Developing the local Oxfordshire landscape as a case-study, nature-recovery laboratory and community of practice.
The role of regenerative farming for biodiversity and ecosystem functioning
We utilise both standardised and cutting-edge methods to explore biodiversity and ecosystem functioning along a land use gradient to better understand the role of regenerative farming.
Expanding native forest in Scotland: small-scale mechanisms, landscape-scale responses
Experimental and landscape-scale data collection to understand above and belowground drivers of and responses to native forest expansion in the Scottish Highlands
Related Landscapes
Oxfordshire
With its active network of nature recovery groups, Oxfordshire presents a unique opportunity to test and showcase a portfolio of different ecosystem restoration strategies, to become a model county for nature recovery. Our work in this landscape aims to build a community of practice between the University and local practitioners, and will also form a […]
Scottish Highlands
Scotland is renowned for its distinctive and diverse range of landscapes, which are a significant part of the country’s natural and cultural heritage. The environment has been shaped by interconnected human and natural processes over thousands of years and includes built heritage, ancient woodlands, wildlife and native species, art and literature, folklore, language and traditions […]
