Jane Hill

Professor of Ecology
University of York

Deputy Head Department and Chair of Research Committee, Biology.
York Environmental Sustainability Institute (YESI) Research Theme leader for Resilient Ecosystems.

jane.hill@york.ac.uk

Biography

I joined the University of York as a lecturer in 2001, becoming a professor in 2010. I am a trustee of the SE Asia Rainforest Research Partnership, and a trustee of the British Ecological Society. I received a Marsh/ZSL Award for Conservation Biology in 2011, and I am an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society. 

Research

I study the impacts of climate change and habitat loss on species, analysing citizen science and museum data, which have been collected over many decades, to understand species’ responses to environmental change. My research also explores how better habitat connectivity (e.g. through restoration) and more protected areas help conserve biodiversity, providing landscape solutions for reducing biodiversity declines. I work in both temperate and tropical ecosystems, where my focus is on testing the impacts of voluntary certification criteria for sustainable palm oil, to examine ways of improving stakeholder livelihoods and reducing biodiversity losses. 

Publication Highlights 

Wu, C-H, Holloway, JD, Hill, JK, Thomas, C, Chen, I-C & Ho, C-K 2019, Reduced body sizes in climate-impacted tropical insect assemblages are primarily explained by range shifts. Nature Communications, vol. 10, 4612 (2019). 

MacGregor, CJ, Thomas, C, Roy, DB, Beaumont, M, James, B, Brereton, T, Bridle, JR, Dytham, C, Fox, R, Gotthard, K, Hoffman, A, Martin, G, Middlebrook, I, Nylin, S, Platts, PJ, Rasteiro, R, Saccheri, I, Villoutreix, R, Wheat, C & Hill, JK 2019, Climate-induced phenology shifts linked to range expansions in species with multiple reproductive cycles per year. Nature Communications. 

Senior, RA, Hill, JK & Edwards, DP 2019, Global loss of climate connectivity in tropical forests. Nature Climate Change. 

Lucey, JM, Palmer, G, Yeong, KL, Edwards, DP, Senior, MJM, Scriven, SA-L, Reynolds, G & Hill, JK 2016, Reframing the evidence base for policy-relevance to increase impact: a case study on forest fragmentation in the oil palm sector. Journal of Applied Ecology. 

Mair, L, Hill, JK, Fox, R, Botham, M, Brereton, T & Thomas, CD 2014, Abundance changes and habitat availability drive species' responses to climate change. Nature Climate Change, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 127-131. 

Funders

• The Socially and Environmentally Sustainable Oil Palm Research (SEnSOR)
• Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)

Find out more about Jane's work