Darío Fernández-Bellon

My research spans different fields relating to conservation biology, wildlife ecology, and global change, and I am always keen to explore new fields of knowledge.

Birds of prey are considered indicators of ecosystem health due to their susceptibility to environmental change, with many raptor populations across the world threatened with extinction. Complementary to my conservation work on these species, I research different aspects of raptor ecology and their responses to anthropogenic pressures. A substantial part of this work has focused on understanding how raptors are affected by wind energy developments and by changes in land use such as afforestation. I also study different aspects of raptor population ecology that can help inform species conservation.

Understanding how multiple drivers of environmental change interact and their effects on biodiversity is a key field of research in global change ecology. The ecology of the white-throated dipper Cinclus cinclus makes it an ideal model to study the combined effects of different drivers. Its life cycle is intimately linked to freshwater systems, and as such dippers have the potential to integrate and reflect the environmental health, not only of the rivers they live on, but also of the wider catchment and surrounding lands.

My work uses long-term monitoring data to evaluate the effects of climate change, land use, and water quality on dipper populations. As well as evaluating the effects of environmental factors by tracking changes in breeding parameters and individual biometrics, I also study the potential of new physiological techniques as a finer scale measure of anthropogenic effects on individual birds.

There is still a lot we don't know or understand about the natural world, and in the accelerating race of scientific research, natural history sometimes falls by the wayside. Natural history studies remain vital as they often concern poorly known and endangered wildlife, or can illuminate aspects of well-known species that have a direct bearing on their conservation. My work on this front is varied, and includes research on diet, activity patterns, or species interactions, aimed at informing conservation strategies and improving monitoring and survey methodologies.

Profound behavioural changes at a societal scale are required if we are to revert the current global environmental crisis. Conservation messaging plays a key role in instigating societal changes in behaviour, but our understanding on how to effectively transfer conservation science to the public is limited. My work in this area focuses on understanding public responses to conservation messages that are targeted at millions of people, such as nature documentaries. Using online data (e.g. Twitter sentiment, Wikipedia activity, Google Trends) my research sets out to measure public responses to these messages and determine whether they elicit changes in awareness and attitudes or elicit proactive behaviours. The ultimate aim of this work is to develop guidance which can help improve the effectiveness of conservation messaging.