Kez Armstrong
Introduction
Kez's PhD is focused on landscape ecology and how changes in land use affects the animals that use it, with a focus on avian communities and raptor research. Kez graduated from QUB in 2012 with a MSc in Animal Behaviour and Welfare and worked for WWT Castle Espie on graduation. She is involved in a range of projects outside her formal PhD studies and is a researcher with various ringing groups across Ireland and conducts survey work for the RSPB and BTO. She is a licenced BTO Bird Ringer with an interest in waterfowl, especially Light-bellied Brent Geese on Strangford Lough and Constant Effort Sites across Belfast & Down, adding to ringing research spanning over fifty years.
Overview
Kez's PhD is focused on how landscape ecology can have an affect on the structure and functioning of biological communities and how this can have consequences for birds of special conservation interest. Some avian predators have responded positively to recent landscape changes, like corvids and others. In contrast raptors are declining in large parts of the UK and Ireland. All avian predators rely on woody vegetation for at least part of their life cycle, and Kez's PhD aims to discover how afforestation, intensified agriculture and rapid land use change can affect their ecology.
