David’s research focuses on understanding the impacts of environmental change on biodiversity. This work has included assessing the potential impacts of climate change across protected area networks, evaluating the efficacy of national land management schemes designed to reverse declining bird populations, and identifying the mechanistic drivers of population responses to environmental change. Overall, his research aims to improve the tools available for identifying future threats by developing a better understanding of the mechanisms underpinning observed impacts of environmental change on natural populations
David’s PhD research at the UK’s Centre for Ecology & Hydrology focused on developing behavioural-based models of birds foraging in agricultural landscapes, and this research theme was continued later as a Research Ecologist at the British Trust for Ornithology. Moving to Durham University in 2012, David worked on several large international collaborations assessing climate change vulnerability at regional scales (e.g. West Africa, South America). David joined Monash University in 2016 as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the McGeoch research group.