Professor Lynn Dicks
- Professor of Ecology Board Member, Natural England Co-Chair, Cambridge Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Global Food Systems
Contact
About
- 2023: Professor of Ecology, University of Cambridge; Non-Executive Director of Natural England
- 2019-2023: Lecturer in Animal Ecology, University of Cambridge; NERC Independent Research Fellow
- 2016-2019: NERC Independent Research Fellow, Reader, University of East Anglia
- 2009-2016: Postdoctoral researcher, then NERC Research Fellow, University of Cambridge, Department of Zoology
- 2002-2009: Science writer, science communications adviser (part-time)
- 2002: PhD, community ecology of flower-visiting insects, University of Cambridge
- 1995: BA Biological Sciences (First Class), University of Oxford
Co-Chair, Cambridge Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Global Food Systems
Co-Chair of Natural England Science Advisory Committee since 2023.
Nature Based Systems workstream lead for Fenland Soil.
Research Fellow funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (2016-2021). Previously NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellow, linked to the Insect Pollinators Initiative (2011-2014).
Co-ordinating Lead Author of the IPBES Thematic assessment of pollinators, pollination and food production.
Partner in Cambridge Conservation Initiative project on conserving wild pollinators and increasing food security (2016-2017).
Biodiversity lead for the Science Advisory Committee for the Cool Farm Alliance.
Previous editorial Board Member of Conservation Letters and Conservation Evidence; Associate Editor of Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems.
Research
Multi-scale effects of sustainable farming systems on biodiversity and ecosystem services
I work on how farmers can benefit from ecosystem services and reduce impacts on wildlife in profitable commercial contexts. I lead a large study of regenerative agriculture in England, co-designed with farmers as part of the H3 project. I oversee biodiversity work in the Cambridgeshire Fens and Cumbria as part of the Cambridge Centre for Landscape Regeneration. Previously, I led a Newton-funded project on sustainable fruit faming in northeast Brazil, measuring biodiversity and ecosystem service responses to farm management (SUFICA). Members of my team and close collaborators have projects on how to manage intensively farmed landscapes for biodiversity without compromising on food production or livelihoods in India, Chile, China and the UK.
Wild pollinator conservation
Wild pollinators are important to crop production and wild plant reproduction, and most of this pollination service is carried out by a relatively small number of common, widespread bee species. To preserve this ecological function, and optimise it for agriculture, we need landscapes that support common wild pollinators in the long term, by providing the food and nesting resources they need at the appropriate scale.
We use a combination of laboratory experiments, field ecology, genetics and remote sensing to understand how wild bees use landscapes and respond to land management. We have several projects with the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. We are running a case study in Somerset, England on conservation of the shrill carder bee, Bombus sylvarum, as part of the pan-European Restpoll project. We work on pollinator and natural enemy conservation from policy and agronomic perspectives. What actions are cost-effective and feasible, to support and conserve common and declining wild pollinators and natural enemies? How do these actions fit a program of ecological intensification, to enhance or maintain intensive production within a thriving agricultural ecosystem?
Evidence-based conservation
I have developed methods to compile and synthesize ecological evidence and make it useful for decision-making. I am a member of the Conservation Evidence core team and chaired the Methods Expert Group for the Eklipse science-policy mechanism on biodiversity and ecosystem services from 2015-2023. I use rigorous approaches to gather expert judgement, for rapid, transparent assessment of evidence, and build user-friendly models to support farm management decisions (see for example, the Cool Farm Biodiversity Metric). I work with organisations that manage the environment, in Government, the charitable sector and the food and farming industry.