Alistair Auffret

Using various sources of historical and contemporary data at local to international scales, my colleagues and I try to link shifts in biodiversity over time to the environmental changes that have already happened.

Current and past major projects and important people include:

• The effectiveness of protected areas in conserving biodiversity in Sweden and Great Britain. Collaborators: PhD student Hannah Burger (SLU), Dr. Mari Jönsson (SLU), Dr. Andrew Suggitt (Northumbria University)
• The impact of land-use change, gradual climate change and extreme weather events on plant biodiversity and distributions in Sweden. Collaborators: Dr. Matilda Arnell (Stockholm University), Dr. Giulia Zacchello (SLU), Dr. Sebastian Sundberg (SLU).
• The effects of land-use and climate change on biodiversity in Sweden and Great Britain. Collaborators: Dr. Andrew Suggitt (Northumbria University), Dr. Teresa Montràs Janer (former postdoc at SLU).
• The role of microclimatic conditions in determining plant biodiversity in Swedish road verges. Collaborator: Dr. Jan Plue (SLU).
• Global patterns in the soil seed bank. Collaborators: Dr. Jan Plue (SLU), Dr. Emma Ladouceur (University of Prince Edward Island).

I am course leader for several undergraduate courses and modules in field botany, and also teach plant and landscape ecology. At the post-graduate level, I develop and lead courses in using the R environment to handle data and perform GIS analyses.

I am happy to supervise undergraduate and master student projects relating (more or less) to my research. Please get in touch and we can together think of an idea that suits your interests and timeframe!

Below are some of my recent and favourite papers. For my full publication list, visit my Google Scholar profile.

Montràs-Janer, T., Suggitt, A.J., Fox, R., Jönsson, M., Martay, B., Roy, D.B., Walker, K.J., Auffret, A.G., 2024, Anthropogenic climate and land-use change drive short- and long-term biodiversity shifts across taxa, Nature Ecology & Evolution 8: 739–751. Link. Press release.

Auffret, A.G., Nenzén, H., Polaina, E., 2024, Underprediction of extirpation and colonisation following land-use and climate change using species distribution models. Diversity and Distributions 30: e13824. Link

Horstmann, S., Auffret. A.G., Herbertsson, L., Klatt, B.K., Müller, S., Öckinger, E., 2024, Traffic intensity and vegetation management affect flower-visiting insects and their response to resources in road verges, Journal of Applied Ecology 61: 1955-1967. Link.

Kotowska, D., Skórka, P., Pärt, T., Auffret, A.G., Żmihorski, M., 2024, Spatial scale matters for predicting plant invasions along roads, Journal of Ecology 112: 305-318. Link.

Suggitt, A.J., Wheatley, C.J., Aucott, P., Beale, C.M., Fox, R., Hill, J.K., Isaac, N.J.B., Martay, B., Southall, H., Thomas, C.D., Walker, K.J., Auffret, A.G., 2023, Linking climate warming and land conversion to species’ range changes across Great Britain. Nature Communications 14: 6759. Link. Press release. Conversation article.

Auffret, A. G., Vangansbeke, P., De Frenne, P., Auestad, I., Basto, S., Grandin, U., Jacquemyn, H., Jakobsson, A., Kalamees, R., Koch, M. A., Marrs, R., Marteinsdóttir, B., Wagner, M., Bekker, R. M., Bruun, H. H., Decocq, G., Hermy, M., Jankowska-Błaszczuk, M., Milberg, P., Måren, I.E., Pakeman, R.J., Phoenix, G.K.,Thompson, K., Vandvik, V., Van Calster, H., Plue, J., 2023. More warm-adapted species in soil seed banks than in herb layer plant communities across Europe. Journal of Ecology 111: 1009-1020. Link. Press release.

Auffret, A.G., Svenning, J-C., 2022, Climate warming has compounded plant responses to habitat conversion in northern Europe, Nature Communications 13: 7818. Link.

Plue, J., Van Calster, H., Auestad, I., Basto, S., Bekker, R.M., Bruun, H.H., Chevalier, R., Decocq, G., Grandin, U, Hermy, M., Jacquemyn, H., Jakobsson, A., Jankowska-Błaszczuk, M., Kalamees, R., Koch, M.A., Marrs, R.H., Marteinsdóttir, B., Milberg, P., Måren, I.E., Pakeman, R.J., Phoenix, G.K.,Thompson, K., Vandvik, V., Wagner, M., Auffret, A.G., 2021, Buffering effects of soil seed banks on plant community composition in response to land use and climate, Global Ecology & Biogeography 30: 128-139. Link.

Auffret, A.G., Kimberley, A., Plue, J., Waldén, E., 2018, Super-regional land-use change and effects on the grassland specialist flora, Nature Communications 9:3464. Link.

Auffret, A.G., Rico, Y., Bullock, J.M., Hooftman, D.A.P., Pakeman, R.J., Soons, M.B., Suárez-Esteban, A., Traveset, A., Wagner, H.H., Cousins, S.A.O., 2017, Plant functional connectivity - integrating landscape structure and effective dispersal, Journal of Ecology 105: 1648-1656. Link.