People
Roberts, David L.
| Job Title | Orchid Taxonomist |
|---|---|
| Department | Herbarium |
| Section | Monocot Systematics |
| Science Teams |
Monocots III: Orchids Madagascar Wet Tropics: Africa |
| Joined Kew | 2001 |
| Foreign Language(s) |
Qualifications & Appointments
BSc (Hons) Botany, Univ. Wales (Aberystwyth), 1996
M.Phil, Univ. Wales (Aberystwyth), 1997
PhD, Univ. Aberdeen, 2001.
Editor, Orchid Research Newsletter
Cypripedium Recovery Committee, English Nature
Development Committee & Secretary, Orchid Conservation International
Secretary, International Orchid Commission
Madagascar Plant Specialist & Orchid Specialist Groups, IUCN-SSC.
Role
Development of novel areas and research methods using biological collection data and studies of evolutionary patterns; orchid systematics and conservation.
Main focus of research is the orchid floras of the western Indian Ocean and West Africa, based on visits to both regions on a number of occasions. Work has a strong conservation focus, in particular the uses of biological collection data in novel ways such as climate change, extinction and decline modelling. This is driven by the fact that following the 2002 World Summit in Johannesburg, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has called for a decrease in the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. However, a 2003 UK Royal Society report on Measuring Biodiversity for Conservation discussed the unavailability of satisfactory measures of biodiversity, and reported on the difficulty of reporting accurately on the loss of biodiversity by 2010. The difficulty is not just one of measuring the rate of change of biodiversity. Perhaps even more importantly, we need to be able to obtain reliable measures of extinction risk in order to prioritise where to focus interventions in order to most effectively reduce the rate of biodiversity loss. This work involves collaboration with a number or researches but in particular Dr Andrew Solow from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. This successful collaboration involves identification of specific questions and the development of specific statistical models. Currently supervising 4 students (PhDs & MSc).
Projects
CITES: UK Scientific Authority
Climate Change Induced Temporal and Spatial Shift Asynchrony in Orchid-Pollinator Interactions
Conservation and Monitoring of Meso-American Orchids
Digital Ecosystem for Extinction Risk Assessment (DEERA)
Madagascar Threatened Plants Project
Understanding and Conserving the Earth’s Biodiversity Hotspots (HOTSPOTS)
Selected Publications 2001-2005
Davies, K.L., Roberts, D.L. & Turner, M.P. (2002). Pseudopollen & food-hair diversity in Polystachya Hook. (Orchidaceae). Annals of Botany 90: 477-484.
Roberts, D.L. (2003). Pollination Biology: the role of sexual reproduction in orchid conservation. In Dixon, K.W., Kell, S.P., Barrett, R.L. & Cribb, P.J. (eds) Orchid Conservation. Kota Kinabalu, Sabah: Natural History Publications. 113-136.
Roberts, D.L. & Solow, A.R. (2003). When did the Dodo become extinct? Nature 426: 245.
Solow, A.R. & Roberts, D.L. (2003). A nonparametric test for extinction based on a sighting record. Ecology 84: 1329-1332.
Roberts, D.L. & Sayers, B. (2005). Eria sessilifolia (Orchidaceae). Curtis’s Botanical Magazine 22: 38-41.