Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science

I joined the School of Life Sciences in 2013 from Nottingham Trent University, where I was a Lecturer in Ecology and Environmental Management.

Before that, I was a postdoctoral researcher in the Environment Department and Department of Politics at the University of York.

I completed my PhD at the University of Sheffield, following a BSc in Biological Sciences at King’s College London.

Qualifications

• BSc (Hons) Biological Sciences, King’s College London
• PhD in Ecology, University of Sheffield

Teaching expertise

I teach students studying BSc Biological Science and MSc Environmental Management. I enjoy teaching students at different levels, as it enables me to see the development in our students as they progress. I teach units that are very close to my research interests, such as ecology, global environmental change and sustainability, enabling my teaching to be informed by current developments and debates in these research areas.

Research interests

My research is motivated by the rapid changes happening to ecosystems as a consequence of human development. In particular, I am interested in the causes and consequences of the loss of species, habitats and ecosystems – both for nature and for people.

This has led to two broad sets of motivating questions:

• How do ecological communities assemble and disassemble under different environmental conditions and how can we make predictions about extinction? 
• How and why do people, societies and governments choose to (or not to) conserve nature?

Publications

• Burns, C., Carter, N. T., Davies, G. A. M. and Worsfold, N. T. (2013). Still saving the Earth? The European Parliament's environmental record. Environmental Politics (awaiting issue; DOI:10.1080/09644016.2012.698880).
• Clements, C. F., Worsfold, N. T., Warren, P. H., Collen, B., Clark, N., Blackburn, T. M., Petchey, O. L. (2013). Experimentally testing the accuracy of an extinction estimator: Solow's optimal linear estimation model. Journal of Animal Ecology 82 (2): 345-354.
• Burns, C., Carter, N. T. and Worsfold, N. T. (2012). Enlargement and the Environment: The Changing Behaviour of the European Parliament. Journal of Common Market Studies 50 (1): 54-70.
• Worsfold, N.T., Warren, P.H. and Petchey, O.L. (2009). Context-dependent effects of predator removal from experimental microcosm communities. Oikos 118: 1319-1326.

Contact details

T: +44 (0)1582 743574
E: nicholas.worsfold@beds.ac.uk