Chris Joyce is Professor of Ecology in the School of Applied Sciences. He is Director of the Centre for Aquatic Environments. Professor Joyce has over 25 years of ecological research experience focusing on wetland ecology, management and restoration. He has conducted his research throughout Europe, especially in the UK, Czech Republic and Estonia, and in the USA. In 2020, he was awarded a 40th Anniversary Award by the international Society of Wetland Scientists for “high level and sustained contribution to wetland research and education.”    

Professor Joyce has attracted funds worth over £1.4 million for his research, including grants from the Darwin Initiative, Earthwatch Institute, European Union, Natural England, Environment Agency and Research Councils. He has successfully supervised 12 Doctorate (PhD) research degrees and is currently supervising a further six PhD candidates.

Professor Joyce has authored over 45 peer-reviewed publications and more than 30 conference papers. He has co-authored two books and edited three special issues of journals. He has presented his work to academics, practitioners, politicians and the general public and been invited to give keynote lectures throughout Europe and in the USA.

Professor Joyce has also conducted over 20 major ecological consultancy projects, specialising in botanical and wildlife surveys, preparing management plans, biodiversity audits, and ecological impact assessment. He has advised Government bodies, universities, non-governmental organisations and industry on ecology, biodiversity and environmental management. He is an Associate Editor of the international journal ‘ Hydrobiologia’, on the Editorial Board for the journal ‘ Wetland Science and Practice’, and serves on the Publications Committee for the Society of Wetland Scientists.

I am passionate about fieldwork and try to integrate it into my teaching whenever appropriate. I am particularly keen on teaching field-based ecological skills, such as plant and wildlife identification, ecological surveys and sampling, habitat mapping, and interpreting the landscape. I have taught such skills in many habitats, including ponds, rivers, sea shores, salt marshes, floodplains, grasslands, woodlands and urban environments, and during residential field courses in the UK, Switzerland, Spain, Estonia, and Sicily. I also like to make use of the local area for teaching. For example, students and I visit Cuckmere Haven as part of my ‘Aquatic Environments’ module in order to discuss wetland ecosystems and management.

I think it is important to recognise the critical role humans play in shaping ‘natural’ systems through their relationships with nature conservation. This is a key theme in my research but also in my teaching, which often involves students discussing contemporary conservation issues, for example in mock consultancy exercises or conventions. It also underpins my teaching on biogeography and environmental management on undergraduate courses, and on ecological evaluation and mitigation at Masters level.

I am afraid that I am also keen on teaching data analysis and presentation, at least so that students are not scared of statistics! In particular, I inflict multivariate analysis on students in the hope that their final year projects will reap the rewards!

I am interested in supervising postgraduate research students (PhD and MRes) in the following areas: wetland ecology and climate change; wetland creation and restoration; invasive wetland plants; offtake of wildlife from wetlands; wetlands and environmental change.