Current Member - Dr. Matt Wood
Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Matt Wood
Details
Name: Dr. Matt Wood
Position: Postdoctoral researcher
Email: matt.wood@zoo.ox.ac.uk
Autobiography
After a B.Sc. in biology at Manchester, I took an M.Sc. in Ecology at Bangor which first kindled an interest in birds and parasites. I then moved to Sheffield for a Ph.D. project looking at parasites and the life history and sexual traits of European blackbirds, and great tits in a nestbox population at Lund University in Sweden. After brief detours into seabirds, social insects, mammals and a postdoc in France, I joined the EGI in 2004.
Research Activities
I am interested in the ecology of host-parasite interactions, particularly the spatial ecology of avian malaria in the EGI's tit populations at Wytham Woods. I maintain an interest in avian ecology in slightly wilder places with studies of migrating passerines and seabirds.
Dispersal, environment and spatial heterogenity of avian malaria in tits
NERC funded project. Mike Boots, (University of Sheffield), Beth Purse (CEH Edinburgh), Sarah Knowles and Ben Sheldon (see Host-parasite systems page). Host infection with parasites can vary markedly in space and time, even at a local scale in the case of avian malaria in our tit population. Hosts take their parasites with them wherever they go, so does a site have a high level of disease infection due to the local environment, or because infected individuals have moved there? Using long term data, experimental work and mathematical modeling we will examine individual variation in avian malaria infection in tits, and the role of dispersal in the spatial distribution of infection.
Puffinosis in Manx shearwaters
Mike Brooke (University of Cambridge) and Chris Perrins. This disease kills thousands of fledglings each year on Skomer Island, the world's largest breeding colony of Manx shearwaters. Using data from the 1980s and new whole-island surveys, we are examining environmental correlates of puffinosis infection.
Pollen on migrating warblers as a bioindicator
BES funded project. Pete Morgan and Martin Cade (Portland Bird Observatory), Adam Hart and Frank Chambers (University of Gloucestershire). We are examining pollen from migrant birds arriving in England as a miniature time capsule of their foraging activities on migration and a potential indicator of migratory routes.
Potential drivers of a moving contact zone between two Hippolaïs warblers
Beth Purse (CEH Edinburgh), Franck Grossiord (Conservatoire Picardie, France) and Jean Sécondi, (Université d'Angers, France). The contact zone between the breeding ranges of melodious warblers H. polyglotta and Icterine warblers H. icterina has moved north-eastwards in recent decades. We are modelling European census data and satellite-derived remote sensing data to examine the roles of interspecies competition and environmental variation as drivers of this moving contact zone.
Selected Recent Papers
Cosgrove C.L., Wood M.J., Day K.P., & Sheldon B.C. (2008) Seasonal variation in Plasmodium prevalence in a population of blue tits Cyanistes caeruleus. Journal of Animal Ecology 77: 540-548 | Read abstract/paper online
Wood, M.J., Cosgrove, C.L., Wilkin, T.A., Knowles, S.C.L., Day, K.P. & Sheldon, B.C. 2007. Within-population variation in prevalence and lineage distribution of avian malaria in blue tits Cyanistes caeruleus. Molecular Ecology 16, 3263-3273| Read abstract/paper online
Wood, M.J. 2007. Parasites entangled in food webs. Trends in Parasitology 23, 8-10. | Read abstract/paper online
Wood, M.J. & Cosgrove, C.L. 2006. The hitchhiker's guide to avian malaria Trends in Ecology and Evolution 27, 5-7. | Read abstract/paper online
Sharp, S., McGowan, A., Wood, M.J. & B.J. Hatchwell 2005. Learned kin recognition cues in a social bird. Nature 434, 1127-1130. | Read abstract/paper online
Download complete list of publications
