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Research
The rose-ringed parakeet is listed amongst the top 100 worst alien species in Europe, and since the 1970s has rapidly established itself in over 100 cities across the continent and beyond. They have begun to pose problems in urban and rural areas such as disturbance to humans (including potential to transmit diseases to livestock and humans), competition with native wildlife and, increasingly, as an agricultural pest, already prompting changes in national policies. Worryingly, farming practices that adapt to global climate change and a warmer Europe facilitate the continued expansion of parakeet populations, amplifying the problems parakeets pose for European agro-economy. More generally, a temporal, spatial and social perspective of biological invasion is crucial to address, understand and solve the ‘alien species problem’ but is lacking. This Action will help to (i) better understand why some species such as parakeets are highly successful invaders, (ii) harmonise methodologies to predict agricultural, economic, societal and ecological impacts across Europe, and the means to mitigate them, (iii) create a virtual European Monitoring Centre for all invasive parrot species, and (iv) transfer results to policy and society. The Action fulfils EU 2020 Biodiversity Strategy, Convention on Biological Diversity and Syracuse Charter recommendations on invasive species.
Evolutionary Genetics
Dr Jim Groombridge: Action Chair and Grant Holder
Dr Jim Groombridge is the Action Chair and Grant Holder, and is a Reader in Biodiversity Conservation at The Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), University of Kent. His conservation genetics research group works on evolutionary and population genetics of rose-ringed parakeets and evolutionary phylogenetics of Old World parrots, as well as research on immune function and disease of invasive and endemic parakeets. Below is a list of some of Jim's recent publications.
Bristol, R., R. Tucker, D. A. Dawson, G. Horsburgh, R. Prys-Jones, A. Frantz, A. Krupa, N. Shah, T. Burke & J. J. Groombridge(2013) Comparison of historical bottleneck effects and genetic consequences of reintroduction in a critically-endangered island passerine. Molecular Ecology, In Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/mec.12429
Jackson, H., B. J. T. Morgan & J. J. Groombridge (2013) How closely do measures of mitochondrial DNA control region diversity reflect recent trajectories of population decline in birds? Conservation Genetics In Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10592-013-0514-7
Simpson, S., N. Blampied, G. Peniche, A. Dozières, T. Blackett, S. Coleman, N. Cornish & J. J. Groombridge (2013) Genetic structure of introduced populations: 120-year-old DNA footprint of historic introduction in an insular small mammal population.Ecology and Evolution 3, 614-628. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.486
Tollington, S., C. G. Jones, A. Greenwood, V. Tatayah, C. Raisin, T. Burke, D. A. Dawson & J. J. Groombridge (2013) Long-term, fine-scale temporal patterns of genetic diversity in the restored Mauritius parakeet reveal genetic impacts of management and associated demographic effects on reintroduction programmes. Biological Conservation 161, 28–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2013.02.013.
Bristol, R. M., P-H. Fabre, M. Irestedt, K. A. Jønsson, N. J. Shah, V. Tatayah, B. H. Warren & J. J. Groombridge (2013) Molecular phylogeny of the Indian Ocean Terpsiphone paradise flycatchers: Undetected evolutionary diversity revealed amongst island populations. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 67, 336–347. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2013.01.019