Ieuan Lamb

Research

My main research interested are in conservation biology across landscape scales: investigating the impacts of land-use change on biodiversity, and how landscape composition can be managed to achieve multiple goals (biodiversity, climate, social, and economic). I started working with the lab group in 2017 on projects focussing on the global wildlife trade, forest regrowth in selectively logged tropical forests, and the opportunities for carbon payment schemes for conserving low intensity agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa.

I started my PhD in 2021 and throughout my research I aim to highlight the complex conservation issues surrounding mining and the secondary threats caused be social and economic changes. The focus on of my research will be to identify trends in how mining threatens species at global scales and using species range maps to identify global hotspots of species extinction risk. Quantifying the full impact of mining industries on biodiversity by incorporating both direct and secondary impacts.

Mineral extraction industries are expanding at unprecedented rates, posing significant threat to biodiversity and global conservation goals. Long term and large-scale environmental impacts are common themes across the huge variety of mining techniques and practices. Consequently, mines pose multiple threats to species: through direct habitat loss, degradation and pollution, as well as secondary threats from infrastructure, expansion of settlements and associated hunting, fragmentation and further land-use changes. Identifying the risk to species extinctions caused by primary and secondary threats of mining is critical for informing conservation and land management decisions.

I will assess mining impacts from the perspectives of species; using data and species range maps collected by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), to identify what species are being threatened and where. Following this, I will consider the short falls of these IUCN assessments and quantify the secondary impacts of mining and how the true magnitude of mining effects may currently be underestimated.

About me

I enjoy painting, drawing and playing music in my spare time. I spend a lot of time outdoors, cycling and climbing in the Peaks, wild swimming, or foraging for mushrooms. Before my PhD I spent 3 years playing professional volleyball. I also love watching live music, mainly alternative rock, post-punk and UK Jazz.