Patrick Cannon

Research

My current research interests and masters focus on the application of land-sparing/sharing theory in tropical land-use planning, as a strategy to meet both biodiversity conservation objectives and global agricultural demands.

Agricultural expansion poses a major threat to natural environments, global biodiversity and their invaluable ecosystem services (ES) which support human existence. With an additional 200–300 million ha of farmland predicted to be added to global agriculture by 2050, it is becoming increasingly important to manage agricultural landscapes for both conservation and food security.

Much of the earths existing forest cover persists as altered habitat due to human activities, and secondary forests now represent an important and growing land use. I am particularly interested in incorporating secondary forest in to the context of sharing/sparing theory, quantifying the comparative biodiversity value of sparing when spared land exclusively represents secondary forest.

One of my greatest interests are birds. It doesn’t matter whether I’m watching a family group of long-tailed tits outside my bedroom window or ringing various pitta and babblers in the forests of Borneo, I love it.

View my CV (PDF, 433KB)

About me

Outside of biology, I like to spend my free time outdoors either walking, cycling, bird ringing, or playing rugby. When inside I enjoy trips with friends to any of Sheffield’s fine pubs, watching rugby and eating. In addition, I am a keen traveller and have enjoyed trips across Asia, and can’t wait to explore further afield (most notably Peru, for its ridiculous bird diversity).