Professor David Edwards

Research

Prior to joining the Sheffield faculty, I held postdoc positions at James Cook University, Australia, Princeton University, USA, and University of Leeds, UK. I primarily focused my research on determining the impacts of selective logging and oil palm on biodiversity, and I identified the critical conservation value of logged tropical forests.

I received my PhD from the University of East Anglia, UK, in 2005, where I studied why mutualistic interactions persist despite the potential for partners to defect as a cheater, using ant-plant mutualisms in Amazonian Peru as my model system. I retain an interest in the maintenance of mutualism and whether tropical land-use change will disrupt the benefits traded between species.

About me

A super keen (some might say obsessive) birder, I have travelled widely in the tropics, spending more than five years on the road in search of the world’s best birds, but not all of the brown ones. Whilst in civilisation, I love to watch the Canaries (aka Norwich City FC).