Dr Daniel Perkins
Senior Lecturer in Environmental Sciences
Heinz Wolff 001
- Email: daniel.perkins@brunel.ac.uk
- Tel: +44 (0)1895 267208
- Environmental Sciences
- Department of Life Sciences
- College of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences
Summary
I am a foodweb ecologist interested in understanding the impacts of environmental change (e.g. land use change, climate warming and microplastic pollution) on aquatic ecosystems. An ecosystem is more than the sum of its parts and by studying species interactions (e.g. food webs) we can gain key information about the pathways of energy flow that bring about real change in natural systems. I use a range of approaches from small-scale laboratory experiments, field surveys and large ecological datasets to search for common mechanisms operating across freshwater and marine realms.
Qualifications
2024: Advanced Higher Education Leadership Programme
2017: Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy
2011: Ph.D, Queen Mary University of London, UK.
2006: BSc (Hons) in Ecology, University of Leeds.
Newest selected publications
Perkins, DM., Müller, HL., Grünewald, S., Reiss, J., Restrepo-Sulez, K., Robertson, A. and et al. (2025) 'Microplastic ingestion by an aquatic ciliate: Functional response, modulation, and reduced population growth'. Science of the Total Environment, 963. pp. 1 - 9. ISSN: 0048-9697 Open Access Link
Saito, VS., Kratina, P., Barbosa, G., Ferreira, FC., Leal, JB., Zemelka, G., et al. (2024) 'Untangling the complex food webs of tropical rainforest streams'. Journal of Animal Ecology, 93 (8). pp. 1022 - 1035. ISSN: 0021-8790 Open Access Link
Collyer, G., Perkins, DM., Petsch, DK., Siqueira, T. and Saito, V. (2023) 'Land-use intensification systematically alters the size structure of aquatic communities in the Neotropics'. Global Change Biology, 29 (14). pp. 4094 - 4106. ISSN: 1354-1013 Open Access Link
Perkins, DM., Hatton, IA., Gauzens, B., Barnes, AD., Ott, D., Rosenbaum, B., et al. (2022) 'Consistent predator-prey biomass scaling in complex food webs'. Nature Communications, 13 (1). pp. 1 - 8. ISSN: 2041-1723 Open Access Link
Moi, DA., Lansac-Tôha, FM., Romero, GQ., Sobral-Souza, T., Cardinale, BJ., Kratina, P., et al. (2022) 'Human pressure drives biodiversity–multifunctionality relationships in large Neotropical wetlands'. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 6 (9). pp. 1279 - 1289. ISSN: 2397-334X Open Access Link