Tom Diserens

• Behavioural ecology
• Landscape of fear
• Predator-prey interactions
• Herbivore-plant interactions
• Large carnivore ecology

I study how wolf-prey interactions shape the landscapes around us. Where they occur, wolves can act as a keystone species: the wolf’s impacts on prey can cascade down food webs, indirectly shaping populations of species that the wolf’s prey eat. To illustrate, if wolves suppress populations of beavers, the trees beavers eat may be released from herbivore pressure. Whether this is true or not is, inter alia, the topic of our latest study.

Our team explores the cascading impacts of wolves on various prey species in Europe’s human-dominated landscapes. My PhD focused on how wolves impact (or rather, fail to impact) the behaviour of medium-sized carnivores. In our current project we’re studying how the fear predators strike into beavers shapes our river valleys.

Current project

Wolves and beavers are recolonising the Northern Hemisphere, yet we know little about how they interact with one another. In this study, we’re extending the landscape of fear framework to the beaver, an important prey species for the wolf in many areas. The project aims to reveal how wolves and humans shape beaver occurrence, behaviour and impacts on woody tree communities. We want to determine whether the wolf excludes the beaver and its ecological impacts from parts of our landscapes, and how human activity modifies these effects of the wolf. As both species are often heralded as saviours of biodiversity, this knowledghe is urgently needed to predict the ecological effects of the ongoing wolf and beaver recolonisations of Europe’s human dominated landscapes. You can read more about the project here.

Please feel free to contact me if looking for an internship or MSc project opportunity.