Thomas Dally

Biography

I completed my BSc. (HONS) in Biology at the University of Portsmouth in 2010, and my MRes in Biodiversity and Conservation at the University of Leeds in 2014. After my master's degree, I successfully applied for a NERC-funded PhD at the University of Leeds with Prof. William Kunin in 2015.

My PhD research focused on insect pollinator decline, exploring the sampling biases associated with two survey methods commonly used to monitor bee and hoverfly communities: pan trapping and transect surveys, and providing evidence-based recommendations for the creation of standardised survey protocols. I also investigated the use of bioacoustic technology and machine learning to identify flower-visiting insect taxa using the frequency of their wing beats; and created and tested a novel passive acoustic survey device aimed at monitoring ambient flower-visiting insect activity.

I have recently been working on the interdisciplinary BioDAR project (https://biodarproject.org/), exploring how weather radar observations can be used to monitor UK aerial insect biodiversity across the UK.