2005-2009 PhD
Insect Ecology Group, University Museum of Zoology, University of Cambridge, UK

2004-2005 MPhil
Conservation Biology Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, UK

2000-2003 MA (Hons) Natural Sciences (Zoology)
Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge, UK 1st (Rank 5/87)

RESEARCH ACTIVITY

October 2011-present Laboratory of Tropical Ecology, Univ. of South Bohemia, Czech Republic

Postdoctoral researcher in tropical ecology. Conducting analyses of plant-insect interaction networks and setting up experimental manipulations of tropical ecosystems in Papua New Guinea.

April 2011-present Forest Ecology and Conservation Group, Imperial College London

Affiliated postdoctoral research associate for the Stability of Altered Forest Ecosystems project (www.safeproject.net) investigating the effects of forest fragmentation on ant communities and the ecosystem processes that they mediate within the framework of a unique large-scale habitat fragmentation project in the field in Borneo. Funded by the SAFE project.

April 2010-March 2011 Soil Biodiversity Group, Entomology Department, Natural History Museum, London

Quantifying interaction networks between ants and termites in tropical forests by extracting and sequencing termite DNA from ant guts. Postdoctoral researcher supported by NERC small project grant.

January-April 2010 Royal Society South East Asia Rainforest Research Program, Sabah, Malaysia

Postdoctoral researcher for the SAFE project. Advising during the setup phase of a unique large-scale habitat fragmentation project in the field in Borneo.

October 2005-July 2009 Insect Ecology Group, University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge

PhD research on the ant communities of epiphytic ferns using a range of approaches including observations, laboratory experiments and computer-based simulations. Twelve month’s field work in tropical rain forest in Sabah, Malaysia, including tree climbing to heights of 40m. Gained expertise in SE Asian ant taxonomy. Funded by NERC with a CASE studentship.

June-August 2005 Department of Biology, University College London

Helped run a project investigating the costs of nest digging and provisioning in the wasp Ammophila pubescens in Surrey, UK. Funded by the Balfour-Browne fund.

April 2004-April 2005 Conservation Science Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge

One-year MPhil project investigating the conservation value of abandoned arable farmland. Gained experience in the survey methods and identification of various taxa. Funded by the Eranda Foundation.

August 2002-March 2004 Aquatic Ecology Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge

Research assistant position. Studied the impacts of human activities on freshwater biodiversity (three separate periods, four months total).

PUBLICATIONS

In preparation/in review

Fayle T.M., Eggleton P. & Foster W.A. (In preparation). Pattern-oriented modelling reveals the assembly rules that structure ant communities.

Luke S.H., Eggleton P., Fayle T.M., Turner E.C. & Davies R.G. (In preparation). Abundance and functional structure of ant and termite assemblages along a tropical forest disturbance gradient in Sabah, Malaysia.

Klimeš P., Idigel C., Rimandai M., Fayle T.M., Janda M. & Weiblen G.D. & Novotný V. (In review). Why are there more arboreal ant species in primary than secondary tropical forests?

2012 and in press

Fayle T.M., Edwards D.P., Turner, E.C., Dumbrell A.J., Eggleton P. & Foster W.A. (In press). Public goods, public services, and by-product mutualism in an ant-fern symbiosis. Oikos. [Online early]

Brussaard L., Aanen D.K., Briones M., Decaëns T, De Deyn G.B., Fayle T.M. & James S.W. (In press). Biogeography and phylogenetic community structure of soil invertebrate ecosystem engineers: global to local patterns and implications for ecosystem functioning and global environmental change impacts. In Wall D. (Ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Soil Ecology and Ecosystem Services. Oxford University Press.

Snaddon J.L., Turner E.C., Fayle T.M., Chey V.K., Eggleton P.E. & Foster W.A. (In press). Biodiversity hanging by a thread: the importance of fungal-litter trapping systems in tropical rainforests. Biology Letters. [Online early] [NERC Planet Earth] [Discover Magazine]

Yusah K.M., Fayle T.M., Harris G. & Foster W.A. (2012). Optimising diversity assessment protocols for high canopy ants in tropical rain forest. Biotropica 44: 73-81. [PDF]

2011

Fayle T.M., Bakker L., Cheah C., Ching T.M., Davey A., Dem F., Earl A., Huaimei Y., Hyland S., Johansson B., Ligtermoet E., Lim R., Lin L.K., Luangyotha P., Herlander Martins B., Palmeirim A.F., Paninhuan S., Kepfer Rojas S., Sam L., Sam P.T.T., Susanto D., Wahyudi A., Walsh J., Weigl S., Craze P.G., Jehle R., Metcalfe D. & Trevelyan T. (2011). A positive relationship between ant biodiversity (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) and rate of scavenger-mediated nutrient redistribution along a disturbance gradient in a south-east Asian rain forest. Myrmecological News 14: 5-12. [PDF] [Suppl. Mat.]

Turner E.C., Snaddon J.L., Ewers R.M., Fayle T.M. and Foster W.A. (2011). The Impact of Oil Palm Expansion on Environmental Change: Putting Conservation Research in Context. In Bernardes M.A.S. (Ed.) Environmental Impact of Biofuels. InTech Press. [PDF]

Foster W.A., Snaddon J.L., Turner E.C., Fayle T.M., Cockerill T.D., Ellwood M.D.F., Broad G.R., Chung A.Y.C., Eggleton E., Chey V.K., Yusah K.M. (2011). Establishing the evidence base for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem function in the oil palm landscapes of South East Asia. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 366: 3277-3291. [PDF] [NERC Planet Earth]

Fayle T.M. & Manica A. (2011). Bias in null model analyses of species co-occurrence: a response to Gotelli and Ulrich (2010). Ecological Modelling 222: 1340-1341. [PDF]

Woodcock P., Edwards D.P., Fayle T.M., Newton R.J., Chey V.K.. Bottrell S.H. & Hamer K.C. (2011) The conservation value of Southeast Asia’s highly degraded forests: evidence from leaf-litter ants. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 366: 3256-3264. [PDF] [Commentary in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment] [Science Daily]

Fayle T.M., Dumbrell A.J., Turner E.C & Foster W.A. (2011). Distributional patterns of epiphytic ferns are explained by the presence of cryptic species. Biotropica 43: 6-7. [PDF]

2010

Fayle T.M. & Manica A. (2010). Reducing over-reporting of deterministic co-occurrence patterns in biotic communities. Ecological Modelling 221: 2237-2242 [PDF] [Suppl. Mat.] [Response from Gotelli and Ulrich]

Fayle T.M. (2010) Go to the ant thou sluggard... Trends in Ecology and Evolution 25: 431-432 [PDF]

Fayle T.M., Turner E.C., Snaddon J.L., Chey V.K., Chung A.Y., Eggleton P.E. & Foster W.A. (2010). Oil palm expansion into rain forest greatly reduces ant biodiversity in canopy, epiphytes and leaf litter. Basic and Applied Ecology 11: 337-345. [PDF] [Suppl. Mat.] [NERC Planet Earth] [Mongabay]

Edwards D.P., Ansell F.A., Woodcock P, Fayle T.M., Chey V.K. & Hamer K.C. (2010) Can the failure to punish promote cheating in mutualism? Oikos 119: 45-52. [PDF]

2009

Fayle T.M., Chung A.Y.C., Dumbrell A.J., Eggleton P. & Foster W.A. (2009). The Effect of Rain Forest Canopy Architecture on the Distribution of Epiphytic Ferns (Asplenium spp.) in Sabah, Malaysia. Biotropica 41: 676-681. [PDF] [Cover] [Suppl. Mat.]

2008

Fayle T.M., Ellwood M.D.F., Turner E.C., Snaddon J.L., Yusah K.M. & Foster W.A. (2008). Bird’s nest ferns: islands of biodiversity in the rainforest canopy. Antenna 32: 34-37. [PDF]

Turner E.C., Snaddon J.L., Fayle T.M. & Foster W.A. (2008). Oil Palm Research in Context: Identifying the Need for Biodiversity Assessment. PLoS ONE 3: e1572. [PDF]

Fayle T.M. (2008). Book Review of Ants of North America: A Guide to the Genera by Brian Fisher & Stefan Cover. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 152: 847. [PDF]

Disney R.H.L. & Fayle T.M. (2008). A New Species of Scuttle Fly (Diptera: Phoridae) Parasitizing an Ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Borneo. Sociobiology 51: 327-332. [PDF]

2007

Field J., Turner E., Fayle T.M. & Foster W.A. (2007). Costs of egg-laying and offspring provisioning: multifaceted parental investment in a digger wasp. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 274: 445-451. [PDF]

Fayle T.M., Sharp R.E. & Majerus M.E.N. (2007). The effect of moth trap type on size and composition in British Lepidoptera. British Journal of Entomology and Natural History 20: 221-232. [PDF]

Aldridge D.C., Fayle T.M. & Jackson N. (2007). Freshwater mussel abundance predicts biodiversity in UK lowland rivers. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 17: 554-564. [PDF]

Reviewed manuscripts for: Basic and Applied Ecology, Insect Diversity and Conservation, Ecological Entomology, Landscape Ecology, Oikos, Bulletin of Insectology, Natural Areas Journal, Journal of Insect Science, PLoS ONE.

SELECTED PRIZES AND SCHOLARSHIPS

• Varley Gradwell Travelling Fellowship in Insect Ecology 2011 from the University of Oxford

• Thomas Henry Huxley Award and Marsh Prize 2009 from the Zoological Society of London for "the best zoological doctoral thesis produced in Great Britain or Northern Ireland".

• Alfred Russell Wallace Award 2008/9 from the Royal Entomological Society “for postgraduate research leading to a PhD degree awarded by a UK university and judged to make the most significant contribution to entomology in the year”.

• Student Talk Prizes from the Royal Entomological Society (1st 2008, 2nd 2006) and the International Union for the Study of Social Insects (1st 2008).

• Swann Prize for Biology, Legg Scholarship (2005, 2006) and election to Senior and College Scholarships, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

OUTREACH AND COMMUNICATION

Presented work at international conferences in Washington D.C. (USA), Kuching and Kota Kinabalu (Malaysia) and Durban (South Africa). Have also presented as an invited speaker at the University of Plymouth and the University of Bristol, UK. Act as scientific adviser and canopy access instructor for Canopy Access Ltd., a company providing canopy access training and services for scientists, film makers and tourists. Helped run a stand at the Royal Society Summer Exhibition and a “Forest” exhibition at the University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge. Interviews with the BBC online, BBC Radio 6 and Malaysian national television. Photography featured on front covers of Science, TREE, Biotropica and Biology 2 for OCR (an A-level text book).

TEACHING ACTIVITY AND ADMINISTRATION EXPERIENCE

Taught on five residential undergraduate field courses in various parts of the UK. Supervised over 20 undergraduate student projects. Demonstrated in third-year undergraduate statistics computing practicals and first year Evolution and Behaviour practicals. Organised lab meetings for the Conservation Biology Group for 12 months, including presenting papers and arranging talks. Helped run the Cambridge Student Conference on Conservation Science in 2004 and 2005. Assistant course organiser for second year undergraduate module “Ecology” (University of Cambridge). Duties included assigning of projects and supervisors to students, and organisation of student project talks. Taught on a Tropical Biology Association field course in Sabah, Malaysia (October 2009, 4 weeks).