Professor Dylan Childs
School of Biosciences
Professor, Chair in Population Biology
Director of Education
d.childs@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 4313
+44 114 222 4313
C206, Alfred Denny Building
Full contact details
Professor Dylan Childs
School of Biosciences
C206
Alfred Denny Building
Western Bank
Sheffield
S10 2TN
School of Biosciences
C206
Alfred Denny Building
Western Bank
Sheffield
S10 2TN
- Profile
-
- Professor, Chair in Population Biology (2022-present)
- Lecturer, Sheffield University (2016-2022)
- NERC Research Fellow, Sheffield University (2008-2016)
- Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, Sheffield University (2006-2008)
- Welcome Funded PDRA, Sheffield University (2005-2006)
- Equities Trader, Circe Trading (2003-2005)
- PhD Population Biology, Imperial College (1999-2003)
- Research interests
-
I am a population biologist with interests at both the pure and applied ends of the spectrum. I follow an interdisciplinary approach, developing data-driven models to understand population dynamics and natural selection in laboratory and free-living animal and plant populations. I am particularly keen to understand how demographic, environmental and ecological processes interact to influence these processes. I also develop theory and methods for modelling and analysis of structured populations.
- Publications
-
Show: Featured publications All publications
Featured publications
Books
- Getting Started with R: An Introduction for Biologists. Oxford University Press.
- Data-driven Modelling of Structured Populations: A Practical Guide to the Integral Projection Model. Springer.
Journal articles
- Indigenous Peoples' lands are critical for safeguarding vertebrate diversity across the tropics. Global Change Biology. View this article in WRRO
- Contrasting effects of climate change on seasonal survival of a hibernating mammal. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(30), 18119-18126. View this article in WRRO
- Individual differences determine the strength of ecological interactions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 117(29), 17068-17073. View this article in WRRO
- Changes in age‐structure over four decades were a key determinant of population growth rate in a long‐lived mammal. Journal of Animal Ecology. View this article in WRRO
- Evolution of generalist resistance to herbicide mixtures reveals a trade-off in resistance management. Nature Communications, 11(1). View this article in WRRO
- Assessing seasonal demographic covariation to understand environmental‐change impacts on a hibernating mammal. Ecology Letters, 23(4), 588-597. View this article in WRRO
- The costs of human-induced evolution in an agricultural system. Nature Sustainability, 3(1), 63-71. View this article in WRRO
- Cumulative weather effects can impact across the whole life cycle. Global Change Biology, 25(10), 3282-3293. View this article in WRRO
- Long-term trends in wild-capture and population dynamics point to an uncertain future for captive elephants.. Proceedings of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences, 286(1899). View this article in WRRO
- Evolutionary epidemiology predicts the emergence of glyphosate resistance in a major agricultural weed. New Phytologist. View this article in WRRO
- Exploring population responses to environmental change when there is never enough data: a factor analytic approach. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 9(11), 2283-2293. View this article in WRRO
- Transient LTRE analysis reveals the demographic and trait‐mediated processes that buffer population growth. Ecology Letters, 21(11), 1693-1703. View this article in WRRO
- Delivering the promises of trait‐based approaches to the needs of demographic approaches, and
vice versa. Functional Ecology, 32(6), 1424-1435. View this article in WRRO
- The factors driving evolved herbicide resistance at a national scale. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 2, 529-536. View this article in WRRO
- Linking intraspecific trait variation to community abundance dynamics improves ecological predictability by revealing a growth-defence trade-off. Functional Ecology, 32(2), 496-508. View this article in WRRO
- Measuring the effectiveness of management interventions at regional scales by integrating ecological monitoring and modelling. Pest Management Science. View this article in WRRO
- Stress-Mediated Allee Effects Can Cause the Sudden Collapse of Honey Bee Colonies.. J Theor Biol. View this article in WRRO
- The evolution of labile traits in sex- and age-structured populations. Journal of Animal Ecology, 85(2), 329-342. View this article in WRRO
- The effects of asymmetric competition on the life history of Trinidadian guppies. Ecology Letters, 19(3), 268-278. View this article in WRRO
- Opportunities and challenges of Integral Projection Models for modelling host-parasite dynamics. Journal of Animal Ecology, 85(2), 343-355. View this article in WRRO
- Statistical modelling of annual variation for inference on stochastic population dynamics using Integral Projection Models. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 6(9), 1007-1017.
- Multiple environmental changes interact to modify species dynamics and invasion rates. Oikos, 124(4), 458-468.
- Building integral projection models: a user's guide.. J Anim Ecol, 83(3), 528-545. View this article in WRRO
- Assessing the role of competition and stress: A critique of importance indices and the development of a new approach. Journal of Ecology, 100(3), 577-585.
- Using evolutionary demography to link life history theory, quantitative genetics and population ecology.. Journal of Animal Ecology. View this article in WRRO
- Coupled dynamics of body mass and population growth in response to environmental change. NATURE, 466(7305), 482-U5. View this article in WRRO
All publications
Books
- Insights from Data with R. Oxford University Press.
- Getting Started with R. Oxford University Press.
- Getting Started with R: An Introduction for Biologists. Oxford University Press.
- Data-driven Modelling of Structured Populations: A Practical Guide to the Integral Projection Model. Springer.
Journal articles
- Indigenous Peoples' lands are critical for safeguarding vertebrate diversity across the tropics. Global Change Biology. View this article in WRRO
- Nest-site selection and reproductive success of a critically endangered parrot, the Great Green Macaw (Ara ambiguus), in an anthropogenic landscape. Ibis.
- A standard protocol to report discrete stage‐structured demographic information. Methods in Ecology and Evolution.
- Indigenous lands in protected areas have high forest integrity across the tropics. Current Biology.
- A deep learning application to map weed spatial extent from unmanned aerial vehicles imagery. Remote Sensing, 14(17). View this article in WRRO
- Mesostats—a multiplexed, low-cost, do-it-yourself continuous culturing system for experimental evolution of mesocosms. PLoS ONE, 17(7). View this article in WRRO
- Rpadrino : an R package to access and use PADRINO, an open access database of Integral Projection Models. Methods in Ecology and Evolution.
- Dissecting weed adaptation: fitness and trait correlations in herbicide resistant Alopecurus myosuroides. Pest Management Science.
- Phenotypic plasticity masks range-wide genetic differentiation for vegetative but not reproductive traits in a short-lived plant. Ecology Letters. View this article in WRRO
- Multigenerational pedigree analysis of wild individually marked black sparrowhawks suggests that dark plumage coloration is a dominant autosomal trait. Journal of Zoology. View this article in WRRO
- The myriad of complex demographic responses of terrestrial mammals to climate change and gaps of knowledge : a global analysis. Journal of Animal Ecology, 90(6), 1398-1407.
- Developing hierarchical density‐structured models to study the national‐scale dynamics of an arable weed. Ecological Monographs. View this article in WRRO
- Herbaceous perennial plants with short generation time have stronger responses to climate anomalies than those with longer generation time. Nature Communications, 12(1).
- Experimental evidence that local interactions select against selfish behaviour. Ecology Letters. View this article in WRRO
- Fine‐scale spatial variation in fitness is comparable to disturbance‐induced fluctuations in a fire‐adapted species. Ecology.
- Characterizing the environmental drivers of the abundance and distribution of Alopecurus myosuroides on a national scale. Pest Management Science.
- Strengthening the evidence base for temperature-mediated phenological asynchrony and its impacts. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 5(2), 155-164.
- Publisher Correction: Evolution of generalist resistance to herbicide mixtures reveals a trade-off in resistance management. Nature Communications, 11(1).
- Environmental change reduces body condition, but not population growth, in a high‐arctic herbivore. Ecology Letters.
- ‘Demographic performance of European tree species at their hot and cold climatic edges’. Journal of Ecology.
- Bridging gaps in demographic analysis with phylogenetic imputation. Conservation Biology.
- Contrasting effects of climate change on seasonal survival of a hibernating mammal. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(30), 18119-18126. View this article in WRRO
- Individual differences determine the strength of ecological interactions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 117(29), 17068-17073. View this article in WRRO
- Changes in age‐structure over four decades were a key determinant of population growth rate in a long‐lived mammal. Journal of Animal Ecology. View this article in WRRO
- Evolution of generalist resistance to herbicide mixtures reveals a trade-off in resistance management. Nature Communications, 11(1). View this article in WRRO
- Demographic and reproductive associations with nematode infection in a long-lived mammal.. Scientific Reports, 10(1). View this article in WRRO
- Assessing seasonal demographic covariation to understand environmental‐change impacts on a hibernating mammal. Ecology Letters, 23(4), 588-597. View this article in WRRO
- Feeding a city – Leicester as a case study of the importance of allotments for horticultural production in the UK. Science of The Total Environment, 705. View this article in WRRO
- Global gene flow releases invasive plants from environmental constraints on genetic diversity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(8), 4218-4227. View this article in WRRO
- The costs of human-induced evolution in an agricultural system. Nature Sustainability, 3(1), 63-71. View this article in WRRO
- Comments to “Persistent problems in the construction of matrix population models”. Ecological Modelling, 416.
- Cumulative weather effects can impact across the whole life cycle. Global Change Biology, 25(10), 3282-3293. View this article in WRRO
- Testing the ability of Unmanned Aerial Systems and machine learning to map weeds at subfield scales: a test with the weed Alopecurus myosuroides (Huds).. Pest Management Science. View this article in WRRO
- Long-term trends in wild-capture and population dynamics point to an uncertain future for captive elephants.. Proceedings of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences, 286(1899). View this article in WRRO
- Evolutionary epidemiology predicts the emergence of glyphosate resistance in a major agricultural weed. New Phytologist. View this article in WRRO
- How do toxicants affect epidemiological dynamics?. Oikos. View this article in WRRO
- Exploring population responses to environmental change when there is never enough data: a factor analytic approach. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 9(11), 2283-2293. View this article in WRRO
- Transient LTRE analysis reveals the demographic and trait‐mediated processes that buffer population growth. Ecology Letters, 21(11), 1693-1703. View this article in WRRO
- Funder Restrictions on Application Numbers Lead to Chaos. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 33(8), 565-568. View this article in WRRO
- Delivering the promises of trait‐based approaches to the needs of demographic approaches, and
vice versa. Functional Ecology, 32(6), 1424-1435. View this article in WRRO
- Interactions between immunotoxicants and parasite stress: Implications for host health. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 445, 120-127. View this article in WRRO
- Using an integral projection model to assess the effect of temperature on the growth of gilthead seabream Sparus aurata. PLoS ONE, 13(5). View this article in WRRO
- The factors driving evolved herbicide resistance at a national scale. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 2, 529-536. View this article in WRRO
- Linking intraspecific trait variation to community abundance dynamics improves ecological predictability by revealing a growth-defence trade-off. Functional Ecology, 32(2), 496-508. View this article in WRRO
- Evaluating the potential of Unmanned Aerial Systems for mapping weeds at field scales: a case study with Alopecurus myosuroides. Weed Research, 58(1), 35-45. View this article in WRRO
- Reviewing research priorities in weed ecology, evolution and management: a horizon scan. Weed Research, 58(4), 250-258. View this article in WRRO
- Measuring the effectiveness of management interventions at regional scales by integrating ecological monitoring and modelling. Pest Management Science. View this article in WRRO
- Stress-Mediated Allee Effects Can Cause the Sudden Collapse of Honey Bee Colonies.. J Theor Biol. View this article in WRRO
- Transdisciplinary weed research: new leverage on challenging weed problems?. Weed Research, 56(5), 345-358. View this article in WRRO
- Ecologically sustainable weed management: How do we get from proof-of-concept to adoption?. Ecological Applications, 26(5), 1352-1369.
- The evolution of labile traits in sex- and age-structured populations. Journal of Animal Ecology, 85(2), 329-342. View this article in WRRO
- Eco-evolutionary Biology: Feeding and Feedback Loops. Current Biology, 26(4), R161-R164.
- The effects of asymmetric competition on the life history of Trinidadian guppies. Ecology Letters, 19(3), 268-278. View this article in WRRO
- Opportunities and challenges of Integral Projection Models for modelling host-parasite dynamics. Journal of Animal Ecology, 85(2), 343-355. View this article in WRRO
- Statistical modelling of annual variation for inference on stochastic population dynamics using Integral Projection Models. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 6(9), 1007-1017.
- The ecological forecast horizon, and examples of its uses and determinants. Ecology Letters, 18(7), 597-611. View this article in WRRO
- Multiple environmental changes interact to modify species dynamics and invasion rates. Oikos, 124(4), 458-468.
- Advancing population ecology with integral projection models: A practical guide. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 5(2), 99-110.
- Inferring the temperature dependence of population parameters: the effects of experimental design and inference algorithm. Ecology and Evolution, 4(24), 4736-4750. View this article in WRRO
- Building integral projection models: a user's guide.. J Anim Ecol, 83(3), 528-545. View this article in WRRO
- Parasitic plant litter input: a novel indirect mechanism influencing plant community structure.. New Phytol, 198(1), 222-231.
- The epidemiology underlying age-related avian malaria infection in a long-lived host: The mute swan Cygnus olor. Journal of Avian Biology.
- Assessing the role of competition and stress: A critique of importance indices and the development of a new approach. Journal of Ecology, 100(3), 577-585.
- Using evolutionary demography to link life history theory, quantitative genetics and population ecology.. Journal of Animal Ecology. View this article in WRRO
- Coupled dynamics of body mass and population growth in response to environmental change. NATURE, 466(7305), 482-U5. View this article in WRRO
- Evolutionary bet-hedging in the real world: empirical evidence and challenges revealed by plants.. Proc Biol Sci, 277(1697), 3055-3064.
- Bet-hedging as an evolutionary game: the trade-off between egg size and number.. Proc Biol Sci, 277(1685), 1149-1151.
- The interaction of seasonal forcing and immunity and the resonance dynamics of malaria.. J R Soc Interface, 7(43), 309-319. View this article in WRRO
- Local interactions lead to pathogen-driven change to host population dynamics.. Curr Biol, 19(19), 1660-1664.
- WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE: RECONCILING MODELS, DATA, AND ANALYSIS. ISR J ECOL EVOL, 55(3), 227-231.
- Evolution of flowering decisions in a stochastic, density-dependent environment. P NATL ACAD SCI USA, 105(30), 10466-10470.
- Estimating the functional form for the density dependence from life history data. ECOLOGY, 89(6), 1661-1674.
- Evolution of size-dependent flowering in a variable environment: partitioning the effects of fluctuating selection. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 271(1538), 471-475.
- Periodic local disturbance in host–parasitoid metapopulations: host suppression and parasitoid persistence. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 227(1), 13-23.
- Evolution of size–dependent flowering in a variable environment: construction and analysis of a stochastic integral projection model. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 271(1537), 425-434.
- Evolution of complex flowering strategies: an age– and size–structured integral projection model. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 270(1526), 1829-1838.
- Identification of Novel Temperature-sensitive Lethal Alleles in Essential β-Tubulin and Nonessential α2-Tubulin Genes as Fission Yeast Polarity Mutants. Molecular Biology of the Cell, 9(7), 1757-1771.
- Predicting the population viability of an endangered amphibian under environmental and demographic uncertainty. Population Ecology.
- A mixed-model approach for estimating drivers of microbiota community composition and differential taxonomic abundance. mSystems.
- Herbivore-driven disruption of arbuscular mycorrhizal carbon-for-nutrient exchange is ameliorated by neighboring plants. Current Biology.
- The implications of seasonal climatic effects for managing disturbance dependent populations under a changing climate. Journal of Ecology.
- A predictive timeline of wildlife population collapse. Nature Ecology & Evolution.
- Long-term temporal trends in gastrointestinal parasite infection in wild Soay sheep. Parasitology, 1-36.
- A critical comparison of integral projection and matrix projection models for demographic analysis: Comment. Ecology.
- Population level consequences of facultatively cooperative behaviour in a stochastic environment. Journal of Animal Ecology.
- ipmr: Flexibly implement Integral Projection Models in R. Methods in Ecology and Evolution.
- Global analysis reveals complex demographic responses of mammals to climate change. View this article in WRRO
- Reduced deforestation and degradation in Indigenous Lands pan-tropically. Nature Sustainability.
Chapters
- Integral projection models, Demographic Methods across the Tree of Life (pp. 181-196). Oxford University Press
- From population to individual host scale and back again: testing theories of infection and defence in the Soay sheep of St Kilda, Wildlife Disease Ecology (pp. 91-128). Cambridge University Press
- Visualizing Your Data, Getting Started with R (pp. 79-92). Oxford University Press
- Introducing Statistics in R, Getting Started with R (pp. 93-130). Oxford University Press
- Pimping Your Plots: Scales and Themes in ggplot2, Getting Started with R (pp. 203-218). Oxford University Press
- Closing Remarks: Final Comments and Encouragement, Getting Started with R (pp. 219-222). Oxford University Press
- Advancing Your Statistics in R, Getting Started with R (pp. 131-166). Oxford University Press
- Getting Started with Generalized Linear Models, Getting Started with R (pp. 167-202). Oxford University Press
- Getting Your Data into R, Getting Started with R (pp. 35-56). Oxford University Press
- Data Management, Manipulation, and Exploration with dplyr, Getting Started with R (pp. 57-78). Oxford University Press
- Getting Started with R An Introduction for Biologists Second Edition Preface, GETTING STARTED WITH R: AN INTRODUCTION FOR BIOLOGISTS, 2ND EDITION (pp. IX-XVIII).
- Getting and Getting Acquainted with R, GETTING STARTED WITH R: AN INTRODUCTION FOR BIOLOGISTS, 2ND EDITION (pp. 1-34).
Preprints
- Multivariate signals of population collapse in a high-throughput ecological experiment., Authorea, Inc..
- A standard protocol to report discrete stage-structured demographic information, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
- Nest site selection and productivity of a critically endangered parrot, the great green macaw (Ara ambiguus), in an anthropogenic landscape, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
- Managing herbicide resistance doesn't pay - but acting pre-emptively does..
- Inadequate sampling of the soundscape leads to overoptimistic estimates of recogniser performance: a case study of two sympatric macaw species, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
- Using passive acoustic monitoring to estimate the abundance of a critically endangered parrot, the great green macaw (Ara ambiguus), Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
- Overconfidence undermines global wildlife abundance trends, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
- Timeline to collapse, Authorea, Inc..
- Long-term temporal trends in gastrointestinal parasite infection in wild Soay sheep, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
- Antecedent effect models as an exploratory rather than predictive tool to understand the response of plant populations to climate drivers, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
- Rpadrino: an R package to access and use PADRINO, an open access database of Integral Projection Models, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
- Mesostats – A multiplexed, low-cost, do-it-yourself continuous culturing system for experimental evolution of mesocosms, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
- ipmr: Flexibly implement Integral Projection Models in R, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
- Genetic differentiation can be predicted from observational data for reproductive but not vegetative traits in a widespread short-lived plant, Authorea, Inc..
- A mixed model approach for estimating drivers of microbiota community composition and differential taxonomic abundance, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
- Short-lived plants have stronger demographic responses to climate, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
- Strengthening the evidence base for temperature-mediated phenological asynchrony and its impacts, Center for Open Science.
- Demographic performance of European tree species at their hot and cold climatic edges, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
- Assessing seasonal demographic covariation to understand environmental-change impacts on a hibernating mammal, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
- Exploring population responses to environmental change when there's never enough data; a factor analytic approach, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
- The Ecological Forecast Horizon, and examples of its uses and determinants, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
- Interactions between immunotoxicants and parasite stress: implications for host health. View this article in WRRO
- Getting Started with R: An Introduction for Biologists. Oxford University Press.
- Research group
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PhD students
- Simran Aujla
- Ross Booton
- Robert Goodsell (with Professor R Freckleton)
- Erika Hansson (with Dr AP Beckerman)
- Bethan Hindle (with Dr AP Beckerman)
- John Jackson (with Dr V Lummaa)
- James Lambert (with Professor R Freckleton)
- Simon Rolph (with Professor R Freckleton and Dr R Salguero-Gomez)
Postdoctoral Researchers
- Alison Parton
- Dr Shaun Coutts
- Teaching activities
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My approach to teaching and supervision of students is to convey my enthusiasm for population biology and evolutionary ecology, and to use research-led, biologically interesting examples to give students a thorough grounding in key concepts. I strongly believe that learning the basic tools for independent research is essential for undergraduate students, and I always encourage my students to try new methods of data analysis and quantitative reasoning. I am a fellow of the Higher Education Academy, having completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching.
I have led the devlopment of the new data science strand of our curriculum. At level 1, I co-ordinate the introduction to exploratory data analysis component of APS135 (Skills for Biologists 1). In this course we introduce students to the R programming language, a cutting edge data visualisation and statistical analysis environment. We build on this knowledge in APS240 (Data Analysis), using R to explore the principles of environmental design and analysis of biological data. I also contribute to APS342 (Evolutionary Ecology).
My part of the course focuses on the evolution of host-parasite interactions and the mechanisms of life history evolution in stochastic environments. At the postgraduate level, I co-teach our Advanced Biological Analysis module (APS405), a week long intensive training module for MBiolSci, MRes and PhD students. This module introduces advanced statistical tools and a workflow for presenting the results of research. I also supervise level 3 (APS330) and masters (APS406 and our MRes) Projects. These projects reflect my broad interests in how ecological processes shape natural selection and population dynamics. Students interested in these research areas are welcome to contact me to discuss project ideas.