Peter Manning

My research examines the relationships between land use, biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services. This typically involves a combination of interdisciplinary collaboration with data synthesis and modelling. My work involves a very broad range of ecosystem types including grasslands, forests, and agroecosystems.

The focus of my research has historically been on plant communities, but recently I have worked with other taxa including microorganisms and invertebrates. I have a great interest in synthesising knowledge at the level of entire communities and ecosystems and have developed both theory and methods for doing this.

In recent years I have expanded my work to include the human component, in a social-ecological systems approach. This aspect of my work typically involves quantitative social survey, including studies of ecosystem service demand. These measures are often integrated with ecological data in multifunctionality measures, which reflect an ecosystem or landscape's capacity to deliver the multiple benefits demanded by people.