Ian Donohue

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Head of Zoology

Email: ian.donohue[at]tcd.ie
Tel: + 353 1 896 1356
Ian on Twitter [@donohueian]

Editor for Ecology Letters
Editor for Global Change Biology

Member of the European Environment Agency Scientific Committee

Funded Investigator at CONNECT, the SFI Research Centre for Future Networks and Communications
Funded Investigator at MaREI, the SFI Research Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine Research and Innovation

Research Interests

I use theory and experiments to explore how biological networks respond to perturbations. The overarching aim of my research is to understand and predict how key elements of global change alter the functioning and stability of ecosystems.

An important goal of my research is to bridge the gaps between theoretical, empirical and applied ecology. My field research focuses mainly on aquatic ecosystems (both marine and freshwater), although more recently my approach to research combines theory, experimental and observational work in the field and laboratory experiments using multitrophic microbial communities.

Some recent publications

Ross et al. (2022) Predators mitigate the destabilising effects of heatwaves on multitrophic stream communities. Global Change Biology 28: 403-416.

Ross, S.R.P-J., Arnoldi, J.F., Loreau, M., White, C.D., Stout, J.C., Jackson, A.L. & Donohue, I. (2021) Universal scaling of robustness of ecosystem services to species loss. Nature Communications 12: 5167.

Clark et al. (2021) General statistical scaling laws for stability in ecological systems. Ecology Letters 24: 1474-1486.

Borer et al. (2020) Nutrients cause grassland biomass to outpace herbivory. Nature Communications 11: 6036.

White, L., O'Connor, N.E., Yang, Q., Emmerson, M.C. & Donohue, I. (2020) Individual species provide multifaceted contributions to the stability of ecosystems. Nature Ecology & Evolution 4: 1594–1601.
Full text available at https://rdcu.be/b8pp9

Hillebrand et al. (2020) Thresholds for ecological responses to global change do not emerge from empirical data. Nature Ecology & Evolution 4: 1502–1509.
Full text available at rdcu.be/b6jI8
Covered by: The Irish Times, Irish Independent

Pimm, S.L., Donohue, I., Montoya, J.M. & Loreau, M. (2019) Measuring resilience is essential to understand it. Nature Sustainability 2: 895-897.
Full-text available at https://rdcu.be/bTN0E

Yang, Q. Fowler, M.S., Jackson, A.L. & Donohue, I. (2019) The predictability of ecological stability in a noisy world. Nature Ecology & Evolution 3: 251-259.
Full-text available at https://rdcu.be/bi0Uq