Stuart Smith

Herbivore Impact Ecologist
Ecological Sciences
T: +44 (0)344 928 5428 (*)
Stuart is an applied plant ecologist at the Institute focusing on how land-use management and restoration influences ecosystem functioning, particularly the impacts of herbivory and fire on plant communities and carbon storage and cycling. Stuart has research experience in a wide range of ecosystems including temperate upland grasslands, oceanic peatlands, tropical savannahs and tropical peatlands. Stuart is currently embedded in the Scottish Government Strategic Research Programme 2022 - 2027 with research areas in upland grazing management and prescribed burning and wildfires.

Research

  • Understand the impacts of grazing management on ecosystem functioning
  • Improve reforestation outcomes through effective monitoring and feedback
  • Address trade-offs in land management between grazing, reforestation and fire
  • Apply plant functional traits as a predictive tool in land management and restoration ecology
  • Open science in ecology and collating and analysing ‘messy’ datasets

A Scottish charitable company limited by guarantee. Registered in Scotland No SC374831. Registered office: The James Hutton Institute, Invergowrie Dundee DD2 5DA. Charity No SCO41796