Kevin Watts's Avatar

Kevin Watts

@watts-km

Principal Scientist - Landscape & Restoration Ecology πŸŒπŸŒ³πŸŒ²πŸ”¬@forestresearchuk.bsky.socialπŸŒ³πŸŒ²πŸ”¬Biodiversity 🌼🐝 πŸ¦‡πŸ¦‰Experiments 🌳🌲@wrenproject.bsky.social 🌳 Hon Prof @stir.ac.ukπŸ“š

310
Followers
207
Following
49
Posts
12.12.2024
Joined
Posts Following

Latest posts by Kevin Watts @watts-km

Video thumbnail

Structural complexity across a continuum of woodland establishment methods from planting to natural colonisation
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

11.02.2026 10:23 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

🌳Structural complexity across a continuum of woodland establishment methods from planting to natural colonisation🌳
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

09.01.2026 11:43 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

Looking forward to the #BES2025 Annual Meeting next week!

If you're interested in restoration, food webs, landscapes and species recovery, join me for the session:

"Species interactions and recovery under global change" - Tuesday 16th - 5:30pm - Lammermuir 1

12.12.2025 10:02 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
A graduated nativeness definition for overcoming dilemmas and difficulties of vascular plant species Nativeness is a concept central to biodiversity conservation and invasion biology, but there are several problems related to a classic binary nativeness definition. Dilemmas arise from the dynamic na...

There are problems with binary definitions of nativeness

β€œDilemmas arise from the dynamic nature of species' distribution ranges on longer time scales,

in the application to smaller regions defined by arbitrary borders,

& limited knowledge of species' past distributions”
doi.org/10.1002/oik....

14.12.2025 10:40 πŸ‘ 15 πŸ” 10 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
Post image

Looking forward to #BES2025 this week! If you're interested in restoration, complexity and ecoacoustics you should definitely check out my talk on Thursday πŸŒ³πŸŒ²πŸŒ³πŸ¦πŸ¦β€β¬›

15.12.2025 10:56 πŸ‘ 10 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
NERC RED-ALERT CDT: Using digital twins to improve river surveillance and management. at Cardiff University on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - NERC RED-ALERT CDT: Using digital twins to improve river surveillance and management. at Cardiff University, listed on FindAPhD.com

Could a 'lightweight' digital twin of a river system be a low cost tool to help us manage water quality and other pressures? We have a new PhD opportunity between Cardiff University and @natreswales.bsky.social to test this idea 🌍πŸ§ͺ www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

11.12.2025 18:00 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1

It’s been a busy few days in the field, but we’ve now established 200+ experimental plots for the LERN (Large-Ecosystem Recovery Network) across four post-agricultural sites in England. A major milestone for the project and exciting to see the configuration finally taking shape πŸŒ³πŸ¦…πŸπŸŒΌ

11.12.2025 15:37 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Very timely paper on the importance of long-term large-scale experiments 🌍

We’re just in the process of trying to set up the β€˜Large-scale Ecosystem Recovery Network’

30.11.2025 09:25 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Webropol Survey Survey Powered by Webropol

🌎 Experiments are central to understanding community dynamics, yet their use is declining.
We're trying to understand why.
If you work in community ecology, we'd really appreciate your input in a quick survey (<5 mins).
πŸ‘‰πŸΌ link.webropolsurveys.com/S/2022629791...
Reposts welcome!

14.11.2025 12:45 πŸ‘ 11 πŸ” 14 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Check out our new preprint. In this review we show the comparative decline of experimental approaches in community ecology and discuss some alternatives to push the field forward

23.10.2025 19:39 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1

Experimental community ecology in decline: A call to embrace technology https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.22.683879v1

23.10.2025 19:31 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1

Good question - yes, LERN (Large-scale Ecosystem Recovery Network) is designed to be a long-term BACI experiment. Perhaps we should join the @ect-uk.bsky.social network??

27.11.2025 16:35 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

We managed to add in some ground preparation treatments to our 2nd LERN site before the plough broke - experiments seem a lot easier on paper 🀣

26.11.2025 09:34 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1

Another 48 plots laid out on our 2nd LERN site in Herefordshire (incl some ground prep treatments) πŸ‘πŸΌ 2 more sites still to go 🌳

26.11.2025 07:11 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1
Preview
Britain’s Forest Future: Research-Practice Exchange

On my way to Research-Practice Event to talk about using natural processes to create new woodlands 🌳 britainsforestfuture.zohobackstage.eu/event

17.11.2025 07:26 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Details | Working at Bristol | University of Bristol

🚨Job opportunity🚨

We are hiring a 3yr research technician. If you love fieldwork, are passionate about forests & mountains, and want to up-skill in remote sensing, sensor networks and running field experiments this could be the dream job for you!
πŸ§ͺπŸŒ³β›°οΈπŸ›°οΈπŸŒ‘οΈπŸ„

www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/de...

14.11.2025 09:38 πŸ‘ 42 πŸ” 43 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 3

You'll be working closely with a team of researchers @bristolbiosci.bsky.social and alogside some amazing partners at Forest Research @watts-km.bsky.social and a wider network of collabroators across Europe.

Do get in touch if you have questions about the role. Applications close on 27 November

14.11.2025 09:38 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Amazing 3-year β€˜field technician’ position at @bristoluni.bsky.social to work with @tommaso-jucker.bsky.social @forestresearchuk.bsky.social & others on some really cool forest 🌳 experiments πŸ‘‡ #dreamjob

14.11.2025 10:52 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Restoration of ecological interactions: The influence of site and landscape factors Restoration has been extensively used in agricultural landscapes as a mitigation measure to reduce biodiversity loss in response to historic habitat d…

If we focus on restoring ecosystem processes rather than a reference species assemblage

Can we derive general rules?

Here we find plant-pollinator networks in grasslands

& plant-herbivore ones in woodlands

both become more complex with restoration age & area
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

05.11.2025 17:06 πŸ‘ 29 πŸ” 7 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1
Preview
Restoration of ecological interactions: The influence of site and landscape factors Restoration has been extensively used in agricultural landscapes as a mitigation measure to reduce biodiversity loss in response to historic habitat d…

Restoration of ecological interactions: The influence of site and land... www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

New output from the restreco.com project

05.11.2025 19:09 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Understanding the ecological interplay between tree planting and natural processes to create future forests

🚨PhD opportunity🚨Come and work with us & Stirling Uni to understand the role of woodland creation 🌳in nature recovery πŸŒΊπŸ¦‹

iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...

31.10.2025 08:59 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

more PhD info here www.linkedin.com/posts/efuent...

29.10.2025 16:24 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Understanding the ecological interplay between tree planting and natural processes to create future forests

πŸ“’ PhD opportunity: β€˜Understanding the ecological interplay between tree planting and natural processes to create future forests’ πŸͺ΄πŸŒ±πŸŒ³ working on space-for-time & @forestresearchuk.bsky.social large-scale experiment network (LERN)

iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...

29.10.2025 16:22 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 2
Video thumbnail

πŸ“½οΈ Two farmers, from Lincolnshire and Cornwall, talked to us about their values and how they influence their decisions about trees.

πŸ”— Read some of the case studies 'Further paths to embracing trees on farms': www.forestresearch.gov.uk/publications...

Supported by Defra.

15.07.2025 09:15 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Post image Post image

Creating woodland through natural processes: Current understanding and knowledge gaps in Great Britain

Great to contribute to this #OpenAccess paper published in Ecological Solutions & Evidence: doi.org/10.1002/2688... #rewilding #forests #trees #nature @ukceh.bsky.social

23.10.2025 11:22 πŸ‘ 40 πŸ” 11 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Woodland creation strategies reshaped by Stirling-led research | About | University of Stirling Woodland creation strategies reshaped by Stirling-led research

See press release here: www.stir.ac.uk/news/2025/oc...

23.10.2025 09:40 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
Preview
Creating woodland through natural processes: Current understanding and knowledge gaps in Great Britain Natural colonisation can successfully create structurally diverse, locally adapted woodlands in Britain, but the outcomes of this process can vary considerably. Combining natural colonisation and tre...

New OA publication from TreE_PlaNat project @uktreescapes.bsky.social in Ecological Solutions and Evidence: Creating woodland through natural processes: Current understanding and knowledge gaps in Great Britain besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

23.10.2025 07:08 πŸ‘ 37 πŸ” 22 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 3
Integrating natural processes into woodland creation
Integrating natural processes into woodland creation YouTube video by TreE PlaNat

Another nice output from TreE_PlaNat project @uktreescapes.bsky.social: a video on integrating natural processes into woodland creation has just been released www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0N2...

23.10.2025 15:07 πŸ‘ 17 πŸ” 14 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Is there really a strict divide between (active) tree planting and (passive) natural processes when creating new woodlands β€” or should we be combining both approaches?
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

24.10.2025 14:22 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

We’ve also tried to capture some of the benefits & challenges of using natural processes in woodland creation in this short animation @uktreescapes.bsky.social youtu.be/i0N2PBJM0dQ?...

As part of www.uktreescapes.org/projects/tre...

24.10.2025 14:09 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0