PhD: Solar parks: refuges for pollinators and boosting pollination services
Lancaster Environment Centre
Lancaster University
I completed my undergraduate degree at Lancaster University in Ecology and Conservation. My final year dissertation project was evolutionary ecology focused and investigated parental care in blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus). Following this, I completed my MSc in Conservation and Biodiversity also at Lancaster University. For my Masters project I studied the impacts of habitat and morphology on pearl-bordered fritillary (Boloria euphrosyne) butterfly movement.
My PhD research involves solar parks and pollinators and the project is in collaboration with industry partner Low Carbon. Increasing expanses of land are being taken up by ground-mounted solar panels in an attempt to decarbonise energy supply. However, habitat loss is the principle threat to biodiversity globally and land use change is resulting in declines in populations which provide ecosystem services, such as pollinators. My research aims to establish the potential for solar parks to mitigate pollinator declines and boost pollination services to surrounding agricultural land, offering an energy-ecosystem win-win.
See the below infographic for more information about Hollie’s exciting research. This was created by Hollie during an Infographics training course delivered by Infohackit and organised by Envision.
