Dr Dirk Sanders

About me:

My research explores how interactions between species shape ecological communities, their stability and the ecosystem processes they support. I use ecological networks, experiments and quantitative approaches to understand how human activities alter these interactions and how their effects spread through communities.

A major focus of my current research is the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in microbial communities. Many resistance genes are carried on plasmids - mobile pieces of DNA that can move between bacterial hosts and act as parasites or mutualists. I investigate how antibiotic exposure, bacterial community structure and interactions between plasmids and their hosts influence plasmid transmission, evolution and persistence. By combining experimental microbial ecology with ecological network analysis, I aim to understand why some resistance plasmids spread widely while others remain restricted to a few hosts, and what this means for environmental AMR risk.

My wider research examines how mutualistic and antagonistic interactions, including trophic interactions and ecosystem engineering, influence biodiversity and ecosystem stability. I am particularly interested in how the loss or recovery of species changes ecological communities and how these effects depend on the wider ecological context. My research has included field experiments manipulating predator presence, abundance and functional diversity, as well as the roles of species that act as both consumers and ecosystem engineers.

Across these areas, I use complementary model systems, including aphid–parasitoid food webs and bacterial host–plasmid communities, to investigate how ecological interactions determine community responses to environmental change.

Outside academia, I am a keen sea kayaker and teach Greenland rolling through https://howwerollkayaking.co.uk/.

Qualifications:

2008 PhD (University of Goettingen)

Career:

2023- BBSRC Discovery Fellow and Lecturer in Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter

2013–2022 Research Fellow, University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus
2011–2013 Assistant with independent research, University of Bern, Switzerland
2010–2011 Post-doctoral research fellow, University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus
2009–2010 Post-doctoral research fellow, Imperial College London, Silwood Park