Dr Dirk Sanders

About me:

My research links the structure of ecological communities to ecosystem processes. I apply community ecology to understand the impact of different human stressors. Currently, I study the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) by plasmids that can act as parasites or mutualists in microbial communities. This will reveal how enviromental antibiotic exposure changes the coveolutionary dymanics between plasmids and their bacterial hosts leading to changes in their interaction networks and consequently the risk of AMR spread.

I further study the interplay of mutualistic and antagonistic, trophic and non-trophic (i.e. ecosystem engineering) interactions and how these are driving ecosystem stability. Thereby my research explores the link between the structure of ecological communities, their stability and important processes. I aim to understand the ecological consequences of human impact and species losses and how they are transmitted through the network of interacting species. Experiments are a powerful tool to test this impact as they demonstrate the actual community response to species loss. I have manipulated predator presence and abundance, predator functional diversity, and the presence of predators that also act as mutualists or ecosystem engineers in various field experiments. As model systems I use (i) aphids, their parasitoids and hyperparasitoids, and (ii) soil bacteria as hosts for plasmids. I am also a keen sea kayaker and teach Greenland Rolling 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