Lucy Gilbert comes from a background in evolutionary and behavioural ecology at the Universities of Oxford, Sheffield and St Andrews. She gradually incorporated parasite and disease systems until finding herself fascinated with the complex multi-host system of ticks and tick-borne disease ecology at the University of Stirling and the Macaulay Institute in Aberdeen. She is interested in the impact of environmental changes on ticks and tick-borne disease risk; how hosts interact with each other and with their environment to shape disease risk; the role of humans themselves in altering host distribution and therefore tick abundance and tick-borne disease risk; and how this knowledge can be utilised to help control ticks and tick-borne disease risk. As part of the MEaSURE project, Lucy is focussing on how different urban green space characteristics are associated with the ecosystem services of the presence of wildlife (vertebrate biodiversity) and whether these factors are associated with the potential ecosystem dis-services of ticks and tick-borne disease risk.
Maximising ecosystem services in urban environments (MEaSURE) 