DrDavid Orme

My research centres on identifying general rules that help us understand broad-scale variation in the diversity of life and in using them to make predictions about likely future patterns. I am interested in several components of diversity, particularly the spatial and phylogenetic structure of species richness and how the life history of species varies across space and between clades.

My research on spatial patterns of diversity uses global datasets on vertebrate and angiosperm species distributions. I am interested in the spatial distribution of total species richness along with the distribution of threatened and endemic taxa. I have worked on how these patterns differ between different taxonomic groups and on spatial models of correlates of species richness.

I also work on the underlying structure of species ranges that give rise to patterns of diversity. This includes research using range limits and sizes from vertebrate taxa to explore the influence of topography and available energy on determining species range size and the effects of environmental heterogeneity and topographic complexity in limiting species distributions. I am also interested in global patterns of beta-diversity.