Supervisors: Dr Rob Salguero-Gomez and Prof Andy Hector (Department of Plant Sciences, Oxford)

I am a first-year NERC Doctoral Training Partnership student at Oxford. I am interested in using both functional-trait and demographic approaches to understand how different plant communities respond to global environmental change using three study systems: grasslands, tropical forests and invasive plants.  Alongside my PhD, I am a data contributor to the Ecoflora database and I am a committee member for the British Ecological Society Invasion Science Group.

Outreach: I am a project coordinator for a documentary film on bananas (Bananageddon). The film looks at the socio-economic and environmental issues of current banana production methods and what the future holds for the world’s favourite fruit.

I also manage a social science photography project called Human Nature Stories Project, where I interview members of the public about their attitudes to nature. To date, I have interviewed 90 people in seven different countries.

I am also a visiting scientist across various primary schools in Oxford, where I deliver interactive sessions on a range of topics from plant biology to life as a scientist.

Contact Details:

sara.middleton@stx.ox.ac.uk

Twitter: @sara_lil_plants 

Publications:

Poster presentations

Middleton, S. L., Prentice, I. C. and Ford, H, Looking across the invasion continuum, what functional traits determine successful plant invaders? Connecting research, management and policy, British Ecological Society Invasion Science SIG, London  (1-2 November 2018)