Dr Jack Shutt

Who am I?

I am a postdoctoral researcher at Manchester Metropolitan University working in ecology and conservation. I am a lifelong birder and much of my work to date has focussed on birds, with a particular theme of discovering how forest species react to mounting modern-day pressures such as habitat loss, anthropogenic disturbance, and climate change, with a view to providing conservation solutions.

Academic and professional qualifications

BSc (First Class Hons) Zoology at the University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus, UK (2009-2012)

MSc (Distinction) Evolutionary and Behavioural Ecology at the University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus, UK (2012-2013)

PhD (NERC Studentship) Ecology at the University of Edinburgh, UK (2014-2018)

Research expertise

My current interest is in modelling the distribution changes and community shifts of birds in the eastern Amazon, an area that is experiencing rapid and widespread change, with many threats to biodiversity including forest conversion to agriculture, habitat fragmentation, and fire. I am also involved in researching the effects of climate change on woodland ecosystems in Scotland. To work on these questions, I use an array of statistical modelling techniques combined with GIS to analyse data collected through field work as well as from partnerships with citizen science schemes.

Academic collaborations

My Neotropical work is undertaken in collaboration with researchers from the Sustainable Amazon Network and Lancaster University, and includes the use of eBird data. I also have links with the Phenoweb project based at the University of Edinburgh and various project partners in the RSPB, BTO, and Woodland Trust.

Publications

• Journal articles

  JD. Shutt, AC. Lees (2021). Killing with kindness: Does widespread generalised provisioning of wildlife help or hinder biodiversity conservation efforts?. Biological Conservation. 261,

  JD. Shutt, UH. Trivedi, JA. Nicholls (2021). Faecal metabarcoding reveals pervasive long-distance impacts of garden bird feeding. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 288(1951),

  D. der Weduwen, K. Keogan, JM. Samplonius, AB. Phillimore, JD. Shutt (2021). The correlates of intraspecific variation in nest height and nest building duration in the Eurasian blue tit Cyanistes caeruleus. Journal of Avian Biology. 52(3),

  JD. Shutt, JA. Nicholls, UH. Trivedi, MD. Burgess, GN. Stone, et al. JD. Hadfield, AB. Phillimore. (2020). Gradients in richness and turnover of a forest passerine’s diet prior to breeding: a mixed model approach applied to faecal metabarcoding data. Molecular Ecology. 29(6), pp.1199-1213.

  JD. Shutt, MD. Burgess, AB. Phillimore (2019). A Spatial Perspective on the Phenological Distribution of the Spring Woodland Caterpillar Peak. The American Naturalist. 194(5), pp.E109-E121.

  JD. Shutt, IB. Cabello, K. Keogan, DI. Leech, JM. Samplonius, et al. L. Whittle, MD. Burgess, AB. Phillimore. (2019). The environmental predictors of spatiotemporal variation in the breeding phenology of a passerine bird. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 286(1908),

  JD. Shutt, M. Bolton, IB. Cabello, MD. Burgess, AB. Phillimore (2018). The effects of woodland habitat and biogeography on blue tit Cyanistes caeruleus territory occupancy and productivity along a 220 km transect. Ecography. 41(12), pp.1967-1978.