Genevieve Finerty

Previous study, work experience and any awards.

I completed my BSc (Biology) and MSc (Ecology, Evolution & Conservation) at Imperial College London. During this time I worked on selection in humans and antler size dynamics in Red Deer (supervised by Prof. Armand Leroi and Prof. Tim Coulson respectively).
Between degrees, I was employed by conservation NGO Frontier, spending six months in London HQ before moving to the Costa Rican rainforest for 15 months to manage a research project. After my MSc I spent a year teaching biology at a secondary school in London before moving back into research at the Institute of Botany, Czech Republic.

Initially a 3-month position, I fell for the charms of the department (and the Czech beer) and spent the rest of the year completing a project there on leaf trait dissimilarity and mixed-species litter decomposition. Most recently Leopard Ecology & Conservation, an NGO based in Botswana, employed me to study the ecology of the Kalahari lion populations.

My project will use a combination of techniques from demography and movement ecology to explore human-wildlife conflict issues for lion populations in Botswana. I will be using an existing dataset from a resident lion population in Khutse Game Reserve and the Southern parts of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, collected in partnership with Leopard Ecology & Conservation. Broadly I am interested in a) how predators move through and interact with their surrounding landscape and b) how the outcomes of conflict and increased fragmentation might impact wild lion populations.

• Finerty, G. E., de Bello, F., Bílá, K., Berg, M. P., Dias, A. T.C., Pezzatti, G. B. and Moretti, M. (2016), Exotic or not, leaf trait dissimilarity modulates the effect of dominant species on mixed litter decomposition. J Ecol, 104: 1400-1409. doi:10.1111/1365-2745.12602
• Lewis, R. J., de Bello, F., Bennett, J. A., Fibich, P., Finerty, G. E., Götzenberger, L., Hiiesalu, I., Kasari, L., Lepš, J., Májeková, M., Mudrák, O., Riibak, K., Ronk, A., Rychtecká, T., Vitová, A. and Pärtel, M. (2016), Applying the dark diversity concept to nature conservation. Conservation Biology. doi:10.1111/cobi.12723

Talks

• Leaf trait dissimilarity can modulate the effect of dominant trait values on litter mixture decomposition rates (2014). Oral Presentation, BES Annual Meeting, Lille, France.
• The role of functional diversity in mixed-species litter decomposition and the impact of exotic species on the process (2015). Seminar, WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland.