Dr Chris Wilcock
Honorary Senior Lecturer
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c.wilcock@abdn.ac.uk
Honorary Senior Lecturer
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Personal Details
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Research Interests
My research interests are in plant reproductive biology, diversity, taxonomy and conservation. My aims are to understand the causes of reproductive failure in plants and its impact on plant evolution and diversification. I also study the impact that reproductive failure may have on the long-term survival of rare plant populations. Issues of special concern are the determination of levels of pollination failure in plants caused by the current worldwide loss of pollinators and habitat fragmentation.
Understanding the causes of differential reproductive success of plants under both natural and anthropogenic environmental variations are crucial in predicting long-term sustainability of natural plant ecosystems and in agricultural ecosystems that are dependent on pollination for crop production. It is also essential background information needed to assess the likelihood of success in conserving and recovering rare plant populations.
A special focus is on the biodiversity, pollination and rarity of orchids, both in temperate and tropical regions, but especially Europe, the Mediterranean, the Indian sub-continent, the Mascarenes and Macaronesia. Current research topics include the reproductive biology and conservation of rare Scottish plants such as twinflower, Linnaea borealis , and Irish Lady's-tresses, Spiranthes romanzoffiana and pollination and seed dispersal of plants of the Mediterranean. Other projects are focused on understanding the impact of the processes of hybridization and apomixis on plant population structure, survival, diversification and speciation.
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Research Grants
2005 Plantlife, Assessment of the causes of reproductive failure in Linnaea borealis and Spiranthes romanzoffiana
2003 British Council (Portugal), Evaluation of the phytogenetic resources of wild and cultivated species of Madeira
2000 British Council (Portugal), Conservation Biology of Madeiran Orchids
1997 Scottish Natural Heritage, Collation of functional attributes of Scottish Red Data Book plants
1995-1997 Scottish Natural Heritage & Plantlife, Ecological research for action plans and recovery programmes on two threatened vascular plants
1994-1996 EC, Botanical diversity of the Indo-Pacific Region
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External Responsibilities
UK Co-ordinator for an ODA/British Council Link Project on the Biodiversity of Bangladesh plants
Scottish representative on the UK Systematics Forum
Principal Investigator in the EC programmes on the Botanical Diversity of the Indo-Pacific region in the past 5 years, has presented many invited lectures on reproductive biology and the conservation of plants to professional, graduate and public audiences in Britain, Europe and Asia.
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