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Dr Matthew Oliver

Research Fellow

Personal Details

Telephone:

+44 (0)1224 272789

E-mail:

m.k.oliver@abdn.ac.uk

Address:

Room 416 Zoology Building

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Biography

Publications
  • Oliver, MK, and Piertney SB, (2012) Balancing selection maintains MHC variation through a population bottleneck. Molecular Biology and Evolution.1,2
  • Mcdevitt, A., Zuub, K., Hermann, J., Oliver, M.K., Wojcik, J., (2012) Climate and refugial origin influence mitochondrial lineage distribution in weasels (Mustela nivalis) in a phylogeographic suture zone. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society.
  • Lambin, X., Le Bouille, D., Oliver, M.K., Sutherland, C., Tedesco, E., Douglas, A. (2011) High connectivity despite high fragmentation: smart iterated dispersal in a vertebrate metapopulation. In “Informed Dispersal and Spatial Evolutionary Ecology”. Eds Clobert J., Baguette M., Benton T.G., Bullock J. Oxford University Press.
  • Bryce, R., Oliver, M.K., Davies, L., Gray, H., Urquhart, J., Lambin, X. (2010) Turning back the tide of American mink invasion at an unprecedented scale through community participation and adaptive management. Biological Conservation. (144): 575-583
  • Oliver, M.K. Piertney, S.B. (2010) Beyond splitting hares and rabbiting on about major histocompatibility complex complexity. Molecular Ecology (19): 4099–4101.
  • Oliver, M.K. Luque-Larena, J., Lambin, X. (2009) Do rabbits eat voles? Apparent competition, habitat heterogeneity, and large-scale coexistence under mink predation. Ecology Letters (12): 1201–1209.3
  • Oliver, M.K. Telfer, S. and Piertney, S.B. (2009). Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) heterozygote superiority to natural multi-parasite infections in the water vole (Arvicola terrestris). Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (276):1119-1128.
  • Oliver, M.K. Lambin, X. Cornulier, T. Piertney, S.B. (2009) Spatio-temporal variation in the strength and mode of selection acting on major histocompatibility complex diversity in water vole (Arvicola terrestris) metapopulations. Molecular Ecology (18):80-92.
  • Oliver, M.K. Piertney, S.B.  (2006) Isolation and characterisation of a MHC class II DRB locus in the European water vole (Arvicola terrestris). Immunogenetics (58): 390-395.
  • Piertney, S.B. Oliver, M.K.  (2005) The evolutionary ecology of the MHC. Heredity (96): 7-21.

1 Editor’s choice, Science, 16 March 2012: Vol. 335 no. 6074 p. 1281

2 Featured in the BBC television series Coast: to be broadcast 2012.

3 Featured in the BBC television series An animal’s Guide to Britain: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00g90d0 .

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Research Interests

I am broadly interested in evolutionary and ecological research, but have a particular interest in understanding the ecological significance of adaptive genetic diversity, and using ecological investigations to inform conservation practice. My research spans molecular ecology, conservation genetics, spatial dynamics and wildlife management. To date my work has focussed on investigating the processes underlying variation at MHC genes in the water vole (Arvicola terrestris), and using large scale approaches and genetic tools to explore community dynamics and dispersal, and thereby inform management strategies for the control of the invasive American mink (Neovison vison).

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Current Research

I am currently investigating the relative importance of compensatory (e.g. increases in immigration, survival and fecundity in response to reduced density) and deponsatory (e.g. negative net dispersal and reproductive failure at low densities) processes in the eradication of American mink (Neovison vison) from Scotland. This research is in collaboration with the Scottish Mink Initiative and uses data from 2006 to present, combining capture rates, pedigree analysis and demographic data to investigate changes in the spatial and demographic dynamics of mink in response to the eradication effort.

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Collaborations

The Lambin Research group: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/ibes/staff/x.lambin

The Scottish Mink Initiative: http://www.scottishmink.org.uk/

The Piertney Research Group: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/biologicalsci/staff/details/s.piertney

Bioconsus: http://www.bioconsus.pl/index.php?kat1=glowna

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