Rob works on spatial patterns of forest ecosystems, and the biodiversity contained within those forests.

His research involves investigating and trying to predict patterns of forest cover from local through to global scales, sampling of taxa within selected landscapes located in both temperate and tropical parts of the world, and manipulative experiments in both the field and lab.

Most of his work uses invertebrates as a model system, with a focus on beetles.

A large initiative he is involved with is the Stability of Altered Forest Ecosystems (SAFE) Project. This is one of the world’s largest ecological experiments, taking advantage of a planned conversion of forest to oil palm in Borneo to experimentally design a landscape.

Rob’s research interests span all three of the BioHeritage Challenge’s Impacts.