Current Research
The work of SIMBIOS is underpinned within a Community and Ecosystem Dynamics Programme whose driving philosophy is that functional characterisation of the physical and biological heterogeneities that prevail on Earth are crucial to the understanding and management of the Earth's resources.
SIMBIOS confronts challenges in this area by developing flexible, but tightly focussed, multidisciplinary teams that include both theoreticians and experimental scientists and where theory informs experiment and vice versa.
Details of the main interlinking research areas are provided below:
Self-organised habitats and communities
Fungal hyphae bridging soil pores, acting as reinforcement rods for soil structure. The main question looked at here is “Why are the physical habitats we encounter on the planet so complex and how does impact on how they function and their sustainability?” Read more...
Evolutionary ecology and community-level consequences of geneflow
Whilst rates of geneflow between individuals can be measured using a range of molecular techniques, the impact of geneflow on the dynamics and structure of communities is more difficult to predict. Read more...
Sensory Ecology – or why organisms move
How, and the rate at which, organisms acquire and respond to information is of crucial importance to their survival. The sensory ecology of most animals follows typical characteristics, in that they interact with a physical or chemical gradient to locate substrate, mates, or avoid predators. Read more...
Knowledge Transfer
As the core of SIMBIOS research is to understand the most complex biomaterial on Earth – soil – we are able to approach a wide range of other challenges outwith the soil environment. Read More...
Cancer
Cancer is a term describing hundreds of different kinds of pathology affecting the mammalian cell cycle leading to proliferation and invasion of diseased cells in the body. Read More...