![Tom Bishop BA (Hons) MRes DIC PhD FHEA](https://profiles-cardiff.imgix.net/attachments/928?w=200&h=200&auto=format&crop=faces&fit=crop&q=90")
Dr Tom Bishop
(he/him)
BA (Hons) MRes DIC PhD FHEA
Lecturer in Biosciences – Ecology/Zoology (T&R)
School of Biosciences
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Overview
I am an ecologist interested in using morphology and physiology to understand the distribution of biodiversity, particularly that of the ants. My work uses lab, field, and computational approaches to describe and explain how global biodiversity is generated and maintained. Specifically, my work combines detailed information on the lifestyles of individual species with large-scale data on their geographic distributions to answer my research questions. Consequently, my work spans the fields of functional trait ecology, macroecology, and macrophysiology.
My research is focussed on the ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). These social insects dominate most terrestrial ecosystems on our planet with their vast numbers and biomass, and they underpin a variety of critical ecosystem functions. They also display a rich diversity of ecological strategies: different ant species are predators, scavengers, parasites, farmers, nomads, and city-builders. These properties make ants a useful model taxonomic group for my research questions.
As well as my research and teaching commitments at Cardiff University, I am an Associate Editor for the Journal of Animal Ecology and am the Treasurer of the British Ecological Society's Macroecology Special Interest Group.
Publication
2024
- Ewers, R. M. et al. 2024. Thresholds for adding degraded tropical forest to the conservation estate. Nature 631, pp. 808-813. (10.1038/s41586-024-07657-w)
- Revely, L., Eggleton, P., Clement, R., Zhou, C. and Bishop, T. R. 2024. The diversity of social complexity in termites. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 291(2024), article number: 20232791. (10.1098/rspb.2023.2791)
- Bishop, T. R. and Robertson, M. P. 2024. Mountain habitats for insect conservation. In: Pryke, J. S. et al. eds. Routledge Handbook of Insect Conservation. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, pp. 334-343., (10.4324/9781003285793-30)
- Hoenle, P. O. et al. 2024. Forest disturbance increases functional diversity but decreases phylogenetic diversity of an arboreal tropical ant community. Journal of Animal Ecology 93(4), pp. 501-516. (10.1111/1365-2656.14060)
- Dougherty, L. R. et al. 2024. A systematic map of studies testing the relationship between temperature and animal reproduction. Ecological Solutions and Evidence 5(1), article number: e12303. (10.1002/2688-8319.12303)
2023
- Corley, R. B., Dawson, W. and Bishop, T. R. 2023. A simple method to account for thermal boundary layers during the estimation of CTmax in small ectotherms. Journal of Thermal Biology 116, article number: 103673. (10.1016/j.jtherbio.2023.103673)
- Lasmar, C. J. et al. 2023. Testing the context dependence of ant nutrient preference across habitat strata and trophic levels in Neotropical biomes. Ecology 104(4), article number: e3975. (10.1002/ecy.3975)
- Idec, J. H., Bishop, T. R. and Fisher, B. L. 2023. Using computer vision to understand the global biogeography of ant color. Ecography 2023(3), article number: e06279. (10.1111/ecog.06279)
- Gibb, H. et al. 2023. Ecological strategies of (pl)ants: Towards a world-wide worker economic spectrum for ants. Functional Ecology 37(1), pp. 13-25. (10.1111/1365-2435.14135)
2022
- Parr, C. L. and Bishop, T. R. 2022. The response of ants to climate change. Global Change Biology 28(10), pp. 3188-3205. (10.1111/gcb.16140)
2021
- Klimes, P., Bishop, T. R., Fayle, T. M. and Xing, S. 2021. Reported climate change impacts on cloud forest ants are driven by sampling bias: A critical evaluation of Warne et al. (2020). Biotropica 53(4), pp. 982-986. (10.1111/btp.12952)
- Bishop, T. R., Tomlinson, A., McNeice, T., Sfenthourakis, S. and Parr, C. L. 2021. The effect of fire on ant assemblages does not depend on habitat openness but does select for large, gracile predators. Ecosphere 12(6), article number: e03549. (10.1002/ecs2.3549)
- Lasmar, C. J., Bishop, T. R., Parr, C. L., Queiroz, A. C. M., Schmidt, F. A., Ribas, C. R. and Economo, E. 2021. Geographical variation in ant foraging activity and resource use is driven by climate and net primary productivity. Journal of Biogeography 48(6), pp. 1448-1459. (10.1111/jbi.14089)
- Jins, V. J., Panigrahi, M., Jayapal, R. and Bishop, T. R. 2021. Elevational gradients of reptile richness in the southern Western Ghats of India: Evaluating spatial and bioclimatic drivers. Biotropica 53(1), pp. 317-328. (10.1111/btp.12878)
- Cooke, J. et al. 2021. Teaching and learning in ecology: a horizon scan of emerging challenges and solutions. Oikos 130(1), pp. 15-28. (10.1111/oik.07847)
- Bishop, T. R., Griffiths, H. M., Ashton, L. A., Eggleton, P., Woon, J. S. and Parr, C. L. 2021. Clarifying terrestrial recycling pathways. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 36(1), pp. 9-11. (10.1016/j.tree.2020.09.005)
2020
- Law, S. J., Bishop, T. R., Eggleton, P., Griffiths, H., Ashton, L., Parr, C. and Shik, J. Z. 2020. Darker ants dominate the canopy: Testing macroecological hypotheses for patterns in colour along a microclimatic gradient. Journal of Animal Ecology 89(2), pp. 347-359. (10.1111/1365-2656.13110)
2019
- Gaudard, C. A., Robertson, M. P. and Bishop, T. R. 2019. Low levels of intraspecific trait variation in a keystone invertebrate group. Oecologia 190(4), pp. 725-735. (10.1007/s00442-019-04426-9)
- Bishop, T. R. et al. 2019. Thermoregulatory traits combine with range shifts to alter the future of montane ant assemblages. Global Change Biology 25(6), pp. 2162-2173. (10.1111/gcb.14622)
- Joseph, G. S., Muluvhahothe, M. M., Seymour, C. L., Munyai, T. C., Bishop, T. R. and Foord, S. H. 2019. Stability of Afromontane ant diversity decreases across an elevation gradient. Global Ecology and Conservation 17, article number: e00596. (10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00596)
2018
- Nowrouzi, S., Andersen, A. N., Bishop, T. R. and Robson, S. K. A. 2018. Is thermal limitation the primary driver of elevational distributions? Not for montane rainforest ants in the Australian Wet Tropics. Oecologia 188(2), pp. 333-342. (10.1007/s00442-018-4154-y)
- Arnan, X. et al. 2018. Dominance-diversity relationships in ant communities differ with invasion. Global Change Biology 24(10), pp. 4614-4625. (10.1111/gcb.14331)
- Gibb, H. et al. 2018. Habitat disturbance selects against both small and large species across varying climates. Ecography 41(7), pp. 1184-1193. (10.1111/ecog.03244)
2017
- Bishop, T. R., Roertson, M. P., Van Rensburg, B. J. and Parr, C. L. 2017. Coping with the cold: minimum temperatures and thermal tolerances dominate the ecology of mountain ants. Ecological Entomology 42(2), pp. 105-114. (10.1111/een.12364)
- Gibb, H. et al. 2017. A global database of ant species abundances. Ecology 98(3), pp. 883-884. (10.1002/ecy.1682)
- Parr, C. L. et al. 2017. GlobalAnts: a new database on the geography of ant traits (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Insect Conservation and Diversity 10(1), pp. 5-20. (10.1111/icad.12211)
2016
- Bishop, T. R. et al. 2016. Ant assemblages have darker and larger members in cold environments. Global Ecology and Biogeography 25(12), pp. 1489-1499. (10.1111/geb.12516)
- Chapman, M. (. G. et al. 2016. Evaluating functional diversity: missing trait data and the importance of species abundance structure and data transformation. PLoS ONE 11(2), article number: e0149270. (10.1371/journal.pone.0149270)
- Schofield, S. F., Bishop, T. R. and Parr, C. L. 2016. Morphological characteristics of ant assemblages (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) differ among contrasting biomes. Myrmecological News
2015
- Bishop, T. R., Robertson, M. P., van Rensburg, B. J. and Parr, C. L. 2015. Contrasting species and functional beta diversity in montane ant assemblages. Journal of Biogeography 42(9), pp. 1776-1786. (10.1111/jbi.12537)
- Gibb, H. et al. 2015. Climate mediates the effects of disturbance on ant assemblage structure. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 282(1808), article number: 20150418. (10.1098/rspb.2015.0418)
- Ewers, R. M. et al. 2015. Logging cuts the functional importance of invertebrates in tropical rainforest. Nature Communications 6(1), article number: 6836. (10.1038/ncomms7836)
2014
- Bishop, T. R., Robertson, M. P., van Rensburg, B. J., Parr, C. L. and Gillman, L. 2014. Elevation-diversity patterns through space and time: ant communities of the Maloti-Drakensberg mountains of southern Africa. Journal of Biogeography 41(12), pp. 2256-2268. (10.1111/jbi.12368)
2013
- Bishop, T. R., Botham, M. S., Fox, R., Leather, S. R., Chapman, D. S., Oliver, T. H. and Freckleton, R. 2013. The utility of distribution data in predicting phenology. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 4(11), pp. 1024-1032. (10.1111/2041-210X.12112)
Articles
- Ewers, R. M. et al. 2024. Thresholds for adding degraded tropical forest to the conservation estate. Nature 631, pp. 808-813. (10.1038/s41586-024-07657-w)
- Revely, L., Eggleton, P., Clement, R., Zhou, C. and Bishop, T. R. 2024. The diversity of social complexity in termites. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 291(2024), article number: 20232791. (10.1098/rspb.2023.2791)
- Hoenle, P. O. et al. 2024. Forest disturbance increases functional diversity but decreases phylogenetic diversity of an arboreal tropical ant community. Journal of Animal Ecology 93(4), pp. 501-516. (10.1111/1365-2656.14060)
- Dougherty, L. R. et al. 2024. A systematic map of studies testing the relationship between temperature and animal reproduction. Ecological Solutions and Evidence 5(1), article number: e12303. (10.1002/2688-8319.12303)
- Corley, R. B., Dawson, W. and Bishop, T. R. 2023. A simple method to account for thermal boundary layers during the estimation of CTmax in small ectotherms. Journal of Thermal Biology 116, article number: 103673. (10.1016/j.jtherbio.2023.103673)
- Lasmar, C. J. et al. 2023. Testing the context dependence of ant nutrient preference across habitat strata and trophic levels in Neotropical biomes. Ecology 104(4), article number: e3975. (10.1002/ecy.3975)
- Idec, J. H., Bishop, T. R. and Fisher, B. L. 2023. Using computer vision to understand the global biogeography of ant color. Ecography 2023(3), article number: e06279. (10.1111/ecog.06279)
- Gibb, H. et al. 2023. Ecological strategies of (pl)ants: Towards a world-wide worker economic spectrum for ants. Functional Ecology 37(1), pp. 13-25. (10.1111/1365-2435.14135)
- Parr, C. L. and Bishop, T. R. 2022. The response of ants to climate change. Global Change Biology 28(10), pp. 3188-3205. (10.1111/gcb.16140)
- Klimes, P., Bishop, T. R., Fayle, T. M. and Xing, S. 2021. Reported climate change impacts on cloud forest ants are driven by sampling bias: A critical evaluation of Warne et al. (2020). Biotropica 53(4), pp. 982-986. (10.1111/btp.12952)
- Bishop, T. R., Tomlinson, A., McNeice, T., Sfenthourakis, S. and Parr, C. L. 2021. The effect of fire on ant assemblages does not depend on habitat openness but does select for large, gracile predators. Ecosphere 12(6), article number: e03549. (10.1002/ecs2.3549)
- Lasmar, C. J., Bishop, T. R., Parr, C. L., Queiroz, A. C. M., Schmidt, F. A., Ribas, C. R. and Economo, E. 2021. Geographical variation in ant foraging activity and resource use is driven by climate and net primary productivity. Journal of Biogeography 48(6), pp. 1448-1459. (10.1111/jbi.14089)
- Jins, V. J., Panigrahi, M., Jayapal, R. and Bishop, T. R. 2021. Elevational gradients of reptile richness in the southern Western Ghats of India: Evaluating spatial and bioclimatic drivers. Biotropica 53(1), pp. 317-328. (10.1111/btp.12878)
- Cooke, J. et al. 2021. Teaching and learning in ecology: a horizon scan of emerging challenges and solutions. Oikos 130(1), pp. 15-28. (10.1111/oik.07847)
- Bishop, T. R., Griffiths, H. M., Ashton, L. A., Eggleton, P., Woon, J. S. and Parr, C. L. 2021. Clarifying terrestrial recycling pathways. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 36(1), pp. 9-11. (10.1016/j.tree.2020.09.005)
- Law, S. J., Bishop, T. R., Eggleton, P., Griffiths, H., Ashton, L., Parr, C. and Shik, J. Z. 2020. Darker ants dominate the canopy: Testing macroecological hypotheses for patterns in colour along a microclimatic gradient. Journal of Animal Ecology 89(2), pp. 347-359. (10.1111/1365-2656.13110)
- Gaudard, C. A., Robertson, M. P. and Bishop, T. R. 2019. Low levels of intraspecific trait variation in a keystone invertebrate group. Oecologia 190(4), pp. 725-735. (10.1007/s00442-019-04426-9)
- Bishop, T. R. et al. 2019. Thermoregulatory traits combine with range shifts to alter the future of montane ant assemblages. Global Change Biology 25(6), pp. 2162-2173. (10.1111/gcb.14622)
- Joseph, G. S., Muluvhahothe, M. M., Seymour, C. L., Munyai, T. C., Bishop, T. R. and Foord, S. H. 2019. Stability of Afromontane ant diversity decreases across an elevation gradient. Global Ecology and Conservation 17, article number: e00596. (10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00596)
- Nowrouzi, S., Andersen, A. N., Bishop, T. R. and Robson, S. K. A. 2018. Is thermal limitation the primary driver of elevational distributions? Not for montane rainforest ants in the Australian Wet Tropics. Oecologia 188(2), pp. 333-342. (10.1007/s00442-018-4154-y)
- Arnan, X. et al. 2018. Dominance-diversity relationships in ant communities differ with invasion. Global Change Biology 24(10), pp. 4614-4625. (10.1111/gcb.14331)
- Gibb, H. et al. 2018. Habitat disturbance selects against both small and large species across varying climates. Ecography 41(7), pp. 1184-1193. (10.1111/ecog.03244)
- Bishop, T. R., Roertson, M. P., Van Rensburg, B. J. and Parr, C. L. 2017. Coping with the cold: minimum temperatures and thermal tolerances dominate the ecology of mountain ants. Ecological Entomology 42(2), pp. 105-114. (10.1111/een.12364)
- Gibb, H. et al. 2017. A global database of ant species abundances. Ecology 98(3), pp. 883-884. (10.1002/ecy.1682)
- Parr, C. L. et al. 2017. GlobalAnts: a new database on the geography of ant traits (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Insect Conservation and Diversity 10(1), pp. 5-20. (10.1111/icad.12211)
- Bishop, T. R. et al. 2016. Ant assemblages have darker and larger members in cold environments. Global Ecology and Biogeography 25(12), pp. 1489-1499. (10.1111/geb.12516)
- Chapman, M. (. G. et al. 2016. Evaluating functional diversity: missing trait data and the importance of species abundance structure and data transformation. PLoS ONE 11(2), article number: e0149270. (10.1371/journal.pone.0149270)
- Schofield, S. F., Bishop, T. R. and Parr, C. L. 2016. Morphological characteristics of ant assemblages (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) differ among contrasting biomes. Myrmecological News
- Bishop, T. R., Robertson, M. P., van Rensburg, B. J. and Parr, C. L. 2015. Contrasting species and functional beta diversity in montane ant assemblages. Journal of Biogeography 42(9), pp. 1776-1786. (10.1111/jbi.12537)
- Gibb, H. et al. 2015. Climate mediates the effects of disturbance on ant assemblage structure. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 282(1808), article number: 20150418. (10.1098/rspb.2015.0418)
- Ewers, R. M. et al. 2015. Logging cuts the functional importance of invertebrates in tropical rainforest. Nature Communications 6(1), article number: 6836. (10.1038/ncomms7836)
- Bishop, T. R., Robertson, M. P., van Rensburg, B. J., Parr, C. L. and Gillman, L. 2014. Elevation-diversity patterns through space and time: ant communities of the Maloti-Drakensberg mountains of southern Africa. Journal of Biogeography 41(12), pp. 2256-2268. (10.1111/jbi.12368)
- Bishop, T. R., Botham, M. S., Fox, R., Leather, S. R., Chapman, D. S., Oliver, T. H. and Freckleton, R. 2013. The utility of distribution data in predicting phenology. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 4(11), pp. 1024-1032. (10.1111/2041-210X.12112)
Book sections
- Bishop, T. R. and Robertson, M. P. 2024. Mountain habitats for insect conservation. In: Pryke, J. S. et al. eds. Routledge Handbook of Insect Conservation. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, pp. 334-343., (10.4324/9781003285793-30)
Research
Why do some parts of the globe have more species than others? The tropics and lowlands teem with life, but the polar and mountainous regions have few species, and comparatively less biological activity. I am fascinated by the diversity of species on our planet, and the variety of ways in which they make a living. Through my research, I am trying to further our understanding of the processes that drive these kinds of patterns, and in turn, what consequences they may have in the face of global change.
These interests have developed into two interlinked, research themes:
First, my research is interested in understanding how temperature controls life. My work makes connections between the thermal traits of individuals, population fluctuations and distribution patterns (Bishop et al. 2016, 2017; Nowrouzi et al. 2018; Law et al. 2020). I shed light on how species and ecological communities are constrained by temperature in the present and, in doing so; I aim to predict our ecological future (Bishop et al. 2019). I use laboratory, field, and eco-informatics approaches to achieve this.
Second, my research tests the functional significance of species' level traits and analyses whether they can explain species' geographic distributions. Some of these traits are explicitly linked to temperature, and tie into the first theme, but I also have a range of global collaborations interested in quantifying broad patterns of variation in insect phenotype (Parr et al. 2017; Schofield et al. 2016). Currently, I am leading a global analysis into ant morphological variation and convergence at both the species and community-level.
Biography
Appointments
2021 – present Lecturer in Ecology and Zoology, Cardiff University, UK
2018 – present Extraordinary Lecturer, University of Pretoria, South Africa
2018 – 2021 Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow, University of Liverpool, UK
2016 – 2018 Vice-Chancellor's Research Fellow, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Education
2012 – 2016 PhD, Environmental Science, University of Liverpool, UK
2011 – 2012 MRes, Entomology, Imperial College London, UK
2008 – 2011 BA (Hons), Biological Sciences, Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford, UK
2001 – 2008 GCSEs and A levels, Whitchurch High School, Cardiff, UK
Honours and awards
2019 National Research Foundation (South Africa) Rated Scientist: Y (young) category
2018 Best paper in Ecological Entomology during 2016/2017
Committees and reviewing
Committees
2019 – present British Ecological Society Macroecology Special Interest Group
Journal editing
2021 – present Associate Editor, Journal of Animal Ecology
Journal reviewing
Acta Oecologica; American Naturalist; Applied Vegetation Science; Asian Myrmecology; Basic and Applied Ecology; Biodiversity and Conservation; Biological Conservation; Biotropica; Community Ecology; Diversity and Distributions; Ecography; Ecological Entomology; Ecology; Ecology Letters; Entomological Science; European Journal of Entomology; Functional Ecology; Global Ecology and Biogeography; Insect Conservation and Diversity; Insectes Sociaux; Journal of Animal Ecology; Journal of Biogeography; Journal of Hymenoptera Research; Journal of Insect Conservation; Journal of the Royal Society Interface; Methods in Ecology and Evolution; Myrmecological News; PeerJ; PLOS One; Royal Society Open Science; Scientific Reports; Zoologischer Anzeiger.
Grant reviewing
Czech Science Foundation (Czech Republic); National Research Foundation (South Africa); Liverpool ECR Fund.
Contact Details
+44 29225 12322
Sir Martin Evans Building, Room C/6.03, Museum Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3AX
Research themes
Specialisms
- Animal physiological ecology
- Community ecology
- Macroecology
- Entomology