Professor Isabelle Durance AE, PhD

Professor and Director of the Water Research Institute

School of Biosciences

: Durance@cardiff.ac.uk
: +44 29208 74484
: Sir Martin Evans Building, Museum Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3AX

: Media commentator

Freshwaters are hot spots of biodiversity and also vital natural resources on which human well-being depends. However, multiple and often conflicting uses of these waters and their catchments have significantly degraded freshwater ecosystems worldwide. Evidence and tools are urgently needed to guide the management of freshwaters and their catchments within safe environmental limits.

Using an ecosystem approach, my work blends large scale empirical analysis with smaller scale in-situ manipulations, to address pressing questions on:

The role of river biodiversity in sustaining key ecosystem services
The role of landscape processes in regulating freshwater biodiversity
The impact of global changes on freshwater ecosystem.

Roles

Director, Water Research Institute

The Water Research Institute was launched in 2015 to address the grand challenge of sustainable water management for people and ecosystems in a changing world.

Our mission is to foster world-leading interdisciplinary research that will have strong impact and be used as evidence by decision makers. We do this by providing a creative environment where researchers from different disciplines co-design and co-deliver research with stakeholders and end-users to provide integrated understanding and solutions to tackle global water challenges.

Director, GW4 Water Security Alliance

Water security means making sure there is enough water of the right quality in the right place at the right time for people, farming, businesses and the environment.

With 200+ academics across four leading UK research institutions (Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter), the GW4 Water Security Alliance (WSA) is the largest UK water research group – and one of the largest worldwide. It brings together academics and stakeholders with a common vision of addressing regional, national and global water security challenges

Director, NERC FRESH Centre for Doctoral Training

The NERC Centre for Doctoral Training in Freshwater Biosciences and Sustainability (GW4 FRESH CDT) provides a world-class doctoral research and training environment, for the next generation of interdisciplinary freshwater scientists equipped to tackle future global water challenges.

GW4 FRESH harnesses freshwater scientists from four of the UK’s most research-intensive universities (Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter) plus world-class research organisations the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) and British Geological Survey (BGS). GW4 FRESH builds on established networks in place, with tried and tested collaboration agreements, and exceptional long-standing stakeholder support from a range of backgrounds.

Date
Type

2020

Worthington, T. A., Worthington, I., Vaughan, I. P., Ormerod, S. J. and Durance, I. 2020. Testing the ecosystem service cascade framework for Atlantic salmon. Ecosystem Services 46, article number: 101196. (10.1016/j.ecoser.2020.101196)
Stone, C., Windsor, F. M., Munday, M. and Durance, I. 2020. Natural or synthetic – how global trends in textile usage threaten freshwater environments. Science of the Total Environment 718, article number: 134689. (10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.134689)
Jams, I. B., Windsor, F. M., Poudevigne-Durance, T., Ormerod, S. J. and Durance, I. 2020. Estimating the size distribution of plastics ingested by animals. Nature Communications 11, article number: 1594. (10.1038/s41467-020-15406-6)

2019

Windsor, F. M., Durance, I., Horton, A. A., Thompson, R. C., Tyler, C. R. and Ormerod, S. J. 2019. A catchment-scale perspective of plastic pollution. Global Change Biology 25(4), pp. 1207-1221. (10.1111/gcb.14572)

2018

Perkins, D. M. et al. 2018. Bending the rules: exploitation of allochthonous resources by a top-predator modifies size-abundance scaling in stream food webs. Ecology Letters 21(12), pp. 1771-1780. (10.1111/ele.13147)
Larsen, S., Chase, J. M., Durance, I. and Ormerod, S. J. 2018. Lifting the veil: richness measurements fail to detect systematic biodiversity change over three decades. Ecology 99(6), pp. 1316-1326. (10.1002/ecy.2213)
Seymour, M. et al. 2018. Acidity promotes degradation of multi-species environmental DNA in lotic mesocosms. Communications Biology 1, article number: 4. (10.1038/s42003-017-0005-3)

2017

Small, N., Munday, M. and Durance, I. 2017. The challenge of valuing ecosystem services that have no material benefits. Global Environmental Change 44, pp. 57-67. (10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2017.03.005)
Hildrew, A. G., Durance, I. and Statzner, B. 2017. Persistence in the longitudinal distribution of lotic insects in a changing climate: a tale of two rivers. Science of the Total Environment 574, pp. 1294-1304. (10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.07.212)

2016

Jackson, M. et al. 2016. Recommendations for the next generation of global freshwater biological monitoring tools. Advances in Ecological Research 55, pp. 615-636. (10.1016/bs.aecr.2016.08.008)
Verberk, W. C. E. P., Durance, I., Vaughan, I. P. and Ormerod, S. J. 2016. Field and laboratory studies reveal interacting effects of stream oxygenation and warming on aquatic ectotherms. Global Change Biology 22(5), pp. 1769-1778. (10.1111/gcb.13240)
Woodward, G. et al. 2016. The effects of climatic fluctuations and extreme events on running water ecosystems. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B - Biological Sciences 371(1694), article number: 20150274. (10.1098/rstb.2015.0274)
Durance, I. et al. 2016. The challenges of linking ecosystem services to biodiversity. Advances in Ecological Research 54, pp. 87-134. (10.1016/bs.aecr.2015.10.003)

2015

Mulder, C. et al. 2015. 10 years later: revisiting priorities for science and society a decade after the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Advances in Ecological Research 53, pp. 1-53. (10.1016/bs.aecr.2015.10.005)
Watts, G. et al. 2015. Climate change and water in the UK - past changes and future prospects. Progress in Physical Geography 39(1), pp. 6-28. (10.1177/0309133314542957)

2014

Raffaelli, D. et al. 2014. Big Data and ecosystem research programmes. Advances in Ecological Research 51, pp. 41-77. (10.1016/B978-0-08-099970-8.00004-X)
Morrissey, C. A., Stanton, D. W., Tyler, C. R., Pereira, M. G., Newton, J., Durance, I. and Ormerod, S. J. 2014. Developmental impairment in eurasian dipper nestlings exposed to urban stream pollutants. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 33(6), pp. 1315-1323. (10.1002/etc.2555)

2013

Merrix-Jones, F. L., Thackeray, S. J., Durance, I. and Ormerod, S. J. 2013. Spatial structure in the zooplankton of a newly formed and heavily disturbed urban lake. Fundamental and Applied Limnology / Archiv fur Hydrobiologie 183(1), pp. 1-14. (10.1127/1863-9135/2013/0459)
Morrissey, C., Stanton, D. W. G., Pereira, M. G., Newton, J., Durance, I., Tyler, C. R. and Ormerod, S. J. 2013. Eurasian dipper eggs indicate elevated organohalogenated contaminants persist in urban rivers. Environmental Science & Technology 47(15), pp. 8931-8939. (10.1021/es402124z)

2012

Ormerod, S. J. and Durance, I. 2012. Understanding and managing climate change effects on river ecosystems. In: Boon, P. and Raven, P. eds. River Conservation and Management. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 107-121.

2011

Gaotlhobogwe, M., Laugharne, J. and Durance, I. 2011. The potential of multivariate analysis in assessing students' attitude to curriculum subjects. Educational Research 53(1), pp. 65-83. (10.1080/00131881.2011.552241)
Vaughan, I. P., Larsen, S., Durance, I. and Ormerod, S. J. 2011. Student-centred experiments with stream invertebrates. Journal of Biological Education 45(2), pp. 106-111. (10.1080/00219266.2010.546007)
Maltby, E. et al. 2011. Freshwaters – openwaters, wetlands and floodplains. In: UK National Ecosystem Assessment: Technical Report. Cambridge: United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), pp. 295-360.

2010

Clews, E., Durance, I., Vaughan, I. P. and Ormerod, S. J. 2010. Juvenile salmonid populations in a temperate river system track synoptic trends in climate. Global Change Biology 16(12), pp. 3271-3283. (10.1111/j.1365-2486.2010.02211.x)
Ormerod, S. J., Durance, I., Terrier, A. and Swanson, A. M. 2010. Priority wetland invertebrates as conservation surrogates. Conservation Biology 24(2), pp. 573-582. (10.1111/j.1523-1739.2009.01352.x)
Durance, I. and Ormerod, S. J. 2010. Evidence for the role of climate in the local extinction of a cool-water triclad. Journal of the North American Benthological Society 29(4), pp. 1367-1378. (10.1899/09-159.1)

2009

Ormerod, S. J. and Durance, I. 2009. Restoration and recovery from acidification in upland Welsh streams over 25 years. Journal of Applied Ecology 46(1), pp. 164-174. (10.1111/j.1365-2664.2008.01587.x)
Durance, I. and Ormerod, S. J. 2009. Trends in water quality and discharge confound long-term warming effects on river macroinvertebrates. Freshwater Biology 54(2), pp. 388-405. (10.1111/j.1365-2427.2008.02112.x)

2007

Niggebrugger, K., Durance, I., Watson, A. and Ormerod, S. J. 2007. Applying landscape ecology to conservation biology: Spatially explicit analysis reveals dispersal limits on threatened wetland gastropods. Biological Conservation 139(3-4), pp. 286-296. (10.1016/j.biocon.2007.07.003)
Durance, I. and Ormerod, S. J. 2007. Climate-change effects on upland stream macroinvertebrates over a 25-year period. Global Change Biology 13(5), pp. 942-957. (10.1111/j.1365-2486.2007.01340.x)

2006

Durance, I., Lepichon, C. and Ormerod, S. J. 2006. Recognizing the importance of scale in the ecology and management of riverine fish. River Research and Applications 22(10), pp. 1143-1152. (10.1002/rra.965)

2004

de Nooij, R. J. W. et al. 2004. BIO-SAFE: assessing the impact of physical reconstruction on protected and endangered species. River Research and Applications 20(3), pp. 299-315. (10.1002/rra.779)

2003

Ernoult, A., Bureau, F. and Durance, I. 2003. Patterns of organisation in changing landscapes: implications for the management of biodiversity. Landscape Ecology 18(3), pp. 239-251. (10.1023/A:1024457031235)
Durance, I. and Baudry, J. 2003. The implication of past and present landscape patterns for biodiversity research: Introduction and overview. Landscape Ecology 18(3), pp. 223-225. (10.1023/A:1024405014396)

2002

Durance, I., Alard, D., Leuven, R. S. E. W. and Nienhuis, P. H. 2002. A systems approach to river restoration: a case study in the lower Seine valley, France. River Research and Applications 18(3), pp. 239-247. (10.1002/rra.667)
Leuven, R. S. E. W. and Durance, I. 2002. Riverine landscape dynamics and ecological risk assessment. Freshwater Biology 47(4), pp. 845-865. (10.1046/j.1365-2427.2002.00918.x)

2001

Chabrerie, O. et al. 2001. Biodiversity and ecosystem functions in wetlands: A case study in the estuary of the Seine River, France. Estuaries 24(6), pp. 1088-1096. (10.2307/1353020)
Nebbache, S., Feeny, V., Durance, I. and Alard, D. 2001. Turbidity and nitrate transfer in karstic aquifers in rural areas: The Brionne Basin case-study. Journal of Environmental Management 62(4), pp. 389-398. (10.1006/jema.2001.0444)

2000

Alard, D. and Durance, I. 2000. Diversity patterns in grasslands along a landscape gradient in northwestern France. Journal of Vegetation Science 11(2), pp. 287-294. (10.2307/3236809)

1999

Alard, D. and Durance, I. 1999. Factors controlling plant diversity in a rural landscape: a functional approach. Landscape and Urban Planning 46(1-3), pp. 29-39. (10.1016/S0169-2046(99)00044-4)

1998

Alard, D., Durance, I., Dutoit, T. and Decaëns, T. 1998. Dynamique de la biodiversité dans un espace en mutation. Le cas des pelouses calcicoles de la basse vallée de Seine. Acta Oecologica 19(3), pp. 275-284. (10.1016/S1146-609X(98)80031-3)

1997

Durance, I., van Rooij, S., Morin, P. and Alard, D. 1997. Dynamics of rural landscapes and their main driving factors: A case study in the Seine Valley, Normandy, France. Landscape and Urban Planning 38(1-2), pp. 93-103. (10.1016/S0169-2046(97)00025-X)
Durance, I. and Alard, D. 1997. Landscape and agricultural patterns in rural areas: a case study in the Brionne basin, Normandy, France. Journal of Environmental Management 50(4), pp. 335-349. (10.1006/jema.1997.0134)
Durance, I. and Alard, D. 1997. Agricultural landscape dynamics: A case study in the Odessa region, the Ukraine and a comparative analysis with the Brionne basin case study, France. Ekologia Bratislava 16(3), pp. 295-308.

1996

Baudry, J., Alard, D., Thenail, C., Durance, I., Leconte, D., Bourcier, J. F. and Girard, C. M. 1996. Gestion de la biodiversite dans une reion d'elevage bovin: Les prairies permanentes du Pays d'Auge, France. Acta Botanica Gallica: Botany Letters 143(4-5), pp. 367-381. (10.1080/12538078.1996.10515733)

Research

My current research focuses on three key areas: the role of river biodiversity in sustaining key ecosystem services, the role of landscape processes in driving freshwater ecosystems, the impact of global changes on freshwater ecosystems.

The role of river biodiversity in sustaining ecosystem services

Since June 2012, I have been leading Duress – Diversity of Upland Rivers for Ecosystem Service Sustainability. The project is part of a major Research Council initiative called BESS - Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service Sustainability - to assess the role of biodiversity in delivering the key ecosystem services on which we rely. This £3.1 million project brings together a consortium of 28 researchers from a range of disciplines and institutions, and is actively supported by seven key stakeholders.

Sustainable management of river ecosystem services depends on understanding the processes that underpin them. For example, we lack quantitative understanding of how river processes contribute to the clarification, purification and cost of clean water. Through in situ experiments and long-term big data analysis (e.g. Raffaelli et al 2014), the NERC-DURESS project is seeking to assess quantitatively how river services such as fish production or water quality regulation depend on river organisms, and whether there are biodiversity thresholds under which a service cannot be delivered or is compromised (Figure 1).

Landscape processes and biodiversity conservation

The spatial distribution and persistence of patches of different habitat quality can determine population viability and species composition within ecosystems. This perspective from landscape ecology is increasingly valued in the conservation or restoration of threatened organisms, particularly where the underlying ecological processes can be identified. Links between landscape pattern, process and biodiversity formed much of my work prior to joining Cardiff University (e.g. Durance & Baudry, Eds. 2003), and this theme continues. Typical approaches combine ordination, linear models and variance analysis with geo-statistics, GIS and remotely sensed data, and these are active areas of both my research and teaching (e.g. Leuven, Durance and Teuuw, Eds. 2002, UKNEA Wales chapter 2011) (Figure 2).

By comparison with terrestrial ecosystems, landscape ecological applications to freshwaters have been few. Previous collaborative work with researchers in Nijmegen (NL), Rouen (F), and CEMAGREF (F) brought landscape and system perspectives to river restoration and ecological risk assessment in the Seine and Rhine, illustrating the importance of scale and spatial pattern in river restoration or fisheries management (e.g. Durance et al 2002; Leuven & Durance 2002, Durance et al. 2006). Similarly, EA/NERC sponsored research into the ecology of three Red-listed snails on English grazing marshes showed how connectivity between suitable ditches has a major influence on distribution (Durance et al. 2006; Niggebrugge et al. 2007, Ormerod, Durance et al. 2010). Recent work has also highlighted the role of spatial distribution and land use on river birds (Morrisey et al 2013, 2014).

Global change impacts on river function

By directly affecting temperature and hydrology, climate affects a range of major processes in river systems. As a result, organisms here may be among the most sensitive of all to climate forcing. Long-term data from the Llyn Brianne experimental catchments (1981-2005) have revealed clear climatic effects on invertebrate assemblages in headstreams (Durance & Ormerod 2007). Results highlighted in the journal Nature suggested that in the most species-rich streams, the abundance of invertebrates in the spring-time could decline by one-fifth for every degree of temperature gain, with major consequences on energy flows. Cooler-water species are most at risk. In the long-term Llyn Brianne catchments, we found evidence for the role of climate in the local extinction of a cool-water triclad Crenobia alpina (Durance & Ormerod 2010). Other species are also at risk. In the adjacent Wye, our research using Environment Agency data showed that populations of Atlantic salmon and brown trout fell respectively, by 50% and 67% between 1985 and 2004, a decrease correlated with mixed models representing a trend towards hotter, drier summers (Clews, Durance et al in 2010). This work is currently complemented by research on the impact of droughts (PhD Ifan Jams)

In river ecosystems, climate change interacts with other stressors such as recovery from pollution and catchment land use (e.g. Watts et al. 2015). Our work on how climate change interacts with other stressors has for example shown that climate affected the recovery pattern of streams affected by acid deposition (Ormerod & Durance 2009) and that recent winter-biased warming in the chalk streams had been insufficient to affect invertebrates negatively over a period of improving water quality (Durance & Ormerod 2009). Current work (e.g. PhD by Marian Pye, is also highlighting the role of land energetics inputs in regulating river ecosystem function.

Current grants:

This research is funded by:

NERC under the BESS programme, I am the lead PI of the DURESS project - Diversity in Upland Rivers for Ecosystem Service Sustainability, a £3.1million consortium project involving 28 researchers across 9 institutions and 7 key stakeholder partners. For more information visit the DURESS website.

The Esmee Fairbairn Foundation which funds the Llyn Brianne Stream Observatory, a 5 year project to provide data and evidence about how best to manage upland stream landscapes.

The European funded MARS project on Managing Aquatic ecosystems and water Resources under multiple Stress. As part of this €9 million consortium, we are studying responses of river biodiversity and ecosystem services to multiple stressors.

Following a degree in Natural Sciences and a Masters in Engineering (Ingenieur Agronome, Agrotech Paris), I worked in Research & Development in an industrial context (Danone Belgium). I then embarked on a PhD in Landscape Ecology working in Ukraine and France, and developed my research increasingly using freshwater ecosystems as a model during a 10 year lectureship in France (Rouen).

With the support of the Daphne Jackson charity, a charity established to help women back into science, I obtained 3 independent research fellowships after my career break, before being recently awarded a senior lectureship in Cardiff School of Biosciences.

In turn, over the past 5 years in Cardiff, I have had the chance to contribute to academic and public life through involvement in:

Working groups on biodiversity and ecosystem services, for example by joining the Ecosystem Service Partnership steering committee (ESP), contributing to two chapters of the UK National Ecosystem Assessment, and to the Future Earth working group on biodiversity monitoring.
Peer reviewing processes for example as part of the NERC peer-review college, NERC and Horizon 2020 panels, and journal associate editorship of the International Journal of Biodiversity Science, Ecosystem Services & Management.
Training and mentoring of early career researchers.

As of 2021 I have involvement in:

International Advisory Scientific Committee of the H2O Doctoral consortium which brings together postgraduate initiatives across 10 universities in the Lyon region in France.
WWF UK programme committee 2021 - 23
Welsh Water Independent Environmental Advisory Panel 2021 -23

Currently I also lead 2 interdisciplinary initiatives, the Duress project and the Cardiff Water URI.

Committees and reviewing

NERC Changing the Environment Scheme Assessment Panel, 27 and 28 October 2021 - Chaired by NERC Chief Executive, several £10m investments to support the UK research and innovation communities to not just articulate environmental problems, but to devise and develop the whole system solutions utilising interdisciplinary approaches.

NERC Community Diversity Town Hall invited workshop, 10 Nov 2021

Collaborative Inclusivity roundtable led by Susan Waldron, 24 June 2021 - Focused on Advocating and promoting environmental science to create an inclusive talent and skills pipeline

UKRI invited roundtable - a 'new deal' for postgraduate research,1 February 2021

NERC Fellowship workshop - invited workshop to shape the future development and improvement of NERC Fellowships, 4 June 2021

Chair of NERC Strategic Need Advisory Group, January 2021 - August 2021 - Chaired an independent group to give advice on the strategic direction of NERC's Scientific support and Facilities portfolio.

NERC Deep Dive Working Group on Earth and Terrestrial Scientific Support and Facilities (S&F), January - May 2022.

Floods and Droughts Resilience (FDR) steering committee member, July 2020 - December 2021

Students’ Dŵr Cymru water conservation challenge