Professor Jon Sadler

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Professor of Biogeography

Contact details

Telephone: +44 (0)121 41 45776
Fax: +44 (0)121 41 45528
Email: j.p.sadler@bham.ac.uk

Address: School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Jon Sadler is a biogeographer and ecologist whose research focuses on species population and assemblage dynamics in animals (sometimes plants). His work is highly interdisciplinary, bisecting biogeography, ecology, urban design, riparian management and island Biogeography. It uses approaches that combine detailed field studies, field and laboratory experimentation, sometimes with social science to examine the links between environmental variability and species (including humans) responses. His research has significant blue skies and applied implications for understanding and responding to the impacts of climate and environmental change variability on urban and island ecosystems, hydrological systems, riparian/riverine ecology, the management/conservation of freshwaters. He is a fan of numbers and coding (especially using open source software such as R).

Jon is part of the Birmingham Plastics Network, an interdisciplinary team of more than 40 academics working together to shape the fate and sustainable future of plastics. This unique team brings together chemists, environmental scientists, philosophers, linguists, economists, and experts in many other fields, to holistically address the global plastics problem.

Teaching

Jon Sadler teaches on the following topics:

Earth and ecological systems
Landscape and urban ecology
Environmental assessment and modelling in R
(Tutorials and fieldwork)

Postgraduate supervision

Jon Sadler’s research focuses on the ecology of two very different environments (riparian and urban) that are subjected to periodic disturbances by either natural and/or anthropogenic processes. The main thrust of the work is to disentangle the often conflicting influences of the landscape ecology of riverscapes and urban landscapes on the ecology of animals that live there. Within these broad areas there are two key linking and cross-cutting themes: gaining an improved understanding of how disturbance affects ecological communities and ecosystem function across a range of spatial (landscape-individual habitat patches) and temporal (millennial-diurnal) scales; how landscape configuration (pattern and form) affects community assembly and individual species movement (hence populations), community persistence and links to variability in ecological and ecosystem function. Professor Sadler's current ornithological project is investigating the ecological significance of linkage and connectivity for avian biodiversity in urban areas. He welcomes enquiries from prospective doctoral researchers in his areas of interest.

Other activities

Jon is Editor in Chief of the Journal of Biogeography, a fellow of Royal Geographical Society, a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society and a member of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly Sub-Division on Estuaries, Wetlands & Eco-Hydrology Steering Committee. He was an assessor for REF2014 (UoA 17).

Publications

Recent publications

Book

Widdop, EC, Moran, D & Sadler, J 2025, Design Principles for Prison Landscapes: Security, Biodiversity and Wellbeing. University of Birmingham. https://doi.org/10.48352/uobxgees.0001

Widdop, EC, Moran, D & Sadler, J 2025, Principes de Conception Paysagère en Milieu Carcéral: Sécurité, Biodiversité et Bien-être. University of Birmingham.

Article

BioTIME consortium 2025, 'BioTIME 2.0: Expanding and Improving a Database of Biodiversity Time Series', Global Ecology and Biogeography, vol. 34, no. 5, e70003. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.70003

Asuk, SA, Wayman, JP, Sadler, JP, Pugh, TAM, Matthews, TJ, Ebu, VT, Phillips, OL, Lewis, S, Sonké, B, Talbot, J, Comiskey, J, Zemagho, L, Ojo, L, Begne, S, Taedoumg, H, Sunderland, T, Hubau, W, Droissart, V, Qie, L, Gilpin, M, Simo-Droissart, M, Feldpausch, T, Peh, KSH, Banin, LF, Kamdem, MND & Kettridge, N 2025, 'Human and Environmental Factors Shape Tree Species Assemblages in West African Tropical Forests', Diversity and Distributions, vol. 31, no. 8, e70075. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.70075

Croghan, D, Van Loon, AF, Bradley, C, Sadler, J, Ouellet, V & Hannah, DM 2025, 'Identifying the impacts of urbanization and extreme flows on river water temperatures in headwater catchments', Hydrological Sciences Journal, vol. 70, no. 2, pp. 347-357. https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2024.2425827

Acil, N, Sadler, JP, Senf, C, Suvanto, S & Pugh, TAM 2025, 'Landscape patterns in stand-replacing disturbances across the world’s forests', Nature Sustainability, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 86-98. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-024-01450-3

Pringle, S, Dallimer, M, Goddard, MA, Le Goff, LK, Hart, E, Langdale, SJ, Fisher, JC, Abad, SA, Ancrenaz, M, Angeoletto, F, Auat Cheein, F, Austen, GE, Bailey, JJ, Baldock, KCR, Banin, LF, Banks-Leite, C, Barau, AS, Bashyal, R, Bates, AJ, Bicknell, JE, Bielby, J, Bosilj, P, Bush, ER, Butler, SJ, Carpenter, D, Clements, CF, Cully, A, Davies, KF, Deere, NJ, Dodd, M, Drinkwater, R, Driscoll, DA, Dutilleux, G, Dyrmann, M, Edwards, DP, Farhadinia, MS, Faruk, A, Field, R, Fletcher, RJ, Foster, CW, Fox, R, Francksen, RM, Franco, AMA, Gainsbury, AM, Gardner, CJ, Giorgi, I, Griffiths, RA, Hamaza, S, Hanheide, M, Hayward, MW, Hedblom, M, Helgason, T, Heon, SP, Hughes, KA, Hunt, ER, Ingram, DJ, Jackson-Mills, G, Jowett, K, Keitt, TH, Kloepper, LN, Kramer-Schadt, S, Labisko, J, Labrosse, F, Lawson, J, Lecomte, N, de Lima, RF, Littlewood, NA, Marshall, HH, Masala, GL, Maskell, LC, Matechou, E, Mazzolai, B, McConnell, A, Melbourne, BA, Miriyev, A, Nana, ED, Ossola, A, Papworth, S, Parr, CL, Payo-Payo, A, Perry, G, Pettorelli, N, Pillay, R, Potts, SG, Prendergast-Miller, MT, Qie, L, Rolley-Parnell, P, Rossiter, SJ, Rowcliffe, M, Rumble, H, Sadler, JP, Sandom, CJ, Sanyal, A, Schrodt, F, Sethi, SS, Shabrani, A, Siddall, R, Smith, SC, Snep, RPH, Soulsbury, CD, Stanley, MC, Stephens, PA, Stephenson, PJ, Struebig, MJ, Studley, M, Svátek, M, Tang, G, Taylor, NK, Umbers, KDL, Ward, RJ, White, PJC, Whittingham, MJ, Wich, S, Williams, CD, Yakubu, IB, Yoh, N, Zaidi, SAR, Zmarz, A, Zwerts, JA & Davies, ZG 2025, 'Opportunities and challenges for monitoring terrestrial biodiversity in the robotics age', Nature Ecology and Evolution, vol. 9, no. 6, pp. 1031-1042. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02704-9

Liu, D, Esquivel-Muelbert, A, Acil, N, Astigarraga, J, Cienciala, E, Fridman, J, Kunstler, G, Matthews, TJ, Ruiz-Benito, P, Sadler, JP, Schelhaas, M-J, Suvanto, S, Talarczyk, A, Woodall, CW, Zavala, MA, Zhang, C & Pugh, T 2024, 'Mapping multi-dimensional variability in water stress strategies across temperate forests', Nature Communications, vol. 15, no. 1, 8909. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-53160-1

Matthews, TJ, Triantis, KA, Wayman, JP, Martin, TE, Hume, JP, Cardoso, P, Faurby, S, Mendenhall, CD, Dufour, P, Rigal, F, Cooke, R, Whittaker, RJ, Pigot, AL, Thébaud, C, Jørgensen, MW, Benavides Rios, E, Soares, FC, Ulrich, W, Kubota, Y, Sadler, J, Tobias, JA & Sayol, F 2024, 'The global loss of avian functional and phylogenetic diversity from anthropogenic extinctions', Science, vol. 386, 6717. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adk789

Wayman, JP, Sadler, J, Martin, TE, Graham, L, White, HJ, Tobias, JA & Matthews, T 2024, 'Unravelling the complexities of biotic homogenization and heterogenization in the British avifauna', Journal of Animal Ecology, vol. 93, no. 9, pp. 1288-1302. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.14145

Crowley, LM, Ivison, K, Enston, A, Garrett, D, Sadler, JP, Pritchard, J, MacKenzie, AR & Hayward, SAL 2023, 'A comparison of sampling methods and temporal patterns of arthropod abundance and diversity in a mature, temperate, Oak woodland', Acta Oecologica, vol. 118, 103873. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actao.2022.103873

Conference contribution

White, D, Jahangir, M, Wayman, JP, Reynolds, J, Sadler, J & Antoniou, M 2023, Bird and micro-drone spectral width and classification. in 2023 24th International Radar Symposium (IRS). Proceedings International Radar Symposium, IEEE, 24th International Radar Symposium, IRS 2023, Berlin, Germany, 24/05/23. https://doi.org/10.23919/IRS57608.2023.10172408

Review article

Foyer, CH, Gardner, A, Hayward, SAL, Sanchez-Lucas, R, Luna, E, McDonald, JE, Rumeau, M, Hart, K, Norby, RJ, Mayoral, C, Gauci, V, Smith, A, Hartley, IP, Crowley, LM, Sadler, JP, Ullah, S & MacKenzie, AR 2025, 'Responses of an Old Deciduous Forest Ecosystem to Elevated CO₂', Global Change Biology, vol. 31, no. 7, e70355. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.70355

Mansfield, I, Reynolds, SJ, Lynch, I, Matthews, TJ & Sadler, JP 2024, 'Birds as bioindicators of plastic pollution in terrestrial and freshwater environments: A 30-year review', Environmental Pollution, vol. 348, 123790. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2024.123790

Benavides Rios, E, Sadler, J, Graham, L & Matthews, T 2024, 'Species distribution models and island biogeography: challenges and prospects', Global Ecology and Conservation, vol. 51, e02943. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2024.e02943

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