Ella Browning

Author

Ella Browning | Postdoctoral Researcher

As an interdisciplinary ecologist with a core background in zoology and conservation, I work on providing evidence for effective biodiversity restoration measures. Prior to joining ICCS, I was a postdoc at University College London (UCL), and a Research Scientist at the Bat Conservation Trust. I completed my PhD at UCL and the Institute of Zoology, London, where I used citizen science data to investigating temporal and spatial trends in bat populations, identifying drivers using spatiotemporal statistical modelling methods. I was introduced to fascinating hidden world of bats during my undergraduate Zoology degree, and I was hooked. I have been studying bats ever since, using them to understand impacts of anthropogenic environmental change on biodiversity.
Bats’ use of echolocation led me to a deeper exploration of the use of passive acoustic monitoring techniques for gathering vital ecological data, and I co-wrote the first guidelines for conservation practitioners on using passive acoustics. I continue to work on developing and improving tools for collecting passive acoustic data and extracting ecologically information from audio using machine learning methods. I am more widely interested in combining conservation technologies, Internet of Things systems, and AI tools for enabling automation and real-time monitoring, to improve biodiversity data collection efficiency, and for interdisciplinary applications, such as for monitoring mosquitoes which pose global public health concerns. Ultimately, I hope my research improves biodiversity and human health.