Alison Hester

Alison Hester FRSB
Alma mater	King's College London (BSc), University of Aberdeen (PhD)
Scientific career
Institutions	CSIRO James Hutton Institute
Thesis	Vegetation succession under developing birch woods (1988)

Alison Hester is an ecologist in the UK, a professor at the Aberdeen site of the James Hutton Institute, Scotland, and an expert in the effects of land management on biodiversity.[1]

Education and career

Hester was educated at King's College London, she then did a PhD at the University of Aberdeen and was a Royal Society Postdoctoral Fellow at CSIRO Western Australia.[1]

Her research looks at natural resource management and effects on biodiversity; her work has raised awareness of issues affecting woodland such as habitat fragmentation and invasive species such as bracken,[2] and has shown that it is important to consider cultural context in land management for example the management of moorland for grouse shooting.[3]

Books

Chapter 5 Threatened Habitats: Marginal Vegetation in Upland Areas, with Rob Brooker, in Biodiversity Under Threat, edited by R E Hester, R M Harrison, published by the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2007.[4]

Chapter 9 Plant traits, Browsing and Grazing Herbivores, and Vegetation Dynamics, with Christina Skarpe, in The Ecology of Browsing and Grazing, edited by Gordon, Iain J., Prins, Herbert H.T., published by Springer in 2008.[5]

Awards and honours

• Gave the British Ecological Society's '12 Months in Ecology' plenary lecture at their 2016 Annual Meeting[6]
• Recognised by Visit Aberdeenshire for bringing an academic conference to North East Scotland thus supporting the local economy.[7]
• Awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society in 2019.[8]
• Chair of the Natural Capital Initiative.[9]
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology.[10]

References

1. "Professor Alison Hester". hutton.ac.uk. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
2. Leake, Mark Macaskill and Jonathan (26 May 2019). "Scots forests face fern ultimatum". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
3. Cathy Newman (May 2017). "What Will Become of Scotland's Moors?". National Geographic. ISSN 0027-9358. Archived from the original on 15 April 2017.
4. Hester, Alison; Brooker, Rob (2007). "Chapter 5. Threatened Habitats: Marginal Vegetation in Upland Areas". Issues in Environmental Science and Technology. Cambridge: Royal Society of Chemistry. pp. 107–134. doi:10.1039/9781847557650-00107. ISBN 978-0-85404-251-7. ISSN 1465-1874.
5. Skarpe, Christina; Hester, Alison J. (2008). "Plant Traits, Browsing and Gazing Herbivores, and Vegetation Dynamics". The Ecology of Browsing and Grazing. Ecological Studies. Vol. 195. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. pp. 217–261. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-72422-3_9. ISBN 978-3-540-72421-6. ISSN 0070-8356. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
6. Richard English (18 May 2016). "Annual Meeting Plenary Speaker: Alison Hester". British Ecological Society. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
7. Reporter (12 October 2019). "Academics recognised for helping create economic boost". Press and Journal. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
8. "RSGS Honorary Fellowship for Professor Alison Hester". hutton.ac.uk. 12 December 2019. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
9. "Secretariat". Natural Capital Initiative. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
10. "2019 Annual Conference Speakers". efi.int. Retrieved 7 February 2020.

External links

• James Hutton Institute Staff profile