Volunteers have been collecting ecological data for centuries. However, volunteercollected data are frequently challenged because they lack the precision and rigour of scientific studies. This thesis evaluates the advantages of volunteer‐collected data and the importance of such data for the study of ecology and conservation, and considers methods to verify data to avoid or reduce inaccuracies. Different case studies aimed to answer questions relating to species’ ecology, habitat selection, and behaviour. Charismatic mammals were selected in order to increase volunteer participation (Water voles Arvicola terrestris; dormice Muscardinus avellanarius; North American otters Lontra canadensis; hedgehogs Erinaceus europaeus). Simple, rapid data collection methods were used so that volunteers and citizen scientists could easily follow instructions. The findings show that simple methods such as scales and estimates can be an effective way of studying water vole habitat associations; however, inter‐observer variability was highly problematic when volunteers collected data based on subjective estimations. A volunteer‐collected long‐term dataset on dormouse nestbox occupancy provided excellent information on habitat selection despite some irregularities when the data were recorded. Untrained citizen scientists could not record activity budgets for captive otters despite simple instructions, whereas citizen scientists were able to record habitat variables within their gardens, but false absences were found to be an issue when they recorded hedgehog sightings. Overall, this thesis suggests that volunteer‐collected data can provide useful insights into various aspects of ecology, for example, for studying distributions and species‐habitat interactions. Encouraging volunteers to collect ecological data has additional benefits such as increasing the health and wellbeing of participants, and it also raises public awareness of conservation issues. Recommendations on how to increase participation rates while minimising sources of error and bias are given.

Urban densification and a rise in human population call for greater investigation into how the urban-rural gradient can influence bees and their pollination services. This thesis aimed to further current knowledge by: (i) sampling bee assemblages along the urban-rural gradient in Birmingham, UK; (ii) increasing documentation of bee traits associated with pollen carryover; (iii) incorporating a trait-based analysis to bee assemblage change along the urban-rural gradient; (iv) testing whether the pollination services along the same gradient varied between land-use types and (v) investigating the provisioning and reproductive success of bees in the urban environment. This thesis supports previous evidence of species-specific variation by urbanisation and shows how trait composition and trait diversity are influenced by bee assemblage change along the urban-rural gradient. However, this recorded assemblage and trait variation appeared not to alter seed-set in Campanula glomerata between urban and rural areas. I also found that nutritional quality could play an important role in provisioning rate in the solitary bee \(Osmia\) \(bicornis\), with greater offspring produced in sites where more protein was found in provisioned pollen in urban areas. Furthermore, the inter-specific variation in pilosity (which could have an important role to play in pollen carryover and subsequent pollination) can be explained by body size and species’ pollen transport adaptation. From this work, I suggest trait based analysis could be a common framework for future studies to measure bee assemblage change between urban and rural areas. Moreover, this research builds on previous work which suggests that particular traits affect pollen transport and subsequent pollination, and that further detailed study could give clues as to how changing bee assemblages could influence pollination.

Food availability strongly affects avian breeding success. Conflicting results from food supplementation studies have obscured the role of food availability in shaping the life history trajectories of birds. With the popularity of providing food for wild birds increasing, the effects of this resource for breeding birds need to be clarified. In this study Blue Tits (\(Cyanistes\) \(caeruleus\)) and Great Tits (\(Parus\) \(major\)) were provided with supplementary food to investigate whether food availability reduced the costs of breeding for adults, and affected life history traits. Food supplementation with peanut cake disrupted the timing of Great Tit breeding and reduced fecundity. There was no effect of food supplementation on Great Tit adult or juvenile survival, except in 2010 when females traded off fecundity against future survival. Blue Tit fecundity was largely unaffected by food supplementation, but the provision of mealworms improved adult female survival. Food supplementation reduced female Daily Energy Expenditure (DEE) for both species during egg laying and for Great Tits feeding nestlings, revealing unexpectedly complex life history strategies. Through the integration of physiological techniques and life history frameworks we can understand the interaction between organisms and their environment and the effects of anthropogenic actions such as food supplementation of birds.

Virtually all temperate insects overwinter in diapause, a pre-emptive response to adverse environmental conditions and for many species a pre-requisite of winter survival. Increased global temperatures have the potential to disrupt the induction and maintenance of diapause. In the first part of this thesis, a four year phenological study of the blow fly, \(Calliphora\) \(vicina\), identifies that diapause is already being delayed due to high temperatures experienced by larvae within the soil layer. Laboratory studies identified that non-diapause life stages are capable of heightening cold tolerance through a rapid cold hardening ability, and winter acclimated adults maintain locomotion at lower temperatures than summer acclimated adults. A previously unrecognised threat, however, is that higher adult temperatures have the transgenerational effect of reducing the cold tolerance of diapausing progeny. In the second part of this thesis, the relationship between diapause and cold hardiness was investigated. The amino acid, alanine, was up-regulated as part of the diapause programme. Non-diapause larvae developed on an alanine augmented-diet expressed cold tolerance phenotypes similar to those of their diapausing counterparts. This adds to a growing body of evidence to suggest that amino acids have a direct role in insect cold tolerance.

Seabirds are long-lived, diverse and behaviourally complex marine top predators that are capable of traversing large areas of the global oceans. Consequently, this group are at risk from the wide and persistent range of anthropogenic activities working in this environment. Understanding the consistency with which individuals and populations use the marine environment over space and time, and the mechanisms underlying at-sea behaviour is therefore vital for interpreting population dynamics and developing appropriate and long-standing conservation strategies. This thesis utilises a combination of state-of-the-art tracking technologies and biogeochemical analyses to provide a better understanding of the at-sea movements, ecology and behaviour of a critically endangered seabird: the Balearic shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus. This species is the most threatened seabird in Europe and is undergoing continued population declines, believed to be largely associated with at-sea mortality from fisheries bycatch and predation on land. Despite intensive study during the breeding season, knowledge of the at-sea ecology of Balearic shearwaters during key phases of the annual cycle remains poor. Year-round tracking from colonies on the Balearic Islands yielded new insights into migration strategies of individuals and populations. Most individuals remained faithful to non-breeding areas over the course of the five-year study, although some plasticity in migration behaviour was also detected, indicating capacity for change. Patterns of differential migration were persistent in the main study population, and were linked to sex-based (and potential life stage-based) differences in migratory behaviour, which are most likely associated with varying ties to the breeding grounds. Links between reproductive performance and non-breeding behaviour were also detected, demonstrating an importance of carry-over effects in this species, with potential implications for population dynamics. Furthermore, behavioural differentiation was found between island populations. Migration strategies, use of foraging habitat and phenology differed between a potential Balearic/Yelkouan shearwater hybrid population on Menorca and a neighbouring colony of Balearic shearwaters on Mallorca, providing insights into the relatedness of Puffinus species in the Mediterranean, and emphasising the need to identify units for management that are both ecologically and evolutionarily relevant. Combined geolocation, isotope and feather moult data further identified use of a diversity of foraging tactics in northeast Atlantic waters, and spatial differences in non-breeding dietary behaviour. These findings implicate a role of both forage fish and fisheries in shaping patterns of at-sea distribution during the non-breeding season, and may prove useful for future assessment of seabird responses to anthropogenic and environmental change. During the breeding season, persistent use of highly productive coastal habitats was identified, indicating exploitation of predictable resources. Such movements emphasise the vulnerability of the Balearic shearwater to anthropogenic activity, but also highlight the potential of area-based management approaches for species protection, when combined with management of human activities throughout the species’ distribution range. Together, the findings of this research provide urgently needed information on the at-sea behaviour and ecology of the Balearic shearwater, which should contribute to improved management efforts aimed at increasing population viability. In addition, this thesis contributes to a wider understanding of individual behaviours and inter-seasonal interactions in seabirds, and identifies the need to establish the movement behaviour of a wider range of life stages and populations across distinct seasons.

Anthropogenic structures such as dams, weirs, sluices, and hydropower facilities fragment river networks and restrict the movement of aquatic biota. The critically endangered European eel (Anguilla anguilla) migrates between marine and freshwater habitats and has undergone severe population decline. Barriers to migration are one of the negative impacts to be addressed for compliance with the EC Council Regulation for recovery of eel stocks. This thesis examines measures to reduce the effects of riverine structures on eel and improve passage facilities for both juvenile upstream and adult downstream migrating lifestages of this comparatively understudied species. The influence of turbulent attraction flow on eels ascending passage facilities was quantified at an intertidal weir. Plunging flow resulted in a two-fold increase in the number of eels using a pass. The behavioural mechanisms underlying this attraction, and wider questions of how eels respond to elevated water velocity and turbulent conditions found at barriers and fish passes were further investigated within a field flume. Eels showed a similarly strong attraction to turbulent areas, though adopted an energy conservation strategy by adjusting swim path to reduce the magnitude of velocity and turbulence encountered. Compensatory swimming speed was also used to reduce exposure to energetically expensive environments. Management recommendations are made to optimise the attraction of eels to pass facilities, yet ensure hydrodynamic conditions within the pass do not deter ascent. Legislative drivers also stipulate targets for seaward escapement of adult spawner stock. The impacts of multiple low head barriers and water abstraction intakes on route choice, delay, entrainment and escapement were quantified in a heavily regulated sub-catchment using telemetry. Entrainment loss at a single abstraction point was the biggest cause of reduced escapement, and was influenced by pumping regimes and management of intertidal structures. Delays at some structures were substantial (up to 68.5days), and reflected water management practices and environmental conditions. Sub-metre positioning telemetry allowed detailed behaviour of adult eel to be further quantified in relation to physical and hydrodynamic features at a hydropower intake. There was predominance of milling and thigmotactic behaviours at lower velocities (0.15 – 0.71 m s-1), whereas rejection occurred on encountering the higher water velocities and abrupt velocity gradients associated with flow constriction near the intake entrance. Information presented has implications for wider catchment management and highlights the potential to reduce barrier impacts through manipulation of structures and abstraction regimes. Quantifying eel behaviour in response to physical and hydrodynamic environments will aid the development of attraction, guidance and passage technologies.

Establishing relationships between morphology and behaviour in response to environmental selection pressures are crucial to understand the evolution of diversity within groups such as the hominoids. Muscle architecture (fascicle length and physiological cross-sectional area) from the fore and hindlimbs in the non-human apes were compared, with the result that it did not differ substantially, likely reflecting their characteristic use of orthograde behaviours. At the micro-architecture level, significant differences in the proportions of fast and slow muscle fibres of the triceps surae were found between orangutans and chimpanzees, reflecting subtle differences in locomotion and habitat use. As the largest, predominantly arboreal ape, orangutans were expected to have specific behavioural adaptations to the complex arboreal habitat. A new method was developed, Sutton Movement Writing and was successfully applied to record the subtle variations in positional behaviour and compliant support use in orangutans under field conditions. Finally, postural specialisations used during feeding in the terminal branch niche were identified. Overall, this thesis shows that although the non-human apes appear to share overall behaviours and morphology, more subtle variations in micro-architecture and behaviour are present in orangutans in response to their habitat, and reflects key adaptations since their split from the last common-ape ancestor.