Publications

Phil Stephens’ publications

Journal articles

(If you cannot access these articles via the links below, please contact me [philip.stephens “at” durham.ac.uk] for reprints,
or see my ResearchGate page)

• O’Neill, H.M., Twiss, S.D., Stephens, P.A., Mason, T.H.E., Ryrholm, N. & Burman, J. (2022) The importance of direct and indirect trophic interactions in determining the presence of a locally rare day-flying moth. Oecologia (in press).
• Gibson, M.R., Runge, C.A., Stephens, P.A., Fuller, R.A. & Willis, S.G. (2022) Where nothing stands still: quantifying nomadism in Australian arid-zone birds. Landscape Ecology 37, 191-208.
• Baker, E., Drury, J.P., Judge, J., Roy, D.B., Smith, G.C. & Stephens, P.A. (2021) The Verification of Ecological Citizen Science Data: Current Approaches and Future Possibilities. Citizen Science: Theory and Practice 6, 1-14.
• Marion, S., Demsar, U., Davies, A.L., Stephens, P.A., Irvine, R.J. & Long, J.A. (2021) Red deer exhibit spatial and temporal responses to hiking activity. Wildlife Biology 2021, wlb.00853.
• Stewart, P., Hill, R.A., Stephens, P.A., Whittingham, M.J. & Dawson, W. (2021) Impacts of invasive plants on animal behaviour. Ecology Letters 24, 891-907.
• Dickinson, E.R., Stephens, P.A., Marks, N., Wilson, R.P. & Scantlebury, D.M. (2021) Behaviour, temperature and terrain slope impact estimates of energy expenditure using oxygen and dynamic body acceleration. Animal Biotelemetry 9, 47.
• Dickinson, E.R., Twining, J.P., Wilson, R.P., Stephens, P.A., Westander, J., Marks, N. & Scantlebury, D.M. (2021) Limitations of using surrogates for behaviour classification of accelerometer data: refining methods using random forest models in Caprids. Movement Ecology 9, 28.
• Mason, T.H.E., Stephens, P.A., Gilbert, G., Green, R.E., Wilson, J.D., Jennings, K., Allen, J.R.M., Huntley, B., Howard, C. & Willis, S.G. (2021) Using indices of species’ potential range to inform conservation status. Ecological Indicators 123, 107343.
• Beatham, S.E., Goodwin, D., Coats, J., Stephens, P.A. & Massei, G. (2021) A PIT-tag-based method for measuring individual bait uptake in small mammals. Ecological Solutions and Evidence 2, e12081.
• Chirichella, R., Stephens, P.A., Mason, T.H.E. & Apollonio, M. (2021) Contrasting Effects of Climate Change on Alpine chamois. Journal of Wildlife Management 85, 109-20.
• Pettorelli, N., Barlow, J., Nunez, M.A., Rader, R., Stephens, P.A., Pinfield, T. & Newton, E. (2021) How international journals can support ecology from the Global South. Journal of Applied Ecology 58, 4-8.
• Apollonio, M., Merli, E., Chirichella, R., Pokorny, B., Alagic, A., Flajsman, K. & Stephens, P.A. (2020) Capital and Income Breeding in Male Ungulates: Causes and Consequences of Strategy Differences Among Species. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 8, 521767.
• Howard, C., Stephens, P.A., Pearce-Higgins, J.W., Gregory, R.D., Butchart, S.H.M. & Willis, S.G. (2020) Disentangling the relative roles of climate and land cover change in driving the long-term population trends of European migratory birds. Diversity and Distributions 26, 1442-1455.
• Brooker, S.A., Stephens, P.A., Whittingham, M.J. & Willis, S.G. (2020) Automated detection and classification of birdsong: an ensemble approach. Ecological Indicators 117, 106609
• Ferretti, F., Lovari, S., Lucherini, M., Hayward, M.W. & Stephens, P.A. (2020) Only the largest terrestrial Carnivores increase their dietary breadth with increasing prey richness. Mammal Review 50, 291-303
• Docherty, T., Hethcoat, M., MacTavish, L., MacTavish, D., Dell, S., Stephens, P.A. & Willis, S.G. (2020) Burning savanna for avian species richness and functional diversity. Ecological Applications 30, e02091
• Hsing, P.-Y., Coghill, L., Ryder, J., Austin, M., Dooley, S., Ellison, A., Fenwick, C., Garland, M., Humphrey, P., Proudlock, H., Robson, A., Steer, C., Turnbull, L., Kent, V.T., Bradley, S.P., Hill, R.A., Ascroft, R. & Stephens, P.A. (2020) Citizen scientists: school students conducting, contributing to and communicating ecological research – experiences of a school-university partnership. School Science Review 101, 67-74
• Howard, C., Flather, C.H. & Stephens, P.A. (2020) A global assessment of the drivers of threatened terrestrial species richness. Nature Communications 11, 993
• Green, S.E., Rees, J.P., Stephens, P.A., Hill, R.A. & Giordano, A.J. (2020) Innovations in Camera Trapping Technology and Approaches: Applications for Citizen Science. Animals 10, 132
• Marion, S., Davies, A., Demsar, U., Irvine, R.J., Stephens, P.A. & Long, J. (2020) A systematic review of methods for studying the impacts of outdoor recreation on terrestrial wildlife. Global Ecology and Conservation 22, e00917
• Dickinson, E.R., Stephens, P.A., Marks, N.J., Wilson, R.P. & Scantlebury, D.M. (2020) Best practice for collar deployment of tri-axial accelerometers on a terrestrial quadruped to provide accurate measurement of body acceleration. Animal Biotelemetry 8, 9
• Mason, L.R., Green, R.E., Howard, C., Stephens, P.A., Willis, S.G., Aunins, A., Brotons, L., Chodkiewicz, T., Chylarecki, P., Escandell, V., Foppen, R.P.B., Herrando, S., Husby, M., Jiguet, F., Kalas, J.A., Lindstrom, A., Massimino, D., Moshoj, C., Nellis, R., Paquet, J., Reif, J., Sirkia, P.M., Szep, T., Tellini Florenzano, G., Teufelbauer, N., Trautmann, S., van Strien, A.J., van Turnhout, C.A.M., Vorisek, P. & Gregory, R.D. (2019) Population responses of bird populations to climate change on two continents vary with species’ ecological traits but not with direction of change in climate suitability. Climatic Change 157, 337-354
• Pettorelli, N., Barlow, J., Cadotte, M.W., Lucas, K., Newton, E., Nunez, M.A. & Stephens, P.A. (2019) Applied ecologists in a landscape of fear. Journal of Applied Ecology 56, 1034-1039
• Stephens, P.A., Vieira, M.V., Willis, S.G. & Carbone, C. (2019) The limits to population density in birds and mammals. Ecology Letters, 22, 654-663
• Nunez, M.A., Barlow, J., Cadotte, M.W., Lucas, K., Newton, E., Pettorelli, N. & Stephens, P.A. (2019) Assessing the uneven global distribution of readership, submissions and publications in applied ecology: Obvious problems without obvious solutions. Journal of Applied Ecology 56, 4-9
• Howard, C., Flather, C.H. & Stephens, P.A. (2019) What drives at-risk species richness? Environmental factors are more influential than anthropogenic factors or biological traits. Conservation Letters 12, e12624
• Stephens, P.A. (2018) Ecology: Luck, Scarcity, and the Fate of Populations. Current Biology 28, R1384-1386
• Hsing, P.-Y., Bradley, S.P., Kent, V.T., Hill, R.A., Smith, G.C., Whittingham, M.J., Cokill, J., Crawley, D., MammalWeb Volunteers, Stephens, P.A. (2018) Economical crowdsourcing for camera trap image classification. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation 4, 361-374
• Ferretti, F., Lovari, S. & Stephens, P.A. (2018) Joint effects of weather and interspecific competition on foraging behaviour and survival of a mountain herbivore. Current Zoology, 65, 165-175
• Pettorelli, N., Barlow, J., Stephens, P.A., Durant, S.M., Connor, B., Schulte to Buhne, H., Sandom, C.J., Wentworth, J. & du Toit, J.T. (2018) Making rewilding fit for policy. Journal of Applied Ecology 55, 1114-1125
• Howard, C., Stephens, P.A., Tobias, J.A., Sheard, C., Butchart, S.H.M. & Willis, S.G. (2018) Flight range, fuel load and the impact of climate change on the journeys of migrant birds. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B 285, 20172329
• Barlow, J., Stephens, P.A., Bode, M., Cadotte, M.W., Lucas, K., Newton, E., Nunez, M.A. & Pettorelli, N. (2018) On the extinction of the single-authored paper: The causes and consequences of increasingly collaborative applied ecological research. Journal of Applied Ecology 55, 1-4
• Mason, T.H.E, Brivio, F., Stephens, P.A., Apollonio, M. & Grignolio, S. (2017) The behavioral trade-off between thermoregulation and foraging in a heat-sensitive species. Behavioral Ecology 28, 908-918
• Voskamp, A., Baker, D.J., Stephens, P.A., Valdes, P.J. & Willis, S.G. (2017) Global patterns in the divergence between phylogenetic diversity and species richness in terrestrial birds. Journal of Biogeography 44, 709-721
• Cadotte, M.W., Barlow, J., Nunez, M.A., Pettorelli, & Stephens, P.A. (2017) Solving environmental problems in the Anthropocene: the need to bring novel theoretical advances into the applied ecology fold. Journal of Applied Ecology 54, 1-6
• Stephens, P.A., Mason, L.R., Green, R.E., Gregory, R.D., Sauer, J.R., Alison, J., Aunins, A., Brotons, L., Butchart, S.H.M., Campedelli, T., Chodkiewicz, T., Chylarecki, P., Crowe, O., Elts, J., Escandell, V., Foppen, R.P.B., Heldbjerg, H., Herrando, S., Husby, M., Jiguet, F., Lehikoinen, A., Lindstrom, A., Noble, D.G., Paquet, J., Reif, J., Sattler, T., Szep, T., Teufelbauer, N., Trautmann, S., van Strien, A.J., van Turnhout, C.A.M., Vorisek, P. & Willis, S.G. (2016) Consistent response of bird populations to climate change on two continents. Science 352, 84-87
• Sanderson, F.J., Pople, R.G., Ieronymidou, C., Burfield, I.J., Gregory, R.D., Willis, S.G., Howard, C., Stephens, P.A., Beresford, A.E. & Donald, P.F. (2016) Assessing the performance of EU nature legislation in protecting target bird species in an era of climate change. Conservation Letters 9, 172-180
• Davis, M.L., Stephens, P.A. & Kjellander, P. (2016) Beyond climate envelope projections: Roe deer survival and environmental change. Journal of Wildlife Management 80, 452-464
• Barlow, J., Cadotte, M.W., Newton, E., Pettorelli, N., Plane, A., Stephens, P.A. & Whittingham, M.J. (2016) Achieving and communicating globally relevant applied ecological research. Journal of Applied Ecology 53, 1-4
• Stephens, P.A. (2015) Land sparing, land sharing, and the fate of Africaís lions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 112, 14753-14754
• Howard, C., Stephens, P.A., Pearce-Higgins, J.W., Gregory, R.D. & Willis, S.G. (2015) The drivers of avian abundance: patterns in the relative importance of climate and land use. Global Ecology & Biogeography 24, 1249-1260.
• Palmer, G., Stephens, P.A., Ward, A.I. & Willis, S.G. (2015) Nationwide trophic cascades: changes in avian community structure driven by ungulates. Scientific Reports 5, 15601; doi: 10.1038/srep15601
• Stephens, P.A., Pettorelli, N., Barlow, J., Whittingham, M.J. & Cadotte, M.W. (2015) Management by proxy? The use of indices in applied ecology. Journal of Applied Ecology 52, 1-6.
• Devenish-Nelson, E.S., Richards, S.A., Harris, S., Soulsbury, C.D. & Stephens, P.A. (2014) Demonstrating frequency-dependent transmission of sarcoptic mange in red foxes. Biology Letters 10, 20140524.
• Mason, T.H.E., Chirichella, R., Apollonio, M., Willis, S.G. & Stephens, P.A. (2014) Environmental change and long-term body mass declines in an alpine mammal. Frontiers in Zoology 11, 69.
• Mason, T.H.E., Stephens, P.A., Apollonio, M. & Willis, S.G. (2014) Predicting potential responses to future climate in an alpine ungulate: interspecific interactions exceed climate effects. Global Change Biology 20, 3872-3882.
• Howard, C., Stephens, P.A., Pearce-Higgins, J.W., Gregory, R.D. & Willis, S.G. (2014) Improving species distribution models: the value of data on abundance. Methods in Ecology & Evolution 5, 506-513.
• Stephens, P.A., Houston, A.I., Harding, K.C., Boyd, I.L. & McNamara, J.M. (2014) Capital and income breeding: the role of food supply. Ecology 95, 882-896.
• Larson, G., Stephens, P.A., Tehrani, J. & Layton, R.H. (2013) Exapting exaptation. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 28, 497-498.
• Devenish-Nelson, E.S., Harris, S., Soulsbury, C.D., Richards, S.A. & Stephens, P.A. (2013) Demography of a carnivore, the red fox, Vulpes vulpes: what have we learnt from 70 years of published studies? Oikos 122, 705-716. (Oikos blog)
• Devenish-Nelson, E.S., Stephens, P.A., Harris, S., Soulsbury, C.D. & Richards, S.A. (2013) Does litter size variation affect models of terrestrial carnivore extinction risk and management? PLoS One 8, e58060.
• Mason, T.H.E., Stephens, P.A., Willis, S.G., Chirichella, R., Apollonio, M. & Richards, S.A. (2012) Intra- seasonal variation in reproductive effort: young males finish last. American Naturalist 180, 823-830.
• Davis, M.L., Stephens, P.A., Willis, S.G., Bassi, E., Marcon, A., Donaggio, E., Capitani, C., & Apollonio, M. (2012) Prey selection by an apex predator: the importance of sampling uncertainty. PLoS One 7, e47894.
• Mason, T.H.E., Chirichella, R., Richards, S.A., Stephens, P.A., Willis, S.G. & Apollonio, M. (2011) Contrasting life histories in neighbouring populations of a large mammal. PLoS One 6, e28002.
• Flather, C.H., Hayward, G.D., Beissinger, S.R. & Stephens, P.A. (2011) A general target for MVPs: unsupported and unnecessary. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 26, 620- 622.
• Beissinger, S.R., Flather, C.H., Hayward, G.D. & Stephens, P.A. (2011) No safety in numbers. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 9, 486.
• Lee, T., Speed, M.P. & Stephens, P.A. (2011) Honest signaling and the uses of prey coloration. American Naturalist 178, E1-E9.
• Flather, C.H., Hayward, G.D., Beissinger, S.R. & Stephens, P.A. (2011) Minimum viable populations: is there a ìmagic numberî for conservation practitioners? Trends in Ecology & Evolution 26, 307- 316.
• Carbone, C., Pettorelli, N. & Stephens, P.A. (2011) The bigger they come the harder they fall: body size and prey abundance influence predator-prey ratios. Biology Letters 7, 312-315.
• White, T.A., Fotherby, H.A., Stephens, P.A. & Hoelzel, A.R. (2011) Genetic panmixia and demographic dependence across the North Atlantic in the deep-sea fish, blue hake (Antimora rostrata). Heredity 106, 690-699.
• Richards, S.A., Whittingham, M.J. & Stephens, P.A. (2011) Model selection and model averaging in behavioural ecology: the utility of the IT-AIC framework. Behavioral Ecology & Sociobiology 65, 77-89.
• Devenish-Nelson, E.S., Harris, S., Soulsbury, C.D., Richards, S.A. & Stephens, P.A. (2010) Uncertainty in population growth rates: determining confidence intervals from point estimates of parameters. PLoS One 5, e13628.
• Speed, M.P., Ruxton, G.D., Blount, J.D. & Stephens, P.A. (2010) Diversification of honest signals in a predator-prey system. Ecology Letters 13, 744-753.
• Bywater, K., Apollonio, M., Cappai, N. & Stephens, P.A. (2010) Litter size and latitude in a large mammal: the wild boar Sus scrofa. Mammal Review 40, 212-220.
• Stephens, P.A., Boyd, I.L. McNamara, J.M. & Houston, A.I. (2009) Capital breeding and income breeding: their measurement, meaning and worth. Ecology 90, 2057-2067.
• Freckleton, R.P. & Stephens, P.A. (2009) Predictive models of weed population dynamics. Weed Research 49, 225-232.
• Blount, J.D., Speed, M.P., Ruxton, G.D. & Stephens, P.A. (2009) Warning displays may function as honest signals of toxicity. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B, 276, 871-877.
• McNamara, J.M., Stephens, P.A., Dall, S.R.X. & Houston, A.I. (2009) Evolution of trust and trustworthiness: social awareness favours personality differences. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B, 276, 605-613.
• Feró, O., Stephens, P.A., Barta, Z., McNamara, J.M. & Houston, A.I. (2008) Optimal annual routines: new tools for conservation biology? Ecological Applications, 18, 1563- 1577.
• Freckleton, R.P., Sutherland, W.J., Watkinson, A.R. & Stephens, P.A. (2008) Modelling the effects of management on population dynamics: some lessons from annual weeds. Journal of Applied Ecology, 45, 1050- 1058.
• Stephens, P.A., Carbone, C., Boyd, I.L., McNamara, J.M., Harding, K.C. & Houston, A.I. (2008) The scaling of diving time budgets: insights from an optimality approach. American Naturalist, 171, 305-314.
• Martínez del Rio, C., Buskirk, S.W. & Stephens, P.A. (2007) Null-hypothesis significance tests in education and inference. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 22, 446.
• Stephens, P.A., Buskirk, S.W. & Martínez del Rio, C. (2007) Inference in ecology and evolution. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 22, 192-197.
• Stephens, P.A., Buskirk, S.W., Hayward, G.D. & Martínez del Rio, C. (2007) A call for statistical pluralism answered. Journal of Applied Ecology 44, 461-463.
• Houston, A.I., Stephens, P.A., Boyd, I.L., Harding, K.C. & McNamara, J.M. (2007) Capital or income breeding? A theoretical model of female reproductive strategies. Behavioral Ecology 18, 241- 250.
• Whittingham, M.J., Stephens, P.A., Bradbury, R.B. & Freckleton, R.P. (2006) Why do we still use stepwise modelling in ecology and behaviour? Journal of Animal Ecology 75, 1182-1189.
• Stephens, P.A., Zaumyslova, O.Yu., Miquelle, D.G., Myslenkov, A.I. & Hayward, G.D. (2006) Estimating population density from indirect sign: track counts and the Formozov-Malyshev-Pereleshin formula. Animal Conservation 9, 339-348.
• Stephens, P.A., Buskirk, S.W., Hayward, G.D. & Martínez del Rio, C. (2007) Information theory and hypothesis testing: a call for pluralism. Journal of Applied Ecology 42, 4-12.
• Stephens, P.A., Russell, A.F., Young, A.J., Sutherland, W.J. & Clutton-Brock, T.H. (2005) Dispersal, eviction and conflict in meerkats (Suricata suricatta): an evolutionarily stable strategy model. American Naturalist, 165, 120-135.
• Freckleton, R.P., Stephens, P.A., Sutherland, W.J. & Watkinson, A.R. (2004) Amelioration of biodiversity impacts of genetically modified crops: predicting transient versus long-term effects. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B, 271, 325-331.
• Stephens, P.A., Pretty, J.N., & Sutherland, W.J. (2003) Agriculture, transport policy and landscape heterogeneity. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 18, 555-556.
• Stephens, P.A., Freckleton, R.P., Watkinson, A.R., & Sutherland, W.J. (2003) Predicting the response of farmland bird populations to changing food supplies. Journal of Applied Ecology, 40, 970-983.
• Stephens, P.A., Frey-Roos, F., Arnold, W., & Sutherland, W.J. (2002) Sustainable exploitation of social species: a test and comparison of models. Journal of Applied Ecology, 39, 629- 642.
• Stephens, P.A., Frey-Roos, F., Arnold, W., & Sutherland, W.J. (2002) Model complexity and population predictions. The alpine marmot as a case study. Journal of Animal Ecology, 71, 343- 361.
• Stephens, P.A., d’Sa, C.A., Sillero-Zubiri, C., & Leader-Williams, N. (2001) Impact of livestock and settlement on the large mammalian wildlife of Bale Mountains National Park, southern Ethiopia. Biological Conservation, 100, 307-322.
• Stephens, P.A. & Sutherland, W.J. (1999) Consequences of the Allee effect for behaviour, ecology and conservation. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 14, 401-405.
• Stephens, P.A., Sutherland, W.J., & Freckleton, R.P. (1999) What is the Allee effect? Oikos, 87, 185-190.

Book sections and other peer reviewed contributions

• Stephens, P.A. “Population Viability Analysis”. Oxford Bibliographies in Ecology. Ed. David Gibson. New York: Oxford University Press, 25/02/2016. doi: 10.1093/OBO/9780199830060-0142.
• Miquelle, D. G., Goodrich, J. M., Smirnov, E.N., Stephens, P. A., Zaumyslova, O.Yu., Chapron, G., Kerley, L., Murzin, A. A., Hornocker, M.G., Quigley, H.B. (2010). The Amur tiger: a case study of living on the edge. In The Biology and Conservation of Wild Felids (eds D.W. Macdonald & A. Loveridge), Chapter 13. Oxford University Press.
• Stephens, P.A., Zaumyslova, O.Yu., Myslenkov, A.E., Hayward, G.D. & Miquelle, D.G. (2005). Densities of ungulates in Sikhote- Alin Zapovednik, Russian Far East. In The Tigers of Sikhote-Alin Zapovednik: Ecology and Conservation (eds D.G. Miquelle, E.N. Smirnov & J.M. Goodrich), pp. 97-112. PSP, Vladivostok (in Russian).
• Stephens, P.A., Zaumyslova, O.Yu., Myslenkov, A.E., Miquelle, D.G. & Hayward, G.D. (2005). Temporal dynamics of ungulates in Sikhote-Alin Zapovednik, Russian Far East, 1962 – 2001. In The Tigers of Sikhote-Alin Zapovednik: Ecology and Conservation (eds D.G. Miquelle, E.N. Smirnov & J.M. Goodrich), pp. 113-125. PSP, Vladivostok (in Russian).
• Miquelle, D.G., Stephens, P.A., Smirnov, E.N., Goodrich, J.M., Zaumyslova, O.Yu. & Myslenkov, A.E. (2005). Tigers and Wolves in the Russian Far East: Competitive Exclusion, Functional Redundancy and Conservation Implications. In Large Carnivores and the Conservation of Biodiversity (eds J.C. Ray, J. Berger, K.H. Redford & R. Steneck), pp. 179-207. Island Press, New York. (click here for book details)
• Freckleton, R.P., Stephens, P.A., Sutherland, W.J. & Watkinson, A.R. (2004) Modelling the effects of genetically modified crops on farmland food webs. Aspects of Applied Biology 74: GM Crops – Ecological Dimensions, 183-190.
• Stephens, P.A. & Sutherland, W.J. (2000) Vertebrate mating systems, Allee effects and conservation. In Vertebrate Mating Systems (eds M. Apollonio, M. Festa-Bianchet & D. Mainardi), pp. 186-213. London, World Scientific Publishing, Erici, Italy.

Other

• Stephens, P.A. (2008) Two may be company but three is seldom a crowd: Allee effects in Ecology & Conservation (A review of Courchamp, Berec & Gascoigne, 2008). Conservation Biology, 22, 1662-1664.
• Stephens, P.A., Zaumyslova, O.Yu., Hayward, G.D. & Miquelle, D.G. (2006). Analysis of the long-term dynamics of ungulates in Sikhote-Alin Zapovednik, Russian Far East. Report to Sikhote-Alin Zapovednik, USDA Forest Service and WCS.
• Plus c. 25 book reviews for the Bulletin of the British Ecological Society, 2006 – present.

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