Thomas Ward Crowther

Date of birth: 18 June 1986 Address: BIOSI 2, Cardiff School of Biosciences, Museum Ave., Cardiff, UK, CF10 3AX Email: [email protected]

Academic Interests: Soil Ecology, Ecosystem Ecology, Global Change Ecology,

Current: 2012-present: Postdoctoral Associate, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University. Advisor: Dr Mark Bradford.

Higher Education: • 2004-2007 Cardiff University: B.Sc. (Hons) Zoology, Class I. • 2008-2011 Cardiff University: PhD in Ecology, supervised by Dr Hefin Jones, Prof. Lynne Boddy and Prof. John Morgan.

Grants: • 2008-2011: Awarded a highly competitive NERC PhD studentship.

Journal Editorial Boards • 2012-Present: Agricultural and Forest Entomology.

Academic Awards: • September 2010: Anne Keymer Prize for the Best Student Talk at the British Ecological Society Annual Meeting in Leeds 2010 • May 2010: 1st Prize in both Cardiff School of Biosciences Student Oral & Poster Presentations • February 2011: Selected as a STEM Ambassador for Cardiff University

Journal Reviewing Reviewer for: Ecology, Global Change Biology, Journal of Animal Ecology, Agricultural & Forest Entomology, Ecological Entomology, Functional Ecology, FEMS Microbiology Ecology and Fungal Ecology

Recent Overseas Work: Institute of Microbiology of the ASCR, Czech Republic • March 2010: Extracellular enzyme analysis of soil during decomposer interactions. Contributed data to a long-term study of factors affecting enzyme activities in soil. • October 2011: Used 454 Pyrosequencing and qPCR to determine microbial community compositions in soil during fungus-grazer interactions.

Operation Wallacea Forest Conservation and Research, Honduras • July-August 2010: Employed to lead groups of university students on daily cloud forest habitat surveys. Presented lectures for school and university students.

Teaching experience: • Undergraduate demonstrating in Cardiff University: ecology, entomology, mycology and field courses • Lectures on endemism, conservation and herpetofauna to undergraduate students in Honduras.

Supervising experience • Co-supervised 33 Cardiff University undergraduate students on their Final Year Dissertation projects. Two of these have published their work in peer-review journals. • Co- supervised two MRes students in their dissertation projects.

Recent International Presentations • September 2011, British Ecological Society: Functional consequences of grazing by soil invertebrates on saprotrophic fungi. • January 2012, Netherlands Institute for Ecology: Biotic and abiotic factors affecting the growth and functioning of saprotrophic basidiomycete fungi. Invited by Prof Wim van der Putten.

Publications:

Crowther T.W., Boddy, L. & Jones, T.H. (2011) Outcomes of fungal interaction are determined by soil invertebrate grazers. Ecology Letters 14, 1134-1142

Crowther, T.W., Jones, T.H., Boddy, L. & Baldrian, P. (2011) Invertebrate grazing determines enzyme production by basidiomycete fungi. Soil Biology & Biochemistry, 43, 2060-2068

Crowther, T.W., Boddy, L. & Jones, T.H. (2011) Species-specific effects of soil fauna on fungal foraging and decomposition. Oecologia, 167, 535-545.

Crowther, T.W., Jones, T.H. & Boddy, L. (2011) Species-specific effects of grazing invertebrates on mycelial emergence and growth from woody resources into soil. Fungal Ecology, 5, 333-341

Tordoff, G.M., Chamberlain, P.M., Crowther, T.W., Black,H.I.J., Jones, T. H., Stott, A. & Boddy, L. (2011). (2011) Invertebrate grazing affects nitrogen partitioning in the saprotrophic fungus Phanerochaete velutina. Soil Biology & Biochemistry 43, 2338-2346.

Crowther & A’ Bear (2012) Impacts of grazing soil fauna on decomposer fungi are species- specific and density-dependent. Fungal Ecology 5, 277–281.

Crowther, T.W., Littleboy, A., Jones, T.H. & Boddy, L. Collembola regulate fungal community responses to global climate change. FEMS Microbiology Ecology, DOI: 10.1111/j.1574-6941.2012.01364.x.

Crowther, T.W., Jones, T.H. & Boddy, L. Interactions between cord-forming basidiomycetes and grazing soil invertebrates. Mycology in press.

Crowther T.W., Boddy, L. & Jones, T.H. Functional consequences of grazing by soil invertebrates on saprotrophic fungi. ISME under review.

Recent media attention

Peacekeeping creatures help maintain woodland diversity (various sources including The Western Mail and Wales Online – 20/09/2011)

Opening the ‘black box’ – do soils contain the solution to climate change mitigation? NERC Planet Earth Online article.