Jessica J Williams

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I am a conservation biologist with a particular interest in studying how biodiversity is responding to local and global drivers of change, and how this impacts nature’s contributions to people. I am currently carrying out a fellowship at Imperial, in which I am exploring Anthropocene landscape permeability for species key to human health and well-being (in particular, species impacting food system sustainability and zoonotic disease risk). Beyond this I am interested in the uses of novel AI-assisted monitoring technologies for conservation, and how we can promote the ethical and equitable use of AI.

I am currently Chair of the BES Conservation Ecology Special Interest Group, Communications Officer for Landscape Ecology UK (the UK chapter of the International Association for Landscape Ecology), and Associate Editor for Insect Conservation and Diversity.

Experience

  • 2024–present
    Imperial College Research Fellow, Imperial College London
  • 2021–2023
    Postdoctoral research fellow, University College London (UCL)
  • 2017–2021
    PhD Student, University College London (UCL)

Education

  • 2021 
    University College London, PhD Ecology and Environment
  • 2016 
    Imperial College London, MSc Conservation Science
  • 2014 
    University of Exeter, BSc (Hons) Biology and Animal Behaviour

Publications

  • 2026
    Ecological feedbacks in the Earth system, Earth's Future
  • 2026
    Ethical and equitable approaches in AI for vector-borne disease management, AI and Ethics
  • 2026
    Temperature mediates variation in avian sensitivity to forest cover, Nature Ecology & Evolution
  • 2025
    Bumble Bee Probability of Occurrence Responds to Interactions Between Local and Landscape Land Use, Climatic Niche Properties and Climate Change, Ecology Letters
  • 2024
    Important Crop Pollinators Respond Less Negatively to Anthropogenic Land Use Than Other Animals, Ecology and Evolution
  • 2023
    Limited evidence for quantitative contribution of rare and endangered species to agricultural production, Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment
  • 2022
    Vertebrate population trends are influenced by interactions between land use, climatic position, habitat loss and climate change, Global Change Biology
  • 2021
    Vertebrate responses to human land use are influenced by their proximity to climatic tolerance limits., Diversity and Distributions
  • 2020
    Human-dominated land uses favour species affiliated with more extreme climates, especially in the tropics, Ecography
  • 2020
    Local climatic changes affect biodiversity responses to land use: A review., Diversity and Distributions
  • 2020
    Using environmental niche modelling to investigate the importance of ambient temperature in human-crocodilian attack occurrence for two species of crocodilian., Oryx
  • 2020
    Tropical and Mediterranean biodiversity is disproportionately sensitive to land-use and climate change., Nature Ecology & Evolution.
  • 2019
    Climate and land-use change homogenise terrestrial biodiversity, with consequences for ecosystem functioning and human well-being., Emerging Topics in Life Sciences
  • 2018
    Mobile marine predators: an understudied source of nutrients to coral reefs in an unfished atoll., Proceedings of the Royal Society B

Professional Memberships

  • British Ecological Society
  • Society for Conservation Biology
  • Royal Entomological Society

Contact Jessica for

  • General
  • Media request
  • Speaking request
  • Consulting / Advising
  • Research collaboration
  • Research supervision