Dr Alex Nicol-Harper

Principal Research Officer (Wetland Bioscience)

Member of the British Ornithologists’ Union’s Engagement Committee

About me

I have been involved with WWT since 2014, when I was a summer volunteer in the Duckery at Slimbridge – involving lots of mucking out but also many fluffy ducklings! I subsequently applied my academic background in biology towards informing conservation, with a PhD on seabird breeding ecology from the University of Southampton in collaboration with WWT. Focusing on the common eider, I used mathematical modelling to investigate the relationships between vital rates (clutch size, adult survival, etc.) and population growth rate, to assess which life-stages might be the best targets for monitoring and intervention. I was able to contribute to AEWA’s International Single Species Action Plan for the common eider in Europe, and we hope that our findings will also inform management of other seaducks – many of which are threatened and/or little-studied. Since 2021 I have also been an Associate Trustee for the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust.

My role

I provide scientific support to WWT’s ‘species recovery’ programmes, which currently include a range of interventions for black-tailed godwit and Eurasian curlew. Prior to this role I analysed the WWT/Birds Russia headstarting programme for the Critically Endangered spoon-billed sandpiper, and have been extending investigations of early-life effects to other headstarting programmes. For example, is it better to collect eggs as soon as they are laid or later in incubation, and at what age should we aim to release fledglings? This will allow us to optimise rear-and-release protocols and hence boost populations through a net gain in productivity.

Increasingly, my work covers additional wetland keystone and flagship species, as well as a broader consideration of the role of rewilding within wetland restoration. I am co-developing a project investigating the decline of sarus crane in Cambodia. More generally, I help with presentation and communication of our science to a range of audiences including academics, policymakers, and WWT staff and supporters.

Experience and interests

• R programming
• Population modelling
• Statistical analysis
• Data synthesis and meta-analysis
• Interdisciplinary scientific writing
• Public engagement

Publications

• Donaldson, L., Nicol-Harper, A., Lee, R., Jarrett, N., & Hilton, G. M. (in press). When and why to give shorebirds a headstart? Conservation Biology.
• Nicol-Harper, A., Wood, K. A., Hilton, G. M., Doncaster, C. P., & Ezard, T. H. (2025). Vital rates of intermittent nonbreeders and returning breeders strongly influence population dynamics of Somateria mollissima (Common Eider). Ornithology, 142(2). https://doi.org/10.1093/ornithology/ukae057
• Nicol‐Harper, A., Doncaster, C. P., Hilton, G. M., Wood, K. A., & Ezard, T. H. G. (2023). Conservation implications of a mismatch between data availability and demographic impact. Ecology and Evolution, 13(7), e10269. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10269
• Nicol-Harper, A., Wood, K. A., Diamond, A. W., Major, H. L., Petersen, A., Tertitski, G., Doncaster, C. P., Ezard, T. H. G., & Hilton, G. M. (2021). Vital rate estimates for the common eider Somateria mollissima, a data-rich exemplar of the seaduck tribe. Ecological Solutions and Evidence, 2(4), e12108. https://doi.org/10.1002/2688-8319.12108
• Nicol-Harper, A., Dooley, C., Packman, D., Mueller, M., Bijak, J., Hodgson, D., Townley, S., & Ezard, T. H. G. (2018). Inferring transient dynamics of human populations from matrix non-normality. Population Ecology, 60, 185-196. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10144-018-0620-y