Professor Richard Barnes

The spatial ecology of benthic macrofaunal abundance and biodiversity in sheltered coastal marine systems (e.g. sediment-flats, seagrass beds and mangroves), with fieldwork mainly in the Knysna Coastal Section of the Garden Route National Park (Western Cape, South Africa) and in the Moreton Bay Marine Park (Queensland, Australia). Until recently other major research sites included the Taman Nasional Wakatobi in Sulawesi Tenggara (Indonesia), Desroches Atoll and Silhouette and Curieuse Islands (Seychelles), and Scolt Head Island (UK).

Research Fellow, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, UK; Member of University of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute, UK

Educated Rutlish School (1955-1962), University College London (1962-1965) and University of Queensland (1965-1967). Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa. Spends part of each year at Rhodes and Nelson Mandela Universities in South Africa (at the Knysna Field Laboratory), part at the University of Queensland in Australia (at the Moreton Bay Research Station), and part in Cambridge. Author of 130+ refereed scientific research papers and author/editor of 13 books; one-time Secretary of the Estuarine & Coastal Sciences Association and Chairman of the European Union for Coastal Conservation (UK). In 1971 a crab was named after him (Macrophthalmus barnesi).

• Barnes, R.S.K., Hamylton, S.M. & Borburgh, L. 2024. Microscale dispersion of intertidal seagrass macrofauna. Marine Environmental Research, 196, 106385.
• Barnes, R.S.K. 2022. Interspecific abundance-occupancy relations along estuarine gradients. Marine Environmental Research, 181, 105755.
• Barnes, R.S.K. 2021. Interspecific relationship of patchiness to occupancy and abundance, as exemplified by seagrass macrobenthos. Ecological Indicators, 121, 107083.
• Barnes, R.S.K. & Claassens, L. 2020. Do beds of subtidal estuarine seagrass constitute a refuge for macrobenthic biodiversity threatened intertidally Biodiversity & Conservation, 29, 3227-3244.
• Barnes, R.S.K. & Laurie, H. 2018. Seagrass macrofaunal abundance shows both multifractality and scale-invariant patchiness. Marine Environmental Research, 138, 84-95.

FRSSAf; Bicentenary Medal of the Linnean Society of London; Honorary Professorships at Rhodes and Nelson Mandela Universities (RSA) and at the University of Queensland (Aus)

1978

2011