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Prof Len Thomas

Professor

Phone

+44 (0)1334 46 1801

Email

len.thomas@st-andrews.ac.uk

Office

201 OB

Location

Observatory

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Research areas

I am a statistician based in the (CREEM) and (where I am joint head of the Division of Statistics). My research is motivated by ecological applications, particularly related to widlife conservation.

There are currently four main strands to my work:

• Development of methods and software for estimating the size, density and distribution of wild animal and plant populations. I mostly work on a group of related methods called distance sampling. A particular recent focus has been on the use of passive acoustics (i.e., recording sounds) to estimate the size of whale and dolphin populations.
• Use of computer intensive methods to fit and compare stochastic models of wildlife population dynamics. I mostly work on algorithms called particle filters.
• Inferences from animal-borne tags. This includes reconstructing animal tracks from noisy data about animal location, and inferring behavioural state from tag measurements.
• Development and application of methods for quantifying human-caused disturbance (particularly underwater sounds) on animal behaviour, and also the consequences of this disturbance for the animal populations.

For more information, please see my

PhD supervision

• GabrielleÌýArrieta
• GraceÌýEdmondson
• MiaÌýGoldman
• DinahÌýHartmann
• HaoyuÌýLiu
• DavidÌýSweeney

Selected publications

• Savage, A., Thomas, L., Leighty, K., Soto, L. & Medina, F., 29 Jun 2010, In: Nature Communications. 1

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

• Open access
  Michelot, T., Glennie, R., Thomas, L., Quick, N. J. & Harris, C. M., 1 Dec 2023, In: Annals of Applied Statistics. 17, 4, p. 3570-3588 19 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

• Open access
  Marques, T. A., Thomas, L., Booth, C. G., Garrison, L. P., Rosel, P. E., Takeshita, R., Mullin, K. D. & Schwacke, L., 13 Jul 2023, In: Marine Ecology Progress Series. 714, 14 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

• Open access
  Hin, V., de Roos, A. M., Benoit-Bird, K. J., Claridge, D. E., DiMarzio, N., Durban, J. W., Falcone, E. A., Jacobson, E. K., Jones-Todd, C. M., Pirotta, E., Schorr, G. S., Thomas, L., Watwood, S. & Harwood, J., 31 Aug 2023, In: PLoS ONE. 18, 8, e0290819.

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

• Thomas, L., Buckland, S. T., Rexstad, E. A., Laake, J. L., Strindberg, S., Hedley, S. L., Bishop, J. R. B., Marques, T. A. & Burnham, K. P., 2010, In: Journal of Applied Ecology. 47, 1, p. 5-14

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

• Open access
  Pirotta, E., Thomas, L., Costa, D., Hall, A. J., Harris, C. M., Harwood, J., Kraus, S., Miller, P. J., Moore, M., Photopoulou, T., Rolland, R., Schwacke, L., Simmons, S., Southall, B. & Tyack, P. L., 15 May 2022, In: Science of the Total Environment. 821, 13 p., 153322.

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

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