People

Dr David Clark

Lecturer
School of Life Sciences
Dr David Clark
  • Email

  • Telephone

    +44 (0) 1206 873301

  • Location

    3SW.4.40, Colchester Campus

  • Academic support hours

    9am - 5pm weekdays

Profile

Qualifications

  • PhD Microbiology University of Essex, (2017)

  • BSc Biological Sciences University of Essex, (2013)

Appointments

University of Essex

  • Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Institute for Analytics and Data Science), School of Life Sciences / Institute for Analytics and Data Science, University of Essex (5/5/2020 - 3/8/2023)

  • Senior Research Officer, School of Life Sciences, University of Essex (1/10/2017 - 4/5/2020)

Research and professional activities

Research interests

Quantitative ecology

Microbial ecology

Macroecology

Modeling and Statistics

Bioinformatics

Next Generation Sequencing

Teaching and supervision

Current teaching responsibilities

  • Transferable Skills in Life Sciences (BS143)

  • Computational Data Analysis: R for Life Sciences (BS231)

  • Molecular Ecology (BS240)

  • Professional skills for Ecological and Marine Scientists (BS257)

Publications

Journal articles (18)

Šibanc, N., Clark, DR., Helgason, T., Dumbrell, AJ. and Maček, I., (2024). Extreme environments simplify reassembly of communities of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. mSystems. 9 (3), e0133123-

Jackson, MC., Friberg, N., Moliner Cachazo, L., Clark, DR., Mutinova, PT., O’Gorman, EJ., Kordas, RL., Gallo, B., Pichler, DE., Bespalaya, Y., Aksenova, OV., Milner, A., Brooks, SJ., Dunn, N., Lee, KWK., Ólafsson, JS., Gíslason, GM., Millan, L., Bell, T., Dumbrell, AJ. and Woodward, G., (2024). Regional impacts of warming on biodiversity and biomass in high latitude stream ecosystems across the Northern Hemisphere. Communications Biology. 7 (1), 316-

Clark, DR., McKew, BA., Binley, A., Heppell, CM., Whitby, C. and Trimmer, M., (2022). Hydrological properties predict the composition of microbial communities cycling methane and nitrogen in rivers. ISME Communications. 2 (1), 5-

Huby, TJC., Clark, DR., McKew, BA. and McGenity, TJ., (2021). Extremely Halophilic Archaeal Communities are Resilient to Short‐Term Entombment in Halite. Environmental Microbiology. 23 (7), 3370-3383

Thomas, GE., Brant, JL., Campo, P., Clark, DR., Coulon, F., Gregson, BH., McGenity, TJ. and McKew, BA., (2021). Effects of Dispersants and Biosurfactants on Crude-Oil Biodegradation and Bacterial Community Succession. Microorganisms. 9 (6), 1200-1200

Scarlett, K., Denman, S., Clark, DR., Forster, J., Vanguelova, E., Brown, N. and Whitby, C., (2021). Relationships between nitrogen cycling microbial community abundance and composition reveal the indirect effect of soil pH on oak decline. The ISME Journal. 15 (3), 623-635

Clark, DR., Underwood, GJC., McGenity, TJ. and Dumbrell, AJ., (2021). What drives study-dependent differences in distance–decay relationships of microbial communities?. Global Ecology and Biogeography. 30 (4), 811-825

Osman, EO., Suggett, DJ., Voolstra, CR., Pettay, DT., Clark, DR., Pogoreutz, C., Sampayo, EM., Warner, ME. and Smith, DJ., (2020). Coral microbiome composition along the northern Red Sea suggests high plasticity of bacterial and specificity of endosymbiotic dinoflagellate communities. Microbiome. 8 (1), 8-

Freeman, D., Bajón Fernández, Y., Wilson, A., McKew, BA., Whitby, C., Clark, DR., Jefferson, B., Coulon, F. and Hassard, F., (2020). Nitrogen oxidation consortia dynamics influence the performance of full-scale rotating biological contactors.. Environment International. 135, 105354-105354

Clark, DR., McKew, BA., Dong, LF., Leung, G., Dumbrell, AJ., Stott, A., Grant, H., Nedwell, DB., Trimmer, M. and Whitby, C., (2020). Mineralization and nitrification: Archaea dominate ammonia-oxidising communities in grassland soils. Soil Biology and Biochemistry. 143, 107725-107725

Thomas, GE., Cameron, TC., Campo, P., Clark, DR., Coulon, F., Gregson, BH., Hepburn, LJ., McGenity, TJ., Miliou, A., Whitby, C. and McKew, BA., (2020). Bacterial Community Legacy Effects Following the Agia Zoni II Oil-Spill, Greece. Frontiers in Microbiology. 11, 1706-

Osman, EO., Suggett, DJ., Voolstra, CR., Pettay, DT., Clark, DR., Pogoreutz, C., Sampayo, EM., Warner, ME. and Smith, DJ., (2020). Correction to: Coral microbiome composition along the northern Red Sea suggests high plasticity of bacterial and specificity of endosymbiotic dinoflagellate communities. Microbiome. 8 (1), 24-

Maček, I., Clark, DR., Šibanc, N., Moser, G., Vodnik, D., Müller, C. and Dumbrell, AJ., (2019). Impacts of long‐term elevated atmospheric CO₂ concentrations on communities of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Molecular Ecology. 28 (14), 3445-3458

Alzarhani, AK., Clark, DR., Underwood, GJC., Ford, H., Cotton, TEA. and Dumbrell, A., (2019). Are Drivers of Root-Associated Fungal Community Structure Context Specific?. ISME Journal. 13 (5), 1330-1344

Clark, DR., Ferguson, RMW., Harris, DN., Matthews Nicholass, KJ., Prentice, HJ., Randall, KC., Randell, L., Warren, SL. and Dumbrell, AJ., (2018). Streams of data from drops of water: 21st century molecular microbial ecology. WIREs Water. 5 (4)

Clark, DR., Mathieu, M., Mourot, L., Underwood, GJC., Dufossé, L., Dumbrell, AJ. and McGenity, TJ., (2017). Biogeography at the limits of life: Do extremophilic microbial communities show biogeographical regionalization?. Global Ecology and Biogeography. 26 (12), 1435-1446

Dumbrell, ALEXJ., Ferguson, RMW. and Clark, DR., (2017). Microbial Community Analysis by Single-Amplicon High-Throughput Next Generation Sequencing: Data Analysis – From Raw Output to Ecology. Hydrocarbon and Lipid Microbiology Protocols. Microbial Quantitation, Community Profiling and Array Approaches, 155-206

Aslam, SN., Dumbrell, AJ., Sabir, JS., Mutwakil, MHZ., Baeshen, MMN., Abo‐Aba, SEM., Clark, DR., Yates, SA., Baeshen, NA., Underwood, GJC. and McGenity, TJ., (2016). Soil compartment is a major determinant of the impact of simulated rainfall on desert microbiota. Environmental Microbiology. 18 (12), 5048-5062

Book chapters (1)

Bani, A., Randall, KC., Clark, DR., Gregson, BH., Henderson, DK., Losty, EC. and Ferguson, RMW., (2022). Mind the gaps: What do we know about how multiple chemical stressors impact freshwater aquatic microbiomes?. In: Functional Microbiomes. Editors: Bohan, DA. and Dumbrell, A., . Elsevier. 331- 377. 978-0-323-98593-2

Thesis dissertation (1)

Clark, DR., (2017). The Macroecology of Microorganisms: From Pattern to Process

Grants and funding

2024

Quantifying the ecological effects of grassland management above and below ground - Summer RA

Northumbrian Water Limited

2023

Investigate the commercial viability of growing Alliums in a protected cropping environment

Innovate UK (formerly Technology Strategy Board)

To design and deliver a database architecture for ingestion of a broad range of historical and future data, and to provide first-in-sector analysis on identification of relationships between key datapoints and datastreams to derive novel ecological conclusions for commercially advantageous purposes.

Innovate UK (formerly Technology Strategy Board)

Quantifying the ecological effects of grassland management above and below ground

Northumbrian Water Limited

2022

Vertical Future KTP Application, Jan 2022 deadline

Innovate UK (formerly Technology Strategy Board)

BioBlitz

University of Essex (CPPE)

School and community engagement with tiny forests to enhance environmental and human health

North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group

Developing a prototype digital feedback system to control LED lighting using the optiscience chlorophyll fluorescence monitoring system

[UOE_BIAA] University of Essex (BBSRC IAA)

Growing onions in a vertical or protected environment: a pilot

[UOE_BIAA] University of Essex (BBSRC IAA)

2021

G's Growers KTP Application

Innovate UK (formerly Technology Strategy Board)

2020

Towards a comprehensive understanding of biodiversity-geodiversity relationships

Journal of Biogeography

Contact

david.clark@essex.ac.uk
+44 (0) 1206 873301

Location:

3SW.4.40, Colchester Campus

Academic support hours:

9am - 5pm weekdays

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