Senior Research Ecologist
Samantha works on a range of projects examining the affect of climate and habitat change on bird populations, with a particular focus on migrants and waders.
Sam's research interests focus on exploring how our changing environment is influencing bird populations, particularly for long-distance migrants and waders. She is particularly interested in investigating the ecological processes driving population change and linking these to changes in demographic processes such as survival and productivity. Sam is leading elements of the BTO's breeding wader research, with a particular focus on curlew, and is co-supervising a PhD project with University of East Anglia on the curlew population breeding in the Brecks. Her interest in waders dovetails with her love for upland and Arctic ecosystems and her years working on Alaskan-breeding shorebirds. Sam has used a range of methods, including stable isotypes, geolocators, satellite and GPS tags to track the movements and migratory connectivity of bird populations to investigate how birds interact with their environment throughout the annual cycle.
Previous and current projects include exploring the habitat use of BTO's satellite-tagged cuckoos during autumn migration, investigating the drivers of population declines in UK-breeding Curlew using Breeding Bird Survey data, examining how climate change might impact UK bird populations through changes in the timing of breeding and invertebrate availability in spring, and evaluating the effectiveness of conservation measures for European grassland waders.
Sam also represents BTO in the Cambridge Conservation Initiative's (CCI) David Attenborough Building as the Collaborative Coordinator. Her aims for this role are to develop and facilitate strategic collaborations for BTO within the CCI and wider conservation communities.
In her spare time, Sam is a ringer and photographer, and rings with the Wash Wader and Little Ouse Ringing Groups. She is keen to influence the next generation of wildlife conservationists, and endeavours to ensure her daughter knows the difference between a godwit and a curlew from a young age.
Other Information
Associate Editor for Wader Study
2012 - PhD, Simon Fraser University, Canada: Population connectivity and the causes and consequences of differential migration in a long distance migratory shorebird, the Western Sandpiper 2005 - BSc Honours Zoology, University of Toronto, Canada
Recent BTO Publications
- Green, R.M.W., Cook, A.S.C.P., Burton, N.H.K., Franks, S.E. & Green, J.A. Framework for assessing species vulnerability whilst on migration to a spatially explicit anthropogenic pressure 10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111118 View at journal website( DOI:10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111118 )
- Gardner, E., Robinson, R.A., Julian, A., Boughey, K., Langham, S., Tse-Leon, J., Petrovskii, S., Baker, D.J., Bellamy, C., Buxton, A., Franks, S., Monk, C., Morris, N., Park, K.J., Petrovan, S., Pitt, K., Taylor, R., Turner, R.K., Allain, S.J.R., Bradley, V., Broughton, R.K., Cartwright, M., Clarke, K., Cranfield, J., Fuentes-Montemayor, E., Gandola, R., Gent, T., Hinsley, S.A., Madsen, T., Reading, C., Redhead, J.W., Reveley, S., Wilkinson, J., Williams, C., Woodward, I., Baker, J., Briggs, P., Dyason, S., Langton, S., Mawby, A., Pywell, R.F. & Bullock, J.M. A family of process-based models to simulate landscape use by multiple taxa 10.1007/s10980-024-01866-4 View at journal website( DOI:10.1007/s10980-024-01866-4 )
- Schwemmer, P., Mercker, M., Haecker, K., Kruckenberg, H., Kämpfer, S., Bocher, P., Fort, J., Jiguet, F., Franks, S., Elts, J., Marja, R., Piha, M., Rousseau, P., Pederson, R., Düttmann, H., Fartmann, T. & Garthe, S. Behavioral responses to offshore windfarms during migration of a declining shorebird species revealed by GPS-telemetry 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.118131 View at journal website( DOI:10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.118131 )
- Calladine, J., Fuller, R., Hodkinson, D., Franks, S. & Boyle, J. Changes in breeding wader populations of the Uist machair and adjacent habitats between 1983 and 2022 View at journal website( DOI: )
- Woodward, I.D., Franks, S.E., Bowgen, K., Davies, J.G., Green, R.M.W., Griffin, L.R., Mitchell, C., O’Hanlon, N., Pollock, C., Rees, E.C., Tremlett, C., Wright, L. & Cook, A.S.C.P. Strategic study of collision risk for birds on migration and further development of the stochastic collision risk modelling tool (Work Package 1: Strategic review of birds on migration in Scottish waters) View at journal website( DOI: )