Dr Victoria Burton

Dr Victoria Burton

Postdoctoral Researcher, EXCALIBUR

ORCID: 0000-0003-0122-3292
Department: Life Sciences
Division: LS Diversity and Informatics Division
Email: v.burton@nhm.ac.uk

Summary

I am interested in how soil and leaf-litter invertebrate communities respond to human impacts, particularly in forest and urban ecosystems. I am passionate about UK biodiversity, and its identification and recording, and am an active member of many natural history societies. I have developed and assisted with award-winning public engagement activities with various societies and through my citizen science project - Earthworm Watch - which I ran as part of my PhD.

Currently, I am a post-doctoral researcher in the Centre for UK Nature on the National Education Nature Park. The programme aims to empower children and young people across England to make a positive difference to both their own and nature’s future. My role is planning and designing research to examine the impacts of changing land cover and habitat enhancements on biodiversity within the Nature Park, collaborating with the wider team to design community science surveys to gather the data for this and to communicate research goals and results to the participants.

Prior to this role I worked in the Biodiversity Futures Lab, increasing the amount of high-quality urban biodiversity data in the PREDICTS database and on the Excalibur project - a EU H2020 Consortium aiming to obtain a better understanding of underground soil biodiversity in horticulture. I also worked on the LEARN CitSci project, a UK-US partnership project researching what young people learn from taking part in museum-led citizen science projects.

My PhD research investigated how soil and leaf litter biodiversity responds to land use change using an integrative approach - combining new data collection, citizen science and analysis of existing data re-purposed from literature as part of the PREDICTS (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial System) project (https://www.nhm.ac.uk/our-science/our-work/biodiversity/predicts.html). My PhD was funded by NERC through Imperial's Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet Doctoral Training Programme.

Qualifications

Degrees

  • PhD, Imperial College London, UK, 2014 - 2020
  • MSc, Imperial College London, United Kingdom, 2012 - 2013
  • BSc(Hons), The Open university, United Kingdom, 2005 - 2011

Postgraduate training

  • Developing activities with your audience in mind, British Ecological Society, United Kingdom
  • Train the trainer, Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom
  • Statistical models for wildlife population assessment and conservation, University of Kent, United Kingdom
  • Advanced environmental data analysis using GIS, Newcastle University, United Kingdom
  • Software Carpentry Workshop, Software Carpentry, United Kingdom
  • Data analysis with R statistical software, Cardiff University, United Kingdom
  • Engaging Research training programme, Central England NERC Training Alliance (CENTA), United Kingdom, 2015 - 2015
  • Systematic review and meta-analysis for environmental sciences, Royal Holloway University of London, United Kingdom, 2015 - 2015
  • Dirt science: an introduction to soil system science, Cranfield University, United Kingdom
  • Graduate School workshop: Networking, Imperial College London, United Kingdom, 2014 - 2014
  • Graduate School course: Introduction to Teaching and Learning for Doctoral Research Students and GTAs, Imperial College London, United Kingdom, 2014 - 2014

Academic

  • Post-doctoral researcher, National Education Nature Park, Natural History Museum, Centre for UK Nature, United Kingdom, 2023 - ongoing
  • Post-doctoral researcher, Natural History Museum, United Kingdom, 2023 - 2023
  • Post-doctoral researcher, Natural History Museum, London, Life Sciences, United Kingdom, 2021 - 2023
  • Project Officer - LEARN CitSci, Natural History Museum, LS Angela Marmont Centre, United Kingdom, 2020 - 2021
  • Scientific Advisor - Urban Nature Project, Natural History Museum, LS Angela Marmont Centre, United Kingdom, 2020 - 2020
  • Research Postgraduate, Natural History Museum London / Imperial College London, UK, 2014 - 2020
  • Field Assistant (Ecology), University of Reading, Centre for Agri-Environment Research, United Kingdom, 2014 - 2014

Non-academic

  • Interim Project Coordinator, Natural History Museum London, LS Angela Marmont Centre, 2019 - 2020
  • Citizen Science Facilitator, Permaculture Association (Britain), 2018 - 2019
  • Medical Administrator, Dr D A Spruell & Partners, Waterlooville, Hampshire, 2006 - 2012

Highlighted publications

  • Mason E, Gascuel‐Odoux C, Aldrian U, Sun H, Miloczki J, Götzinger S, Burton VJ, Rienks F, Di Lonardo S, Sandén T (2024) Participatory soil citizen science: An unexploited resource for European soil research. European Journal of Soil Science 75, doi: 10.1111/ejss.13470
  • Burton VJ, Baselga A, De Palma A, Phillips HRP, Mulder C, Eggleton P, Purvis A (2023) Effects of land use and soil properties on taxon richness and abundance of soil assemblages. European Journal of Soil Science 74, doi: 10.1111/ejss.13430
  • White HJ, León‐Sánchez L, Burton VJ, Cameron EK, Caruso T, Cunha L, Dirilgen T, Jurburg SD, Kelly R, Kumaresan D, Ochoa‐Hueso R, Ordonez A, Phillips HRP, Prieto I, Schmidt O, Caplat P (2020) Methods and approaches to advance soil macroecology. Schrodt F (Eds). Global Ecology and Biogeography 29, 1674 - 1690. doi: 10.1111/geb.13156
  • Burton VJ, Gunnell JL, Naylor R, Soul LC, Robinson LD, Tweddle JC Boosting biodiversity in school grounds: a theory of change. ARPHA Proceedings 1, Pensoft Publishers 111 - 115. doi: 10.3897/ap.e125953
  • Burton VJ, Cameron EK Learning More About Earthworms With Citizen Science. Frontiers for Young Minds 8, doi: 10.3389/frym.2020.548525
  • Kovács KZ, Hemment D, Woods M, Van der Velden NK, Xaver A, Giesen RH, Burton VJ, Garrett NL, Zappa L, Long D, Dobos E, Skalsky R Citizen observatory based soil moisture monitoring – the GROW example. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 68, 119 - 139. doi: 10.15201/hungeobull.68.2.2
  • Phillips H, Beaumelle L, Tyndall K, Burton V, Cameron E, Eisenhauer N, Ferlian O The effects of global change on soil faunal communities: a meta-analytic approach. Research Ideas and Outcomes 5, doi: 10.3897/rio.5.e36427

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