Joe Boyle
Hey, I’m Joe. I joined the Seascape Ecology lab in 2022 as an MSc student in biodiversity, conservation & management.
My background is in ecological monitoring, and I spent several years working on outreach, engagement, and land management with RSPB Scotland and others before returning to uni.
My thesis research was in Sanday, Orkney, using remote sensing and local ecological knowledge to co-produce seagrass maps, including the ‘missing layer’ of people at sea. In a joint project with Project Seagrass (co-supervised by Dr RJ Lilley), we set out to understand the spatial distribution of seagrasses and where they interface with the socio-cultural seascape.
I’m working on publishing our findings to share how participatory mapping and remote sensing can inform seagrass conservation and restoration efforts. In combining space (remote sensing) and place (local ecological knowledge, activities, and values), I hope to create a more comprehensive view of local seagrass ecology and how and where people interact with it to support just and effective intervention.
I am currently working as a research assistant with the Seascape lab and in the Department of Psychiatry’s E-Co-Flourishing lab (with Dr Katrin Wilhelm and PI Ilina Singh). In addition to these projects, I’m developing outreach and education in Oxford and Orkney, alongside working with and learning from various artists.
Outside of my studies, I enjoy diving, cycling, and lying down.
Publications
Wedding L et al. (2024) Integrating the Multiple Perspectives of People and Nature in Place-based Marine Spatial Planning. npj Ocean Sustainability.
Troiano M et al. (2024) Impact and collaboration in environmental research: moving universities from evidence producers to co-producers. Agile Initiative, Oxford Martin School.
Wright-Arora G et al. (2024) The role of publics and deliberation at the environmental science-policy interface. Agile Initiative, Oxford Martin School.
Boyle JS (2023) Meadows, memories, and missing layers: transdisciplinary mapping of Sanday’s seagrass towards restorative marine spatial planning (MSc). The University of Oxford.