Matt is a spatial scientist with an interest in woodland creation and restoration. His research explores how landscape factors and local ecological processes influence biodiversity, functioning and emergent properties of these habitats to inform practitioners and policy makers. In addition, Matt works as part of a team developing methods to monitor woodland change at landscape and national scales.

Matt has a background in ecology and has worked across a broad range of taxa, ecosystems and settings including studying bats as pest control on coffee plantations, invertebrate communities in short rotation willow coppice and investigating the use of small agricultural woodlands by medium to large mammals. Matt completed his PhD at the University of Stirling (2019) investigating the effects of seabird colonies on nutrient cycling, plant and invertebrate communities on blanket bog in Shetland