I am an experienced botanist, mycologist, and entomologist. I am deeply passionate about the ecology, evolution, and conservation of plants, fungi, oomycetes, and arthropods. I am fascinated by ecological interactions and networks, in particular antagonistic interactions like parasitism.
Education
First Class BA Natural Sciences (Zoology) at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. My third year modules were Evolution and Ecosystem Dynamics, Responses to Global Change, Evolutionary Genetics and Adaptation, and Conservation Science. My thesis projects looked at the response of ground flora to disturbance in a tropical forest in Borneo, and the effects of agriculture on invertebrate communities in Guinea-Bissau.
A-levels: A*A*A* in Biology, Maths, Further Maths; A in Spanish
GCSEs: A* in Maths, A in English Language
Awards and Funding
Irish Naturalists’ Journal Grant: Recording the plant-pathogenic fungi and oomycetes of Ireland (£1587) November 2024
Bateman Scholarship (from Trinity Hall, for getting a first in my final exams; £425) July 2024
BSBI Plant Study Grant: A Botanical Survey of the Western Islands of Strangford Lough, County Down (£500) July 2022
Publications
Dalzell, J. & Fleming, T. (2025). Subanguina graminophila (Goodey, 1933), a plant-parasitic nematode new to Ireland. Irish Naturalists’ Journal, 42. (in press)
Dalzell, J. (2024). Contarinia dipsacearum Rübsaamen, 1921, a gall midge (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) new to Ireland and its overlooked occurrence in Britain. Irish Naturalists’ Journal, 41, 128–129.
Roles
Jan 2024 – (ongoing) Botany Tutor for the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland on their course Identiplant: an introduction to serious botany. I mark students’ work and provide feedback.
Apr 2024 – Oct 2024 Field Botanist for the UKCEH on the Northern Ireland Countryside Survey. I did 2×2m quadrats of all vascular plants, took soil samples, and measured peat depths. I also did some habitat mapping. I had training in April and then surveyed full time 15th July – 27th September and 23rd – 25th October 2024. This included working in species-rich grassland and fen, woodland, upland heaths and bogs, lowland raised bog, and improved agricultural grassland.
Aug – Sep 2022 I spent two weeks doing botanical fieldwork funded by the BSBI as part of my Strangford Islands project (see below).
Roles (voluntary)
Sep 2024 – (ongoing) Herbarium volunteer in the Belfast Herbarium (Museums NI). I am working on curation and digitisation of the fungal collection.
June 2024 – (ongoing) Digital and Social Media Officer for Wild Belfast, an organisation that aims to connect communities in Belfast with the wildlife that lives there. I also organise botanical events.
Skills
I have excellent field and taxonomy skills in botany, mycology, and entomology. I have several thousand hours experience working with the Irish flora, both casually recording as a hobby and working professionally on surveys including the Northern Ireland Countryside Survey. I also record plant-pathogenic fungi and oomycetes, finding over thirty-five species new to Ireland and two potentially new to science (currently being sequenced). I have experience working with invertebrates too, particularly gall-forming species: one of my finds last year was a gall midge that had not been seen in Britain and Ireland since 1947 and was the first Irish record (Contarinia dipsacearum).
I am passionate about science communication, and I use my skills in web design and public speaking to tell others about my interests. Recently I have been advocating for better recording of wild plant pathogens, through writing an online field guide (https://plantpathogens.net) – the first guide to this group that aims to be accessible to beginners. This project combines my skills in scientific illustration with photos, descriptions, distribution maps, and keys. A friend and I recently made a short film (https://youtu.be/gH-fZWQYrDs) documenting the plant and fungal biodiversity of a local nature reserve. I also gave a lecture (https://youtu.be/ECC3uP3cdPA) to the Belfast Naturalists’ Field Club on my botanical recording project on the islands of Strangford Lough.
I am also experienced at teaching others ecological field skills. I am a tutor on the BSBI’s Identiplant course for intermediate botanists, and I also have been involved in running several field days through the BSBI and Wild Belfast (a wildlife advocacy group in Belfast). In 2025 I will be running a field course for beginner botanists with Wild Belfast, and several field days focusing on plant pathogens.
I have a good knowledge of both R and Python, including best practices for reproducible research and version control using Git. I regularly use R for data analysis and visualisation, and I have experience using Generalised Linear Models, Principal Component Analysis, and other community ecology techniques. I have used Python for climate modelling as part of a university course and have also constructed a dynamic spatial species competition model. I am experienced with Microsoft Office, ImageJ, illustration in Krita and GNU Image Manipulation Program, and creating and editing websites with WordPress and HTML/CSS. I can use QGIS to make distribution maps. I am quick to pick up new skills.
Research Projects
2024 – 2025: Recording the plant-pathogenic fungi and oomycetes of Ireland (see https://irishplants.org/plant_pathogens/INJ_Project.html)
- Casual recording and in-depth surveys of plant pathogen communities
- Lots of microscopy!
2022 – 2024: Plants of Strangford Islands (see https://irishplants.org/islands.html)
- I have been systematically recording the flora of islands in Strangford Lough. So far I have visited fourteen islands.
- I have begun to analyse these data from an island biogeography perspective and hope to publish my work in 2025.
- I have presented a poster on this project at a conference of the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland and given a talk to the Belfast Naturalists’ Field Club (available on YouTube).
2023: Dynamic spatial model of a hemiparasite and its hosts (see summary here)
- I replicated a paper from 2009 by Cameron et al., which modelled the population dynamics of Yellow Rattle, grasses, and forbs in a simulated grassland.
- I improved the visualisation of the model and the simulation of seed dispersal.
- I have published an accessible resource about the use of Yellow Rattle in species-rich grassland creation, including a figure explaining population dynamics based on the output of my model.
[University of Cambridge] November 2022 – March 2023: eDNA work with flora of Tristan da Cunha (vegetation history)
[University of Cambridge] March 2023: a three-day mini project comparing plant parasite and host physiology in a grassland in Portugal (see writeup here)
[University of Cambridge] September 2023 – January 2024: The effect of disturbance along trails on the ground flora of Danum Valley Conservation Area, Sabah, Borneo
[University of Cambridge] January 2024 – April 2024: The effects of small-scale agriculture on arthropod communities in Guinea-Bissau
- Identifying arthropods to order
- Data analysis with Generalised Linear Mixed Models
- Community ecology analysis with PCA and PERMANOVA
Interests
While at University I was both a member and then captain of the Botanical University Challenge team (a general knowledge quiz about plants, with teams from universities across Britain and Ireland). In 2023 we came second, and in 2024 we won! I also spend my free time pursuing my other interests in Gaelic language and linguistics, science fiction, and kayaking.