Tom Crowther

Thomas Crowther is a Welsh scientist studying ecology and global biodiversity. He is an assistant professor in the department of Environmental Systems Science, where he founded Crowther Lab, an interdisciplinary group of scientists studying global ecosystems to facilitate local efforts that protect, restore and manage biodiversity around the world. Crowther serves as co-chair of the advisory board of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

Crowther’s research focuses on understanding the fundamental forces that shape ecological communities within and across ecosystems. He is particularly interested in the ecological feedbacks that determine the distribution of biodiversity on Earth, as well as the impacts of that biodiversity on the global carbon cycle. Crowther takes a holistic approach to studying ecosystems, including the networks of plants and soil organisms (like fungi, bacteria and nematodes) that interactively govern the exchanges of carbon between the land and atmosphere. This work is highly interdisciplinary, including theoretical, experimental and observational approaches to understand the mechanisms driving ecological processes across different scales.

After completing his PhD at Cardiff University, Crowther received a postdoctoral fellowship from the Yale Climate and Energy Institute. In 2015 he was awarded a Marie Curie fellowship at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO) at Wageningen University to research the impact of carbon cycle feedbacks to climate change. His ongoing research highlights the potential for nature-based solutions and the protection of nature to help in the fight against biodiversity loss and climate change.

Crowther has been named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum for his work on the protection and restoration of biodiversity and serves on the advisory council of WEF’s Trillion Trees initiative (1T.org). In 2021, Crowther founded Restor, an online platform that provides ecological insights, transparency and connectivity to thousands of local conservation and restoration efforts across the globe.