Dr David Clark
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Email
david.clark@essex.ac.uk -
Telephone
+44 (0) 1206 873301
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Location
3SW.4.40, Colchester Campus
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Academic support hours
9am - 5pm weekdays
Profile
Qualifications
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PhD Microbiology University of Essex, (2017)
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BSc Biological Sciences University of Essex, (2013)
Appointments
University of Essex
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Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Institute for Analytics and Data Science), School of Life Sciences / Institute for Analytics and Data Science, University of Essex (5/5/2020 - 3/8/2023)
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Senior Research Officer, School of Life Sciences, University of Essex (1/10/2017 - 4/5/2020)
Research and professional activities
Research interests
Quantitative ecology
Microbial ecology
Macroecology
Modeling and Statistics
Bioinformatics
Next Generation Sequencing
Teaching and supervision
Current teaching responsibilities
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Transferable Skills in Life Sciences (BS143)
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Computational Data Analysis: R for Life Sciences (BS231)
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Molecular Ecology (BS240)
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Professional skills for Ecological and Marine Scientists (BS257)
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Research Project in Life Sciences (BS832)
Publications
Journal articles (20)
Laissue, P., Jordan G, Whitby, C., McKew, B., Clark, D. and Trimmer, M., Frontiers in microbiology (IF 6.06), Nov 2025: Microscopic analysis of the spatial distribution of anammox, comammox, and ammonia oxidizing microorganisms in oxic river sediments.. Frontiers in microbiology (IF 6.06)
Emami-Khoyi, A., Schnelle, CM., Clark, DR., Laakmann, S., Teske, PR. and Rishworth, GM., (2025). Eukaryote biodiversity in supratidal microbialite pools: A foundational environmental DNA assessment. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science. 319, 109284-109284
Šibanc, N., Clark, DR., Helgason, T., Dumbrell, AJ. and Maček, I., (2024). Extreme environments simplify reassembly of communities of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. mSystems. 9 (3), e0133123-
Jackson, MC., Friberg, N., Moliner Cachazo, L., Clark, DR., Mutinova, PT., O'Gorman, EJ., Kordas, RL., Gallo, B., Pichler, DE., Bespalaya, Y., Aksenova, OV., Milner, A., Brooks, SJ., Dunn, N., Lee, KWK., Ólafsson, JS., Gíslason, GM., Millan, L., Bell, T., Dumbrell, AJ. and Woodward, G., (2024). Regional impacts of warming on biodiversity and biomass in high latitude stream ecosystems across the Northern Hemisphere.. Communications Biology. 7 (1), 316-
Clark, DR., McKew, BA., Binley, A., Heppell, CM., Whitby, C. and Trimmer, M., (2022). Hydrological properties predict the composition of microbial communities cycling methane and nitrogen in rivers. ISME Communications. 2 (1), 5-
Huby, TJC., Clark, DR., McKew, BA. and McGenity, TJ., (2021). Extremely Halophilic Archaeal Communities are Resilient to Short‐Term Entombment in Halite. Environmental Microbiology. 23 (7), 3370-3383
Thomas, GE., Brant, JL., Campo, P., Clark, DR., Coulon, F., Gregson, BH., McGenity, TJ. and McKew, BA., (2021). Effects of Dispersants and Biosurfactants on Crude-Oil Biodegradation and Bacterial Community Succession. Microorganisms. 9 (6), 1200-1200
Scarlett, K., Denman, S., Clark, DR., Forster, J., Vanguelova, E., Brown, N. and Whitby, C., (2021). Relationships between nitrogen cycling microbial community abundance and composition reveal the indirect effect of soil pH on oak decline. The ISME Journal. 15 (3), 623-635
Clark, DR., Underwood, GJC., McGenity, TJ. and Dumbrell, AJ., (2021). What drives study-dependent differences in distance–decay relationships of microbial communities?. Global Ecology and Biogeography. 30 (4), 811-825
Osman, EO., Suggett, DJ., Voolstra, CR., Pettay, DT., Clark, DR., Pogoreutz, C., Sampayo, EM., Warner, ME. and Smith, DJ., (2020). Coral microbiome composition along the northern Red Sea suggests high plasticity of bacterial and specificity of endosymbiotic dinoflagellate communities. Microbiome. 8 (1), 8-
Freeman, D., Bajón Fernández, Y., Wilson, A., McKew, BA., Whitby, C., Clark, DR., Jefferson, B., Coulon, F. and Hassard, F., (2020). Nitrogen oxidation consortia dynamics influence the performance of full-scale rotating biological contactors.. Environment International. 135, 105354-105354
Clark, DR., McKew, BA., Dong, LF., Leung, G., Dumbrell, AJ., Stott, A., Grant, H., Nedwell, DB., Trimmer, M. and Whitby, C., (2020). Mineralization and nitrification: Archaea dominate ammonia-oxidising communities in grassland soils. Soil Biology and Biochemistry. 143, 107725-107725
Thomas, GE., Cameron, TC., Campo, P., Clark, DR., Coulon, F., Gregson, BH., Hepburn, LJ., McGenity, TJ., Miliou, A., Whitby, C. and McKew, BA., (2020). Bacterial Community Legacy Effects Following the Agia Zoni II Oil-Spill, Greece. Frontiers in Microbiology. 11, 1706-
Osman, EO., Suggett, DJ., Voolstra, CR., Pettay, DT., Clark, DR., Pogoreutz, C., Sampayo, EM., Warner, ME. and Smith, DJ., (2020). Correction to: Coral microbiome composition along the northern Red Sea suggests high plasticity of bacterial and specificity of endosymbiotic dinoflagellate communities. Microbiome. 8 (1), 24-
Maček, I., Clark, DR., Šibanc, N., Moser, G., Vodnik, D., Müller, C. and Dumbrell, AJ., (2019). Impacts of long‐term elevated atmospheric CO₂ concentrations on communities of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Molecular Ecology. 28 (14), 3445-3458
Alzarhani, AK., Clark, DR., Underwood, GJC., Ford, H., Cotton, TEA. and Dumbrell, A., (2019). Are Drivers of Root-Associated Fungal Community Structure Context Specific?. ISME Journal. 13 (5), 1330-1344
Clark, DR., Ferguson, RMW., Harris, DN., Matthews Nicholass, KJ., Prentice, HJ., Randall, KC., Randell, L., Warren, SL. and Dumbrell, AJ., (2018). Streams of data from drops of water: 21st century molecular microbial ecology. WIREs Water. 5 (4)
Clark, DR., Mathieu, M., Mourot, L., Underwood, GJC., Dufossé, L., Dumbrell, AJ. and McGenity, TJ., (2017). Biogeography at the limits of life: Do extremophilic microbial communities show biogeographical regionalization?. Global Ecology and Biogeography. 26 (12), 1435-1446
Dumbrell, ALEXJ., Ferguson, RMW. and Clark, DR., (2017). Microbial Community Analysis by Single-Amplicon High-Throughput Next Generation Sequencing: Data Analysis – From Raw Output to Ecology. Hydrocarbon and Lipid Microbiology Protocols. Microbial Quantitation, Community Profiling and Array Approaches, 155-206
Aslam, SN., Dumbrell, AJ., Sabir, JS., Mutwakil, MHZ., Baeshen, MMN., Abo‐Aba, SEM., Clark, DR., Yates, SA., Baeshen, NA., Underwood, GJC. and McGenity, TJ., (2016). Soil compartment is a major determinant of the impact of simulated rainfall on desert microbiota. Environmental Microbiology. 18 (12), 5048-5062
Book chapters (1)
Bani, A., Randall, KC., Clark, DR., Gregson, BH., Henderson, DK., Losty, EC. and Ferguson, RMW., (2022). Mind the gaps: What do we know about how multiple chemical stressors impact freshwater aquatic microbiomes?. In: Functional Microbiomes. Editors: Bohan, DA. and Dumbrell, A., . Elsevier. 331- 377. 978-0-323-98593-2
Thesis dissertation (1)
Clark, DR., (2017). The Macroecology of Microorganisms: From Pattern to Process
Grants and funding
2024
Quantifying the ecological effects of grassland management above and below ground - Summer RA
Northumbrian Water Limited
2023
Investigate the commercial viability of growing Alliums in a protected cropping environment
Innovate UK (formerly Technology Strategy Board)
To design and deliver a database architecture for ingestion of a broad range of historical and future data, and to provide first-in-sector analysis on identification of relationships between key datapoints and datastreams to derive novel ecological conclusions for commercially advantageous purposes.
Innovate UK (formerly Technology Strategy Board)
Quantifying the ecological effects of grassland management above and below ground
Northumbrian Water Limited
2022
Vertical Future KTP Application, Jan 2022 deadline
Innovate UK (formerly Technology Strategy Board)
BioBlitz
University of Essex (CPPE)
School and community engagement with tiny forests to enhance environmental and human health
North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group
Developing a prototype digital feedback system to control LED lighting using the optiscience chlorophyll fluorescence monitoring system
University of Essex (BBSRC IAA)
Growing onions in a vertical or protected environment: a pilot
University of Essex (BBSRC IAA)
2021
G's Growers KTP Application
Innovate UK (formerly Technology Strategy Board)
2020
Towards a comprehensive understanding of biodiversity-geodiversity relationships
Journal of Biogeography
Contact
Academic support hours:
9am - 5pm weekdays