ProfessorJason Tylianakis

Professor Jason Tylianakis is a leading New Zealand ecologist whose work directly informs biodiversity management, ecosystem resilience, and environmental policy. He is a Professor of Ecology at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and a Visiting Professor at Imperial College London. Until recently, he served as Director of the Food Transitions 2050 Joint Postgraduate School, and he is currently a Principal Investigator in the Bioprotection Aotearoa Centre of Research Excellence. His service roles include membership on the Strategic Evidence Panel to the Ministry for the Environment, and he currently serves on the Board of Reviewing Editors for Science and is an Associate editor for NZ Journal of Ecology.

His research examines how communities of interacting species—including, in some cases, humans—respond to environmental change. He is particularly interested in how the architecture of ecological interaction networks (such as food webs and pollination networks) arises, how it is shaped by species traits and local environmental conditions, and how it responds to drivers such as land-use change, climate pressures, invasive species, and habitat degradation. A central theme of his work is identifying the conditions under which biodiversity loss has the greatest impact on ecosystem functioning and nature’s contributions to people, and exploring win–win scenarios that balance agricultural production with conservation outcomes.

Jason’s research group provides evidence-based insights that support:

• Biodiversity and biosecurity strategy development
• Ecosystem restoration and conservation planning
• Sustainable land-use and agricultural management
• Climate adaptation and resilience frameworks
• Monitoring and modelling of ecological networks

His work integrates field ecology, evolution, network analysis, statistical modelling, and experimental approaches to understand how environmental pressures cascade through ecosystems, shaping long-term outcomes for biodiversity, primary industries, and community wellbeing. He addresses these questions using a range of systems—including plants, insect herbivores, parasitoid–host interactions, and plant–mycorrhizal

associations—and through field observations, field and laboratory experiments, and meta-analysis.

Jason collaborates widely with government agencies, iwi partners, and international research networks to deliver science that is actionable, scalable, and aligned with national priorities for environmental stewardship and sustainable land management.