It’s always so good for us to hear from previous Young Darwin Scholars, but when we heard from Oliver Spacey recently, who was a Young Darwin Scholar back in 2018, we just had to share his story on his latest project focusing on mistletoe ecology.
Oliver spent his Young Darwin Scholarship at Preston Montford in Shropshire and little did he know that the experience and skills gained from that week away would lead him to where he is today, focusing on host-parasite dynamics in mistletoe for his DPHil in Environmental Research at Oxford University.
With Christmas just around the corner, here’s more on Oliver’s journey and how now is the perfect time for you to take part in his citizen science project.
I was not a born naturalist. I did not go out hunting for butterflies or keying in sedges when I was four years old, as some of my other ecologist friends claim they did. Nonetheless, as a DPhil student researching mistletoe ecology at the University of Oxford, studying the environment has become my career.
My Young Darwin Scholarship in 2018 with the Field Studies Council was a key part of my journey.
When I mentioned to a friend in year 11 that I was thinking of studying biology at university, they suggested I apply for a “Young Darwin Scholarship”.
I was a little hesitant because I didn’t spend lots of time outdoors as a kid and felt a bit “behind”, but my quiet fascination for nature was beginning to grow. I took the leap, applied, and was fortunate to get a place.
I met the other Young Darwin Scholars at Preston Montford in Shropshire for a week-long residential. The activities – from birdwatching to bioblitzes – revealed a world I didn’t know existed. I had read about various species and their biology in books, but this was one of the first times I had focused purely on engaging with them face-to-face.
Whether we were agonising over springtail ID or trying to find the best place for a mammal trap, my Young Darwin Scholarship gave me my first real taste of being an ecologist. Other young people on the programme had a diversity of backgrounds and interests too, and it was as wonderful to learn from them as from the instructors.
The following year, I was eager to attend a Young Darwin Scholarship reunion in Millport, Scotland. Whether we were rock pooling, bat-detecting or snorkelling, every part of the residential was informative and inspiring. Though I was still very much an amateur ecologist, my time on the Young Darwin Scholarship had quickly altered my perspective on wildlife. I now knew better the vastness of what I didn’t know, and felt excited to start learning more.
Discussing the Young Darwin Scholarship in my application to study biology as an undergraduate at Oxford, acted as a perfect example of how I had engaged with nature and was learning the skills needed to study it. After getting into Oxford, my experience on the Young Darwin Scholarship acted as a foundation for conducting fieldwork and understanding ecological theory. My passion for ecology continued to grow, and I applied for a DPhil in Environmental Research, focusing on host-parasite dynamics in mistletoe, which is now my life.
My research focuses on mistletoe ecology present and future, and how we can use mistletoe to understand host-parasite interactions. As you may or may not know, mistletoe is not just for Christmas – it is a parasitic plant which grows on trees. The one species of mistletoe native to the UK, Viscum album, grows on hundreds of flowering trees, and looks like green clumps in the tree canopy. While mistletoe can harm the trees it grows on, it is often benign and is brilliant for biodiversity as it provides food for winter birds and promotes nutrient cycling.
Mistletoe is thought to be on the move due to climate change, and one of my main projects aims to predict its future distribution in the UK. To forecast mistletoe distribution accurately, we need an updated picture of where mistletoe is today and data on local abundance which has never been collected before at a national level. To this end, I have launched an app-based citizen science survey called “MistleGO!”, where members of the public can send in records of mistletoe they see.
The survey is run through the Survey123 app and we are collecting records each winter until 2026. All you need to do is download the survey onto the app, take a photo of a tree with some mistletoe in and submit. You can add in extra info like the tree ID (if known), the habitat and whether other mistletoes are present nearby, and you can also record absence of mistletoe across an area.
For more information on how to take part, please click the button below.
It feels rather full-circle that my Young Darwin Scholarship led me to engage with nature, and has helped me to a place where I am encouraging others to do so too. MistleGO! is easier than some of the ID I attempted as a Young Darwin Scholar, but it is just as rewarding. Rather than the trees just being a background, stop and focus on nature properly for a second, and hopefully you’ll feel as I did at 17 on my residential in Shropshire.
Written by Oliver Spacey