Living Planet Index
Louise McRae's research is centred on looking at broad-scale patterns of biodiversity over time.
She has worked extensively on the development of the biodiversity indicator, the Living Planet Index (LPI), which is a measure of the changing state of global biological diversity, based on abundance trends of vertebrate species from around the world.
Through the development of the method and the increase in the data set behind the LPI over the past few years, Louise has been able to examine vertebrate trends for different regions of the world and for various subsets of species. Many of these results have been used to communicate biodiversity trends to a wide audience from policymakers, and scientists to the general public. She has led ZSL’s contribution to many of the biennial Living Planet Reports, WWF’s flagship publication on the state of the natural world.
Louise's research interests lie in understanding the way we use and aggregate data to measure trends in biodiversity; how much and what type of data are needed, and how can the temporal, geographic and taxonomic gaps in biodiversity knowledge be addressed? She is also exploring how indicators can measure biodiversity beyond the species concept, exploring cultural, economic, livelihood and ecosystem values.
- 2006–present: Indicators and Assessments Unit, Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London:
- Research Fellow from 2023
- Research Associate and Project Manager from 2016
- Postgraduate Research Assistant from 2010
- Research Assistant from September 2006
- Voluntary research intern from January 2006
- 2022-2023: University of Reading, PhD Biological Sciences (PhD by Published Work)
- 2004-2005: University of Kent, Canterbury, MSc Conservation Biology
- 1996-1999: University of Wales, Swansea, BSc Biological Sciences and Psychology
See Louise's Google Scholar profile for a full list of publications.
Ledger, S. E., Loh, J., Almond, R., Böhm, M., Clements, C. F., […] & McRae, L. (2023). Past, present, and future of the Living Planet Index. npj Biodiversity
Dove, S., Böhm, M., Freeman, R., McRae, L. and Murrell, D.J., (2023). Quantifying reliability and data deficiency in global vertebrate population trends using the Living Planet Index. Global Change Biology, 29(17), pp.4966-4982.
Talis, E.J., Che-Castaldo, C., Hart, T., McRae, L. and Lynch, H.J., (2023). Penguindex: a Living Planet Index for Pygoscelis species penguins identifies key eras of population change. Polar Biology, 46, 707–718
Cornford, R., Spooner, F., McRae, L., Purvis, A., Freeman, R. (2023). Ongoing over-exploitation and delayed responses to environmental change highlight the urgency for action to promote vertebrate recoveries by 2030. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 290.1997 (2023): 20230464.
Capdevila, P., Noviello, N., McRae, L., Freeman, R. and Clements, C.F., (2022). Global patterns of resilience decline in vertebrate populations. Ecology Letters, 25(1), pp.240-251.
McRae, L., Freeman, R., Geldmann, J., Moss, G. B., Kjær-Hansen, L., & Burgess, N. D. (2022). A global indicator of utilized wildlife populations: Regional trends and the impact of management. One Earth, 5(4), 422-433
Marconi, V., McRae, L., Müller, H., Currie, J., Whitmee, S., Gadallah, F. Z., & Freeman, R. (2021). Population declines among Canadian vertebrates: But data of different quality show diverging trends. Ecological Indicators, 130, 108022.
McRae L, Deinet S, Freeman R (2017) The Diversity-Weighted Living Planet Index: Controlling for Taxonomic Bias in a Global Biodiversity Indicator. PLoS ONE 12(1): e0169156.