Contact Details

Dr Sophie Hocking
Natural Sciences
National Museum Cardiff

Cathays Park
Cardiff
CF10 3NP

Phone: +44 (0)29 2057 3338

Email Sophie
Homepage for Natural Sciences

Staff Name

Dr Sophie Hocking

Job Title

Senior Curator: Botany (Invasive and Non-invasive Species)

Areas of Responsibility:

Responsible for curating the vascular plant collections alongside the Principal Curator, producing research relating to plant conservation and the impacts of invasive species on Welsh biodiversity, assisting in the delivery of public programmes to promote the botany collection and supervise research and placement students, honorary researchers and visitors to the section. Coordinating botanical biodiversity monitoring at Amgueddfa Cymru sites.

Qualifications, memberships and relevant positions

Qualifications: BSc Biology, MSc Environmental Biology, Conservation and Resource Management, PhD Biosciences (Swansea University).

Positions: Co-editor of the BSBI Welsh Bulletin, Member of the Wales Biodiversity Partnership Invasive Non-native Species Group.

Memberships: British Ecological Society, Wildlife Trust South West Wales, Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland, Natural Sciences Collections Association.

Research Interests

The ecology and conservation of rare plants; invasion ecology; impacts of invasive plants on recipient communities; the phytosociology of invaded communities; the environmental impacts of invasive plant management methods; Welsh botany; interactions between invasive plants and climate change. Methods used: Vegetation sampling, Life Cycle Assessment, eDNA metabarcoding, soil physiochemical analysis, seed bank assessment, pollen staining.

Keywords

Botany, invasive plants, invasive species, biodiversity, Welsh flora, curation

Links

ORCID

Selected Publications

Hocking, S.C., Toop, T., Jones, D., Eastwood, D C. (2023) Assessing the relative impacts and economic costs of Japanese knotweed management methods. Scientific Reports. 13, 3872. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-30366-9