Publications

Summary

One book and 25 peer-reviewed published papers, including 14 first and 1 last author paper. I am also a regular contributor to society magazines such as The Biologist (Royal Society of Biology) and Freshwater News (Freshwater Biological Association), alongside other scientific magazines and news pieces.

ORCiD 0000-0002-6182-8691

Under Review

Macroinvertebrate diversity stabilizes decomposition among leaf litter resources across a river network by del Campo Rubén, Blackman RC, Martini J, Fuß T, Thuile Bistarelli L, Gessner Mark, Altermatt F, Singer G. - Ecological Monographs

PEER-REVIEWED Published JOURNAL ARTICLES

Blackman RC, Weiss B & Altermatt F. Drivers of spatio-temporal variation in organic matter decomposition across a river network (2024) Ecological Indicators 166, 112502 (Available here)

URycki D, Kirtane A, Aronoff R, Avila C, Blackman RC, Carraro L, Evrard O, Good S, Hoyos D, López-Rodríguez N, Mora D, Schadewell Y, Schilling O & Ceperley N. (2024) A new flowpath: eDNA connecting hydrology and biology WIREs Water 11(6) (Available here)

Perry WB, Seymour M, Orsini L, Bryn Jâms I, Milner N, Edwards F, Harvey R, de Bruyn M, Bista I, Walsh K, Emmett B, Blackman RC, Altermatt F, Lawson Handley L, Mächler E, Deiner K, Bik HM, Carvalho G, Colbourne J, Cosby BJ, Durance I & Creer S. (2024) An integrated spatio-temporal view of riverine biodiversity using environmental DNA metabarcoding – Nature Communications 15(4372) (Available here)

Blackman RC, Carraro L, Keck F & Altermatt F. (2024) Measuring the state of aquatic environments using eDNA — upscaling spatial resolution of biotic indices - Philosophical Transactions B 379(1904) (Available here)

Blackman RC, Brantschen J, Bossart R, Carraro L, Cereghetti E, Couton M, Keck F, Kirschner D, Perrelet K, Zhang Y & Altermatt F. (2024) Environmental DNA: the next chapter – Molecular Ecology 33 (11) (Available here)

Carraro L, Blackman RC & Altermatt F. (2023) Modelling eDNA transport in river networks reveals highly resolved spatio-temporal patters of freshwater biodiversity. Scientific Reports 13(1), 8854. (Available here)

Blackman RC*, Walser JC*, Brantschen J, Rüber L, Seehausen, O & Altermatt F. (2022) General principles for assignments of communities from eDNA: Open versus closed taxonomic databases. Environmental DNA 5(22), 326-342 (Available here) *joint first author

Blackman RC, Ho H-C, Walser J-C and Altermatt F. (2022) Spatio-temporal patterns of multi-trophic biodiversity and food-web characteristics across a river catchment. Communications Biology 5:259 (Available here)

Keck K*, Blackman RC*, Bossart R, Brantschen J, Couton M, Hürlemann S, Kirschner D, Locher N, Zhang H and Altermatt F. (2022) Meta-analysis shows both congruence and complementarity of DNA metabarcoding to traditional methods for biological community assessment Molecular Ecology 33 (6) (Available here) *joint first author

Blackman RC, Brantschen J, Walser JC, Wuethrich R & Altermatt F. (2022) Surveillance monitoring of invasive non-native species in Switzerland: National and catchment scale application. River Research and Applications, 38(8), 1400-1412 (Available here)

Brantschen J, Blackman RC, Walser J-C, Altermatt F. (2021) Environmental DNA gives comparable results to morphology-based indices of macroinvertebrates in a large-scale ecological assessment. PLOSONE, 16(9): e0257510. (Available here)

Blackman RC, Altermatt F, Foulquier A, Lefebure T, Gauthier M, Bouchez A, Stubbington R, Weigand A, Leese F & Datry T. (2021) Unlocking our understanding of intermittent and ephemeral rivers with genomic tools. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 19:10, 574-583.(Available here)

Blackman RC, Osathanunku M, Brantschen J, Di Muri C, Harper L, Mächler E, Hänfling B & Altermatt F.  (2021) Mapping fish diversity in subtropical rivers to identify biodiversity hotspots. Scientific Reports, 11: 10375 (Available here) 

Thalinger B, Deiner K, Harper L, Rees HC, Blackman RC, Sint D, Traugott M, Goldberg CS & Bruce K. (2021) A validation scale to determine the readiness of environmental DNA assays for routine species monitoring. Environmental DNA, 3:4, 823-836. (Available here) 

Blackman RC, Ling KKS., Harper LR, Shum P, Hänfling B & Lawson-Handley L. (2020) Environmental DNA consistently outperforms established methods for detection of quagga mussels, Dreissena rostriformis bugensis in flowing water. Ecology and Evolution, 10:23, 13248-13259 (Available here) 

Harper L, Lawson Handley L, Sayer C, Read D, Benucci M, Blackman RC, Hill M, & Hänfling B. (2020) Assessing the impact of the threatened crucian carp (Carassius carassius) on pond invertebrate diversity - a comparison of conventional and molecular tools. Molecular Ecology, 30:13, 3252-3269 (Available here)

Blackman RC, Bruder A, Burdon FJ, Convey P, Funk WC, Jähnig SC, Kishe MA, Moretti M, Natugonza V, Pawlowski J, Stubbington R, Zhang X, Seehausen O and Altermatt F (2020) A meeting framework for inclusive and sustainable science. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 4, 668–671. (Available here, for further information on the ABCD format visit our website here). 

Blackman RC, Benucci M, Donnelly R, Hänfling B, Harper LR, Sellers GS. and Lawson Handley L. (2020) Simple, sensitive and species-specific assays for detecting quagga and zebra mussels (Dreissena rostriformis bugensis and D. polymorpha) using environmental DNA. Management of Biological Invasions, 11(2) (Available here).

Altermatt F, Little CJ, Mächler E, Wang S, Zhang X and Blackman RC (2020) Uncovering the complete biodiversity structure in spatial networks – the example of riverine systems. Oikos, 129:1 (Available here)

Blackman RC, Mächler E, Altermatt F, Arnold A, Beja P, Boets P, Egeter B, Elbrecht V, Filipe A, Jones JI, Macher J, Majaneva M, Martins F, Múrria, Meissner K, Pawlowski J, Schmidt Yáñez P, Zizka V, Leese F, Price B and Deiner K (2019) Advancing the use of molecular methods for routine freshwater macroinvertebrate biomonitoring – the need for calibration experiments. Metabarcoding and Metagenomics, 3 (Available here)

Lawson Handley L, Read DS, Winfield IJ, Kimbell H, Johnson H, Li J, Hahn C, Blackman RC, Wilcox R, Donnelly R, Szitenberg A and Hänfling B (2019) Temporal and spatial variation in distribution of fish environmental DNA in Engand’s largest lake. Environmental DNA, 1:1 26-39 (Available here)

Harper L, Griffiths N, Lawson Handley L, Sayer CD, Read DS, Harper KJ, Blackman RC, Li J and Hänfling B (2019) Development and factors influencing application of environmental DNA surveillance for the threatened crucian carp (Carassius carassius) Freshwater Biology; 64:1, 93-107. (Available here)

Blackman RC, Hänfling B and Lawson-Handley L (2018) The use of environmental DNA as an early warning tool in the detection of new freshwater invasive species. CAB Reviews 12, 010, 1-15

Blackman RC, Constable D, Hahn C, Sheard AM, Durkota J, Hänfling B, Handley LL (2017) Detection of a new non-native freshwater species by DNA metabarcoding of environmental samples—first record of Gammarus fossarum in the UK. Aquatic Invasions 12. (Available here)

Hanfling B, Handley LL, Read DS, Hahn C, Li J, Nichols P, Blackman RC, Oliver A and Winfield I (2016) Environmental DNA Metabarcoding of Lake Fish Communities Reflects Long - Term Data from Established Survey Methods. Molecular Ecology 25: 3101-3119. (Article available in full here)

Books

A practical guide to DNA-based methods for biodiversity assessment. Book, Pensoft. 1 of 5 lead authors. December 2021. Available here

Invited Seminars and Presentations

Invited Keynote speaker: Exploring freshwater biodiversity at the ecosystem scale at the Swiss Society for Hydrology and Limnology Annual meeting. August 2024

Methods in DNA taxonomy: a special focus on insects, invited course lecturer: Metabarcoding biodiversity in freshwater ecosystems at the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Italy. April 2024

Autumn Conservation Biology seminar series, invited speaker: Environmental DNA 101. University of Neuchatel, Switzerland. November 2023

Ecology Professionals seminar series, invited speaker: How far have we come – 10 years of eDNA. Environment Agency, UK. October 2023.

eDNA4Hydro, Scientific Exchange workshop, invited speaker: Environmental DNA: from river to lab. University of Bern. Invited expert, Switzerland, August 2023

Water for ecosystems and biodiversity workshop, Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda of the Water4All Partnership. Invited expert, Helsinki, Finland, February 2023

Intermittent rivers, ephemeral streams and genomic tools, Ecology Profession seminar series– Invited speaker, Environment Agency, UK. February 2022.

Measuring biodiversity – Invited speaker, UK DNA working group, UK. January 2022.

Understanding: How do we measure biodiversity? – Invited panellist, Trust for Sustainable Living: Partner Power Summit: Protecting Biodiversity, July 2021

Other

ABCD conferences for an integrative and sustainable science - Eawag aquatic research news, April 2020

Environmental DNA: Detecting a new macroinvertebrate in the UK - Barcode Bulletin, December 2017

eDNA - looking into the future? - Freshwater Biological Association News, Spring 2016