Peter is a quantitative ecologist who integrates fundamental and applied research, working mainly with plants. A clear challenge in plant ecology is how to generalise understanding and how to move beyond treating every study and every species as a special case.

Research in Peter’s group mainly falls into two fields: (a) the analysis of plant functional traits and types and their generality and (b) predicting, planning and measuring the outcomes of vegetation conservation, management and landscape restoration. Most of the work includes developing and applying conceptual and quantitative ecological models appropriate to the problem at hand.