Stewart Clarke
Freshwater Ecologist
Stewart is the National Specialist for Freshwater and Catchments with the National Trust. With almost 250,000ha of land to manage, the National Trust has a significant role and growing interest in catchment and water management.
He has a PhD in freshwater ecology (macrophytes and river eutrophication) from University of London and has previously worked as a national freshwater specialist for Natural England and its predecessor English Nature. He has also worked on Natural England’s ecosystem service pilots and was seconded to the Natural Capital Committee Secretariat as a Scientific Advisor in 2013.
Stewart maintains strong links with the research community through a Visiting Research position at Queen Mary, University of London and the Open University. He has voluntary roles as a trustee for the British Ecological Society and Ecological Continuity Trust.
He has particular interest in the management and restoration of freshwater and wetland ecosystems and how a focus on catchments and water can deliver landscape scale restoration. Whilst passionate about all aspects of freshwater and wetland ecology Stewart’s current work focuses on working with natural processes to restore complex freshwater-wetland ecosystems (particularly ‘Stage 0’ river restoration and the reintroduction of beavers) and the application of novel approaches (e.g., eDNA) to monitoring freshwaters and how these can be deployed by citizen scientists.
Dr Stewart Clarke
National Specialist – Freshwater, Catchments & Estuaries