Philip J Boon

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Fellow, Freshwater Biological Association  

pboon@fba.org.uk 

I graduated in Zoology at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, and stayed on to work for a PhD. My research was on Trichoptera in the River North Tyne before the construction of Kielder Water. From Newcastle I moved south for an appointment at the Polytechnic of the South Bank (now London South Bank University) where I carried out a research project in Essex on the Ely-Ouse river transfer scheme. After that I returned to Newcastle University to take up the post of Demonstrator in Zoology, which involved a mixture of teaching and research. By then, Kielder Water had been constructed, so I was able to return to the North Tyne to study some of the downstream impacts of the impoundment. During that time I also spent three summers in Central Java, mainly doing research on freshwater invertebrates on streams, including a lake outlet. My interest in tropical (and sub-tropical) freshwater environments led to an appointment as a Lecturer in Ecology at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. I stayed there for four and a half years before returning to the UK. 

Post-academic appointments:  

  • Head of Freshwater Branch, Chief Scientist Directorate, Nature Conservancy Council, Peterborough, 1987-1991  
  • Various appointments at Scottish Natural Heritage (now NatureScot), Edinburgh, the most recent as Head of Ecosystems and Biodiversity Unit, 1991-2017 
  • Founding editor of the Wiley journal Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, and Chief Editor 1991-2023  
  • Member of the Board of Directors of the River Restoration Centre  
  • Member of the Freshwater Conservation Committee of IUCN’s Species Survival Commission  
  • Chair of the Advisory Group of the Institute for Biodiversity and Freshwater Conservation, UHI, Inverness.  
  • Member of ECOSTAT– the European Commission’s group on ecological status under the EU Water Framework Directive (registered as a ‘Water Expert’)  
  • Chair of the Working Group in CEN (European Committee for Standardization), producing European standards on monitoring methods for hydromorphology in rivers, lakes and transitional and coastal waters.  

Publications:

Boon, P. J. and Howell, D. L. (Eds) (1997). Freshwater Quality: Defining the Indefinable?, The Stationery Office, Edinburgh.  

 Boon, P. J. (2000a). ‘Using RIVPACS for studies on conservation and biodiversity’. In Wright, J. F., Sutcliffe, D.  W. and Furse, M. T. (Eds). Assessing the Biological Quality of Fresh Waters: RIVPACS and Other Techniques. FBA Special Publication, Freshwater Biological Association, Ambleside, 315-322.  

 Boon, P. J., Gislason, G. M, Lake, P. S., Ellis, B. K., Frank, C. and Boulton, A. J. (2002). ‘Competition for water: international case studies of river management and conflict resolution’. Verhandlungen der Internationalen Vereinigung für theoretische und angewandte Limnologie, 28, 1581-1587.  

 Boon, P. J., Holmes, N. T. H., Maitland, P. S. and Fozzard, I. R. (2002). ‘Developing a new version of SERCON (System for Evaluating Rivers for Conservation)’. Special issue of Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 12, 439-455.  

 Boon, P. J. and Lee, A. S. L. (2005). ‘Falling through the cracks: are European directives and international conventions the panacea for freshwater nature conservation?’ Freshwater Forum, 24, 24-37.  

 Boon, P. J. and Pringle, C. M. (Eds) (2009). Assessing the Conservation Value of Fresh Waters: An International Perspective, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.  

 Boon, P. J., Holmes, N. T. H. and Raven, P. J. (2010). Developing standard approaches for recording and assessing river hydromorphology: the role of the European Committee for Standardization (CEN). Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 20, S55-S61.  

 Boon, P. J. and Raven, P. J. (Eds) (2012). River Conservation and Management. John Wiley, Chichester.  

 Boon, P. J., Willby N., Gilvear, D. and Pryce, D. (2016). The regional hyporheic fauna of gravel-bed rivers and environmental controls on its distribution. Fundamental and Applied Limnology, 187, 223-239.  

 Boon, P. J., Cooksley, S. L., Geist, J., Killeen, I., Moorkens, E. A. and Sime I. (2019). Developing a standard approach for monitoring freshwater pearl mussel (Margaritifera margaritifera) populations in European rivers. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. DOI:10.1002/aqc.3016  

 Boon, P. J., Clarke, S. and Copp, G. H. (2020). Alien species and the EU Water Framework Directive: a comparative assessment of European approaches. Biological Invasions, 22: 1497–1512.