People
List of researchers, students, and staff currently working in the center. Scrolling down below the overview, you will, on this page, find short descriptions of research interests and pictures of people.
At the bottom you will find a list of the international and national research collaborators of the center.
| Faculty and Senior Members | |||
 | Carsten Rahbek I direct CME and have an active interest in all its activities. My main personal research interests are patterns of species distribution, species range sizes, species assemblages, species richness and what determines such patterns (contemporary and historical factors or perhaps also just a bit of chance). Recent focus has been on the role of scale and conceptual formulation and practical design of null- and predictive models that allow direct testing of hypotheses related to patterns of diversity. The natural "other side" of my research relates how evolutionary and ecographical principles can be used to identify robust priorities for conservation of biodiversity. Email: crahbek@bio.ku.dk | ||
 | Neil David Burgess My current research interests are related to the interface between science and pratical conservation action, either on the ground in terms of reserve management or community engagment, or within international proceses such as the propgramme of work on protected areas in the CBD and the whole issue of forest carbon and the implementation of REDD within the UNFCCC. As such I work on collaboration projects with NGOs (WWF, BirdLife, Conservation International, IUCN), Governments (Tanzania) and UN agencies (UNEP-WCMC and UNDP GEF and UN REDD). Email: ndburgess@bio.ku.dk | ||
 | Robin L Chazdon My present research is on the regeneration and community assembly of tropical secondary forests; seedling establishment and dispersal of trees, life history and functional traits of tropical tree species. I have a general interest in ecology and regeneration of tropical and temperate forests, conservation and restoration of tropical forests, tropical second-growth forests, biodiversity and conservation in agricultural landscapes. Professor Chazdon is currently a sabbatical visitor at CMEC holding a permanent position at the Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, USA. Email: chazdon@uconn.edu | ||
 | Robert Colwell As an evolutionary ecologist, my interests center on the biology and geography of biodiversity. In the tropics, I have worked with the ecology and evolution of species interactions, and managed and developed database tools for a major biodiversity inventory. Recent work with biogeographical theory and spatial models, focusing on the role of geometric constraints, has stimulated controversy, new directions in the field, and links with conservation biology. In collaboration with colleagues in statistics, I have been active in developing new statistical methods and software tools for biodiversity statistics. Professor Colwell is currently a sabbatical visitor at CMEC holding a permanent position at the Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, USA. Email: colwell@uconn.edu | ||
 | Jon Fjeldså Field of expertease broad, comprising evolution, biogeography and taxonomy of birds. Current research has focus on the tropical Andes region of South America and eastern Africa, and global evolution of passerine birds, which comprise more than half of all birds. Mode of speciation and historical and ecological factors affecting the regional patterns of endemism and species richness. This is developed through traditional biogeographical methods supplemented with DNA-based studies of species-rich groups (in collaboration with other institutes) and comprehensive distributional databases (with external collaboration concerning GIS and remotely sensed environmental parameters). Conservation priority analysis (with links to institutions studying human use of natural resources). The broader field of interest includes art and illustration of books in the fields of ornithology and conservation. Email: jfjeldsaa@snm.ku.dk | ||
 | Brian Mackenzie My research interest are the effects of climate variability on fish populations and marine ecosystems. Larval/juvenile fish ecology. Long-term changes in populations and ecosystems. Historical marine ecology Professor MacKenzie holds a permanent position at DTU aqua, National Institute of Aquatic resources. Email: brm@aqua.dtu.dk | ||
 | Katherine Richardson My research deals with the identification and quantification of factors influencing the flow of energy and material (especially carbon and nitrogen) in pelagic ecosystems. Most of my research has been on marine plankton (primarily phytoplankton). However, I have also studied higher trophic levels such as fish (both larvae and adults) and even harbour porpoises. Specifically, I concentrate on the climatic control of marine ecological processes, including predicting the influence of climate change on aquatic productivity, quantifying the role of biological processes in ocean uptake of atmospheric CO2, how changes in ocean conditions influence the strength of the biological pump and the effect of physical/chemical conditions on biodiversity and size distribution of phytoplankton. | ||
 | Niels Strange I direct the European Erasmus Mundus Master Course in Sustainable Forest and Nature Management (www.sufonama.net). My main personal research interests focus on environmental planning and economics under uncertainty. In particular on climate change and environmental effects. I am also involved in a number of research projects concerning payments for environmental services, landowner behaviour and contract design, multi-criteria analysis, environmental economics, spatial planning under risk of calamities, and agent-based modelling. In my research and teaching career I have strived to mix my competences within quantitative as well as qualitative methods. Email: nst@life.ku.dk | ||
 | Bo Jellesmark Thorsen I am Professor in Applied Economics of Forest and Landscape and Head of the Division of Economics, Policy and Management Planning. My research interests are quite broad. A considerable part of my research has focused on uncertainty and decision making in forest and natural resource settings. I am also interested in the environmental economics of forest and landscape. I also teach in various courses at KU-LIFE - mainly as a co-teacher, and I act as supervisor for a number of PhD-students and MSc-thesis students. Email: bjt@life.ku.dk | ||
 | Robert J. Whittaker Rob Whittaker is appointed by the Dean of the faculty of Science to an Honorary Professorship in Macroecology and Climate at the Department of Biology from July 2008 for a five year term. He is Professor at the University of Oxford, where he is a founding member of the School of Geography and the Environment's Biodiversity research cluster. His research interests span diverse themes within ecological biogeography and ecology, including: conservation biogeography, spatial scale, species diversity theory, climatic controls on species richness, species richness-productivity relationships, macroecology, and island biogeography. He is also an authority on the ecology of the Krakatau Islands, Indonesia, which provide a classic case study of ecosystem recovery in the tropics involving studies of both forest dynamics and island biogeography and their inter-relationships. | ||
 | Henning Adsersen Current Research: Island biogeography, ecology and biodiversity. Special interests: Invasibility of (island) ecosystems, invasivity of plants and animals, evolutionary traits on islands, distribution patterns, conservation aspects, succession and vegetation dynamics, species turnover, vegetation analysis. The research focuses on the Galápagos Islands, the Mascarenes and Danish habitat islands. Email: adser@bio.ku.dk | ||
 | Hans Henrik Bruun My research is focussed on community assembly and species richness, more specifically: environmental control (productivity, disturbance) vs. neutral effects, species pool effects, relationships of diversity to invasibility and to productivity and community phylogenetics. My interests, however, cover a wide range of related topics, such as demography, reproductive allometry, seed dispersal processes, niche conservatism, habitat specialization, historical landscape ecology, conservation and restoration. I have done my research in temperate, alpine and arctic plant communities. A main theme in my current research is what we can learn about communities and about migration and colonization processes from studying invasive species. We study the Japanese rose (Rosa rugosa) in its native Asian range and in Europe. I entered the CME on August 1, 2009. Email: hhbruun@bio.ku.dk | ||
 | Nathan Sanders We pursue questions about the causes and consequences of biodiversity, from genes to ecosystems. Current research interests in the lab center on geographic diversity gradients, community and ecosystem genetics, global climate change and species distributions, and the structure and function of ant and temperate tree communities. Generally speaking we ask three broad questions: (1) What processes underly the assembly of ant communities? (2) What factors govern broad-scale patterns in the distribution of biodiversity?, and (3) Do trophic dynamics limit local community structure and mediate ecosystem processes? Email: nsanders@utk.edu | ||
 | Nikolaj Scharff Phylogeny and comparative morphology of spiders in general. Phylogeny and taxonomy of the spider superfamily Orbicularia in particular. Historical biogeography of the spider fauna of the Southern Hemisphere, and in particular the Afromontane spider fauna. Species richness estimations of spiders in tropical ecosystems. Functional morphology of spider genitalia. Email: nscharff@snm.ku.dk | ||
 | Kasper Thorup My primary research interests are within ornithology with a focus on bird migration, especially the orientation systems of long-distance migrants, but also including animal orientation and radio tracking in general. Other primary research interests include all aspects of the distribution, evolution and ecology of birds. Overall research themes: Bird Migration: Migration routes; Climate change effects; Monitoring; Spread of bird-borne diseases. Navigation: Navigation and orientation, the migratory orientation programme. Conservation: Rare Danish breeding birds, Environmental impact assessment. Email: kthorup@snm.ku.dk | ||
| Postdoctoral Researchers | |||
 | Bo Dalsgaard I am interested in spatial patterns of biotic interactions and species richness, and how these may interrelate. Most of my work has been conducted in the Caribbean focusing on spatial patterns of plant-pollinator interactions, especially interactions between assemblages of plants and hummingbirds. My current research focuses on “what determines species richness” in the Caribbean. I am particularly interested in determining whether historical or contemporary environmental factors drive patterns of avian species richness, and how biogeography may be used in conservation. Email: b.dalsgaard@zoo.cam.ac.uk | ||
 | Dimitar Dimitrov My main interests are in the field of systematics and phylogeny of spiders with emphasis on the family Pholcidae and the orbweaver spiders (Araneoidea). I am also interested in the processes of speciation in general and the factors involved. Modeling spatial patterns of biodiversity and quantifying the impact of human and climate changes on them, by combining remotely sensed spatial and temporal data sets on the status of environment with geo-referenced taxonomic data. Email: dimitard.gwu @ gmail.com | ||
 | Susanne Fritz Current research: My work focuses on bringing together large-scale spatial distribution patterns and phylogenetic information. Using global databases and molecular phylogenies, I am trying to separate influences of evolutionary history and current environmental variation on species richness and community composition. My research links trait evolution to the spatial and phylogenetic patterns we see today. I am also interested in past, current and future impacts of humans on spatial biodiversity patterns. Email: SFritz -at- bio.ku.dk | ||
 | Jacob Heilmann-Clausen My main research interests are related to forest biodiversity and its conservation. I am especially interested in the links between landscape history, disturbance dynamics and habitat diversity on one side, and the diversity of fungi, vascular plants and epiphytes on the other. The more normative aspects of Conservation Biology is another key interest, and I consider the question: "why conserve nature" to be far from trivial. In particular, I am interested in exploring and possibly bridging the typical conceptual gap in how "good nature" is appreciated among landowners, conservationists and the broader population. Finally, I have a special devotion to fungi, and are working part-time in the Danish basidiomycete mapping project. Email: jhc@habitatvision.dk | ||
 | Jean-Philippe Lessard I am generally interested in integrating ecological and evolutionary approaches to gain a better understanding of the forces governing the assembly of communities. My research incorporates concepts in community Ecology, Biogeography, Macroecology and Macroevolution to elucidate how current patterns of community structure emerge. More specifically, I use large datasets of community composition, molecular phylogenies, null models and environmental niche modeling to assess the role of evolutionary history in driving spatial variation in community structure. In addition, I use environmental gradients and biological invasions as natural experiments to examine the cause and consequences of contemporary patterns of biodiversity. Email: jlessard@utk.edu | ||
 | Thomas Hedemark Lundhede At the Danish Centre for Forest and Landscape I primarily work with the socioeconomic aspects of biodiversity. Like any other natural resource biodiversity is managed within limited economical means. Therefore I focus on how society’s objectives of protecting biodiversity are best and economically efficient accomplished. Among other things this involves revealing society’s preferences for different species by means of non-market valuation techniques and econometric modelling. Email: Thlu@life.ku.dk | ||
 | David Nogués-Bravo My research aimed at unveiling the drivers of biological diversity for a better understanding the future impacts of Global Change on biodiversity. I´m specifically assessing the causes of Late Quaternary Extinctions (humans and climate change) integrating genomics, phylogeography and niche modeling. This is also an excellent playground to improve niche modeling and getting better predictions of future extinctions when climate change and humans come together. Email: dnogues@bio.ku.dk | ||
 | Christian Mac Ørum Rasmussen I am particularly interested in biodiversity hotspots and the causes to mass extinction events. What drives these fundamental parameters that are crucial for the evolution of life on Earth? I particularly focus on the interplay between geology and biodiversity. I come from a background as palaeontologist, where I have studied biodiversity aspects in deep time. More specifically, I have focused on the Ordovician-Silurian periods (~460-417 million years ago), where I have studied the taxonomy, ecology, biogeography and stratigraphy of brachiopod faunas from various localities around the world, including Alaska, Chile, North Greenland, Russia and Scandinavia. Email: Christian@snm.ku.dk | ||
 | Anders P. Tøttrup My main research interests are bird migration with focus on: long-term changes in phenology and mortality; intra- and inter-specific interactions; and the impact of climate change. My main objective is to analyse changes over time at different life cycle stages of the populations and clarify consequences of a changing climate. Ringing data from field stations in Europe and Africa will be the main sources of information to test my hypotheses on changes in timing of migration and population limitations. Email: aptottrup@bio.ku.dk | ||
| PhD Students | |||
 | Michael Krabbe Borregaard My research interests are broad and include patterns of distribution and abundance of both plants and animals, with special emphasis on practical applications in relation to conservation and biodiversity monitoring; more generally, I am keenly interested in the influence of natural history and small-scale processes on broader ecological patterns. I am currently working with the relationship between distribution and abundance of organisms, with special emphasis on the assemblage of Danish breeding birds. Email: mkborregaard@bio.ku.dk | ||
 | Aske Bosselmann In my PhD project, which is carried out at Forest & Landscape in collaboration with CATIE in Costa Rica, I work with small scale coffee farmers who, through their management of shade coffee systems, provide a range of environmental or ecosystem services, ranging from carbon sequestration to biodiversity conservation through maintenance of habitats, biological corridors and buffer zones. With increasing costs of production and highly fluctuating coffee prices, farmers are shifting to other land uses and environmental services are lost. How can schemes of Payments for Environmental Services be set up to secure the services provided by shade coffee systems, and can coffee cooperatives make PES schemes more efficient, effective and equitable? These are some of the questions the PhD study aim to answer, based on field work in Costa Rica and Nicaragua Email: askeboss@life.ku.dk | ||
 | Carsten Egevang My field of interest is Arctic ecology with a special focus on Arctic seabirds. My research involves studies of regulating mechanisms that affect population size in seabirds. The fieldwork in assosiation with my PhD is conducted on Arctic terns breeding in central West Greenland and includes experimental studies on optimal clutch size and the ability to produce a replacement clutch. By combining these studies with information on biological parameters a model on population dynamics is produced. Email: egevang@natur.gl | ||
 | Jonas Geldmann My primary research interest is in conservation biology, looking at the relationship between management effectiveness and conservation outcomes. The main focus of my PhD work, is addressing how different parameters of protected area management affect biodiversity indicators, to evaluate present conservation strategies and improve future ones. I am especially interested in East African tropical forests but also more overall conservation efforts to preserve biodiversity though Strategic Conservation Planning and selection criteria for protected areas. I collaborate with Oxford University and UNEP-WCMC using the Protected Area Management Effectiveness information module. Email: jgeldmann@bio.ku.dk | ||
 | Christian Hof During the course of my PhD which is jointly based at the University of Copenhagen and the BIOCHANGE Lab at the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Madrid, I will be working on the impacts of climate change on global biodiversity and the implications for conservation planning. There is ample evidence that species across a range of taxonomic groups are changing their geographical distributions in response to observed climate changes. During the course of my PhD an attempt will be made to: (i) estimate the impact of climate change on global amphibian distributions, (ii) measure the effectiveness of protected areas to conserve species under a range of climate change scenarios, and (iii) provide innovative reserve selection methods to identify important areas for the conservation of species subject to climate change. selected species under a range of climate change scenarios; and (iii) provide innovative reserve selection methods to identify important areas for the conservation of species subject to climate change. Email: chof@bio.ku.dk | ||
 | Irina Levinsky My research interests lie primarily within the fields of biogeography and biodiversity conservation. I am interested in the factors governing the geographical distributions of species and the potential impacts of global change on these. In particular, the effects of climate change on species distributions and their implications for conservation. In my PhD I use climate envelope modelling to reconstruct past “geographical distributions” of vertebrates (primarily mammals and birds) in sub-Saharan Africa. More specifically, I use the abovementioned to re-evaluate the role of refugia for the persistence of species in tropical Africa during the last glacial maximum. While at it, I also spend some time assessing the limitations of the modelling approach. Email: ilevinsky@bio.ku.dk | ||
 | Maren Moltke Lyngsgaard My research interest is in the area of Biological Oceanography and Marine Ecology. During the past two years I have been working with the ocean carbon cycle and biological uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to the Ocean. I started my Ph.D. project in July 2009 where I focus on phytoplankton primary production in the past, present and future and the relation between deep chlorophyll maxima, the distribution of oxygen production and the amount of organic material exported out of the watercolumn. The Ph.D. project is a part of a larger project called ECODYN working with ecosystem dynamics and the potential impact from climate change on the marine environment in inner Danish waters with a special focus on oxygen concentrations in the future. Email: mmlyngsgaard@bio.ku.dk | ||
 | Anna-Sofie Steensgaard My research interests are broad within the field of ecology and spatial epidemiology. I am especially interested in how global and local environmental changes impact the abundance, dynamics, and geographical distribution of vector-borne diseases in human populations. In my PhD project I focus on mosquito- and freshwater snail transmitted diseases in the Lake Victoria region, east Africa. Bio-climatic and hydrological modeling are used to understand the temporal and spatial patterns of the involved species’ distribution, emergence and abundance, and to predict present and future disease risk areas. The project is conducted in collaboration with DBL – Institute for Health Research and Development, and DHI – Water and Environment. Email: asstensgaard@bio.ku.dk | ||
| MSc Students | |||
 | Kasper Gade My field of interests are within the dynamic world of biodiversity, climate change and consequences and the inherent troubles with the communication of science Email: kasperg2@hotmail.com | ||
 | Louise Holst Hemmingsen My field of interests is mainly placed with the fauna. In my master thesis I will be looking at simple community based and scientific methods for environmental monitoring. I will be working for Nepenthes to assist in developing methods for investigating the effect of tourism on biodiversity. The field work will take place in Honduras in the spring of 2010. The study will be a part of the Nepenthes project Sustainable Tourism in Honduras, Phase II. The goal of the project is to create economical, social and environmental improvements through development of tourism, in and around villages at Pico Bonito National Park and Cuero y Salado Wildlife Refuge. Email: lohohe@gmail.com | ||
 | Paulina Jarosinska The aim of my master project is to update a database with newly discovered species of African amphibians. The next step will be analyse all that information in the light of climate change and socio-economic development in Africa. My special interest concerns environmental protection and amphibians conservation. Email: p.jarosinska@gmail.com | ||
 | Troels Eske Ortvad My general field of interest is ornithology particularly the control and evolution of migratory behavior in birds. In my master thesis, I study the migration of inexperienced songbirds at The Faroe Islands far off their normal course. The experiments will be used to test the general hypothesis about the migration system in juvenile passerines and the phenomenon of long-distance vagrancy. Email: teortvad@gmail.com | ||
 | Peter Søgaard Jørgensen My master thesis research focuses on the impact of land use change and climate on European passerine populations. The thesis project fits within my overall research framework which consists of conceptual, modeling and empirical studies of ecological and evolutionary responses to and impacts of global environmental change. I’m working empirically with diverse groups of organisms including birds, insects and plants. Much of my research is conducted with international collaborators. Email: PSJorgensen@bio.ku.dk | ||
| BSc Students | |||
 | Lykke Pedersen My current research interest is conservation biology. The aim of my BSc project is to explore the food items, food availability and food quality of populations of Red-backed shrikes breeding in different habitats and determine the impact on breeding success. The output of this study will increase our knowledge on preferred breeding habitats towards a better protection of a declining bird species. Email: lyks86@gmail.com | ||
 | Troels Petersen BSc-student on migratory birds and climate change. Aims: How are temporal patterns in spring arrival and breeding start related to variations in climate? To explore the impact of variations in winter and spring climate on the arrival and breeding time of Northern European breeding birds. I use data from The Scientific Research Station Tipperne in Western Jutland from the past seven decades. Email: troelspe18@m7.stud.ku.dk | ||
 | Nicolas Azaña Schnedler-Meyer BSc-Student on the impact of different managing strategies on breeding succes in Red-backed Shrikes, a declining Danish bird species. My project aims to determine preferable breeding habitats for Red-backed Shrikes in Danish Gribskov forest, by comparing data on breeding success and habitat choice with data on habitat attributes and surrounding forest management. This will shed light on the habitat variables influencing breeding succes and on how management can be tailored to improve habitat quality. Email: nicolassm87@gmail.com | ||
| Technical and Administrative Staff | |||
 | Lisbeth Andreassen Email: Landreassen@bio.ku.dk | ||
 | Louis A. Hansen I am an ornithologist, graduated from the Zoological Museum, where my present office can be found. At the Center, I work on various projects for Professor Carsten Rahbek (and Jon Fjeldså at the Zoological Museum), where my part is mapping the species distribution of various groups of vertebrates (though mainly birds) species on three continents. Privatly funded fieldwork often carries me away to East Africa. Here my main interests are various aspects on the montane bird species. Email: lahansen@snm.ku.dk | ||
 | Bjørn Hermansen I am a geographer and computer scientist who have been working in the Danish Ministry of Environment for more than 20 years as GIS-coordinator and GIS-projectleader. My special interest concerns data quality and spatial analysis on environmental, biological and geological geodata. Moreover I am interested in dissemination of environmental related issues within geography and biology. Email: bhermansen@bio.ku.dk | ||
 | Jan Bolding Kristensen I am from the Vertebrate Section of the Natural History Museum, where I work with the ornithological collections. Preparation of new material (skins, skeletons etc.) and handling of loans, digitizing data from the collections. Administration of the Tissue Collection and handling all loans of subsamples from this for genetic studies. Participating in collecting expeditions and have so far been to Tanzania, Bolivia, Solomon Islands – especially working with forest birds. Also ringing and sampling blood from Geese in high arctic (Svalbard and Greenland). Field Ornithology as a big life-time interest! Email: jtbkristensen@snm.ku.dk | ||
 | Jan Pedersen I work on the entomological collection at the Natural History Museum with Nikolaj Scharff. Specially focusing on spiders, flies and millipedes (Aracnida, Diptera, Diplopoda). My work mainly consist of expanding and maintaining the museums large insect collection and participating in field work and collecting expeditions. I have contributed to many Danish and international atlas projects on insects and spiders. Email: japedersen @ snm.ku.dk | ||
| Collaborators | |||
 | Frank Wugt Larsen Currently at The Center for Applied Biodiversity Science at Conservation International, Washington DC working issues related to ecosystemservices and preservation of biodiversity in light of climate change. Other research focus on testing whether indicator groups can be useful tools for identifying important areas for conservation using distributional data on ca. 4,000 vertebrates in Sub-Saharan Africa, and ca. 1,000 species from various taxonomic groups in Denmark. Email: fwlarsen@bio.ku.dk | ||
 | Miguel B. Araujo My research is focused around three broad questions: why do species occur where they do? What processes drive speciation, persistence and extinction of species at varying spatial and temporal scales? How do processes operating at the individual-species level scale up to large ensembles of species and species richness? I have also a strong interest in the application of biogeographical principles, theories, and analyses to problems concerning the conservation of biodiversity at macroecological scales. Email: miguel.araujo@ouce.ox.ac.uk | ||
 | Katrin Boehning-Gaese Ecology and Evolution of Bird Communities - Biodiversity of tropical and temperate bird communities. - Comparison of tropical and temperate bird species (morphology, life-history,behavior). - Structure of bird migration systems (biodiversity, abundance, habitat choice). - Evolution of long-distance migration. Relationships between Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function - Relationship between landscape structure, pollinator and bird diversity and ecosystem function (pollination, seed dispersal). - Interactions between ants and ant-dispersed plants (phenological adaptations, disturbance, abundance). Conservation Biology - Population trends and biodiversity of birds in North America, Europe and Africa. - Influence of global climate change on bird communities. - Influence of forest fragmentation on pollination, seed dispersal, seedling establishment and plant population structure. Email: boehning@uni-mainz.de | ||
 | Lauren Coad Research fellow at the Environmental Change Institute at University of Oxford. I am interested in the impacts of protected areas on deforestation and carbon loss, as well as their social, economic and cultural impacts on communities and local livelihoods. Measuring the effectiveness of different protected area management and governance systems in reducing deforestation. These analyses utilise the Protected Areas Management Effectiveness (PAME) database. Email: lauren.coad@ouce.ox.ac.uk | ||
 | Nicholas Gotelli My research addresses basic questions about the organization of animal and plant communities. What are the forces that determine the species composition and abundance of natural assemblages? How do competition and predation affect local community structure? What are the biotic and abiotic factors that control population growth and the risk of extinction? Email: Nicholas.Gotelli@uvm.edu | ||
 | Catherine Graham My research interests include investigating the effect of spatial and temporal arrangement of habitats on ecological and evolutionary patterns and processes and the use of this information to inform conservation and management policy. Email: cgraham@life.bio.sunysb.edu | ||
 | Gary Graves I am interested primarily in the evolution, ecology, and biogeography of birds. My current interests focus on the application of null models to multi-scale patterns of species diversity, the evolutionary consequences of hybridization, and the ecology and evolution of wood warblers. I am conducting long-term field studies in the Great Dismal Swamp and in the Appalachian Mountains of eastern North America. Email: gravesg@si.edu | ||
 | Joaquín Hortal My interests are the description of biodiversity patterns, and the understanding of how this synecological phenomenon works and is affected by environment, energy and water availability, historic events and evolutionary constraints. I am also interested in the distribution of species (including the role of exotic species in their new habitats, and the geographic expression of potential niches), and in Conservation Biogeography. I use to work particularly with dung beetles, and in Western Palaeactic, Iberian and Macaronesian biogeography. Email: jhortal@mncn.csic.es | ||
 | Thomas Krogsgaard Kristensen Head of The Mandahl-Barth Research Centre for Biodiversity and Health, DBL-Centre for Health Research and Development, IVP, Faculty of Life Science, University of Copenhagen. I have a keen interest in biodiversity, evolution and distribution of African Freshwater snails with special reference to the relationship between biodiversity and health viz. snail borne diseases. Description and modelling of snail distribution and distribution of snail borne diseases based on climate data retrieved by satellite and analysed by geographic information systems, GIS and Remote sensing.. Field studies have been conducted in: Cameroon, Gabon, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Liberia, Gambia, Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Zambia. Email: tkk@life.ku.dk | ||
 | Tom S. Romdal I work with explanations for macroecological patterns, mainly variation in species richness with latitude and elevation. Current projects include analysing elevational zonation of communities, the influences that habitat area has on elevational patterns, and the influence of paleoclimate on the global diversity patterns we observe today. Email: tsromdal@bio.ku.dk | ||
 | Minik Rosing Geology: Early crustal evolution. Geochemistry and metamorphic petrology of ultramafic rocks. The effects of mass transport processes on isotopic systems. Email: minik@snm.ku.dk | ||
 | Eske Willerslev Eske is currently a full professor at Copenhagen University and leader of the Ancient DNA and Evolution Group at the Natural History Museum. His group is interested in understanding what caused the decreases in diversity of Megafauna after the last ice age and also tries to develop techniques to recover DNA mostly from ice preserved specimens, such as DNA from sediments in ice cores and fossil bones found in permafrost. Email: ewillerslev@bio.ku.dk | ||