Julian Schrader is a postdoc at the Macquarie University, Sydney. He is an ecologist with special interest in plant functional ecology, biogeography and conservation biology. Here, Julian shares his recent work on functional traits in relation to the Equilibrium Theory of Island Biogeography. Fieldwork: Julian is fascinated by life on small islands even though fieldContinue reading “ECR feature: Julian Schrader on plant functional traits and the Equilibrium Theory of Island Biogeography”
Author Archives: jbiogeography
ECR feature: Robert Weigel on growth synchrony and climate change-sensitivity in European forests
Robert Weigel is a postdoc at the University of Göttingen. He is a geoecologist with special interest in forest ecosystems. Here, Robert shares his recent work on climate sensitivity and within-stand synchrony of growth in a European beech–oak ecotone. Robert Weigel (Photo Credits: Banzragch Bat-Enerel). Personal links. Twitter. Institute. University of Göttingen, Plant Ecology andContinue reading “ECR feature: Robert Weigel on growth synchrony and climate change-sensitivity in European forests”
ECR feature: Patricia Wepfer on the evolution and population dynamics of reef-building corals
Patricia H. Wepfer is a postdoc at the Institute of Spatial and Landscape Development, ETH Zurich. She is broadly interested in biogeographic processes shaping species distribution patterns. Here, Patricia shares her recent work on the evolution and population dynamics of reef-building corals from the North-Western Pacific. Patricia Wepfer collecting coral polyps at site Oku, Okinawa Island Institute.Continue reading “ECR feature: Patricia Wepfer on the evolution and population dynamics of reef-building corals”
Overcoming challenges in measuring how seed dispersal and climatic niche evolution are connected in plants
In this blog post, I discuss some of the “behind the scenes” factors in writing “Linking mode of seed dispersal and climatic niche evolution in flowering plants”, including our main motivation and some challenges we had to overcome with data curation and trait evolution modeling in the project Above: Miconia sp. (Melastomataceae), a diverse lineageContinue reading “Overcoming challenges in measuring how seed dispersal and climatic niche evolution are connected in plants”
ECR feature: Georgia Vasey
Georgia is a PhD student at the University of Nevada, Reno, in the USA. She is a plant ecologist with a special interest in conservation and biogeography. Here, Georgia shares her recent work on how the trait variation of a dryland pine species responds to regional climatic gradients. Georgia enjoying the beautiful petroglyphs at oneContinue reading “ECR feature: Georgia Vasey”
ECR feature: Pablo Castro Sánchez-Bermejo
Pablo is a PhD student at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Germany. He is an ecologist with a special interest in community and functional ecology. Here, Pablo shares his recent work on how the gradient of aridity drives the loss of taxonomic and functional diversity in dung beetle communities in three different deserts. TheContinue reading “ECR feature: Pablo Castro Sánchez-Bermejo”
A new take on environmental filtering and habitat matching
Patterns and drivers of environmental filtering and habitat matching are context dependent on a macroecological scale. Above: Panther Creek, Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia. Understanding how communities are assembled is the ‘what we do’ of community ecology: we want to know which species are present and why. With this guiding our work, we wanted to understandContinue reading “A new take on environmental filtering and habitat matching”
ECR feature: Carlos Cano-Barbacil
Carlos is a PhD student at the University of Girona in Spain. He is an environmental engineer with special focus on freshwater ecology. Here, Carlos shares his recent work on the ecology and distribution of Iberian fishes. Carlos Cano-Barbacil in the canyon formed by the Riaza River (Segovia, Spain) Personal links. Personal website | TwitterContinue reading “ECR feature: Carlos Cano-Barbacil”
JBI Global Colloquium: Rethinking dispersal-related traits
Dispersal is a key process to study ecological and evolutionary aspects of biodiversity, such as species richness, geographical distribution, adaptation, and speciation. Researchers often rely on functional traits as proxies for the dispersal process, but the mechanistic link between trait and dispersal is not often clear. Furthermore, these traits vary among and within taxa andContinue reading “JBI Global Colloquium: Rethinking dispersal-related traits”
Wandering Vultures: Understanding behaviour and space-use for conservation
Vultures travel over large distances; identifying where they are most at risk is imperative to effective conservation work. Vultures are most at risk from illegal poisoning when they are foraging and feeding. Using telemetry data from tagged vultures, we identified these risky behaviours from GPS data and the spaces vultures choose to do them toContinue reading “Wandering Vultures: Understanding behaviour and space-use for conservation”