Perttu Anttonen

My research aims at assessing top-down and bottom-up control mechanisms of tree foliage herbivory on subtropical trees, and on the factors controlling arthropod diversity in small spatial scales along biodiversity gradient. The experimental setup is conducted in a biodiversity ecosystem functioning experiment in southeast China (BEF-China). The research involves active collecting and classification of arthropods through morphological traits and DNA-barcoding, herbivory rate assessment through leaf damage evaluation, and predation rate estimation through experiment with artificial caterpillars.

This project is part of the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) funded international research training group TreeDi: "Tree Diversity Interactions: The role of tree-tree interactions in local neighborhoods in Chinese subtropical forests”.

Biodiversity, plant-arthropod interactions, herbivory, predation, TreeDi, BEF-China.

06/2018 – present

PhD student in International Research Training Group TreeDì - Molecular Interaction Ecology at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research Halle-Jena-Leipzig (iDiv), supervised by Prof. Dr. Andreas Schuldt

12/2014 – 08/2017

Master in Biology, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

Thesis: “The Effect of Niche Width on Genetic Diversity in Herbivorous Insects” at the University of Oulu. Supervised by Dr Tommi Nyman and Dr. Marko Mutanen

8/2009 – 12/2014

Bachelor in Biology, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

Thesis: “Diet Breadth of Herbivorous Insects” at the University of Oulu. Supervised by Dr. Heikki Pöykkö