Hosted by Tiffany Knight

Ecological networks along altitudinal gradients in the Páramos in Venezuela

The plant reproductive ecology and plant-animal interactions are considered variables very sensitive to be affected by climatic changes. The plant-pollinator networks in Tropical Mountain from Venezuela could be very sensitive to the loss of component species because of their low nestedness, high levels of specialisation, endemism and functional complementarity. However, there are still large information gaps that need to be explored, for example, what processes are related to the network structures of these environments? The aims of my sabbatical stay are: i) to design an additional sampling of variables for plants and pollinators, for the phenology and pollination monitoring protocol of the GLORIA-Andes summits. ii) To apply these new measurements in the re-monitoring that must be carried out in the year 2023. iii) Analyze the available data on pollinators in elevational gradients on a global scale and analyze their structural patterns, with Prof Knight's team.

e-mail

Hosted by Karin Frank, Aletta Bonn, Marten Winter, Christian Kuhlicke, Henrique Pereira

Governing biodiversity across space:  Discovering principles of sustainability and equity for telecoupled social environmental systems

Socio-ecological systems are connected across space via telecouplings, such that social and ecological processes in one place affect biodiversity and human society in other parts of the globe. While we now have the scientific tools to recognize and quantify these connections, there is a critical need to create (and strengthen existing) governance systems that link ecological and societal outcomes in one location with management in other locations. Further, recent evidence suggests that over the long-term, ecologically-sustainable governance systems are also societally-equitable. My proposed sabbatical research at iDiv addresses this critical need through two specific aims:

AIM 1: Identify principles for equity and sustainability in the telecoupled governance of migratory species, by expanding my current research from North America with European case studies.

AIM 2: Identify generalizable principles for the design of sustainable and equitable telecoupled governance systems through synthesis of research findings with iDiv colleagues.

e-mail

Hosted by Stan Harpole, Ulrich Brose and Helmut Hillebrand

Structured Population Dynamics Subject to Stoichiometric Constraints

Mathematically modeling essential elements and their interactions is one of the best tools we have to better understand our world. Ecological processes are naturally structured and depend on the flow and balance of essential elements such as carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus.  Food webs are structured networks of interacting trophic levels and organisms go through structured life stages. Throughout my sabbatical, I propose to theoretically explore ecological structures subject to stoichiometric constraints by integrating the field of structured population modeling with the theory of Ecological Stoichiometry. My collaborators and I will develop novel mathematical models that investigate how varying nutrient and light levels shape ecological structures and promote biodiversity, using dynamical systems theory to construct and analyze systems of differential equations. This research will yield new applications in theoretical ecology, strengthening its predictive power. Expected outcomes include at least two publications, computational codes for a public repository, and the initiation of new collaborations.

e-mail