My research interests focus on ecology, evolution and behavior and applying approaches from these fields to understand the ecological consequences of environmental change and to biodiversity conservation. Currently I am especially interested in how climate-driven drying, altered hydrological regimes and increasing water scarcity affect biodiversity and ecosystem trajectories, and how adaptive management can maintain ecological functions under changing conditions.

Our team and wider professional network can contribute expertise and research opportunities related to biodiversity monitoring, wetland and grassland ecology, urban ecology, behavioral adaptations by animals to human disturbances, climate adaptation, environmental water management, and ecological restoration. We also have extensive expertise in creating and managing large ecological databases, advanced statistical analyses, and dissemination of results in high profile publications. We have access to landscapes where historical hydrological change, ongoing drying, restoration and active water-management interventions provide opportunities for comparative and experimental research.

For BiodivFuture, I am interested both in developing the project concept outlined below with suitable international partners and in joining another strong consortium where our expertise, study systems and regional network would provide a complementary contribution.

Bioclimatology
Biology of interactions
Botanics
Climatology
Conservation Biology
Ecophysiology
Entomology
Hydrobiology
Hydrology
Landscape ecology
Meteorology
Plant Sciences
Remote Sensing
Sociology of the Environment

We are developing a BiodivFuture concept examining how climate change, hydrological alteration and increasing water scarcity drive seasonal wetland–grassland ecosystems towards persistent or novel ecological states, and whether adaptive environmental-water management can influence these trajectories towards biodiversity-rich and resilient outcomes. We are interested in testing the hypothesis that even limited water availability can significantly influence the future development of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning where historical hydrological regimes cannot be maintained. Seasonal wetlands provide an excellent model system because water availability is a major ecological driver of ecosystem transitions, and its increasing scarcity can create conflicts between its use for maintaining biodiversity and the needs of human societies.

We are interested in building a multidisciplinary consortium around this concept, particularly with partners contributing complementary wetland or wetland–grassland systems, or expertise in investigating climatic, hydrological, ecological and socio-ecological dimensions of water scarcity, and in modelling future habitat changes.

We are also open to join another strong BiodivFuture consortium addressing related questions of climate-driven ecosystem transformation. Our wetland–grassland systems could contribute a European case study with one of the strongest climatic effects in Central-Europe.

wetlands, grasslands, biodiversity, climate change, drought, habitat drying, water scarcity, water management

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