
Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Group
In the Anthropocene, human pressures on wildlife are reaching unprecedented levels. Animals, plants, and entire ecosystems must bear these pressures across different spatial and temporal scales. We, the members of the Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Group (WEC), study how humans influence wildlife. We examine both direct mechanisms like hunting and fire, and mechanisms that are more indirect and that are part of larger-scale processes, such as climate change.
In general, we engage in three main research lines:
- We investigate how individual animals perform and adapt in response to both anthropogenic and natural changes, and how this affects functioning, viability, and resilience from populations to ecosystems.
- We study ecological interactions and their cascading effects on processes and patterns at lower and higher levels of biological organisation.
- We identify conservation options, and we test the effectiveness of conservation interventions.
Important themes that cut across our main research lines include:
- animal movement and distributions
- population dynamics
- trophic interactions
- disease and physiology
Latest publications
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Oxygen is a better predictor of macroinvertebrate richness than temperature—A systematic review
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Bird's feather as an effective bioindicator for detection of trace elements in polymetallic contaminated areas in Anhui Province, China
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Predicted future benefits for an endemic rodent in the Irano-Turanian region
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Temporal dynamics of cloacal microbiota in adult laying chickens with and without access to an outdoor range
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Seasonal variation in sex-specific immunity in wild birds
Latest dissertations
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Unravelling networks : Causes and consequences of decreasing connectivity in bird migration pathway
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Tree seedling recruitment dynamics in forest-savanna transitions : Trait responses to vegetation controls mediate differential seedling establishment success of tree functional types
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Some species are more equal than others: phylogenetic relatedness predicts disease pressure
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Genetic variation of wildlife in a human-dominated landscape : Genome-wide SNP analysis of wild boar (Sus scrofa) and red deer (Cervus elaphus) from the European continent
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Consequences of seasonal migration : How goose relocation strategies influence infection prevalence and pathogen dispersal
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Lemurs on a sinking raft? : The ballast of anthropogenic disturbances
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Land use changes in Russia and their impact on migrating geese