Ecology

Our research topics range from behavioural to community ecology. We often keep a strong focus on the population level. Some core questions of interest are

• What are the drivers of population cycles (regular oscillations in population size with >2 orders of magnitude)?

• To what extent do predators regulate their prey?

• How can seemingly similar species manage to coexist?

These questions can involve either general theoretical modelling or statistical modelling based on long-term data for a given population/community. When we’re lucky, a bit of both.

Applied sideproject:

• How can we monitor & conserve biodiversity in highly modified landscapes, such as (sub)urban environments?

Applied statistics

• Integrating different data sets into a single model-based statistical framework

• Teasing out the causal structure of (ecological) networks using time series data

• Assessing model identifiability – what parameters can we truly estimate?

• Scaling up integrated / data fusion techniques from single to multiple species – applied to fundamental ecological questions or more practical biodiversity monitoring

Tools of the trade

Statistical modelling: regression, hierarchical models, hidden Markov models (e.g. for capture-recapture, dynamic occupancy data), time series, integrated population modelling (aka data fusion for population ecology). Often with a Bayesian flavour.

Theoretical models: nonlinear and/or stochastic difference and differential equations, point processes.