Integrative Ecology

在过去的15年里，生物多样性科学在预测全球变化对范围变化、灭绝风险和生物多样性未来分布的影响方面取得了令人印象深刻的进展。对“生物多样性情景”模拟的需求推动了生态学--传统上侧重于描述和理解过程--向一门更具预测性的科学发展。尽管人们对这些情景充满热情，但大多数建模方法仍然受到批评，因为它们没有整合已知的影响生物多样性分布的关键过程和关键的生态系统过程。生物多样性不仅仅是一个物种的清单，它也是它们之间相互作用的集合，推动着生态系统的进程，支持着生命的多样化。儿童基金会在综合生态学方面的研究表明，物种丰富度的分布不仅在全球范围内有所不同，而且生物多样性的结构也不同。在生物地理学和群落生态学的十字路口的这项研究的基础上，我现在正在探索人为变化将如何影响生物多样性的分布。我的研究计划的长期目标是开发一种理论来理解和预测生物多样性变化的多个维度。除了对生物多样性变化的基础研究外，主席的活动还包括为合作伙伴开发一个开放的信息系统和一套决策支持工具。

There has been an impressive progress in biodiversity science over the last fifteen years to predict the impacts of global changes on range shifts, extinction risks and the future distribution of biodiversity. The demand for simulations of "biodiversity scenarios" has pushed ecology, traditionally focused on the description and understanding of processes, towards a more predictive science. Despite the enthusiasm for these scenarios, most of the modelling approaches are still criticized for not integrating key processes known to impact biodiversity distribution and key ecosystem processes. Biodiversity is more than a list of species, it is also the collection of interactions among them driving ecosystem processes and supporting diversification of life. Research by the CRC in Integrative ecology has shown that not only the distribution of species richness varies across the globe, but also the architecture of biodiversity. Building on this research at the crossroad between biogeography and community ecology, I am now exploring how biodiversity distribution will be affected by anthropogenic changes. The long-term objective of my research program is to develop a theory to understand and predict the multiple dimensions of biodiversity changes. In addition to fundamental research on biodiversity changes, activities of the Chair include the development of an open information system and a suite of decision-support tools for partners.