About
102
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Introduction
Additional affiliations
August 2018 - October 2018
University of Maryland University College - Europe
Position
- Professor (Associate)
November 2011 - December 2015
December 2007 - January 2010
Publications
Publications (102)
Aim
Arthropods as vertebrate predators is a generally overlooked aspect in ecology due to the cryptic nature of these events, the relatively small size of arthropods and the difficulty in finding published data. This study represents the largest global assessment of arthropods preying on vertebrates to provide a conceptual framework, identify globa...
Reptiles are one of the most popular exotic pets in the world, with over a third of all described species currently being traded. However, the most commonly available reptiles are typically non-threatened, captive-bred, and/or domestically obtained, which means they are also largely unregulated and unmonitored, resulting in a large portion of the r...
Human modification of natural landscapes is a key threatening process contributing to the decline of global biodiversity. Amphibians are particularly vulnerable to this threat, with over a third of species threatened as a direct result. However, some habitat modifications may be less detrimental than others, with some species known to successfully...
Although species are being lost at alarming rates, previous research has provided conflicting results on the extent and even direction of global biodiversity change at the local scale. Here, we assessed the ability to detect global biodiversity trends using local species richness and how it is affected by the number of monitoring sites, sampling in...
Freshwater fish represent half of all fish species and are the most threatened vertebrate group. Given their considerable passion and knowledge, aquarium hobbyists can play a vital role in their conservation. CARES is made up of many hobbyist organizations, whose purpose is to encourage aquarium hobbyists to the most endangered or extinct-in-the-wi...
Amphibians are among the most globally threatened vertebrates, with habitat loss and degradation being the primary drivers of their decline. While natural wetlands are essential for amphibian survival, artificial habitats can also play a significant role as refuges, especially in human-altered landscapes. This study examines the role of artificial...
To address the biodiversity crisis, global and regional policy frameworks like the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the European Green Deal demand to monitor biodiversity. Despite these efforts, existing approaches for monitoring biodiversity remain fragmented and lack data integration. Here, we review and synthesize crucial infor...
Biodiversity research is essential for addressing the global biodiversity crisis, necessitating diverse participation and perspectives of researchers from a wide range of backgrounds. However, conservation faces a significant inclusivity problem because local expertise from biodiversity‐rich but economically disadvantaged regions is often underrepr...
The scarcity of long-term observational data has limited the use of statistical or machine-learning techniques for predicting intraannual ecological variation. However, time-stamped citizen-science observation records, supported by media data such as photographs, are increasingly available. In the present article, we present a novel framework based...
To achieve the goals of the 2030 Global Biodiversity Framework, the European Biodiversity Strategy, and the EU Green Deal, biodiversity monitoring is critical. Monitoring efforts in Europe, however, suffer from gaps and biases in taxonomy, spatial coverage, and temporal resolution, resulting in fragmented and disconnected data. To assess user and p...
The Tropical Andes, one of the world’s most biodiverse regions, is vital for ecological research and conservation. However, while researchers in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru contribute significantly to scientific knowledge, their publication rates in academic journals have historically lagged behind neighboring nations. A multifaceted strategy was em...
Observations are key to understanding the state of nature, the drivers of biodiversity loss and the impacts on ecosystem services and ultimately on people. Many EU policies and initiatives call for unbiased, integrated and regularly updated data on biodiversity and ecosystem services. However, biodiversity monitoring efforts are spatially and tempo...
EuropaBON EBV workflow templates
The information provided here represents the EBV workflow templates collected during the EuropaBON online workshop on Essential Biodiversity
Variable (EBV) workflows from 22–24 February 2023. The templates were designed to capture comprehensive descriptions about the three
workflow components (data collection and s...
The information represents the EBV workflow templates collected during the EuropaBON online workshop on Essential Biodiversity Variable (EBV) workflows from 22–24 February 2023.
The templates were designed to capture comprehensive descriptions about the three workflow components (data collection and sampling, data integration, and modelling) that...
The rapid growth of clean energy technologies is driving a rising demand for critical minerals. In 2022 at the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15), seven major economies formed an alliance to enhance the sustainability of mining these essential decarbonization minerals. However, there is a scarcity of st...
The Americas contain highly biodiverse yet vulnerable ecosystems, with many threatened species inadequately protected. Finer-scale, localized habitat assessments are crucial for effective conservation planning, but continental-scale high-resolution vegetation maps remain limited. This study addresses this gap by identifying critical vegetation type...
The unsustainable use of wildlife is a primary driver of global biodiversity loss. No comprehensive global dataset exists on what species are in trade, their geographic origins, and trade's ultimate impacts, which limits our ability to sustainably manage trade. The United States (US) is one of the world's largest importers of wildlife, trade data b...
Many plants exploit the ability of animals to move in order to disperse their pollen and seeds. Despite the growing understanding of the role animals play in the reproductive lives of plants, there are few examples of amphibians contributing to these processes. We report on an Australian tree frog, Litoria fallax, interacting with and likely moving...
El aporte de la investigación sobre la conservación de la biodiversidad en el avance del conocimiento y la respuesta a los desafíos globales es fundamental. Sin embargo, aún existe una brecha sorprendente entre los Andes Tropicales y otras regiones en relación a la publicación de investigaciones científicas. Para comprender esta disparidad, se empl...
La investigación sobre la biodiversidad es vital para comprender la complejidad y la escala global de la crisis de la biodiversidad, lo cual requiere una participación y perspectivas diversas a través de esfuerzos de colaboración. Sin embargo, el estado actual de la investigación sobre la biodiversidad pone de relieve cuestiones importantes relacio...
A pesquisa em biodiversidade é vital para entender a complexidade e a escala da crise global da biodiversidade, exigindo participação e perspectivas diversas por meio de esforços colaborativos. No entanto, o estado atual da pesquisa em biodiversidade destaca questões significativas relativas à inclusão, representação e colaboração equitativa. A exp...
Bats are one of the most diverse mammalian groups and an important component of global ecosystems and food webs. These nocturnal mammals are usually perceived as agile predators with few natural enemies, ignoring that bats can form one of the largest aggregations of mammals, becoming a tempting prey for other animals. Accumulating evidence reveals...
As the females of most mosquitoes require a blood meal to provision their eggs, they
can be a vector of parasites and pathogens that have profound impacts on both ani-mal and human populations. Understanding the interactions between mosquitoes and
their hosts, including animal and feeding site preferences, could thus provide valuable
insights in...
The Americas contain highly biodiverse yet vulnerable ecosystems, with many threatened species inadequately protected. Finer-scale, localized habitat assessments are crucial for effective conservation planning, but continental-scale high-resolution vegetation maps remain limited. This study addresses this gap by identifying critical vegetation type...
Biodiversity conservation is a complex and transdisciplinary problem that requires engagement and cooperation among scientific, societal, economic, and political institutions. However, historical approaches have often failed to bring together and address the needs of all relevant stakeholders in decision-making processes. The Tropical Andes, a biod...
The rapid growth of clean energy technologies is driving a rising demand for critical minerals. In 2022 at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15), seven major economies formed an alliance to enhance the sustainability of mining these essential decarbonization minerals. However, there is a scarcity of studies assessing the threat of mining to globa...
La conservación de la biodiversidad es un problema complejo y transdisciplinario que requiere el compromiso y la cooperación entre instituciones científicas, sociales, económicas y políticas. Sin embargo, los enfoques tradicionales/convencionales a menudo no logran reunir y abordar las necesidades de todos los actores relevantes en los procesos de...
Among spiders, movement in aquatic environments, including below the water’s surface or on the surface film, is completed using a variety of techniques that do not involve the use of silk, including swimming, walking, and rowing. The use of silk to assist with aquatic locomotion has been explored only to a limited extent. In this study, we report o...
We quantitatively tested the riverine barrier hypothesis and its influence on biogeographical distributions and molecular variation in New World monkeys (Parvorder: Platyrrhini). Using mitochondrial markers (cytochrome oxidase subunit II and cytochrome b), we analyzed taxonomic differences and the effects of geographical barriers on molecular patte...
To implement the goals of the 2030 Global Biodiversity Framework, the European Biodiversity Strategy and the EU Green Deal, biodiversity monitoring is a pivotal instrument to achieve accountability and progress in conservation. Monitoring efforts in Europe, however, suffer from gaps and biases in taxonomy, spatial coverage, and temporal resolution,...
The EBV Data Portal API is specifically designed for the machine-readable integration, sharing, and utilization of EBV datasets and currently supports only GET requests in its initial version. The ebv_download function of the R package utilizes this REST API to download the EBV datasets. The API is accessible via the URL https://portal.geobon.org/a...
Biodiversity conservation is a complex and transdisciplinary problem that requires engagement and cooperation among scientific, societal, economic, and political institutions. However, historical approaches have often failed to bring together and address the needs of relevant stakeholders in decision-making processes. The Tropical Andes, a biodiver...
Spatial predictions of intra-annual ecological variation enhance ecological understanding and inform decision-making. Unfortunately, it is often challenging to use statistical or machine learning techniques to make such predictions, due to the scarcity of systematic, long-term observational data. Conversely, opportunistic time-stamped observation r...
Increasing the policy impact and effectiveness of biodiversity monitoring in Europe: current state and gaps.
EuropaBON harnesses the power of modelling Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) to integrate different reporting streams, data sources, and monitoring schemes, and measure biodiversity change across multiple dimensions in space and time. Therefore, EBVs are at the core of the project and form the basis for several of the tasks feeding into the c...
Few spiders are known to construct silk webs that physically contact water, despite it being both a surface and medium that can be exploited for web construction. Herein, we report on an Australian long‐jawed spider from the Tetragnatha genus (Tetragnatha cf. nitens) that frequently produces aerial webs that touch the surface of ephemeral waterbodi...
For too long, some scientists have acted like Gollums of the ivory tower, guarding precious study sites, model organisms, and even entire fields of inquiry.
Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) are used to monitor the status and trends in biodiversity at multiple spatiotemporal scales. These provide an abstraction level between raw biodiversity observations and indicators, enabling better access to policy-relevant biodiversity information. Furthermore, the EBV vision aims to support detection of cri...
The concept of Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) was conceived to study, report, and manage biodiversity change. The EBV netCDF structure was developed in order to support publication and interoperability of biodiversity data. This standard is based on the Network Common Data Format (netCDF). Additionally, it follows the Climate and Forecast...
Documenting temporal trends in the extent of ecosystems is essential to monitoring their
status but combining this information with the degree of protection helps us assess the effectiveness of societal actions for conserving ecosystem diversity and related ecosystem services. We demonstrated indicators in the Tropical Andes using both potential (...
Despite scientific research becoming increasingly more collaborative, access to resources, research topics, and even entire fields remain restricted by researchers who become possessively attached to these aspects of their research. We refer to this as the Gollum effect and can be attributed to the increased competitiveness in academia for funding,...
In this report, we present the analysis of the different available biodiversity data streams at the EU and national level, both baseline biodiversity data and monitoring data. We assess how these biodiversity data inform and trigger policy action and identify the related challenges the different European countries and relevant EU agencies face and...
Due to resource limitations and physical constraints of the reproducing female, a trade-off must be made between the number of eggs she produces and their size per clutch. This generally results in an inverse relationship between egg and clutch size, which has been found repeatedly across animal groups. Few studies have investigated this relationsh...
Societal Impact Statement:
Plants play fundamental roles in ecosystems, yet merely 10% of species have an assessment of their global extinction risk. Through the integration of national Red Lists and comprehensive global plant distribution data, we identify previously unassessed plant species in Europe that are threatened throughout their geograph...
Observations are key to understand the drivers of biodiversity loss, and the impacts on ecosystem services and ultimately on people. Many EU policies and initiatives demand unbiased, integrated and regularly updated biodiversity and ecosystem service data. However, efforts to monitor biodiversity are spatially and temporally fragmented, taxonomical...
Many animals have been documented to collect and subsequently transport water for several purposes besides self-hydration. However, there are few examples where this process involves the use of external body surfaces. Herein, we report on a long-jawed spider from the Tetragnatha genus using its enlarged jaws (chelicerae) to collect water. Field obs...
In animal mating systems, individuals obtain fitness benefits by selecting a mate that increases their chance of reproductive success. Among amphibians, it is generally considered that females select males, primarily based on advertisement calls that signal their size, quality or compatibility. Yet, it is becoming increasingly apparent that amphibi...
• As the proportion of threatened species increases, so too does the need for effective conservation strategies. In response, captive breed-and-release and habitat mitigation programmes are two conservation actions that are increasing in use and effectiveness.
• Success of these programmes is frequently hampered by the continued presence of threate...
For amphibians that oviposit in temporary aquatic systems, there is a high risk of desiccation-induced offspring mortality when water evaporates prior to the completion of embryo or tadpole development. Such a strong selective pressure has led to the evolution of a variety of traits in reproducing females and their offspring to improve the odds of...
While animals generally move through the aquatic environment by propelling themselves through the water or walking on submerged substrates, some have evolved the unique capacity to move along the water–air interface. This is because cohesive forces between water molecules cause the surface to be in tension, providing a physical substrate that can b...
Deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon have been steadily increasing since 2007. Recent government policy, the projected growth of agriculture, and the expansion of the cattle industry are expected to further pressure primates within the Amazon basin. In this study, we examined the anthropogenic impact on the widely distributed black-headed ni...
Despite the important role of fungi for ecosystems, relatively little is known about the factors underlying the dynamics of their diversity. Moreover, studies do not typically consider their dark diversity: the species absent from an otherwise suitable site. Here,we examined potential drivers of local fungal dark diversity in temperate woodland and...
Among the terrestrial slugs, mucus secretions are used for a variety of purposes that typically require the mucus to be excreted from the slug’s foot along surfaces or excreted onto epithelial linings. However, terrestrial slugs are also capable of producing mucus threads that are anchored to surfaces but extended into the open air. These threads a...
Despite the important role of fungi for ecosystems, relatively little is known about the factors underlying the dynamics of their diversity. Moreover, studies do not typically consider their dark diversity: the species absent from an otherwise suitable site. Here, we examined potential drivers of local fungal dark diversity in temperate woodland an...
Deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon have been steadily increasing since 2007. Recent government policy, projected growth of agriculture, and expansion of the cattle industry is expected to further pressure primates within the Amazon basin. In this study, we examined the anthropogenic impact on the widely distributed black-headed night monke...
An extensive literature search of vertebrate predation by arthropods was undertaken between November 2019 and June 2020. Scientific articles, reviews, bulletins, newsletters, books, theses, dissertations, government reports, and conference proceedings were searched using Google Scholar, BioOne, and Web of Science. The literature search was conducte...
Species richness is the most commonly used metric to quantify biodiversity. However, examining dark diversity, the group of missing species which can potentially inhabit a site, can provide a more thorough understanding of the processes influencing observed biodiversity and help evaluate the restoration potential of local habitats. So far, dark div...
An inverse relationship between egg and clutch size has been found repeatedly across animal groups, including birds, reptiles and amphibians, and is considered to be a result of resource limitations and physical constraints on the reproducing female. However, few studies have contextualised this relationship with respect to various environmental se...
Preprint is now published in Global Ecology and Biogeography. Updated and published version available here:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343258316_Arthropods_as_vertebrate_predators_A_review_of_global_patterns
In highly ephemeral freshwater habitats, predatory vertebrates are typically unable to become established, leaving an open niche often filled by macroinvertebrate predators. However, these predators are faced with the challenge of finding sufficient food sources as the rapid rate of desiccation prevents the establishment of extended food chains and...
Freshwater fish represent half of all fish species and are the most threatened vertebrate group. Given their considerable passion and knowledge, aquarium hobbyists can play a vital role in their conservation. CARES is made up of many organizations, whose purpose is to encourage aquarium hobbyists to devote tank space to the most endangered and over...
The role of invertebrate predation in shaping vertebrate communities is often overlooked. This is evident with predaceous diving beetles (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae), which are often the top predator in many aquatic freshwater habitats. During weekly monitoring of a reintroduction for an endangered frog, a group of a dozen adult diving beetles were enc...
The amphibian chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), is an infectious disease responsible for the worldwide decline of amphibian species. To mitigate these declines, it is necessary to identify the various vectors by which the fungus can be transmitted between individuals and populations. The objective of this study was to determine w...
Gastropods are known to secrete mucus for a variety of purposes, including locomotion, reproduction, adhesion to surfaces and lubrication. A less commonly known function of mucus secretion in this group involves its use as a defence against predation. Amongst the terrestrial slugs, mucus that serves this particular purpose has been studied for only...
The amphibian chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), is an infectious disease responsible for the worldwide decline of amphibian species. To mitigate these declines, it is necessary to identify the various vectors by which the fungus can be transmitted between individuals and populations. The objective of this study was to determine w...
Species richness is the most commonly used metric to quantify biodiversity. However, examining dark diversity, the group of missing species which can potentially inhabit a site, can provide a more thorough understanding of the processes influencing observed biodiversity and help evaluate the restoration potential of local habitats. So far, dark div...
In highly ephemeral freshwater habitats, predatory vertebrates are typically unable to become established, leaving an open niche often filled by macroinvertebrate predators. However, these predators are faced with the challenge of finding sufficient food sources as the rapid rate of desiccation prevents the establishment of extended food chains and...
The role of invertebrate predation in shaping vertebrate communities is often underestimated or overlooked, which has resulted in the lack of their recognition in conservation planning. This is evident with predaceous diving beetles (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae) which are often the top predator in many aquatic freshwater habitats. During weekly monitori...
The amphibian chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), is an infectious disease responsible for the worldwide decline of amphibian species. To mitigate these declines, it is necessary to identify the various vectors by which the fungus can be transmitted between individuals and populations. The objective of this study was to determine w...
Gastropods are known to secrete mucus for a variety of purposes, including locomotion, reproduction, adhesion to surfaces, and lubrication. A less commonly known function of mucus secretion in this group involves its use as a defence against predation. Among the terrestrial slugs, mucus that serves this particular purpose has been studied for only...
Seedling emergence in plant communities depends on the composition in the soil seed bank, in combination with species-specific responses to the environment. It is generally assumed that this juvenile transition, known as the recruitment niche, is a crucial filter that determines species’ distributions and plant community assemblies. The relative im...
Increasing concerns over the environmental impacts of agriculture in Europe has led to the introduction of agri-environment schemes (AES) to help mitigate biodiversity loss. However, effectiveness of AES has been mixed and only partially successful in achieving desired outcomes. To improve effectiveness and reduce high costs, multi-criteria decisio...
Habitat offsetting is a conservation management regime used to preserve biodiversity when human development degrades areas inhabited by threatened species. Habitat suitability of a threatened species can vary temporally due to environmental changes. However, vegetation growth is rarely considered prior to mitigation attempts. The Green and Golden B...
Context The severity and prevalence of the amphibian fungal pathogen, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) is correlated with several environmental variables, including salinity, temperature, and moisture content, which influence the pathogen's growth and survival. Habitats that contain these environmental variables at levels outside of those optima...