Research interests

In a nutshell

Most of my research is connected to ecological interactions and how they affect population dynamics. Study organisms range from birds to microbes (and some theoretical creatures). I enjoy relating models to real data whenever I can, for instance through dynamic model fitting.

Weapons of choice: time series, point processes, (stochastic or nonautonomous) dynamical systems, matrix models

I dabble occasionally in other ecology & evolution topics such as measuring biodiversity & monitoring techniques.


Some current methodological research interests

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

  • Teasing out the causal structure of ecological webs using time series data

  • Assessing model identifiability

Of course those threads are linked to various degrees. A long-standing interest of mine is to measure the effects of ecological interactions on community dynamics - it's not the same thing if a predator explain 50% of prey population variability or merely 5%. How much ecological interactions explain temporal/spatial variability in population abundance dictates how important community-level dynamic models (e.g., dynamics of food webs, competition networks) are to ecological theory and management, as well as how they should be structured to make reliable predictions.


Connex but more ecology-driven research interests

  • What factors drive population cycles?

  • To what extent do predators regulate their prey?

  • How can seemingly similar species manage to coexist? (aka the paradox of the plankton)

  • How can we monitor & conserve biodiversity in urbanized landscapes? (applied sideproject)



Themes of research in postdocs and PhD

Initially I focused on space use in animals (statistics and theory). Much of this work uses dynamic spatial point processes.

I also worked on demography and life-history evolution, in connection to small mammal cycles.

Population and community dynamics of wetland birds (SLU Uppsala)

Small mammal fluctuations, predator responses and indirect trophic interactions (U Tromsoe)

Ecological and evolutionary consequences of localised predator-prey interactions (Thesis, between Chizé & UCL)

Other projects

Ecological economics in agricultural landscapes

Identification of intensive space use from movement data (Residence Time method)