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Thorsten Wiegand (PhD Marburg University) is a Senior Scientist at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig, and lecturer at the Escuela para Graduados Faculdad de Agronomia -  Universidad de Buenos  Aires. Dr. Wiegand also serves as subject editor of Ecography and Oikos, and in the editorial board of Landscape Ecology.

Dr. habil. Thorsten Wiegand Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ Department of Ecological Modelling Permoserstr. 15 04318 Leipzig Germany Tel.  +49 341 235 1714  Fax: +49 341 235 1473  e-mail: thorsten.wiegand@ufz.de

Research interests

Over the last 20 years or so, we are witnessing a conceptual revolution in the field of population biology and ecological modeling, which was stimulated by the rapid development of advanced new scientific tools such and individual-based, spatially explicit population models, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). There is much work to be done in developing our understanding of the new "spatial ecology", and my research program is driven by an interest in this topic. My primary research goals are (1) to broaden the theory of population and community to encompass an explicit consideration of spatially distributed processes, and (2) to develop methods to adapt simulation models optimally for ecological applications. To approach these goals I use several complementary approaches

• Spatial pattern analysis for characterizing pattern over a range of spatial and temporal scales as a means of identifying critical, pattern forming ecological processes (Wiegand and Moloney 2004, Wiegand et al. 2006, Wiegand et al. 2007 a, b, c, Wiegand et al.2009, Jacquemyn et al. 2010, Raventós et al. 2010, Wang et al. 2010, Niggemann et al. 2012, Wiegand et al. 2012a, b).

• Spatially-explicit and individual-based models as tools for studying the spatiotemporal dynamics plant communities (Wiegand et al. 1995, 1998a,  2006, Paruelo et al. 2008, Martinez et al 2011,  Cipriotti et al. 2012)

• Habitat models to define the landscape for spatially-explicit and individual-based models (Schadt et al. 2002a, 2002b,  Naves et al. 2003, Rhodes et al. 2008, Wiegand et al. 2008, Kanagaraj et al. 2011, Louzao et al. 2011, 2012, Martinez et al. 2012, Rodríguez-Pérez et al. 2012)

• Spatially-explicit and individual-based models as tools for studying the spatiotemporal dynamics animal populations (Wiegand et al 1998b, 1999, 2004, 2005, Kramer-Schadt et al. 2004, 2005, 2007, 2011,  Revilla et al. 2004, Revilla and Wiegand 2008, Bruggeman et al 2010, Anadon et al. 2012)

• Development of inverse methods of model parameterization and model selection for simulation models (Wiegand et al 1998b, 2003, 2004,  Grimm et al. 2005, Paruelo et al. 2008, Hartig et al. 2011,  Martinez et al, 2011,  Cipriotti et al. 2012).

My study systems include plant communities such as tropical forests in Sri Lanka and Panama, treeline dynamics in Europe, semiarid shrubland and grasslands in South Africa, the Patagonian steppe in Argentina as well as endangered animal species such as brown bears (Ursus arctos), Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus), European lynx (Lynx lynx), and tiger (Panthera tigris).

Currently most of my time is absorbed by the ERC advanced grant project SPATIODIVERSITY that aims to understand the relative importance of processes and factors that govern the composition and dynamics of species-rich communities. Surprisingly, although most processes which are thought to contribute to species coexistence have a strong spatial component, the rich source of information on spatial patterns has only rarely been used for this purpose. We adopt a spatially explicit perspective and proceed in three steps:

1. we quantify the highly complex spatial structures found in forests using recent techniques of spatial pattern analysis,

2. we build a range of individual-based spatially-explicit simulation models ranging from “pure” neutral models to detailed process-based models of tropical forest, and

3. we confront these simulation models with the set of patterns identified in (1) to identify the most parsimonious models that account simultaneously for all (spatial) patterns.

 

Postal address	Research interests	Wiegand lab	Top

The Wiegand Lab

     ERC

• K. Rajapandian

• Stephan Getzin

• Eduardo Velázquez

• Saranga Amila Ruwan Punchi Manage

• Sebastian Lehmann

• Martin Kazmierczak

• Felix May

• Ruwan Punchi-Manage

     Other funding

• Jose M. Fedriani

     Former members

• Jose Daniel Anadon Herrera

• Pablo Cipriotti

• Isabel Martínez

• Javier Rodriguez

• Maite Louzoa

• Florian Hartig