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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  (new phone number!!) Fax: +49 341 235 1473  (new fax number!!) 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 mayor research interest are

• understanding the long-term dynamics of semiarid plant communities, 

• spatially explicit population viability analysis (PVA) of large carnivore populations, 

• integrating approaches of landscape ecology and population modeling.

My primary goal are (1) to broaden the theory of population and community ecology and to integrate them with landscape ecology to encompass an explicit consideration of spatially distributed processes, and (2) to develop methods to adapt models optimally for ecological applications, such as PVA. This involves several complementary approaches:

• development of  individual-based and/or spatially-explicit simulation models as experimental tools for studying the dynamics of populations or communities (Wiegand et al. 1995, 1998a, 1998b, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2006),

• development of a modeling strategy which facilitates the inclusion of the biological information in an optimal way in a model (Wiegand et al. 2004), the pattern-oriented modeling strategy (Grimm et al. 1996, Wiegand et al. 2003; Grimm et al. 2005), and

• 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).

Research projects

• understanding the long-term dynamics of  plant communities
   

  • The semiarid shrublands in the Karoo, South Africa (with Sue Milton)

  • The semiarid grasslands of Sourth Africa (with Klaus Kellner and Hennie Snyman)

  • The grass-shrub steppe in Patagonia, Argentine  (Pablo Cipriotti, Martín Aguiar)

  • The Festuca grassland in Patagonia, Argentine (Sandro Pütz, with José Paruelo)

  • The Patagonian landscape-scale model (Sandro Pütz, with José Paruelo)

  • Treeline patterns in the Spanish Pyrenees (with Chechu Camarrero and Isabel Martinez)

  • Poin-pattern analysis of tropical tree species (with Nimal and Savit Gunatilleke and Andreas Huth).

• spatially explicit population viability analysis (PVA) of animal populations
   

  • Endangered brown bears (Ursus arctos) in northern Spain (with Javier Naves)

  • Expansion of brown bears (Ursus arctos) into the eastern Alps (with Felix Knauer)

  • Conservation of the endangered Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) (Eloy Revilla)

  • Scenarios for viable lynx (Lynx lynx) populations in Germany (Stephanie Schadt).

  • Conservation Planning for the Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) (Jonathan Rhodes)

  • Conservation of the Cantabrian Capercaille (Tetrao urogallus cantabricus) in northern Spain (Adan Abajo)

  • Trading patches within metapopulations (Doug Bruggeman)

  • Evaluating landscape connectivity for tiger  (Panthera tigris) in the Terai Arc landscape, India (K. Rajapandian)

• integrating approaches of landscape ecology and population modeling
   

  • Finding the missing link between landscape structure and population dynamics (with Kirk Moloney)

  • Relative effects of habitat loss and fragmentation on population dynamics (with Eloy Revilla and Kirk Moloney)

  • Analyzing dispersal of large carnivores (Eloy Revilla, Stephanie Schadt), Capercaille (Adan Abajo), and Red-Cockaded Woodpecker (Doug Bruggeman)

  • Modeling urban growth of mid-cities in Chile (with Gerardo Azócar)