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Steve Higgins

My usual view of Steve when we shared office, half-hidden behind his computer screen, surrounded by piles of papers and books. Steve left the OESA in 2004, spend four years as Post-doctoral researcher leading a Robert Bosch junior researcher group at the Chair of Vegetation Ecology, Technical University of Munich. Currently he is profesor for Physical Geography at the University of Frankfurt. 

Approach and focus

Steves approach to ecology is based on a desire to predict the response of ecosystems to environmental change.  Steve beliefs that there may often be demographic explanations for pattern.  In a more operational sense he is interested in the interplay between conceptual constructs, data, parameter estimation, models and prediction. 

His research seems to be focussed around three topics: (1) long-distance dispersal in plants, (2) population viability in plants and (3) fire and plant ecology in savanna. Some activity on the ecology of plant invasions exists.

Kerstin Wiegand
 

José Paruelo, myself and Kerstin

Kerstin is Assistant professor at the University Jena and  head of the Spatial Ecology lab. The spatial ecology group investigates the role of space on population dynamics, interspecific interactions, and biodiversity. The reason for this focus is that space has long been ignored for philosophical (space = noise detracting from the true pattern) and technical (computer power) reasons. Meanwhile, it is clear that the spatial distribution of organisms and resources is important for understanding many ecological questions, making spatial ecology a promising field of research. Our work has a strong methodological emphasis on simulation models (always in combination with field research) and spatial statistics.

Kirk A. Moloney

Research Philosophy   Over the last 15 years or so, there has been a major conceptual revolution in the way theoretical and empirical ecologists have approached the study of ecological processes. In the past, ecologists went to great lengths to remove the complexities of spatial variability in experimental and theoretical studies. In fact, statistical approaches to experimental analysis were designed, in large part, as a mechanism for eliminating spatial heterogeneity as a confounding factor. However, as our understanding of ecological processes in a "spatial vacuum" has become more sophisticated, we have come to realize that spatial relationships play a key role in determining the structure of ecological systems and cannot be ignored. There is much work to be done in developing our understanding of "spatial ecology", and Kirk's research program is driven by an interest in this topic. His primary goal is to broaden the theory of plant population and community ecology to encompass an explicit consideration of spatially distributed processes.   This involves several complementary approaches: (1) experimental and observational studies of plant and animal populations and communities in a spatial context; (2) development of spatially explicit simulation models as experimental tools for studying fundamental ecological relationships in a spatial context; and (3) development of analytical techniques for characterizing pattern over a range of spatial and temporal scales as a means of identifying critical, pattern forming ecological processes. Kirk firmly believe that progress in ecology requires an interplay of theory, observation, and experimentation, which is best done through a collaborative research program.

Felix Knauer