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Stephan Getzin

Spatial point pattern analysis of tropical forests

Stephan developed already in his PhD a strong interest in spatial point pattern analysis and has followed this line of research since. After finishing his Postdoc with my sister at Göttingen University I was happy enough to employ him in my ERC project.

Stephans research interests are centered around

• Functional Ecology & Biodiversity
• Remotely Sensed Pattern Analysis
• Applied Forest Science
• Spatial Statistics

He is studying spatial patterns, shapes, and ‘higher-level’ structures to use this abstract information for reconstructing and predicting ecological processes. An explicit investigation of functional scale effects is fundamental in these analyses because the perception of habitat structure by, for example, the ‘plant’s-eye view’ is directly related to functional connectivity. Dynamic processes such as symmetric and asymmetric competition, intra- and inter-specific mortality, slowed and intensified demographics or the facilitation of high species diversity will finally lead to hierarchical structures, connectivity, and distribution patterns under given environmental scenarios. These scenarios include certain climatic effects, abiotic growth conditions (e.g. heterogeneity), disturbance regimes, or man-made influences (e.g. logging, planting patterns). One of my major goals is to disentangle these relative effects of prevailing environmental conditions from ecological processes, and ultimately, from quantifiable pattern formation.

The Doktorhut of Stephan immediately after successfully defending the PhD.

Analysis of hierarchical structures in forest stands using detailed spatial statistics

Stephan attempted in his thesis to contribute to selected topics in forest ecological research to better understand essential processes that lead to small- and large-scale forest structures. His topics were centered on point pattern analysis of fully mapped forest stands to analyze their spatial structure and to reveal which processes and factors may determined the structure of these forest communities. Comparative analyses were done by comparing chronosequences of stands of different age and stands with homogeneous and heterogeneous environmental conditions. This collaboration resulted in two articles Getzin et al. 2006 and Getzin et al. (2008) using methods of spatial point pattern analysis.