Prof. Antoine Guisan, Associate Professor
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Ecology and Evolution Department UNIL |
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Research activities :
- Spatial predictions of species distributions: fundamental and applied issues in ecology and conservation biology
Research key words :
- Spatial ecology, predictive biogeography, GIS modelling, species distribution, conservation biology
Link to our web site
Spatial predictions of species distributions: fundamental and applied issues in ecology and conservation biology
The Spatial Ecology group at the University of Lausanne is specialized in predictive habitat distribution modeling, mainly at the level of species, but also sometime at the level of communities and habitat types. Models are developed and tested as tools for the management or rare and endangered species, for evaluating the invasive potential of neophyte plant species, for evaluating landscape diversity and fragmentation, as well as for preparing scenarios of climate change impact on plant species distribution, diversity and communities. These models are also used to understand evolutionary processes that caused patterns of biodiversity at various scales, and fed with genetic data to assess genetic structures spatially in the landscape. More dynamic models are also being developed for simulating the spread of species in the landscape, for instance after a climatic change or to simulate invasion processes. We also use simulation, such as virtual species in a real landscape, to solve methodological problems and questions.
More info on http://ecospat.unil.ch. A PhD project could be developed on any of these issues.
References :
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Ferrier, S. & Guisan, A. (in press) Spatial modeling of biodiversity at the community level. Journal of Applied Ecology
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Guisan, A. and Thuiller, W. 2005. Predicting species distribution: offering more than simple habitat models? Ecology Letters 8: 993-1009
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Guisan, A. & Zimmermann, N.E. 2000. Predictive habitat distribution models in ecology. Ecological Modelling 135(2-3): 147-186
