People

Professor, Group leader

I am broadly interested in ecology and evolutionary biology. My main research focus is in the development of statistical and mathematical approaches that help making more out of empirical data. I did my PhD in mathematics in 1998, after which decided to combine my interests in mathematics and ecology by joining prof. Ilkka Hanski’s Metapopulation Research Center (MRC). Much of my early work related to metapopulation biology and to animal movement. At the moment my main focus is in statistical methods related to community ecology and species identification from e.g. DNA barcoding data.

Office: 5616 (Biocenter 3)

E-mail: otso.ovaskainen@helsinki.fi

Post-doctoral researcher

I am studying long-term ecological changes of aquatic communities in response to anthropogenic pressures, such as eutrophication and climate change. I am particularly interested in how changing species composition and distribution patterns alter ecosystem functioning and services. To better understand and predict community responses to environmental change, both on species and on functional trait-based levels, my work focusses on the relationship between environmental drivers and their impact on aquatic ecosystems.

Room 5716 (Biocenter 3)

E-mail: benjamin.weigel@helsinki.fi

Post-doctoral researcher / Project coordinator

As a project coordinator, I deal with the creation of contacts, seminars, visit project participants and collecting materials for the database. As a researcher I study the impact of forest transformation/changes on the habitat structure, taiga species diversity and abundance especially in the context of animal landscape ecology.

Room 5717 (Biocenter 3)

E-mail: juri.kurhinen@helsinki.fi

Post-doctoral researcher

My main task is to implement a software package for probabilistic taxonomic classification (PROTAX) which is intended to be used in classifying environmental fungal samples based on next-generation sequencing data. In addition, I have written a software package for simulating point process models (ppsimulator).

Room 5411 (Biocenter 3)

E-mail: panu.somervuo@helsinki.fi

Post-doctoral researcher

I am a quantitative ecologist studying host-parasite interactions and large scale patterns of species diversity.

Room 5204 (Biocenter 3)

E-mail: tad.dallas@helsinki.fi

Post-doctoral researcher

I’m interested in understanding how plant populations and communities respond to environmental change, with a particular focus on trait evolution and the role of species interactions.  This necessitates a wide range of approaches, from field ecology to molecular and quantitative genetics and ecological statistics.

Room 5204 (Biocenter 3)

E-mail: oystein.opedal@helsinki.fi

Post-doctoral researcher

HMSC modelling

Room 5607 (Biocenter 3)

E-mail: anna.norberg@helsinki.fi

PhD student

I am interested in understanding species interaction dynamics in the tropics, with special interest in mutualistic interactions, forest fragmentation effects and co-occurrence patterns. In my research, I utilize comprehensive species occurrence data sets of communities from different trophic levels to model interaction networks at a large spatial scale.

Located in Trondheim, Norway

E-mail: emma-liina.marjakangas@ntnu.no

PhD student

Situated in Trondheim, Norway, I am collaborating with the Statistical Ecology Group to study the spatial and temporal dynamics of avian communities, utilizing hierarchical modelling of species communities (HMSC). Using unique long-term data on bird communities from the UK, our goal is to investigate the influence of abiotic and biotic factors on community structure.

Located in Trondheim, Norway

E-mail: lisa.sandal@ntnu.no