Studying geo-ecosystems and the distribution of life on Earth
The Biogeography & Macroecology (BIOMAC) lab is a research group at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), the Netherlands. We are part of the Department Theoretical and Computational Ecology (TCE) within the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED). The central aim of our work is to quantify how biodiversity and abiotic components of the Earth system vary across space and time, how they interact, and how responses of species and ecosystems to changing environmental conditions can be predicted and forecasted.
The group currently comprises research staff (associate and assistant professors), scientific developers, data scientists, and postdoctoral researchers. We work at the interface of ecology, Earth science, informatics and data science, and cover topics in biodiversity, geodiversity, conservation, physical geography, monitoring, policy and global biodiversity change. Please read more about our research and our teaching, have a look at our news page, or get in touch with our lab members.
Kissling, W.D., Shi, Y., Koma, Z., Meijer, C., Ku, O., Nattino, F., Seijmonsbergen, A.C. & Grootes, M.W. (2022): Laserfarm — A high-throughput workflow for generating geospatial data products of ecosystem structure from airborne laser scanning point clouds. Ecological Informatics 72: 101836. [ABSTRACT]
Zhao, Z., Koulouzis, S., Bianchi, R., Farshidi, S., Shi, Z., Xin, R., Wang, Y., Li, N., Shi, Y., Timmermans, J. & Kissling, W.D. (2022): Notebook-as-a-VRE (NaaVRE): from private notebooks to a collaborative cloud virtual research environment. Software: Practice and Experience 52: 1947–1966. [ABSTRACT] [Featured Cover]
Allan, J.R., Possingham, H.P., Atkinson, S.C., Waldron, A., Di Marco, M., Butchart, S.H.M., Adams, V.M., Kissling, W.D., Worsdell, T., Sandbrook, C., Gibbon, G., Kumar, K., Mehta, P., Maron, M., Williams, B.A., Jones, K.R., Wintle, B.A., Reside, A.E. & Watson, J.E.M. (2022): The minimum land area requiring conservation attention to safeguard biodiversity. Science 376: 1094–1101. [ABSTRACT] [PERSPECTIVE] [PRESS RELEASE]
De Groeve, J., Kusumoto, B., Koene, E., Kissling, W.D., Seijmonsbergen, A.C., Hoeksema, B.W., Yasuhara, M., Norder, S.J., Cahyarini, S.Y., van der Geer, A., Meijer, H.J.M., Kubota, Y. & Rijsdijk, K.F. (2022): Global raster dataset on historic coastline positions and shelf sea extents since the Last Glacial Maximum. Global Ecology & Biogeography 31: 2162–2171. [ABSTRACT]
2023-02-06
In this new paper we tested the role of elections as drivers of deforestation at broad geographic scales.
2023-01-23
We are very happy to announce that the registration for our upcoming EuropaBON virtual workshop on Essential Biodiversity Variable workflows is now open!
2023-01-05
This new paper shows how biotic interactions can be inferred, even if little information is available.
2022-12-14
A new open access dataset on ecosystem structure for the Netherlands is available at 10 m resolution, capturing 25 vegetation metrics derived from LiDAR.
2022-09-30
This new paper presents a workflow for processing massive amounts of LiDAR point clouds into geospatial data products of ecosystem structure.
The Digital Twins @ WUR conference will be held on 13 December 2022 and 14 December 2022. The first day will include a general introduction, presentations and discussions on Digital Twins @WUR. The second day will consist of an in depth exploration of Digital Twins in green life sciences.
The AGU meetings are dedicated to the advancement of Earth and space sciences. the AGU Fall Meeting 2022 will be held in Chicago and online everywhere from 12 - 16 December 2022. More than 25,000 attendees from more than 100 countries will convene. More details here.
ARISE is building a research infrastructure that knows and recognizes all species in the Netherlands based on DNA and digital technology. The ARISE Day 2023 will be a two-day event with workshops, drinks, keynote speakers, other presentations, and the opportunity to discuss and shape biodiversity knowledge for the 21st century. See more details here.