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.
The group comprises associate and assistant professors, lecturers, post-docs, and PhD and MSc students. We cover a wide variety of scientific backgrounds, including ecology, physical geography, Earth science, evolution and global change biology. Please read more about our research and our teaching, have a look at our news page, or get in touch with our lab members.
Bakx, T.R.M., Koma, Z., Seijmonsbergen, A.C. & Kissling, W.D. (2019): Use and categorization of Light Detection and Ranging vegetation metrics in avian diversity and species distribution research. Diversity and Distributions 25: 1045–1059. [ABSTRACT] [DATA]
Kissling, W.D., Walls, R., Bowser, A., Jones, M.O., Kattge, J., Agosti, D., Amengual, J., Basset, A., van Bodegom, P.M., Cornelissen, J.H.C., Denny, E.G., Deudero, S., Egloff, W., Elmendorf, S.C., Alonso García, E., Jones, K.D., Jones, O.R., Lavorel, S., Lear, D., Navarro, L.M., Pawar, S., Pirzl, R., Rüger, N., Sal, S., Salguero-Gómez, R., Schigel, D., Schulz, K.-S., Skidmore, A. & Guralnick, R.P. (2018): Towards global data products of Essential Biodiversity Variables on species traits. Nature Ecology & Evolution 2: 1531–1540. [ABSTRACT]
Antonelli, A.*, Kissling, W.D.*, Flantua, S.G.A.*, Bermúdez, M.A.*, Mulch, A., Muellner-Riehl, A.N., Kreft, H., Linder, H.P., Badgley, C., Fjeldså, J., Fritz, S.A., Rahbek, C., Herman, F., Hooghiemstra, H. & Hoorn, C.* (2018): Geological and climatic influences on mountain biodiversity. Nature Geosciences 11: 718–725. (* = equal contributions) [ABSTRACT] [DATA]
Onstein, R.E., Baker, W.J., Couvreur, T.L.P., Faurby, S., Svenning, J.-C. & Kissling, W.D. (2017): Frugivory-related traits promote speciation of tropical palms. Nature Ecology & Evolution 1: 1903–1911. [ABSTRACT] [DATA & CODE] [PRESS RELEASE] [BLOG]
Norder, S.J., Proios, K.V., Whittaker, R.J., Alonso, M.R., Borges, P.A.V., Borregaard, M.K., Cowie, R.H., Florens, F.B.V., de Frias Martins, A.M., Ibáñez, M., Kissling, W.D., de Nascimento, L., Otto, R., Parent, C.E., Rigal, F., Warren, B.H., Fernández-Palacios, J.M., van Loon, E.E., Triantis, K.A. & Rijsdijk, K.F. (2018): Beyond the Last Glacial Maximum: Island endemism is best explained by long-lasting archipelago configurations. Global Ecology and Biogeography: 28: 184–197. [ABSTRACT] [DATA]
Schrodt, F., Bailey, J.J., Kissling, W.D., Rijsdijk, K.F., Seijmonsbergen, A.C., van Ree, D., Hjort, J., Lawley, R.S., Williams, C.N., Anderson, M.G., Beier, P., van Beukering, P., Boyd, D.S., Brilha, J., Carcavilla, L., Dahlin, K.M., Gill, J.C., Gordon, J.E., Gray, M., Grundy, M., Hunter, M.L., Lawler, J.J., Monge-Ganuzas, M., Royse, K.R., Stewart, I., Record, S., Turner, W., Zarnetske, P.L. & Field, R. (2019): Opinion: To advance sustainable stewardship, we must document not only biodiversity but geodiversity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116: 16155–16158. [ABSTRACT]
2019-08-14
In this opinion article in PNAS, we highlight the need to better consider geodiversity within international policies and to develop a monitoring scheme for essential geodiversity variables (EGVs).
2019-08-08
Our study on the impact of global warming on the functional diversity and trait distributions of birds and plants along a tropical elevational gradient has been highlighted as editor's choice.
2019-08-08
Our new study on the importance of unburned islands as refugia for the greater sage‐grouse has been highlighted on the front cover of the journal Ecology & Evolution.
2019-06-23
Five of our recent MSc students have published their work in an international, peer-reviewed scientific journal.
2019-04-13
Two of our new papers show how high-resolution Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data can be used to better understand the distribution of species and their habitats.
2019-04-04
This new paper shows how plant traits related to fruit eating by animals have influenced the intercontinental long‐distance dispersal and disjunct biogeographical distribution of rain forest plants.
2019-04-02
An editorial published in Nature Ecology & Evolution highlights our recent paper on developing Essential Biodiversity Variables on species traits.
2019-01-01
A comprehensive collection of pairwise interactions between palms and their animal seed dispersers reveals that the Neotropics has a larger interaction diversity and more modular network structure than the Afrotropics.
A workshop on 'geodiversity assessment in mountain areas' will take place in the Carpathians Mountains of southern Poland from 25-30 August 2019. BIOMAC member Harry Seijmonsbergen is invited to take part and give a talk on 'Geodiversity is essential'.
The Nordic Remote Sensing Conference 2019 from 17-19 September will provide a transdisciplinary platform for researchers in both academia and industry, involved in the acquisition, analysis and applications of remotely sensed data to share their knowledge for the advancement of the field. It will also serve as a forum for networking to promote collaborative projects. More details are found here.
The 2019 biodiversity_next conference brings together major international organisations, research scientists, and policy makers to jointly identify socio-technical bottlenecks and horizon-scan opportunities around data-intensive biodiversity and geodiversity research. More information here.
BIOMAC contact
Dr. W.D. (Daniel) Kissling
Email: wdkissling@gmail.com
Phone: +31 (0)20 525 8423
Postal address
Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED)
P.O. Box 94248, 1090 GE Amsterdam
The Netherlands
