Biodiversity Seminar: Studying biodiversity in the Anthropocene using old and new lenses

With ongoing biodiversity declines, advancing in the preservation of biodiversity is a critical aspect. In that regard, recent international agreements (e.g., IPBES, COP15) have stressed the need of monitoring status and progress in conservation. In this presentation, I will highlight my contributions in two key research areas: urban biodiversity and the assessment of protected areas. Urban areas are rapidly expanding worldwide, representing a major threat for biodiversity. Nonetheless, cities are increasingly recognised as ecosystems on their own, harbouring often a considerably high biodiversity, being a major force of eco-evolutionary change, and in turn, providing a wide array of ecosystem functions and contributions to people. Despite an already long history of research, there are still important questions that remain elusive in urban ecology particularly concerning the effects of socio-ecological drivers on urban biodiversity patterns and ecological processes, for example diet preferences, species distributions, interactions, and interspecific competition. In this talk, I would present some case studies were we applied “new” methodologies to better understand the influence of urban socio-ecological drivers on different biodiversity responses, including different spatial scales and ecological levels. Additionally, I will discuss the critical issue of expanding and evaluating protected areas, a central objective of recent CBD agreements. Despite these goals, the degree to which existing protected areas overlap with biodiversity hotspots remains a topic that has not received comprehensive study. As a case study, I will showcase our work on the distribution of wild bee diversity in Switzerland, where we have developed models to assess alpha and beta taxonomic and functional diversity metrics of wild bees and explored their alignment with the network of protected areas.

Joan Casanelles Abella

I am a postdoctoral researcher. Until recently, I worked at EAWAG and WSL with Dr. Marco Moretti, but after six nice years it is time to leave: I will be soonjoining the Urban Productive Ecosystems team at TU Munich with Professor Monika Egerer for my Postdoc Mobility fellowship. My research focuses on understanding how to manage, preserve, and promote biodiversity in the Anthropocene, with a primary focus on urban ecology and conservation biology. I am particularly interested in addressing ecological questions in these areas by employing various cutting-edge methodologies, including macroecological models, DNA metabarcoding, nutritional analyses, and the study of intraspecific trait variability. I explore these questions at different scales and ecological levels. Additionally, I have a strong interest in protected area planning, urban geography, and sociology. Beyond my primary research, I am enthusiastic about the taxonomy of vascular plants and insects. 

Our seminars are hybrid. Please send an email to events-biodiversity(at)wsl.ch if you would like to get access to the live stream.

The Biodiversity Seminar Series are organized by the WSL Biodiversity Center. Every two weeks, we aim to host a seminar speaker that presents research or outreach on topics relevant to the biodiversity community at WSL. The seminars are public and are usually broadcasted online.

Find out more about the WSL Biodiversity Center and a complete list of events here:

https://www.wsl.ch/en/about-wsl/organisation/programmes-and-initiatives/wsl-biodiversity-center.html

Please send an email to events-biodiversity(at)wsl.ch if you would like to be updated on the activities of the WSL Biodiversity Center.