Pr Dolors ARMENTERAS
Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogota, Colombia
Dolors Armenteras is Professor of Landscape Ecology and Ecosystem Science at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogota. She focuses her research on sustainability and biodiversity conservation of tropical forests. Her research in fire ecology, spatial analysis and modelling at landscape has helped understand ecological processes across multiple organizational levels in Latin America. Her experience encompasses both fauna and flora, and includes ecosystem structure, spatial modelling, and landscape processes such as deforestation and degradation but also policy options. She has over two decades of experience in the science policy interface needed to advance towards the sustainability of the planet. She also has a major interest in raising awareness of geographical biases and power inequities in science. She was a Fulbright Regional Network for Applied Research (NEXUS) Climate Change and Biodiversity Scholar between 2014 and 2017. She is an expert in the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services-IPBES. Currently also serves as Vice-President International Association of Landscape Ecology IALE and is an active member of the Scientific Panel for the Amazon.
Dr Erika BERENGUER
University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Erika Berenguer is a Senior Research Associate at the Ecosystems Lab in the University of Oxford and a Visiting Research Associate at Lancaster University. She works in several Brazil-UK consortiums looking at the impacts of human-induced disturbance, such as selective logging and understory fires, in ecosystems functions and processes in the Amazon.
Dr Berenguer co-leads Working Group7 on the Scientific Panel for the Amazon, focusing on the impacts of deforestation and the degradation of both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Her interests lie in developing a better understanding of how human-modified tropical forests function, assessing the resilience of these forests in the face of climate change. In addition, she is passionate about finding ways of effectively communicating scientific results to relevant stakeholders and policy makers.
Dr Sophie Bertrand
UMR MARine Biodiversity, Exploitation & Conservation (MARBEC), Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement, IRD, Montpellier, France
Sophie Bertrand is a researcher in marine ecology at the IRD. She is interested in how fish, birds, mammals and fishermen occupy space at sea, using biologging techniques and movement ecology models. The aim is to understand whether planning rules for human activities at sea, such as Marine Spatial Planning, could allow for better cohabitation between animals and humans. She has worked for 15 years on the Peruvian coastal ecosystem, in collaboration with the Peruvian Institute of the Sea, and is currently developing her research in the tropical Atlantic (particularly in the Brazilian Northeast and Cuba).
Dr Renske ONSTEIN
German centre for integrative biodiversity research (idiv) halle-jena-leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
In June 2018, Renske Onstein became junior research group leader in Evolution & Adaptation at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig. She obtained her PhD at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, in 2015. Her research focuses on the evolution and diversification of flowering plants in biodiversity hotspots. In her work she often combines evolutionary data, such as genetics or phylogenetics, with ecological information, such as functional traits or plant-animal interactions. Currently, her group investigates the effects of megafaunal animal extinctions, such as giant lemurs, elephant birds and gomphothers, on genetic connectivity, diversification and adaptation of megafaunal-fruited plants on Madagascar and in the Neotropics.
Dr Plinio SIST
Director of Forests and Societies Research Unit at Cirad, Montpellier, France
Dr. Plinio Sist is the director of the Research Unit Forests and Societies at Cirad gathering 45 researchers and 30 master and PhD students. He is also the coordinator of the unit “Tropical and subtropical silviculture” of Division 1 at IUFRO. He is a tropical forest ecologist with more than 25 year experience in South America (Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Costa-Rica) and South East Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia). He obtained a PhD in 1989 in tropical Biology of the University of Paris 6. He introduced and tested Reduced-Impact Logging in Indonesia in the early 90’s in East Kalimantan. His main interest is to understand the impact of forest ressource harvesting on the ecology of tropical forests in order to recommend sustainable forest management practices. He has more than 150 publications and conference presentations on this issue.
Dr Guilherme Tavares Nunes
Centro de Estudos Costeiros, Limnológicos e Marinhos (CECLIMAR), UFRGS Litoral, Imbé-RS, Brazil
Biologist from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) with Masters and PhD in Biological Oceanography from the Federal University of Rio Grande (FURG). Interested in the mechanisms that govern the use of space and trophic resources by seabirds and coastal birds. Develops research projects with a wide network of partners and national and international institutions, focused on the study of seabird and shorebird ecology. In parallel, develops extension projects aimed at popularizing science and birdwatching in Brazilian oceanic islands and coastal environments of Rio Grande do Sul. He has published scientific articles in international journals of high impact, but also texts of scientific dissemination in newspapers/magazines aimed at the general public. Currently, he is an Adjunct Professor in the Interdisciplinary Department, North Coast Campus of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Collaborating Professor in the Graduate Programs in Ecology and Animal Biology, both at UFRGS, and Researcher at the Center for Coastal, Limnological and Marine Studies (CECLIMAR / UFRGS).
Pr Hans VERBEECK
Ghent University, Belgium
Hans Verbeeck is a research professor at Ghent University (Belgium). He is leading the research group CAVElab (Computational and Applied Vegetation Ecology; www.cavelab.ugent.be), studying vegetation dynamics and biogeochemical cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. He has a broad interest in all types of terrestrial ecosystems, with a strong focus on the ecology of tropical forests. Process-based vegetation modelling is his core research tool, but the questions arising from the modelling work require dedicated field work activities. These field work activities are focused on improving uncertain process descriptions within vegetation models and on data-poor regions like the Congo Basin. Since he received an ERC starting grant for the project TREECLIMBERS, he developed multiple research activities on the role of lianas in the climate response of tropical forests.