Prof. Dr. Damaris Zurell
Research interests
I am a geoecologist and macroecologist with a strong interest in biodiversity dynamics and the cross-scale processes driving these. My research typically deals with modelling and data analyses to understand the factors limiting species niches and ranges, and to predict how species and communities will respond to ongoing global change. Thereby, my focus lies on terrestrial ecosystems and most of my work has centred around birds and plants, although I can’t pretend that I am an expert on any of these groups.
Links
Personal website: https://damariszurell.github.io/
Social Media: Bluesky, Twitter
Scholarly profiles: ORCID, Google Scholar, ResearchGate
Prof. Dr. Damaris Zurell
Campus Maulbeerallee
University of Potsdam
Ecology/Macroecology
Maulbeerallee 3, Building 3, Room 0.12
14469 Potsdam
Education
- 2011 – PhD in Geoecology, University of Potsdam, Inst. of Earth and Environmental Sciences
- 2007 – Diplom (M.Sc.) in Geoecology, University of Potsdam, Inst. of Geoecology
Academic career
- since 2023 – Full professor of Ecology/Macroecology, University of Potsdam
- 2020 - 2023 – Associate professor of Ecology/Macroecology (tenure track), University of Potsdam
- 2018 - 2020 – Junior research group leader (DFG Emmy Noether programme), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Geography Department
- 2016 - 2018 – Scientific staff member, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Dept. Landscape Dynamics
- 2014 - 2016 – Postdoc, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Dept. Landscape Dynamics
- 2011 - 2014 – PostDoc, University of Potsdam, Inst. for Biochemistry and Biology
- 2011 – PhD in Geoecology, University of Potsdam, Inst. of Earth and Environmental Sciences
- 2007 – Diplom (M.Sc.) in Geoecology, University of Potsdam, Inst. of Geoecology
Professional services
- Co-lead GEOBON working group on biodiversity modelling EcoCode (since 2022)
- Expert panel “Abiotic effects on biodiversity”, National Monitoring Centre Biodiversity, Germany (since 2021)
- Deputy Editor-in-Chief Journal of Biogeography (2021-2023)
- Subject/Associate journal editor: Phil Trans B (Special Issue editor, 2022-2023), Ecography (2019-2022), Oikos (2018-2021), Diversity and Distributions (2016-2019), Journal of Biogeography (Special Issue editor, 2019)
- Recommender for PCI Ecology (since 2018)
- Commission member IUCN SSC Climate Change Specialist Group (since 2017)
Projects
Projects as main applicant
- 2023-2026 – DFG Individual Project Grant. “ DEBTs - Detecting and attributing biodiversity trends – a process-explicit modelling framework for identifying drivers of past and future population and community dynamics”.
- 2023-2026 – DFG Individual Project Grant. “ NichePac - Invaders on the move – niche and spread dynamics of introduced alien plants in the Pacific”.
- 2019-2020 – DAAD Programmes for project-related personal exchange. “RangeDyna - Moving from pattern towards process for improved forecasts of species range dynamics”. Exchange with Univ. Melbourne, Australia.
- 2018-2023 – DFG Emmy Noether junior research group, “BIOPIC – Disentangling the effects of demography, dispersal and biotic interactions in population and community response to global change”
- 2016-2019 – SNF Ambizione Fellowship, “SCODA – Scaling from individual interactions to community dynamics in avian assemblages”
- 2014-2016 – EU-FP7 Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship (IEF), “MATES – Understanding and predicting multispecies assemblages and interactions in space and time”
- 2014 – University of Potsdam Individual Postdoc Grant “Bridge Programme”
- 2007-2010 – PhD Scholarship by the Potsdam Graduate School on Ecological Modelling UPGradE
Projects as co-applicant
- 2024-2027 – HORIZON-CL6-2023-BIODIV-01. “ZOE - Zoonoses Emergence across Degraded and Restored Forest Ecosystems”. (Damaris is PI)
- 2023-2026 – HORIZON-EUSPA-2021-SPACE. “ BirdWatch - A Copernicus-based service for the improvement of habitat suitability of farmland birds via satellite-enabled monitoring, evaluation and optimisation of CAP greening measures”. (Damaris is PI)
- 2022-2024 – ARC Discovery project (Univ. Melbourne). “Nature futures - Mapping pathways to prosperity for people and nature”. (Damaris is partner investigator)
- 2022-2025 – Leibniz Collaborative Excellence (MfN / HU Berlin). "BeyondSpecies - Predicting biodiversity change by integrating genetic diversity into ecological niche models". (Damaris is Co-PI and work package leader)
- 2020-2022 – Interdisciplinary project funded by Swiss Data Science Center SDSC, “COMECO - Combining machine learning, ecological modelling and plant morphological characteristics to develop a tool for identifying plants of Switzerland” (Damaris is co-PI)
- 2018-2020 – Interdisciplinary project funded by Swiss Data Science Center SDSC, “SPEEDMIND - Improving species biodiversity analyses and citizen science feedback through mining data” (Damaris is co-PI and work package leader)