Dr. Alexis Synodinos
Contact
Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation
Potsdam University
Am Mühlenberg 3
14476 Potsdam (Golm)
Germany
Phone: +49 331 977 6263
E-mail: synodinouuni-potsdampde
Building 60, 3.floor, room 3.16
Current Employment:
Postdoc in the project Bridging in Biodiversity Science (BIBS) in Work Package 1 ('ScienceLabs'). I am a modelling plant diversity in fragmented landscapes. My work is focused on understanding how combination of land use, climate change, and plant traits affect the occurrence of rapid diversity transitions.
Research Interests:
- Conceptual (mathematical) models of ecosystem processes
- Bistable dynamics, ecosystem resilience, and regime shifts (transitions)
- Early warning signals
- Facilitation, competition, disturbance, and woody encroachment in savannas
Education:
- PhD in Plant Ecology (2011-2017, Potsdam University, Germany). Dissertation title: ‘Savanna dynamics under extreme conditions – insights from a mathematical model’.
- MSc in Applied Mathematics with Climate Change impacts modelling, (2009-2010, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, U.K.)
- BSc in Mathematics (2004-2007, University of Warwick, U.K.)
Publications:
Ongoing:
Synodinos AD, Jeltsch F, Blaum N, Tietjen B. Forecasting and preventing woody encroachment in savannas. Ecography. (in review)
Completed:
Synodinos AD, Eldridge D, Geißler K, Jeltsch F, Lohmann D, Midgley G & Blaum N (2018). Remotely sensed canopy height reveals three pantropical ecosystem states: comment. Ecology. DOI: 10.1002/ecy.1997
Synodinos AD, Tietjen B, Lohmann D, Jeltsch F (2018) The impact of inter-annual rainfall variability on African savannas changes with mean rainfall. Journal of Theoretical Biology.
Synodinos AD, Eldridge D, Geissler K, Jeltsch J, Lohmann D, Midgley G, Blaum N. Remotely sensed canopy height reveals three pantropical ecosystem states: a comment. Ecology. (accepted)
Synodinos AD, Tietjen B, Jeltsch F (2015) Facilitation in drylands: Modeling a neglected driver of savanna dynamics. Ecological Modelling 304:11–21. doi: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2015.02.015
Sherratt JA, Synodinos AD (2012) Vegetation patterns and desertification waves in semi-arid environments: Mathematical models based on local facilitation in plants. Discrete and Continuous Dynamical Systems - Series B 17: 2815-2827. doi: 10.3934/dcdsb.2012.17.2815
Link to project website:
http://www.bbib.org/bibs-project.html
Previous projects:
