Advisory Board and Editors Ecology
Michael S. Singer
Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies at Wesleyan University. Research focus on the role of tri-trophic interactions in evolutionary, community, and food web ecology. Additional specific expertise in plant-insect interactions and Lepidoptera.
Devraj Singh
I am an Biology Assistant Professor at University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky. My current research interest involves investigating neural, genetic and epigenetic mechanism regulating latitudinal cline in critical photoperiodic response, daily clock under different life-history states, and circannual clock properties of geographically distinct dark-eyed junco populations in North America.
Amy NS Siuda
I am a marine ecologist and biological oceanographer. My research interests span marine plankton ecology from organismal to population and community levels. Plankton form the foundations of marine food webs. Complex interactions exist among plankton as well as between plankton and the physical/chemical environment. To understand these patterns and processes, my research team employs experimental (e.g., controlled bottle experiments), observational (e.g., net tow sampling) and molecular approaches in data collection. Current projects include: distribution and diversity of Sargassum and its associated community; and plankton-microplastic interactions. I am also passionate about decreasing accumulation of plastic marine debris. Through the Reduce Single-Use Project, we raise awareness of the plastic marine debris problem and encourage reduction of single-use plastic consumption on campus, in St. Petersburg, and across Florida.
Cindy J Smith
Professor of Environmental Microbiology, Infrastructure and Environment, University of Glasgow. Royal Academy of Engineering-Scottish Water Research Chair Fellow on Biofiltration by Biological Design 2018-2023. 2012-2017 Science Foundation Ireland Starting Investigator and Lecturer National University of Ireland, Galway. 2010-2011 University Fellow, National University of Ireland, Galway. 2003-2010 postdoctoral researcher and research co-investigator at the University of Essex and then the University of Sheffield (Molecular ecology of the nitrogen cycle in temperate and tropical estuaries). PhD in Environmental Microbiology and a BSc Environmental Biology, University College Dublin, Ireland.
Mark M Smits
Lector (lecturer) at HAS University of Applied Sciences in the fields of biology, soil science and data analysis. Previously worked as postdoc at Hasselt University, Lund University and University of Sheffield. PhD in soil science and geology at Wageningen University.
Mar Sobral
Spanish Evolutionary Ecologist. Formerly at Stanford (US) and CNRS (France). Now at USC (Spain).
My research looks at the evolutionary ecology of plant-animal interactions and the impact of global change on biodiversity, particularly regarding ecosystem functions and services such as carbon storage.
Isabel Sousa Pinto
Professor at the University of Porto and researcher at Ciimar: Centre for Marine and Environmental Research. She has a PhD in seaweed ecology, ecophysiology and cultivation from the University of California Santa Barbara. Her main research is in biodiversity and ecology of benthic communities and the biology, cultivation and use of seaweeds and she is the Head of the Laboratory of Coastal Biodiversity. She is also member of the Steering/Executive Committees of several international and European programs as: EPBRS - European Platform for Biodiversity Research Strategy, MABEFF+ – European Institute for the study of Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning, MARS - European Network of Marine Research Institutes and Stations, EMBOS - Development and implementation of a pan-European Marine Biodiversity Observatory System, and co-chair of the Working group on Marine Ecosystem Change from GEO BON – Biodiversity Observation Network and in the Portuguese delegation to the UN Convention for Biological Diversity
Johannie M. Spaan
Dr. Johannie Spaan is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific Northwest (Western University of Health Sciences). Her research interests focus on stress physiology, disease ecology, eco-immunology and parasitology.
More specifically, Dr. Spaan's research within the Steinauer lab is focused on a neglected tropical disease, Schistosomiasis, a helminth infection that affects over 200 million people. Research carried out within the lab focuses on uncovering potential mechanisms that can be manipulated to break the life cycle of this pathogen in order to reduce or eliminate schistosome transmission to humans.
In addition to this, Dr. Spaan is also involved in a project investigating the effect of schistosome infections in a mouse model system and the links among parasite infection, behavioral and cognitive changes, microbiome alteration, and systemic inflammation.
Valeria Spagnuolo
Valeria Spagnuolo is Associate Professor in Botany at the Department of Biology at the Federico II University of Naples. She obtained a Ph.D. in molecular systematics (plants) and the scientific qualification to Full Professor 05/A1 (Botany) during the ASN 2018.
Dr. Spagnuolo was involved in several research projects, with a focus on biomonitoring and phytoremediation, within her task/unit and in international teams (the most recent ones: EU Project FP7- ENV.2011.3.1.9-1 Mossclone (2012-15); LIFE11 ENV/IT/275 Ecoremed (2012-2017); PON 03PE_00107. Biopolis (2013-2017).
Dr. Spagnuolo's expertise includes genetic variation in natural populations of mosses along environmental gradients; biomonitoring of air quality by cryptogams and vascular plants; and phytoremediation of metal-polluted soil. In recent years, her long research experience has been centred on plant response to abiotic stresses and biomonitoring of indoor air pollution.
She is involved in editorial activities, as a reviewer for international journals (e.g. Environmental Pollution, Frontiers in Plant Science), as a guest editor in Atmosphere and Plant Journals, and as an editor of the latest Italian edition of Raven (Zanichelli).
Dr. Spagnuolo has published over 60 publications (Scopus ID 6602352988), with an h-index 20 and over 1200 citations. She also detects a patent as the inventor of a tool for biomonitoring of air quality (EP 3 076 171 A1).
Matt Sponheimer
Matt does research on the ecology of early hominins and associated fauna in Africa. He has also directed and co-directed several multidisciplinary projects on the ecology of living mammals, both large and small, in South Africa. He is the director of the Nutritional and Isotopic Ecology Lab (NIEL) at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Clara Stefen
PhD in Biology in Bonn, Postdoc in Berkeley, Museum of Paleontology. Currently Curator of Senckenberg Naturhistorische Sammlungen Dresden.
Heidi Steltzer
Environmental scientist, explorer and science storyteller. She researchers how environmental changes affect mountain watersheds and the Arctic system, and their links to human well-being. She is an Associate Professor of Biology, Fort Lewis College. She is on the leadership team for Homeward Bound, an organization developing leadership for women in STEM. Founder of the Colorado Mountain Center. member American Geophysical Union.