We humans, acting as homo faber, have been altering natural systems in our favour for a long time. Indeed, today the vast majority of natural systems is under some sort of human intervention. Yet, we are still lacking insights into how these ubiquitous alterations affect biological systems in general and genetic diversity in particular. As genetic diversity is the most basal level of biodiversity on earth, there is an urgent need for a more comprehensive view on the matter.

I am an ecologist interested in contributing to a more complete picture. With my PhD project being embedded in the Biodiversity Exploratories, I will assess the influence of management intensity on intraspecific genetic variation in forest ecosystems. As the scientific community is still debating the relationship between different levels of biodiversity, I will further relate intraspecific genetic diversity to species diversity in order to contribute to this discourse constructively.

With the help of molecular analyses, I will unravel the influence of management intensity on 20 species (ten plant and ten arthropod forest species). Integrating many species that differ in their life-history traits will allow me to go beyond single-species analyses and will ensure high generalizability of my inferences. The multi-species approach combined with the wealth of data provided by the Biodiversity Exploratories will allow me to contribute to a clearer picture of the processes that shape genetic and species diversity.

2020-now PhD research at the University of Tübingen, Germany; Preliminary title: “The influence of forest management on genetic diversity of plant and animal species: a cross-species study”

2017-2020 M.Sc. in Biology (specialization in “Evolution and Ecology”) at the University of Tübingen, Germany; Title: “Environmental variation drives population structure in the buff-tailed bumble bee (Bombus terrestris) in Romania and Bulgaria”

2016-2020 Fellow of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes

2020 Annual assembly of the Biodiversity Exploratories 2020 in Wernigerode, Germany

Contribution: Poster

2019 Meeting StEvE (Students in Evolution and Ecology) in Tübingen, Germany

Contribution: Poster