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Editors for Ecology

We aim to review studies that provide new insights into the different types of interactions that shape the distribution and abundance of organisms on Earth, including everything from new natural history observations to genomic analyses conducted on landscape scales (see also “Ecology in the genomics era of a degraded planet”). We also welcome functional analyses of the traits that matter for an organism’s Darwinian fitness. Read the latest research in this subject area.

Senior editors

  1. George H Perry

    Pennsylvania State University, United States

    George Perry received his PhD in 2008 from Arizona State University, and did postdoctoral work at the University of Chicago. In 2011, he began a faculty position at Penn State University, where he is now Associate Professor of Anthropology and Biology, Chair of the Bioinformatics and Genomics Graduate Degree Program, and member of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences. His research interests focus on human evolution, evolutionary ecology, and evolutionary medicine, and how human behavior and biology have affected non-human evolutionary biology. Research methods and theory from anthropology, evolutionary biology, parasitology, and population, comparative, functional, and paleo (ancient DNA) genomics are integrated in this work. He has received the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation, among others.

    Expertise
    Evolutionary Biology
    Ecology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Research focus
    evolutionary biology
    population genomics
    evolutionary ecology
    paleogenomics
    ancient DNA
    human evolution
    Experimental organism
    human
    non-human primates
    parasites
    Competing interests statement
    George Perry has received research support from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Wenner-Gren Foundation, and L.S.B. Leakey Foundation. He is currently an Associate Editor of Evolutionary Anthropology.

  2. Sergio Rasmann

    University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland

    Sergio Rasmann is a plant chemical ecologist who obtained his PhD in 2006 from the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland), during which he discovered that herbivore-damaged maize roots emit volatile signals in the soil that attract predatory nematodes near the site of wounding. After a post‐doc at Cornell University, a research fellowship at the University of Lausanne, and an assistant professorship at the University of California, Irvine, he is now Full Professor at the University of Neuchâtel, head of the Laboratory of Functional Ecology. His current research interests focus on addressing the mechanistic, ecological and evolutionary causes and consequences of chemically mediated interactions between plants and their biotic and abiotic environment. This broad theme is split into studying the effects of climate change on plant-herbivore interaction, improving biological control methods using beneficial microbes, and conservation biology practices. He has been awarded the early career award by the International Society of Chemical Ecology in 2014.

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Plant Biology
    Research focus
    chemical ecology
    functional ecology
    community ecology
    soil science
    Competing interests statement
    Sergio has been receiving continuous funding mainly from the Swiss National Science Foundation, and occasionally from the European Union (Horizon 2020). He is an active member of several scientific commissions at the Swiss National Science Foundation, and at CITES. He is associate editor for Functional ecology, and Frontiers in Plant Science, and has served as Reviewing Editor for eLife.

  3. Meredith C Schuman

    University of Zurich, Switzerland

    Meredith Schuman (Merry) is an Assistant Professor in Spatial Genetics, Departments of Geography and Chemistry, University of Zurich and a member of the Remote Sensing Laboratories and the University Research Priority Program on Global Change and Biodiversity at the University of Zurich. Her background is in the chemical ecology and functional genetics of plant interactions, and plant ecophysiology. She works on projects combining direct analyses of plant tissue, and remote sensing techniques with the aim of developing approaches to assess genetic and chemotypic variation, plasticity, and adaptive potential within plant species, and their interactions in the context of global change. She was previously a Group Leader in the Department of Molecular Ecology at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology (MPICE) in Jena and a Junior Group Leader in the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) on the ecological functions of plant genes.

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Plant Biology
    Research focus
    chemical ecology
    spatial ecology
    plant interactions
    functional genetics
    intraspecific diversity
    Competing interests statement
    Merry's position and her research is currently supported by the NOMIS foundation (grant to Michael Schaepman, University of Zurich, project: Remotely Sensing Ecological Genomics) and the University of Zurich, including the Departments of Geography and Chemistry and the University Research Priority Program on Global Change and Biodiversity in which she is a PI. From November 2020 her work will also be funded by the European Commission Horizon 2020 program (UPSCALE consortium, grant number 861998, co-PI and work package lead).

Reviewing editors

  1. Yuxin Chen

    Xiamen University, China

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Research focus
    community ecology
    forest
    demography
    biodiversity

  2. Barnabas Daru

    Stanford University, United States

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Research focus
    biogeography
    natural history collections
    vascular plants
    phyloregions
    phylogeny

  3. Alok Dhawan

    Centre of Biomedical Research, India

    Expertise
    Medicine
    Ecology
    Research focus
    molecular epidemiology
    DNA damage and repair
    genetic toxicology
    nanomaterial toxicology
    environmental health

  4. Rosalyn Gloag

    University of Sidney, Australia

    Expertise
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Ecology
    Research focus
    invasive species
    population genetics
    brood parasitism
    social parasitism
    eusociality
    Experimental organism
    birds
    bees

  5. Emilia Huerta-Sanchez

    Brown University, United States

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Research focus
    natural selection
    population demography

  6. Nizar Ibrahim

    University of Portsmouth, United States

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Research focus
    vertebrate palaeontology
    morphology anatomy
    dinosaur evolution

  7. Yaroslav Ispolatov

    Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Chile

    Expertise
    Computational and Systems Biology
    Ecology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Physics of Living Systems
    Research focus
    evolution
    diversification
    adaptive dynamics
    ecology
    systems biology
    CRISPR

  8. Youngsung Joo

    Seoul National University, South Korea

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Research focus
    plant-mediated insect interactions
    plant-herbivore interactions
    volatile-mediated interactions
    plant defense
    climate changes
    endophytic herbivores
    Experimental organism
    plants

  9. Ammie K Kalan

    University of Victoria, Canada

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Research focus
    acoustic monitoring
    animal communication
    animal behaviour
    conservation
    primatology

  10. Merijn R Kant

    University of Amsterdam, Netherlands

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Plant Biology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Research focus
    plant defense
    biological control
    adaptation
    co-evolution
    pest formation
    effectors
    susceptibility
    resistance
    defense suppression
    Experimental organism
    insects
    mites
    plants

  11. David Marjanovic

    Museum für Naturkunde, Germany

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Research focus
    vertebrate palaeontology
    morphology

  12. James M McCaw

    The University of Melbourne, Australia

    Expertise
    Epidemiology and Global Health
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Ecology
    Immunology and Inflammation
    Research focus
    mathematical epidemiology
    virus dynamics
    infectious diseases
    mathematical modelling
    pandemics
    influenza
    malaria
    COVID-19

  13. Sara Mitri

    University of Lausanne, Switzerland

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    microbial ecology and evolution
    mathematical modelling
    synthetic ecology
    interspecies interactions

  14. Chima Nwaogu

    University of Cape Town, South Africa

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Research focus
    seasonality
    breeding
    moult
    eco-immunology
    body mass variation

  15. Lauren O'Connell

    Stanford University, United States

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Neuroscience
    Research focus
    behavior
    evolution
    predator-prey interactions
    toxins
    communication
    sensory systems
    Experimental organism
    amphibians
    lizards
    fish

  16. David A Paz-Garcia

    Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas del Noroeste (CIBNOR), Mexico

    Expertise
    Chromosomes and Gene Expression
    Computational and Systems Biology
    Ecology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Plant Biology
    Research focus
    marine life
    coral reefs
    phylogenomics
    population genomics
    morphometrics
    gene expression
    statistics
    coding

  17. Paul Rainey

    Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Germany

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Plant Biology
    Research focus
    adaptive radiation
    evolution of individuality
    evolutionary genetics
    ecological genetics
    emergence of infectious diseases
    forecasting evolution

  18. Bernhard Schmid

    University of Zurich, Switzerland

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Plant Biology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Research focus
    plant ecology
    evolutionary ecology
    biodiversity
    ecosystem functioning
    community ecology
    experimental ecology
    Experimental organism
    seed plants
    grassland
    forest

  19. Wenying Shou

    University College London, United Kingdom

    Expertise
    Computational and Systems Biology
    Ecology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Research focus
    quantitative biology
    mathematical biology
    evolutionary biology
    synthetic biology
    molecular genetics
    evolution of cooperation
    computer simulations
    Experimental organism
    S. cerevisiae

  20. Daniel Y Takahashi

    Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

    Expertise
    Computational and Systems Biology
    Ecology
    Neuroscience
    Physics of Living Systems
    Research focus
    social interaction
    vocal learning
    neurophysiology
    computational modeling
    ontogeny of behavior

  21. Kristin Tessmar-Raible

    University of Vienna, Austria

    Expertise
    Cell Biology
    Developmental Biology
    Ecology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Neuroscience
    Research focus
    chronobiology
    marine
    photobiology
    rhythms
    clocks
    physiology
    Experimental organism
    platynereis
    clunio
    danio
    medakafish
    oryzias

  22. Jenny Tung

    Duke University, United States

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Research focus
    social behaviour
    evolutionary ecology
    evolutionary functional genomics
    hybridization
    Experimental organism
    primates

  23. Yuuki Y Watanabe

    Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI, Japan

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Research focus
    biologging
    behavioral ecology
    marine biology
    Experimental organism
    fish
    seabird
    marine mammal

  24. Justin Yeakel

    University of California, Merced, United States

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Research focus
    theoretical ecology
    population dynamics
    macroevolution
    paleobiology
    complex systems

  25. Min Zhu

    Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Research focus
    paleobiology
    vertebrate paleontology
    evolutionary biology
    systematics
    morphology
    paleobiogeography
    ichthyology
    Experimental organism
    E. primordialis
    G. oneiros
    Q. rostrata