Modelling environmental controls on coral species distributions

Jan-Christopher Fischer is based at the School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol in the UK. For his undergrad, he studied Environmental Science at the University Koblenz-Landau and recently completed his Master in Global Change Ecology at the University of Bayreuth (both in Germany).

His current research is based on ecological niche modelling and centers around past and present geological, environmental and climatological controls on coral species distribution in the Coral Triangle. Aiming to identify and explain spatial biodiversity patterns, he uses probabilistic hazard and risk assessment tools. To hindcast late Neogene and Holocene coral taxa distributions, his model results are trained and validated against the largest available dataset of extant coral taxa from the Indo-Pacific. During the project implementation, three secondments are planned at the British Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science in Lowestoft, UK, at the Earth Observatory of Singapore as well as at the Natural History Museum in London, UK.

Publications

Beierkuhnlein C, Fischer J-C (2021). Global Biomes and Ecozones – Conceptual and Spatial Communalities and Discrepancies. Erdkunde, 75 (4), 249-270. doi: 10.3112/erdkunde.2021.04.01

Cervellini M, Di Musciano M, Zannini P, Fattorini S, Jiménez-Alfaro B, Agrillo E, Attorre F, Angelini P, Beierkuhnlein C, Casella L, Field R, Fischer J-C, Genovesi P, Hoffmann S, Irl SDH, Nascimbene J, Rocchini D, Steinbauer M, Vetaas OR, Chiarucci A (2021). Diversity of EU habitat types is correlated with geography more than climate and human pressure. Ecology and Evolution. doi: 10.1002/ece3.8409

Fernandez M, Alves F, Ferreira R, Fischer J-C, Thake P, Nunes N, Caldeira R, Dinis A. (2021) Modelling fine-scale cetaceans’ distributions in oceanic islands: Madeira Archipelago as a case study. Frontiers in Marine Science. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2021.688248

Cervellini M, Zannini P, Di Musciano M, Fattorini S, Jiménez-Alfaro B, Rocchini D, Field R, R. Vetaas O, Irl SD.H, Beierkuhnlein C, Hoffmann S, Fischer J-C, Casella L, Angelini P, Genovesi P, Nascimbene J, Chiarucci A (2020) A grid-based map for the Biogeographical Regions of Europe. Biodiversity Data Journal 8: e53720. doi: 10.3897/BDJ.8.e53720