pstaniczenko
Main profile
- Caravelli, F. & Staniczenko, P.P.A. 2016
Bounds on transient instability for complex ecosystems
PLOS ONE, 11, 6 - Staniczenko, P.P.A., Smith, M.J. & Allesina, S. 2014
Selecting food web models using normalized maximum likelihood
Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 5, 551–562 - Staniczenko, P.P.A., Kopp, J.C. & Allesina, S. 2013
The ghost of nestedness in ecological networks
Nature Communications, 4, 1931 - Staniczenko, P.P.A., Lewis, O.T., Jones, N.S. & Reed-Tsochas, F. 2010
Structural dynamics and robustness of food webs
Ecology Letters, 13, 891–899 - 2013–2015 Research Fellow. Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research, University College London.
- 2013–2014 Consultant. Urban Pollinators Project, School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol.
- 2011–2013 Postdoctoral Researcher. Allesina Lab, Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago.
- 2007–2010 DPhil Condensed Matter Physics, University of Oxford (Wolfson College). Department of Physics and Cabdyn Complexity Centre at Saïd Business School.
- 2003–2007 MPhys Undergraduate Masters in Physics, First Class Honours, University of Oxford (St. Anne's College).
Predicting the effects of environmental change on natural ecosystems
My work examines the effect of anthropogenic change on ecological networks representing interactions between species in a community. I aim to develop new techniques for analysing large and complex multispecies data. By bridging theory and empirical work, I hope to advance our understanding of community ecology and improve our ability to predict the effects of environmental change on natural ecosystems.
At SESYNC, I am developing a new mathematical and computational framework that links species distribution models and weighted interaction network models using preference matrices to represent ecological mechanisms.
Society relies on ecosystem services arising from biotic interactions such as crop pollination by insects and biological pest control by natural predators. Urbanisation, climate change and deforestation are rapidly decreasing the provision of these ecosystem services, but their specific effects are difficult to trace due to multiple feedbacks within complex socio-environmental systems. Decision-makers need better, actionable models to inform policies involving ecosystem services. One hurdle is that two potentially useful types of model are being developed in isolation from one another. Species distribution models are being developed by biogeographers to predict how changes in environmental variables affect the geographical distribution of individual species. Weighted interaction network models are being developed by community ecologists to predict how changes in the behaviour of multiple species following habitat modification affect interaction patterns and resulting ecosystem services. When combined, these two types of model will directly relate human-driven environmental changes to the provision of ecosystem services.
Selected publications
Previous positions
Education
Cohort: 2016
| Resources | |
|---|---|
| A systems approach reveals urban pollinator hotspots and conservation opportunities |
Jan 14, 2019 Article published in Nature Ecology and Evolution. |
| Negative biotic interactions drive predictions of distributions for species from a grassland community |
Nov 14, 2018 Article published in Biology Letters. |
| Predicting the effect of habitat modification on networks of interacting species |
Oct 06, 2017 Article published in Nature Communications. |
| Invasion speeds in microbial systems with toxin production and quorum sensing |
May 01, 2017 Article published in Journal of Theoretical Biology. |
| Linking macroecology and community ecology: refining predictions of species distributions using biotic interaction networks |
Apr 21, 2017 Article published in Ecology Letters. |
| Bounds on Transient Instability for Complex Ecosystems |
Jun 21, 2016 Article published in PLoS ONE. |