Profile
Abstract
Email: david.schellenberger.costa(at)uni-leipzig.de
During my PhD, I sampled plant functional traits at Mount Kilimanjaro in East Africa. I explored the realized niches of plants and how these can be predicted by their functional traits. Later on, I worked as a PostDoc in a project repeating historic vegetation surveys in forests of Central Germany. Here, I was interested in whether climate, land-use, or deposition of pollutants can explain long-term changes in vegetation composition.
Currently, I am employed as a PostDoc at the German Centre of Integrative Biodiversity Research (idiv) and the University of Leipzig in the PlantHub project, which aims at integrating the wealth of biodiversity data gathered by various individual researchers and research groups based at idiv and collaborating institutions. Our goal is to create a platform that fosters the use and exchange of biodiversity data among researchers as well as interested non-professionals alike.
Professional career
- since 03/2021
PostDoc at the German Centre of Integrative Biodiversity Research (idiv) and the University of Leipzig in the PlantHub project; combination and visualization of biodiversity data from idiv, the University of Leipzig and partner institutions in Central Germany - 11/2017 - 02/2021
PostDoc at Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena in the project StickstoffBW; Research on the influence of different environmental factors with a focus on nitrogen deposition on vegetation change in near-natural forests in Germany - 05/2016 - 09/2016
Research assistant at the Carl-von-Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Landscape Ecology Group "KiLi SP5 - Plant functional traits translated into vegetation dynamics" - 10/2010 - 11/2012
PhD thesis plant trait data collection along elevation and land-use gradients on Kilimanjaro;Location: Tanzania, Kilimanjaro region;Project: Kilimanjaro ecosystems under global change - 10/2009 - 01/2010
Guinea baboon habituation and field station management and buildup;Location: Senegal, Parc Nacional de Niokolo Koba;Project: Guinea baboon behavior and ecology - 04/2007 - 01/2008
Data collection on bromeliad distributions;Location: Brazil, Reserva Emílio Fiorentino Battistella;Project: Diplom thesis - 10/2006 - 12/2006
Plant specimen sampling and identification, buildup of a botanical garden;Location: Mexico, Selva Lacandona;Project: Lacandonia schismatica: recurso genético estratégico para México y conservación de la selva lacandona - 02/2006 - 04/2006
Phenology and collection of herbar specimens;Location: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Salonga National Park;Project: The Cuvette Centrale as reservoir of medicinal plants - 09/2004 - 03/2005
Gibbon predation pressure and behavioral long-term observation;Location: Thailand, Khao Yai National Park;Project: White-handed gibbons (Hylobates lar) behavior and ecology project
Education
- 07/2010 - 04/2016
PhD student at the Carl-von-Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Landscape Ecology Group "KiLi SP5 - Plant functional traits translated into vegetation dynamics" - 04/2008 - 06/2010
Bachelor course in Mathematics at the University of Leipzig with emphasis on algebra and probability theorydegree "Magisternebenfach" - 10/2002 - 03/2008
Master's course in Biology at the University of Leipzig with emphasis on tropical ecology, plant systematics, animal behavior and virology, degree "Diplom", thesis "On the influence of altitude, water availability and succession on the diversity of Bromeliaceae in the Mata Atlantica, Santa Catarina, Brazil"