Hi!
My name is Mikael Pontarp and many of you know me as the previous PhD-student of Per, Jörgen, and Anders. I have spent the last five years away from Lund as a Postdoc. in Zurich Switzerland and I am now moving back, continuing my research at the unit of Evolutionary Ecology. My interests are broad, including the fundamental processes of ecology, evolution and biogeographical processes that underpin community and ecosystem structure and dynamics. Most of my research is theoretical in nature and I use eco-evolutionary simulation models to study how assembly processes across spatiotemporal scales affect community patterns. By exploring such models, I hope to formulate theory that facilitates our understanding of the generation and maintenance of species richness, functional trait diversity, and phylogenetic patterns. In addition, I hope to bridge part of the gap between theoretical and empirical research using Bayesian approaches (e.g. Approximate Bayesian Computation) that aim to fit complex simulation models and various community data.
I am currently in the start-up phase of two projects financed by The Swedish research council (VR) and The research council FORMAS, respectively. Both projects span my general interests listed above and the VR projects focus on linking assembly processes and phylobetadiversity patterns along environmental gradients in general and community patterns in Andean hummingbirds in particular. The FORMAS project is more applied with a focus on improving our understanding and prediction of observed pest-predator dynamics in agricultural landscapes.
I am looking forward to meeting all of you and discuss all things eco-evo, and more.
Christer Löfstedt
Welcome back! I think you identified a niche that asks to be occupied!