Baenz Lundsgaard Fish Ecology and Evolution Eawag Seestrasse 79 6047 Kastanienbaum Switzerland

Phone +41 58 765 2202 Fax +41 58 765 2168 Office CA-B07 baenz.lundsgaard@eawag.ch

Bänz Lundsgaard

function 

• PhD Student in the group biodiversity dynamics

research interest

I am generally interested in aquatic ecology, how biodiversity evolves, what allows different species to co-exist and how biodiversity on earth can be maintained.

My particular interests are how ecology and evolution interact. Is ecological speciation frequent? And what ecological mechanisms are generally important driving forces for speciation? On the other hand I would like to understand how contemporary evolution affects the functioning of ecosystem. Are eco-evolutionary feedback loops frequent? And is evolution an important determinant of ecological processes?

research project

I study the adaptive radiation of alpine whitefish in Switzerland. This species flock underwent an amazing adaptive radiation in the last 15`000 years and has speciated into more than 30 species within Switzerland. Unfortunately this diversity is threatened and is disappearing through speciation reversal and also through sequential population expiration. Studying the forces which have generated this diversity, the mechanisms allowing co-existence and the processes involved in the extinction of whitefish species can help to develop a deeper understanding of biodiversity dynamics in general.

Recent empirical evidence suggests that evolutionary processes like adaptation and speciation can have profound effects on the functioning of ecosystems. An important implication of that is that extinction, either in a classical viewpoint or through speciation reversal of young species, can have severe effects on ecosystem processes. Performing mesocosm experiments we can test whether divergent whitefish species have divergent ecosystem effects. If yes, this might indicate that the recent collapse of whitefish species may have contributed to the ecosystem perturbations that many Swiss lakes have experienced in the past decades.

current main projects

• Detecting plastic and genetic effects on feeding efficiency doing experiments with different whitefish species

• Measure ecosystem effects of diversification and adaptation in whitefish using doing mesocosm experiments

• Mate choice experiments
  
  

other projects

Study of parasite load of whitefish along depth gradients in ecologically different lakes, Compare historical whitefish diversity with diversity of today; Ecosystem effects of stickleback

past projects

• Speciation on an environmental gradient in Alpine whitefish

• Dental morphology of African Cichlids

curriculum vitae

March 2009 - PhD at the Zoological Institute, University of Bern / EAWAG Kastanienbaum,

2007 - 2008, Masterstudent in Ecology and Evolution at EAWAG in Kastanienbaum and University of Berne

2004 - 2007, BSc in Zoology, University of Berne