Hei, my name is Lotta and I am from a small village in the Austrian Alps. I got my bachelor´s degree in Biology at the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart (Germany) and my master´s degree in Ecology at the University of Vienna (Austria). Upon my graduation I did a year-long Erasmus+ research internship at the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn in Naples (Italy). Here, I worked on ecological models that integrate past and present data to reveal species´ distributions under future climate scenarios. This project strengthened my main research interests in global change ecology, biogeography and biodiversity research. I am particularly fascinated about patterns of biodiversity at different temporal and spatial scales and how they are affected by global environmental change.
I am very excited to start now as a PhD research fellow at BIO. My PhD is associated with the project “Past Present, and Future of Alpine Biomes Worldwide” led by Suzette Flantua. Our cross-disciplinary group investigates how past geological and biogeographical processes shaped present-day alpine biomes and their diversity. We thereby aim to gain insights for the resilience of alpine biodiversity to future climate change. My role in our project is to analyse global patterns of alpine diversity and the legacy effects of the drivers that determine them.
I look forward to being part of BIO and working together with many great researchers from different fields!