Because of the ALMaSS work, SESS has a large network of people across the EU. This broad network means that the centre has a large number of affiliate organisations, including:
Institute of Environmental Sciences (IES)
Jagiellonian University Krakow, where much of the landscape modelling for EU is done as well as insect modelling, including Osmia bicornis
University of Naples Federico II (UniNA)
Working with SESS to implement human decision making and economics in ALMaSS
Coimbra University (CU)
Developing Portuguese landscapes and species for ALMaSS
The Spanish Institute of Game and Wildlife Research (IREC)
Working with amphibian modelling in ALMaSS
Trinity College Dublin (TCD)
Developing Irish landscape modelling and ALMaSS bumblebee models
Julius Kuhn Institute (JKI)
Developing ALMaSS landscapes for Germany and collaborating on the EcoStack project
Polytechnic Institute of Setubal (IPS)
Developing ALMaSS species models for Portugal and using models for olive grove projects
SESS is led by Chris Topping who is an ecological modeller with 30 years modelling experience and a background in agricultural zoology. He is the instigator for and main developer for ALMaSS. Currently vice-chair of the EFSA PPR panel he works with environmental risk assessment as well as wildlife and human modelling.
Xiaodong is a postdoc with a background in machine learning and agent based modelling with various application areas including ecological modelling, robotics and building research. Currently, he mainly works on development of new species models for ALMaSS and model validation and sensitivity analysis using machine learning methods.
Yoko is an ecologist with broad knowledge about ecology of wild and domesticated plants and insects, in particular pollinators. Her research field covers plant-pollinator interactions, in particular ecology of wild and managed bees, ecological networks, landscape ecology, farmland ecology, historical ecology, conservation and invasion biology, plant reproductive biology and crop production. She works on basic and applied projects with a focus on biodiversity, in particular in agricultural landscapes, and with a focus on the interaction between farmland and natural habitats. This includes functional diversity and the ecosystem services that wild insects provide to crops, in addition to effects of pesticide use on non-target organisms, including both plants and animals.
James is a social scientist. He specialises in researching and applying theoretical concepts in decision-making processes for natural resource management. His particular areas of interest are adaptive management, decision modelling, multi-actor engagement and social learning. He is involved in a two EU H2020 projects, EcoStack and B-Good, the latter as work package leader for the project's multi-actor approach.
Andrey is a biomedical engineer by education (MSc Tel Aviv University, PhD Aarhus University). He has industrial and scientific expertise in system programming, biophysical models, medical imaging and data processing. On the daily basis Andrey works with the expert biologists on the development of the animal models, translating the models into the C++ code, debugging and testing them.
Geoff is a geographer with expertise and 30-years' experience in GIS, remote sensing and image analysis. Many of the projects he has worked upon have related to landscape, land cover and habitats in Denmark and other European countries. He is responsible for the development of the GIS side of DK landscape modelling.
Jordan is our newest member to the Danish core team. He is a computational ecologist from Trinity College Dublin, with an interest in using individual-based models (IBMs) to gain insights into ecological and social systems. As part of the PoshBee project, he is currently working on creating a framework for Bombus sp. modelling within the ALMaSS framework. He will then parameterise the first ALMaSS Bombus sp. individual-based model for Bombus terrestris which will be used to assess the risks associated with different farming practices, as well as gaining insights into bumblebee ecology. Jordan is also working on the creation of spatial input data for Ireland to go into ALMaSS. Jordan has used IBMs while at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and the University of Leeds, to explore habitat fragmentation on biodiversity. This research included species habitat preference and coexistence conducting spatial analysis and developing a weighted version of a metric of habitat association, the phi coefficient of association, and testing this looking at carabid habitat association.
Jordan worked on remote sensing using LiDAR and hyperspectral imagery to explore the māmane (Sophora chrysophylla)/naio (Myoporum sandwicense) cloud forest of the Big Island of Hawai‘i, to explore the reasons for the decline of the endangered Hawaiian bird species Palila (Loxioides bailleui) while completing a Masters and lecturing at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.
During his time at Forest Research, the research agency of the British Forestry Commission, as a spatial landscape ecologist, Jordan worked with local councils and forest districts across Scotland and Northern England integrating habitat and people networks into planning. He created decision support tools taking into consideration reaching targets for biodiversity, people and hydrological planning. Jordan also collaborated with national parks, Scottish Natural Heritage and Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), including work looking at the impacts of forestry on heathland birds.
Luna is MSc in Biology, and has expertise in assisting administration and coordination of SESS-involved EU-projects, of project meetings and workshops, and communication with partners and stakeholders. She also assists with ALMaSS updates related to crop management.
Natasha has a BSc in Anthropology and MSc in Human Security from Aarhus University. She is conducting interviews and participant workshops, and assists the SESS team in developing the social science side of the centre. She is mainly involved in our Organic+ project, collaborating with James.
Peet has a MSc in Biology from Aarhus University. He supports the SESS team regarding coordination and desk research on pollinators, pesticides and risk assessment, as well as species modelling by searching and providing information on species' biological parameters needed to model species' behaviour and specifications.
Astrid has a MSc in Biology from Aarhus University. She supports the SESS team with establishing an overview of the modelling developments, as well as running simulation scenarios for our SESS involved projects.
Martin is an animal ecologist whose recent research largely focuses on the spatial ecology of mammals in human-dominated landscapes, providing insights on how human land use affects wildlife populations. Hereby, his work contributes to building an understanding of how wild mammal populations function in our human-dominated epoch. Moreover, his previous research on beavers focused on understanding how animal behavior and movement affects population dynamics and vice versa.
Morten has extensive experience on carnivores and bat population dynamics, ecotoxicology, road ecology, wildlife conservation and management from consultancies for authorities and applied research. Currently working on the exposure routes and potential effects of anticoagulant rodenticides in carnivores and raptors as well as ALMaSS approaches to rodenticide resistance development and pesticide exposure for bats in agricultural settings.
