Severin Irl
Biosketch:
Severin Irl is Professor of Biogeography and Biodiversity at the Institute of Physical Geography at the Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany. He is a biogeographer and ecologist with a general interest in ecological and evolutionary processes, predominantly working on oceanic islands, habitat islands and other insular systems. His main interests encompass how different aspects of biodiversity, particularly endemism, are generated in space and time and how human activities threaten the unique insular biodiversity via habitat destruction, introduction of non-native species and climate change. Recently he has been part of developments in the new sub-disciplines of functional island biogeography and habitat island biogeography. Currently, he's the secretary of the newly established Society of Islands Biology. In case you're in need of travel suggestions for islands, drop him a note!
Title:
Treasure island in peril? Drivers of insular biodiversity and human-induced threats to islands
Abstract:
Islands contribute disproportionately to global biodiversity. This is particularly due to the high degree of endemism on islands worldwide. It is important to understand what drives biodiversity and endemism on islands, on the one hand, because islands can serve as model systems to understand general processes in biogeography, ecology and evolution and, on the other, because of their particular value for nature conservation. Traditionally, island biogeography has had a strong focus on taxonomic diversity (such as species richness). However, recent developments in island biogeography highlight the need to also address further dimensions of biodiversity, leading to the emergence of functional island biogeography as a new subdiscipline. Due to their limited distribution and unique evolutionary circumstances, endemic species are especially threatened by human influences such as changes in land use, invasive species, and climate change. The second part of this talk will illustrate - using endemic plant species from the Canary Islands as an example - the dangers to which the unique biodiversity on islands is currently exposed and how future environmental changes might affect their distribution and diversityrof.
