Advisory Board and Editors Biodiversity
Diaa Abd El-Moneim
My academic journey began with an MSc in Plant Breeding and Genetics at Suez Canal University, where my research focused on evaluating drought tolerance and disease resistance in wheat, providing a solid foundation in abiotic stress tolerance. This early work fueled my commitment to understanding and addressing plant resilience under stress conditions. Thanks to an Erasmus Mundus scholarship, I pursued my PhD at Complutense University of Madrid, where I investigated the molecular mechanisms underlying aluminum stress tolerance in rye. Notably, I was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship funded by AECID just before defending my thesis—a pivotal achievement that underscored the relevance of my research. This fellowship enabled me to join the National Center of Biotechnology (CNB) in Madrid. I gained expertise in proteomics, gene expression analysis, and molecular tool development to improve plant abiotic stress resilience. These experiences greatly expanded my knowledge of gene regulation and stress physiology and led to high-impact publications in peer-reviewed journals.
Dr. Abd El Moneim’s research encompasses multiple domains, including the study of morphological , physiological, and molecular mechanisms that govern plant responses to stress factors such as salinity, drought , aluminum toxicity, heat, and pathogens. His work in identifying gene families and stress-responsive proteins is complemented by his efforts to apply DNA barcoding and chloroplast genomic assemblies for species identification and development of molecular markers, as well as contributing to taxonomical and evolutionary concepts and identifying transcriptional regulators critical for stress adaptation, with particular emphasis on crops like wheat and wild plants adapted to extreme environments. His methodologies include designing and analyzing field trials , protein analysis, nucleic acid extraction, fingerprinting , GWAS , and the characterization of chloroplast genomes. Dr. Abd El Moneim’s expertise in molecular breeding and genomics focuses on improving abiotic stress tolerance in staple crops, especially for agriculture in developing countries.
Ulysses Paulino Albuquerque
I am interested in understanding all the dimensions and effects of human relations with nature, this is the reason my approach is interdisciplinar. My research interests involve anthropology, evolutionary psychology, cultural evolution, human behavioral ecology, ethnobiology, human ecology, ecology and evolution. I try to understand how we co-evolve with the environment and other species. This is why I explore how the human mind has been evolutionarily shaped to deal with the complexity of the world we live in, as well as all the processes associated with the transmission and storage (memory) of information and strategies for exploration and management of natural resources. I am also interested in the evolution of science and scientometry, and cognitive and cultural evolution in the human species.
Nigel R Andrew
My current research interests focus on the impacts of a rapidly changing climate and environment on insect behaviour, ecology and physiology; insect community structure along environmental gradients; and insect-plant interactions.
I am currently Editor-in-Chief of Austral Ecology. a Fulbright Senior Scholar (2020) and an Australian Research Council College of Experts panel member.
Annemariè Avenant-Oldewage
Prof. Annemariè Avenant-Oldewage is Professor of Zoology at the University of Johannesburg. Her research group uses fish parasites as sentinels for environmental degradation and describes the morphology (including genetic characterisation), ecology and pathology of these fish parasites. They are currently focusing on Diplozoidae, Gyrodactylidae, Nematoda, Copepoda and Branchiura.
Volker Bahn
I am an Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at Wright State University. Previously I was a postdoctoral fellow at McGill University working in Macroecology with Brian McGill. My PhD is from the University of Maine in Wildlife Ecology with advisers Bill Krohn and Raymond O'Connor, and MS (German Diplom) in Conservation Biology from Philipps University Marburg with Harald Plachter and Peter Poschlod, in collaboration with Alan Burger from University of Victoria.
Donald J Baird
Research Scientist in the Water Science & Technology Directorate of Environment and Climate Change Canada, Visiting Research Professor in the Biology Department at the University of New Brunswick and Science Director of the Canadian Rivers Institute.
His primary research interests include the study of watershed patterns in aquatic biodiversity and the influence of landscape stressors on resident biota. Current research concerns freshwater invertebrates, with dragonflies as a particular focus. He has previously worked on a variety of taxa groups from flatworms to fish, and in a variety of habitats from wetlands, lakes and rivers to coastal marine systems.
Francisco Balao
Francisco Balao is associate lecture of Plant Biology at the University of Seville; Past post-doc Marie-Curie fellow in the Department of Plant Systematics at the University of Vienna.
Research interests are mainly focused on how plant genomes interact with its environment across ecological and evolutionary timescale. We try to elucidate the mechanistic bases of the biodiversity through studies of molecular phylogenetics and phylogenomics, phylogeography, cytogenetics, ecophysiology, transcriptomics and reproductive biology.
Esteban Balseiro
Dr. Esteban Balseiro is a CONICET Researcher and Professor of Ecology at University of Comahue, Argentina. His area of interest is plankton ecology, food web interaction and ecological stoichiometry. In addition, to this he also researches stream ecology, ecological stoichiometry of aquatic insects and effect of climate change on freshwater food webs.
Teri Balser
Professor Teri Balser is Dean of Teaching and Learning for the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Curtin University, where she came after having been Dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Florida. She received a Ph.D. in soil microbiology came from the University of California at Berkeley, and she completed postdoctoral research in ecosystem ecology at Stanford University. She is a Fellow of the Soil Science Society of America, and was recently named to the Australian Research Council College of Experts.
Her research centers on understanding microbial community-level ecophysiological responses to stress, disturbance, and change, and the consequences of these for ecosystem functioning. She has worked in countries worldwide studying restoration, carbon sequestration, invasive species, biodiversity, and land use/land cover.
In addition to international recognition as an accomplished research scholar, Dr. Balser is widely known in higher education as a change agent and leader in Science, Technology Engineering and Math education (STEM). She is a co-founder of the Society for Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER), a National Vision and Change Fellow with the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education (PULSE), and was a Fulbright-Nehru Distinguished Chair to India in 2015 to help build capacity at the national level for pedagogically advanced and responsive STEM education.
Paula Baptista
Paula Baptista is currently Auxiliary Professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (IPB), coordinator of the topic "Sustainable Agriculture and Innovative Agro-food Chains" of the “Mountain Research Center” and the convenor of the International Organisation for Biological Control (IOBC), working group ‘Integrated protection of olive crops”. Her main interests are focused on plant-microbe-insect interactions, biological control, plant microbiome and microbial biocontrol agents.
Gianni Barcaccia
Since 2017, Dr. Gianni Barcaccia is a full Professor of Plant Genetics and Genomics at the School of Agriculture Science and Veterinary Medicine of the University of Padova (Italy) and Adjunct Professor of Plant Breeding at the University of Georgia, Athens (USA). Education: M.Sc. degree in Plant Genetics and Breeding in 1991 and Ph.D. title on Plant Reproductive Systems and Population Genetics in 1995 at the University of Perugia, Italy. Tenured Professor of Plant Genetics and Genomics at the University of Padova from 2001 to 2016.
Head of the Department of Agronomy Food Natural resources Animals and Environment (DAFNAE) at the University of Padova for the academic years 2019-2023 (www.dafnae.unipd.it). Vice-director and Coordinator of the Department Commissions for Scientific Research, Technology Transfer and Third Mission from 2014 to 2019.
Head of the Laboratory of Genomics for Plant Breeding, University of Padova. Research expertise on plant reproductive systems and barriers (male-sterility, self-incompatibility and apomixis), use of molecular markers for population genetics and genomics selection, and marker-assisted breeding. Principal investigator of BreedOmics, a laboratory service of genomics for breeding populations and for genetic identification of varieties and genetic authentication of their foodstuffs. Molecular techniques: DNA fingerprinting, SSR genotyping, SNP haplotyping, DNA barcoding, NGS sequencing (www.giannibarcaccia.com).
James Baxter-Gilbert
I am a Assistant Professor at Mount Allison University in Sackville, NB, Canada, where I teach a variety of biology and science communication courses. The central core of my research examines how anthropogenic landscapes and actions impact wildlife. Commonly my research examines how phenotypic change, triggered by urbanisation or biological invasion, may allow reptiles and amphibians the ability to meet the challenges of a human-dominated world.
I completed my BSc (Biology), GDip (Science Communication), and MSc (Biology) at Laurentian University. My MSc research examined: (1) the effectiveness of mitigation structures at reducing reptile road mortality while maintaining population connectivity and (2) developing techniques for evaluating chronic stress in reptiles relating to roads and traffic. I completed my PhD at Macquarie University, which examined how Australian Water Dragons were responding to anthropogenic habitats through urban-derived divergent phenotypes; testing behavioural, morphological, and physiology traits between urbanise and natural-living populations. I then when on to conduct postdoctoral research at Stellenbosch University in the Centre for Invasion Biology examining how biological invasion were impacting the behavioural, morphological, and physiology traits of Guttural Toads as they transition from native to invasive, and urban to natural habitats. My research now examine the interplay between urban evolutionary ecology and invasion science, using herpetofauna as a model system.