Advisory Board and Editors Biodiversity

Journal Factsheet
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I told my colleagues that PeerJ is a journal where they need to publish if they want their paper to be published quickly and with the strict peer review expected from a good journal.
Sohath Vanegas,
PeerJ Author
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Giuseppe Fenu

Associate Professor in Systematic Botany at the University of Cagliari. My current research interests focus on the study of plant diversity of the Mediterranean systems, the main drivers that determine the distribution patterns and the conservation status of the endemic plants in these environments, as well as interactions, both at a specific and population levels, with environmental factors related to the anthropic presence including the on-going global change.

Noemi Fernandes

Assistant Professor of Bioinformatics and other disciplines at the Federal University of Itajuba, Brazil. She conducts research in the field of diversity and evolution of unicellular eukaryotes, with a special focus on the phylum Ciliophora. She is experienced in DNA metabarcoding analysis, molecular clock and protist phylogenomics.

Scott Ferrenberg

I am a terrestrial population, community, and ecosystem ecologist interested in understanding how global change pressures influence biotic populations and community states, and how potential shifts in trait and/or species distributions will affect ecological functioning in arid, semiarid, and subalpine ecosystems. I am currently an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at New Mexico State University where I am the PI of the Global Change Ecology Lab (GCEL).

Deb Finn

Stream Ecologist, wandering scholar, currently Prometeo Fellow of the Secretariat for Higher Education, Science, Technology, and Innovation of the Republic of Ecuador. Formerly Marie Curie International Incoming Fellow, University of Birmingham. Board of Directors, Freshwaters Illustrated. Newsletter editor and Hynes Award winner, Society for Freshwater Science.

M. Pilar Francino

M. P. Francino studied Biology at the National University of Mexico and obtained her Ph.D. at the University of Rochester (New York), working on analyses of rates and patterns of DNA sequence evolution in bacteria and primates. She conducted postdoctoral research in bacterial genetics as an EMBO Fellow at the University of Paris. After that, she served as a Research Scientist at the DOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI) for five years, and was Head of the JGI Evolutionary Genomics Program from 2007 to 2009. Since 2009, she is a Senior Scientist at the Genomics and Health Department of FISABIO-Public Health in Valencia, and has been Head of the Department since 2012. Her current research focuses on the metagenomic analysis of human microbiome communities, in particular on understanding the development of the gut microbiota in infants. Work in her group analyzes the taxonomic composition, coding capabilities and gene expression patterns of the gut microbial community at different stages during infancy, as well as the relationships of these features with infant health. In addition, she is also interested in understanding the forces that shape the structure, organization and evolution of genomes. In previous and current work, she has addressed genome and molecular evolution subjects at different scales, ranging from the impact of mutational biases during DNA sequence evolution, to the evolution of new genes and their regulatory regions and the coevolution of different genomic traits.

Patricia Gandini

Professor of Biological Consevation and Management and Design of protected Áreas, Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral, investigator of National Council of Scientific and Technical Research, Past President of Argentine National Parks. Recipent of the 2010 Award Leaders for the Living Planet

Sònia Garcia

My research is mainly directed towards understanding processes involved in plant genome evolution and organisation, from the sequence to the whole genome. Three areas are highlighted: the study of the evolution of genome size; the structure, organisation and function of ribosomal RNA genes (rDNA) and telomere repeats, and the role of polyploidy and transposable elements (TE) in genome evolution. I have advanced these fields by: (1) the discovery of a novel arrangement of rDNA, first in several Asteraceae and later extended to gymnosperms, (2) the discovery of new telomere sequences in several organisms and (3) the launch and updating of four genomic databases, one compiling Asteraceae genome sizes; the next, on the number and distribution of rDNA sites in plant chromosomes; the following on the distribution of B chromosomes across biodiversity, and the most recent one on plant sex chromosomes. I am the PI of a project on the role of ribosomal DNA in evolution, including the analyses of the repeatome. I was recently involved in a project to examine the role of TE in the evolution of non-model plants and I also participate in a project on the origin and varieties of Cannabis. Beyond this, last year I started an initiative in my Institute to stress the role of women in science, by a series of conferences explaining the biographies and discoveries of relevant scientists in the fields of botany, genetics and genomics, both to the specialised and general public.

Sjirk Geerts

I am fascinated by the complex interactions among ecosystem entities. Human impacts on ecosystems call for a better understanding of the resilience of ecosystem functions in the face of rapid environmental changes. The study of spatial interactions between plants and animals, in particularly the study of pollination, is therefore important. Bird pollination in particular is one of my main interests.

One of the main impacts on ecosystems in Cape Fynbos are alien invasive plant species. Other than trying to understand the ecological processes enabling alien species to invade, I am also focused on the best management of emerging alien invasive plant species.

Lastly, I also have a keen interest in restoration, plant demography and the ecological interaction between termites, aardwolf and herbivores.

Mark O. Gessner

Mark O. Gessner is an aquatic ecosystem ecologist with a particular interest in the functioning and biodiversity of lakes, streams and wetlands and how global environmental change affects these ecosystems. Currently, he holds a professorship in Applied Aquatic Science at the Berlin Institute of Technology (TU Berlin) and serves as department head at Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), a research institute in Germany that is devoted to providing the fundamental knowledge needed to meet the challenges faced by inland waters and human societies in a rapidly changing world. Previous legs on his career path include the University of Kiel in Germany; Eawag/ETH Zurich in Switzerland; a research lab of the CNRS in France, where he completed his doctoral studies; Trent University in Ontario, Canada, as exchange student; and Stanford University in California, USA, and the Australian Rivers Institute (ARI) at Griffith University as a sabbatical visitor.

Patricia A. Gowaty

Distinguished Prof. of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and Inst. of the Environment and Sustainability, UCLA; Research Assoc, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Fellow of the AAAS, the Animal Behavior Society, the American Ornithologists' Union, the Soc.of Biology. Previous President of the Animal Behavior Society & Vice-President of the American Ornithologists’ Union. Awards include 3 NIH career awards, the Quest Award from the Animal Behavior Society & the Lamar Dodd Award.

Philippe Grandcolas

Head of the Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité at the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle of Paris (UMR 7205 CNRS, MNHN, UPMC, EPHE); Member of the Scientific Council, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle; Past Scientific Secretary, National Comittee CNRS; Past President, Willi Hennig Society; Associate Editor of Cladistics, Bionomina

Tamar Guy-Haim

My main research interests are marine biodiversity and biogeography, with particular emphasis on species interactions, bioinvasions, and climate change. I use multidisciplinary approaches and combine experimental ecology, physiology, biogeochemistry, phylogeny, and modeling.