Professor Dr. Helmut Hillebrand

Research Focus

I am generally very interested in the mechanisms that constrain and alter biodiversity in a variety of ecosystems. I like to think about the complex nature of biodiversity change and ecological stability. Trained as an experimental ecologist, I have focused more on research syntheses and data analyses in recent years.

Keywords

Ecological stability - Biodiversity  - Ecosystem Functioning - Ecological Stoichiometry

Most Recent Projects

2019-2022 EU Interreg IV Water Quality      

2020-2023 Helmholtz Society Uncertainty Quantification

2020-2023 BELMONT Forum: Marine Research and Innovation for a Sustainable management of Coasts and Oceans [MARISCO]   International research project with 3 Postdocs

2019-2022 DFG Research Unit DynaCom FOR 2716/1 (Hi 848/26-1; 25-1) Spatial community ecology in highly dynamic landscapes: from island biogeography to metaecosystems [DynaCom]

Three selected Key Publications

Hillebrand H, Langenheder S, Lebret K, Lindström E, Östman Ö, Striebel M. (2018) Decomposing multiple dimensions of stability in global change experiments. Ecology Letters 21:21-30.

Hillebrand H, Blasius B, Borer ET, Chase JM, Downing JA, Eriksson BK, et al. (2018) Biodiversity change is uncoupled from species richness trends: consequences for conservation and monitoring. J Appl Ecol. 55:169-84.

Hillebrand H, Kunze C. (2020) Meta-analysis on pulse disturbances reveals differences in functional and compositional recovery across ecosystems. Ecology Letters 23: 575-85.

Short CV

2017 - today  Director Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity at the University of Oldenburg, HIFMB

2008 - today  Professor for Plankton Ecology, ICBM, University of Oldenburg

2004 - 2008  Associate professor, University of Cologne

2002 - 2004  Assistant professor, University of Kiel

2001 - 2002  Postdoctoral Fellow, Uppsala University, Sweden

1999 - 2001  Postdoctoral Fellow, Erken Laboratory, Uppsala University, Sw.

1996 - 1999  Dissertation at the University of Kiel, Germany

1988 - 1994  Study of Biology at the University of Oldenburg, Germany