I am broadly interested in understanding anthropogenic changes to ecosystems, spatial ecology and biodiversity conservation.
It’s increasingly accepted that we’ve entered the Anthropocene – a whole new geological era where human activity has significant impacts on our planet’s environment and ecosystems. One of these defining impacts is how we are rearranging patterns of biodiversity at a global scale. Species are increasingly being introduced to new areas through the process of human-mediated dispersal.
During my PhD I am working on the impacts of globalization on biological invasions, focusing on the spread of invasive insects through networks of global trade and travel. Insects are one of the most diverse and widespread animal taxa, and unlike most vertebrates and plants are largely introduced unintentionally.
Using records of border interceptions from eight world regions, I am studying the key traded commodities associated with insect introductions. I am further exploring the links between trade flows and invasion asymmetry across biogeographic regions, and attempting to identify traits linked to transport, establishment success and invasiveness in insects.
Contact Gyda
Office room: 2108.1
Phone: +4121 692 4193
gyda.fenn-moltu[@]unil.ch
CV
| 2019-present | PhD in Cleo Bertelsmeier’s group, University of Lausanne. Impacts of globalization on biological invasions. |
| 2017-2018 | Assistant research officer for Frontier Madagascar. Intern with RSPB Scotland, Forsinard Flows. |
| 2016-2017 | MSc Conservation and Biodiversity, University of Exeter. Dissertation title: the sprainting behaviour and habitat preferences of the Eurasian otter in East Dartmoor National Nature Reserve. |
| 2012-2016 | BSc Biological Sciences, Zoology (hons.), University of Edinburgh. Dissertation title: Sex pheromone response of hybrid male mealybugs. |