Hi. I’m Erik Kusch, a PhD student of Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity who creates and applies novel statistical methods to big-data.
I aim to understand how global and local processes and patterns in biological systems come about and are reinforced thus generating knowledge about the resilience of the Earth’s ecosystems. My PhD project is under the guidance of Alejandro Ordonez and co-supervised by Roberto Salguero-Gómez.
Projects
A few things I am currently working on or have finished researching (for now).
Causes and Processes of Dryland Vegetation Memory
Throughout this project, I aim to identify underlying causes - biological and abiotic - to the striking patterns of vegetation memory I identified in a previous project.
Bayes Study Group
I have established and am running a group-exercise for learning Bayesian Statistics from the ground up with an assortment of colleagues. This group is run through zoom and open to anyone.
BIOlogical response RATES to current rates of environmental changes
My PhD project is a part of this greater research framework within which my colleagues and I investigate how species compositions and interactions are shaped.
Effects of Biological Extinctions across Scales and Trophic Levels
My PhD project and its working packages.
KrigR - Downloading and Downscaling of ERA5(-Land) data using R
An R package designed for intuitive downloading, aggregating, and statistical downscaling of ERA5(-Land) data.
Vegetation Memory across Global Dryland Regions
Vegetation memory has been proposed as a proxy for ecosystem resilience. Here, I investigate how well this proxy captures processes of vegetation performance.
Publications in review
A couple of publications I have submitted and am awaiting a publication decision on.
Recent Publications
Research I have published and that you can read and digest at your leisure.
Recent Posts
Bioclimatic Variables with the KrigR Package
Bayesian Networks - Part 2
Statistical Rethinking - Chapter 16
Statistical Rethinking - Chapter 15
Conference Talks & Presentations
Stuff I worked on by myself or with others and felt confident enough to put out there in front of people.
Coding Practices in R
Some of my ideas for how to improve coding practices that I presented to the SalGo-Team.
Species Associations Across Scales of Organisation
A presentation of my PhD plans to the SalGo-Team.
KrigR - Downscaling State-of-the-Art Climate Data for Macroecologists
A web-based workshop to introduce the R-Package KrigR which introduces intuitive downloading and downscaling methods for ERA5(-Land) climate reanalysis data to R-users.
Intrinsic vegetation memory as a proxy of engineering resilience may be an oversimplification.
A poster about my recent vegetation memory in global dryland research I presented at ISEC 2020.
