Erik Kusch
(+45) 60 90 60 12 | erik@i-solution.de | 0000-0002-4984-7646 | www.erikkusch.com | ErikKusch | KuschErik | Kusch Erik
Research Profile
I am a macroecologist specialised in remote sensing applications and spatio-temporal analyses. I use quantitative tools to research
ecosystem resilience, vegetation dynamics, and patterns of landscape-scale biodiversity to understand past, present, and future
trajectories of natural ecosystems. Current work includes identification of species-interaction networks, soware development for
climate data retrieval and aggregation, and propagation of uncertainty of climatic data into biological analyses.
Education
PhD in Biology; Specialisation on Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity 01/2020 - PRESENT
     
Primary Advisor: Alejandro Ordonez (AU)
External Supervision: Roberto Salguero-Gómez (OX)
Contents: Climate data practices in biological research
Species interaction inference and network modelling
Species extinction and extinction cascade simulations
M.Sc. in Biology; Specialisation on Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution 08/2017 - 08/2019
          
Primary Advisor: Alistair Seddon (UiB)
External Supervision: Richard Davy (Nansen)
Thesis: Inferring Vegetation Memory from Remote Sensing Data and identifying Causal Links to Plant Function
B.Sc. in Biology 10/2013 - 07/2017
       
Primary Advisor: Alistair Seddon (UiB)
Secondary Supervision: Klaus Reinhardt (TUD)
Thesis: Remote Sensing And Predicting Shis In Biome Distribution And Resilience Using NDVI Data
Specialised Training
7th Edition Species Distribution Modelling Course Évora, Portugal
     26/04/2021 - 02/05/2021
An Introduction to Bayesian Statistics Glasgow, Scotland
   06/04/2021 - 16/04/2021
Modelling Challenges for Mountain Ecosystems Hamburg, Germany
   23/02/2020 - 28/02/2020
Plant Functional Traits Course 3 Wayquecha Biological Station, Peru
        08/03/2018 - 24/03/2018
Bayesian Modelling Summer School Lygra, Norway
      25/10/2017 - 29/10/2017
Experience
Research Station Co-Manager Scoraig, Scotland
       06/2019 - PRESENT
Research Fellow Bergen, Norway
         09/2019 - 12/2019
National Park Ranger & Environmental Education Guide Saxony, Germany
    04/2016 - 06/2016
Research and Teaching Assistant
      
     
       
08/2017 - 08/2019; 03/2017 - 04/2017
07/2018
05/2017 - 07/2017
      
Teaching & Supervision Activity
Author & Lecturer: AU Bayes Study Group Personal Course Web Page
  Oicial Course Web Page
Author & Lecturer: Excursions into Biostatistics Course Web Page
  GitHub Repository
Author & Lecturer: An Introduction to Biostatistics Using R Course Web Page
  GitHub Repository
Author Course Web Page
       Aarhus University
Teaching Assistant Aarhus University
 
   
  
22/03/2021 - 14/05/2021
03/09/2020 - 18/12/2020
27/10/2020 - 18/12/2020
Instructor & Advisor
      
         
03/02/2021 - 05/05/2021
08/2017 - 07/2018
Extracurricular Activity
Group Member
     
     
     
     
10/03/2021 - PRESENT
10/03/2021 - PRESENT
09/2018 - 12/2019
10/2017 - 12/2019
Elected Member: Students Council of Biology Studies at the TUD Dresden, Germany
    10/2013 - 10/2015
Honours & Grants & Awards
 
 Scholarship for Academically Excellent Students,     Aarhus, Denmark
 Funding for Particularly Talented Students,    Bergen, Norway
 Fast-Track-Initiative Funding,   Bergen, Norway
 Project Grant,    Bergen, Norway
 Scholarship,         Bonn, Germany

 Best Poster: Student and Early Career Researcher,      Salzburg, Austria
 Modeller’s Choice Poster Award,      Salzburg, Austria
      
Talks
KrigR - The R Package Hamburg, Germany
    25/03/2021
KrigR - Downscaling State-of-the-Art Climate Data for Macroecologists Aarhus, Denmark
    12/11/2020
KrigR - Climate Data For Your Spatial Study
      
     
18/06/2020
25/06/2020
Identifying Ecological-Memory Patterns in Drylands using Remote Sensing
       
       
         
15/10/2019
04/10/2019
06/09/2019
Spatial Patterns of Plant Performance Bergen, Norway
      15/03/2019
Inferring Vegetation Memory from Remote Sensing Data Glasgow, Scotland
        09/01/2019
Posters
Intrinsic vegetation memory as a proxy of engineering resilience may be an
oversimplification
        
          
           
25/06/2020
03/10/2019
16/09/2019
Writing
MOSAIC: A Unified Trait Database to Complement Structured Population Models Preprint
 2022
Vegetation memory eects and their association with vegetation resilience in
global drylands
Journal of Ecology
  2022
KrigR - A Tool for Downloading and Statistically Downscaling Climate Reanalysis
Data
Environmental Research Letters
  2022
Reconciling high resolution climate datasets using KrigR Environmental Research Letters
 2021
      