Human Impacts on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics

Welcome to the Itescu lab!

We are a new research lab in the Department of Evolutionary and Environmental Biology at the University of Haifa, Israel.

Our lab is dedicated to understanding the forms, dimensions, and mechanisms in which human activities influence and shape biodiversity and ecosystem dynamics, including biogeography, evolution and ecology across different scales. We also study the relationship between human diversity and biodiversity, the mutual impacts humans and nature have on each other, and the potential trajectories to mitigate negative impacts of human activity and promote conservation and sustainable development in light of these environmental challenges.

We are particularly interested in urban and insular ecosystems, and in biological introductions, because of two important characteristics that they share: (1) worldwide intense and rapidly growing anthropogenic influence which has severe environmental and economic implications; (2) a replicated experiment-like nature, allowing empirical tests of hypotheses in ecology and evolution under natural conditions.

We often take a comparative or synthesizing approach and apply principles from the field of island biology to explore diverse ecosystems, striving to compare patterns and mechanisms across geographic scales, regions, and taxa. We think that this approach provides a more profound understanding and allows to infer generalizations in biological phenomena.

We address research questions with a diversity of approaches and tools (field work, experiments, systematic reviews, macroecology, citizen (community) science, and studies of museum collections) and select study organisms that best suit the research of a focal question, although we do have a special fondness for reptiles in general, and geckos in particular. We also incorporate in our research interdisciplinary elements from social sciences, including research directions (e.g., religious and cultural diversity) and tools (e.g., surveys, interviews).

We are looking for excellent and motivated candidates to join us – M.Sc., Ph.D., post-docs – and happy to offer and discuss funding possibilities. We also like collaborations very much, and are always happy to discuss such opportunities. Nothing moves science forward better than idea exchange. If you are interested in the research done in our lab, please don’t hesitate to contact Yuval here: yitescu@univ.haifa.ac.il.