Geowissenschaften / Geographie
Fachbereich 11

PhD student

I am a PhD student at the Biogeography and Biodiversity lab of the Department of Physical Geography at the Goethe-University Frankfurt. I am interested in analysing the functional ecology and biogeography of plants on oceanic islands. I am particularly interested in the Canary Islands, as they represent an optimal study system due to their diverse environmental conditions. The focus of my research is on the comparison of the functional diversity of endemic and non-endemic species.

My thesis is supervised by Prof. Severin Irl. For my thesis I have multiple collaborations with colleagues from the University of Nottingham, the University of Bayreuth and the University of Göttingen.

I lecture the seminar "Methoden in der Umweltplanung" in the winter semester of the Bachelor Geography. Within the Master of Physical Geography I co-lecture the modules "Biodiversität", "Angewandte Biogeographie" and "Multivariate Statistik mit R" together with Prof. Severin Irl.

Scientific publications

Hanz, D.M., Cutts, V., Barajas-Barbosa, M.P., Algar, A.C., Fernandez Palacios, J.M., Field, R., Kreft, H., Weigelt, P., Steinbauer, M.J. & Irl, S.D.H. (under review). Climatic and biogeographic drivers of functional diversity in the flora of the Canary Islands. Global Ecology and Biogeography.

Tobias, J.A., .... Hanz, D.M., .... et al. (in press). AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. ​Ecology Letters.

Hanz, D.M., Beloiu, M., Wipfler, R., Beierkuhnlein, C., Field, R., Jentsch, A., Vetaas, O.R. & Irl, S.D.H (2022) High species turnover and low intraspecific trait variation in endemic and non-endemic plant species assemblages on an oceanic island. Journal of Vegetation Science. pdf link

Cutts, V.,Hanz, D.M., Barajas-Barbosa, M.P., Algar, A.C., Steinbauer, M.J., Irl, S.D.H., Kreft, H., Weigelt, P., Fernandez Palacios, J.M. & Field, R. (2021). Scientific floras can be reliable sources for some trait data in a system with poor coverage in global trait databases. Journal of Vegetation Science. 32(3), e12996. pdf link

Hanz, D.M., Böhning-Gaese, K., Ferger, S.W., Fritz, S.A., Neuschulz, E.L., Quitián, M., Santillán, V., Töpfer. T. & Schleuning M. (2018). Functional and phylogenetic diversity of bird assemblages are filtered by different biotic factors on tropical mountains. Journal of Biogeography. 46(2), 291-303. pdf link

Geller-Grimm, F., Lerp, H., Hanz, D.M., Manz, C., Fickert, B., Kaiser, U., Lotz-Winter, H. & Piepenbring, M. (2017): Pilze: Nahrung, Gift und Mythen / Fungi: Food, Poison and Mythology, Museum Wiesbaden. - pdf link

Recent scientific presentations

Hanz, D.M., Algar, A., Barjas Barbosa, M. P., Beierkuhnlein, C., Cutts, V., Fernandéz-Palacis, J.-M., Field, R., Kreft, H., Steinbauer, M., Weigelt, P. & Irl, S.D.H. (2018). Functional diversity of the flora of the Canary Islands. Oral presentation, Island Biology in Saint-Denis (La Réunion, France), 9th July 2019

Hanz, D.M., Beierkuhnlein, C., Cutts, V., Field, R., Kienle, D., Steinbauer, M. & Irl, S.D.H. (2018). Functional diversity of the flora of the Canary Islands. Oral presentation, AK Biogeographie in Frankfurt am Main (Germany), 10th May 2019

Hanz, D.M., Beierkuhnlein, C., Cutts, V., Field, R., Steinbauer, M. & Irl, S.D.H. (2018). Functional diversity of the flora of the Canary Islands. Oral presentation, Macro in Würzburg (Germany), 12th March 2019

Hanz, D.M., Beierkuhnlein, C., Beloiu, M., Field, R., Vetaas, O., Wipfler, R. & Irl, S.D.H. (2019). From coast to coast - How environment drives functional diversity in an insular system. Oral presentation, IBS in Málaga (Spain), 10th January 2019

Hanz, D.M., Beierkuhnlein, C., Cutts, V., Field, R., Kienle, D., Steinbauer, M. & Irl, S.D.H. (2018). Functional diversity of endemic and non-endemic plants on islands. Oral presentation, FloraMac in Funchal (Portugal), 14th September 2018

Curriculum vitae