Institute for
Environmental Sciences

Study Environmental Sciences   University of Koblenz-Landau Deutsch

Ecotoxicology Biodiversity Landscape development
Conferences Seminar talks

Dr. rer. nat. Carsten Brühl

Research Group Lead Community Ecology & Ecotoxicology

Research Interests

• Applied Ecology
• Ecotoxicology
• Community Ecology
• Biodiversity of Tropical Ants

Current Research Projects

• Bats in the agricultural landscape – direct and indirect effects of pesticides and management practice
• Food ecology of the wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) : de-husking behaviour and its impact on seed treatment risk assessment
• Composition and sensitivity of arthropod communities in the off-crop habitat (field margins)
• Evaluating in bufferstrips in the agricultural landscape: Food availability for amphibians
• Composition of the amphibian community in retention ponds
• Beta diversity patterns of ants in Borneo

Teaching

• Zoology
• Aquatic and Terrestrial Ecology
• Terrestrial Ecotoxicology
• Methods in Ecotoxicology
• Good Laboratory Practice
• Multi-variate Statistics
• GIS in Applied Ecology

Academic and Professional History

• Research Associate (since January 2006):
  Institute of Environmental Science, University of Koblenz-Landau
• Team Leader (2004-2005)
  Terrestrial Ecology Section, Syngenta Ltd., Jealott's Hill International Research Center , Bracknell , UK .
• Study Director (2003–2004)
  Study Director, Terrestrial Ecology Section, Syngenta Ltd., Jealott's Hill International Research Center , Bracknell , UK .
• Study Director (2001–2003):
  Terrestrial Ecology Section, Syngenta Crop Protection AG, Basel , Switzerland .
• PhD (2001):
  ‘Leaf litter ant communities in tropical lowland rain forests in Sabah , Malaysia : effects of forest disturbance and fragmentation' with Prof. Dr. K. E. Linsenmair at the Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, Würzburg (DAAD HSP III scholarship, GTZ project).
• Diploma (1996):
  ‘Altitudinal distribution and stratification of ants in a primary rainforest in Sabah , Malaysia ' with Prof. Dr. K. E. Linsenmair at the Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, Würzburg.
• Exchange student (post graduate level 1993-1994)
  Duke University , Durham , North Carolina , USA (DAAD exchange scholarship).
• Study of Biology (1989 until 1996):
  Student of Biology at the Julius-Maximilians-University, Würzburg , Germany .

Selected Publications

• Carsten A. Brühl & Thomas Eltz (online early) Fuelling the crisis: Species loss of ground-dwelling forest ants in oil palm plantations in Sabah , Malaysia ( Borneo ). Biodiversity & Conservation . DOI 10.1007/s10531-009-9596-4 .
• Robert R. Dunn, Donat Agosti, Alan N. Andersen, Xavier Arnan, Carsten A. Bruhl, Xim Cerda, Aaron M. Ellison, Brian L. Fisher, Matthew C. Fitzpatric k ,  Heloise Gibb, Nicholas J. Gotelli, Aaron D. Gove, Benoit Guenard, Milan Janda, Michael E. Kaspari, Edward J. Laurent, Jean-Philippe Lessard, John T. Longino, Jonathan D. Majer, Sean B. Men k e, Terrence P. McGlynn, Catherine L. Parr, Stacy M. Philpott, Martin Pfeiffer, Javier Retana, Andrew V. Suarez, Heraldo L. Vasconcelos, Michael D. Weiser, Nathan J. Sanders (2009) Climatic Drivers of Hemispheric Asymmetry in Global Patterns of Ant Species Richness. Ecology Letters 12, 324-333.
• Finn Danielsen, Hendrien Beu k ema, Neil D. Burgess, Faizal Parish, Carsten A. Brühl, Paul F. Donald, Daniel Murdiyarso, Ben Phalan, Lucas Reijnders, Matthew J. Struebig & Emily B. Fitzherbert (2009) Biofuel Plantations on Forested Lands: Double Jeopardy for Biodiversity and Climate. Conservation Biology 23 (2), 348-358.
• Emily B. Fitzherbert, Matthew J. Struebig, Alexandra Morel, Finn Danielsen, Carsten A. Brühl, Paul F. Donald & Ben Phalan (2008). How will oil palm expansion affect biodiversity? Trends in Ecology and Evolution . 23, 538-545.
• Emily .B. Fitzherbert, Matt Struebig, Ben Phalan & Alexander Morel (2007) Biodiversity and Oil Palm: an objective review. Biodiversity and Oil Palm Research Network. (With significant contributions from Paul Donald, Carsten A. Brühl and Hereward Corley). 26 pp.
• Robert R. Dunn, Nathan J. Sanders, Matthew C. Fitzpatrick, Ed Laurent, Jean-Philippe Lessard, Donat Agosti, Alan Andersen, Carsten A. Brühl, Xim Cerda, Aaron Ellison, Brian Fisher, Heloise Gibb, Nicholas Gotelli, Aaron Gove, Benoit Guenard, Milan Janda, Michael Kaspari, John T. Longino, Jonathan Majer, Terrence P. McGlynn, Sean Menke, Catherine Parr, Stacy Philpott, Martin Pfeiffer, Javier Retana, Andy Suarez & Heraldo Vasconcelos (2007) Global Ant Biodiversity and Biogeography--A New Database and its Possibilities, Myrmecological news, 10, 77-83
• Tobias O. Bickel, Carsten A. Brühl, Jürgen R. Gadau, Bert Hölldobler & K. Eduard Linsenmair (2006) Influence of habitat fragmentation on the genetic variability in leaf litter ant populations in tropical rainforests of Sabah, Borneo. Biodiversity and Conservation, 15, 157-175.
• Carsten Brühl, Renja Ohliger, Agnes Sporer, Henner Hollert und Ralf Schulz (2006): 11. Jahrestagung der SETAC-GLB in Landau - Umweltwissenschaften: Umweltchemie und Ökotoxikologie im Kontext (3.–5. September 2006 in Landau, Pfalz) Umweltwissenschaften und Schadstofforschung- Zeitschrift für Umwelchemie und Ökotoxikologie 18, 289-291.
• Armin P. Moczek, Carsten A. Brühl & Frank T. Krell (2004) Linear and threshold-dependent expression of secondary sexual traits in the same individual: insights from a horned beetle (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae), Biological Journal of the Lineean Society , 83, 473-480.
• Thomas Eltz, Carsten A. Brühl, Zamri Imiyabir & K. Eduard Linsenmair (2003) Nesting and nest trees of stingless bees (Apidae: Meliponini) in lowland dipterocarp forests in Sabah, Malaysia, with implications for forest management. Forest Ecology and Management 172: 301-313
• Carsten A. Brühl & Frank T. Krell (2003) Finding a rare resource: Bornean Scarabaeoidea (Coleoptera) attracted by defensive secretions of Diplopoda. The Coleopterists Bulletin, 57 (1): 51-55.
• Carsten A. Brühl, Thomas Eltz & K. Eduard Linsenmair (2003) Size does matter -Fragmentation of tropical rain forests in Sabah Malaysia and the effects on the leaf litter ant community. Biodiversity and Conservation, 12: 1371-1389
• Thomas Eltz, Carsten A. Brühl, Sander Van der Kaars & K. Eduard Linsenmair (2002) Determinants of stingless bee nest density in lowland dipterocarp forests of Sabah, Malaysia. Oecologia, 131 (1), 27-34.
• Carsten A. Brühl (2001) Leaf litter ant communities in tropical lowland rain forests in Sabah, Malaysia: effects of forest disturbance and fragmentation. Ph. D. thesis, Julius-Maximilians-Universität, Würzburg. 160 pp. http://www.opus-bayern.de/uni-wuerzburg/volltexte/2002/104/pdf/dissbruehl.pdf
• K. Eduard Linsenmair & Carsten A. Brühl (2001) Luxury or necessity: on some aspects of the functional significance of biodiversity. Contributions to Global Change Research, German National Committee on Global Change Research, Bonn. 67-79.
• Carsten A. Brühl, Maryati Mohamed & K. Eduard Linsenmair (1999) Altitudinal distribution of leaf litter ants along a transect in primary forests on Mount Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. Journal of Tropical Ecology, 15, 265-277.
• Matja Gogala, Yong Hoi-Sen & Carsten A. Brühl (1998) Maternal care in Pygoplatys bugs (Heteroptera: Tesseratomidae). European Journal of Entomology, 95, 311-315.
• Carsten A. Brühl, Gunik Gunsalam & K. Eduard Linsenmair(1998) Stratification of ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in a primary rain forest in Sabah, Borneo. Journal of Tropical Ecology, 14, 285-297.
• Carsten A. Brühl (1997) Flightless insects: a test case for historical relationships of African mountains. Journal of Biogeography, 24, 233-250.
• Carsten A. Brühl (1993) Überblick über Geographie, Geologie, Klima und Vegetations-formationen der Insel São Tomé (Golf von Guinea). Faunistische Abhandlungen des Museums für Tierkunde, Dresden 19 (2), 5-16.

Recent Presentations

• Finn Danielsen, Hendrien Beu k ema, Neil D. Burgess, Faizal Parish, Carsten A. Brühl, Paul F. Donald, Daniel Murdiyarso, ben Phalan, Lucas Reijnders, Matthew J. Struebig & Emily B. Fitzherbert (online early) Biofuel Plantations on Forested Lands: Double Jeopardy for Biodiversity and Climate. Conseron Biology.
• Emily B. Fitzherbert, Matthew J. Struebig, Alexandra Morel, Finn Danielsen, Carsten A. Brühl, Paul F. Donald & Ben Phalan (2008). How will oil palm expansion affect biodiversity? Trends in Ecology and Evolution. 23, 538-545.
• Carsten Brühl (2007): Biodiversity of Leaf Litter Ants – Effects of Disturbance and Fragmentation of Rain Forests in Sabah , Malaysia . International Conference Biodiversity Crisis on Tropical Islands , Brunei Darussalam. Invited speaker
• Peter Stahlschmidt & Carsten Brühl (2007) Estimating the impact of PPPs on bat populations. SETAC Europe Annual Meeting, Porto , Portugal . Poster presentation .
• Bernd Guckenmus, Ralf Barfknecht, Markus Ebeling, Carsten Brühl (2007) Reduction of fungicide concentration by de-husking of seeds by the Wood mouse. SETAC Europe Annual Meeting, Porto , Portugal . Poster presentation .
• Carsten Brühl (2005): Pesticide residues on arthropods: patterns of dissipation from laboratory to field experiments. Institut Fresenius and Akademie Fresenius, 5. ECOTOX conference "Aquatic and Terrestrial Ecotoxicology and Risk Management", 8-9. December 2005, Cologne . Invited speaker.
Carsten A. Brühl et al. (2005) Pesticide residues in field populations of arthropods – realistic data on magnitude and time course from field experiments. SETAC Europe Annual Meeting , Lille , France . Platform presentation.

Session Chair Functions:

• Ökologische Konzepte für die Ökotoxikologie SETAC-GLB 12 th Annual meeting, 12.-14. September 2007, Leipzig, Germany.
• Field studies with bees and other (non-target) arthropods SETAC Europe 17 th Annual Meeting, 20.-24. May 2007, Porto , Portugal
• Pesticide risk assessment SETAC Europe 16 th Annual Meeting, 23.-27. May 2006, The Hague , the Netherlands .
• Ökologie trifft Ökotoxikologie – Dynamik von Ökosystemen unter Stress, SETAC-GLB 11 th Annual meeting, 3.-5. September 2006, Landau, Germany.
• Terrestrial food web ecotoxicology SETAC Europe 15 th Annual Meeting, 22.-26. May 2005, Lille , France .

Editorial Boards:

• Asian Myrmecology - published by ANeT, the International Network for the Study of Asian Ants
• Environmental Science and Pollution Research - ecomed publishers (Verlagsgruppe Hüthig Jehle Rehm GmbH), D-86899 Landsberg and Tokyo • Mumbai • Seoul • Melbourne • Paris . Subject editor.

Other Functions:

• Focal Point of the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) /SSC (Species Survival Commision) Ant Specialist Group 2007
• SETAC GLB board member 2005-2007, acting president in 2006
• Member of the EFSA expert group on the revision of the bird&mammal guidance document 2007

Contact Details

Dr. Carsten Brühl
Institute of Environmental Sciences
University of Koblenz-Landau
Fortstrasse 7, Room CI 101a
76829 Landau
Germany

Phone: 0049-6341-280-310
Fax: 0049-6341-280-326
E-Mail

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