Sara Cousins
About me
I combine plant community ecology and landscape history to explore effects of fragmentation and land use change on plant dispersal, community composition and diversity. How people, livestock and physical constraints have shaped plant communities over time is particularly fascinating. New research challenges are to investigate how changing climate and extreme weather events will affect biodiversity in fragmented habitats.
I am a professor in Physical Geography and associate professor (Docent) in Plant Ecology. Since 2022 I am head of the department.
Teaching
I usually teach landscape ecology and biogeography at both bachelor and master levels. Since becoming head of the department I am only teaching Projects in Physical Geography and some additional lectures on other courses. I especially enjoy teaching field courses and its many opportunities to explore the interaction between plant and animal communities, edaphic properties of specific landscapes and land use in action.
Research
My research revolves around how species, communities and biodiversity respond with time to changing landscape patterns, habitat loss, fragmentation and global change which is one of the most important theoretical and conservation challenges in ecology today. Connectivity and dispersal in past, present and future landscapes are key points of my research. To link processes occurring in different ecosystems to landscape patterns and global change are central research activities within the group of postdocs and PhD-students.
I am project leader for several international and national research collaborations. Presently I am PI on two research projects Ecstatic Exploring Causes of Species and Trait Alterations in Terrestrial ecosystems: Impacts and Consequences (funded by VR) and Shore meadows: habitats on the move (funded by FORMAS). Recently finished projects are FUNgreen - Functional connecitivty and green infrastructure (funded by Biodiversa/EU 2017) and the LIM Landscape indicators for biodiversity (funded by SNV 2019).
For more information, please visit my Google Scholar profile .
My orcid id: 0000-0003-2656-2645
Present PhD-students and Postdocs
Jessica Lindgren (PhD)
Heather Wood
Lukas Rimondini
Victor Eriksson
Elsa Aggemyr
Sabine Sigfridsson (teachers licentiate)
Former PhD-students and Postdocs
Adam Kimberley Postdoc (PhD)
Rozalia Kapás (PhD)
Nina Roth (PhD)
Alistair Auffret (PhD)
Matti Ermold
Elikana Kalumanga (PhD)
Jan Plue (PhD)
Josefin Reimark (teachers licentiate)
Reto Schmucki (PhD)
