Tutkimustuotoksia vuodessa
Tutkimustuotoksia vuodessa
PL 65 (Viikinkaari 1)
00014
Suomi
Viikinkaari 1, Biocentre 3
00790 Helsinki
Suomi
Tutkimustuotoksia vuodessa
After obtaining my PhD in mathematics in 1998, I realized I was more fascinated by ecology than pure mathematics. I thus decided to start post-doctoral studies with the late Prof. Ilkka Hanski in ecological modelling. An important part of my career development was the ERC Starting grant project “Spatial ecology: bringing mathematical theory and data together” (SPAECO; 2008-2013). I became a full professor in mathematical ecology in 2009. I was a member in a Finnish CoE (Centre of Excellence in Metapopulation Research) as a PI in 2006-2011, as the vice-director in 2012-2014, and as the director for 2015-2017. In 2018, I established a Research Centre for Ecological Change (REC) with four other PIs. REC consists currently of ca. 60 researchers, post-docs and PhD students. My own group Statistical Ecology Research Group (SERG) focuses on developing and applying novel statistical methods to make more out of ecological data. I have been the advisor for 18 post-doctoral associates, the main supervisor for 13 PhD students, and co-supervisor for 5 PhD students. In addition to my permanent position in Helsinki, I have a visiting professor position in a Norwegian CoE since 2014.
My research focuses on the development of statistical approaches that help making more out of ecological data. Below, I list my most important research lines. For each research line, with few key references for each of them.
Metapopulation biology. As a post doc with the late professor Ilkka Hanski, I started my career in ecology in metapopulation biology. We developed the concept of metapopulation capacity, describing how metapopulation persistence depends on landscape structure [1]. We extended classical metapopulation ecology to more general spatial dynamics [2] and to eco-evolutionary dynamics [3], and developed novel statistical methods to relate these theoretical approaches to data [4]
Movement ecology. Inspired by the need to better understand movements of individuals among habitat patches in metapopulations, I developed a statistical approach for fitting diffusion-advection-reaction models to spatial mark-recapture data [1], which approach I applied with collaborators to predict how modification in landscape structure influences movements [2]. Recently we extended these models to multi-species context to relate movements to species traits and phylogenies [4]. I have pplied novel tracking methodology to understand evolution of dispersal rate in fragmented landscapes [3].
Mathematical methods for individual-based models. In collaboration with Stephen Cornell and others, we developed mathematically exact methods for the analysis of individual-based models [1], and applied these methods to understand both ecological and evolutionary processes [e.g. 2]. Recently, we made a major mathematical breakthrough by extending the approach of [1] to a very general “meta-model” consisting of reactants, products and catalysts [3]. We applied special cases of this meta-model to derive insights in movement ecology, evolutionary ecology, and metapopulation ecology [3].
Population genetics and evolutionary biology. In collaboration with Juha Merilä and others, we developed mathematical and statistical approaches to resolve whether evolution has taken place by neutral drift or by adaptive processes [1,2]. Our approach avoids the theoretical pitfalls of the more traditional FST-QST test [1] and has better statistical power than it [2].
Fungal community ecology. While I am primarily a theoretical and statistical ecologists, I have become increasingly interested in empirical research, especially in fungal ecology. I used fungal communities as a model system to understand the effects of habitat fragmentation [1], life-history variation [2] and dispersal [3], and to develop novel methods for conducting highly cost-efficient large-scale surveys [4].
Statistical community ecology. With Janne Soininen, we conceived the idea of modelling species niches through a hierarchical structure that allows borrowing information across species [1]. Developing the Hierarchical Modelling of Species Communities (HMSC) is currently my main line of research [e.g. 2,3,5]. HMSC integrates data on species occurrences, environmental covariates, species traits and phylogenies in a single encompassing model, and it can be applied e.g. to spatially explicit data [3,5] or to time-series data [2,5]. In a comprehensive comparison among single species and joint species distribution models, HMSC was found out to have by far the highest predictive power [4].
Probabilistic methods of taxonomic placement. DNA-based surveys generate massive amounts of data, but come with the challenge of how to translate sequences to species names. With Panu Somervuo and others, we developed a probabilistic method for taxonomic placement of DNA-barcoding data [1]. The key novelty of our method is that it models explicitly also unknown species, making it outperform alternative methods for taxa with incomplete reference databases, such as fungi [2]. I am also interested in other types of newly emerging data, such as autonomous audio recording, for which we developed methods that combine machine learning with manual annotation to enable automated species identification [3].
Tutkimustuotos: Artikkelijulkaisu › Artikkeli › Tieteellinen › vertaisarvioitu
Tutkimustuotos: Artikkelijulkaisu › Artikkeli › Tieteellinen › vertaisarvioitu
Tutkimustuotos: Artikkelijulkaisu › Artikkeli › Tieteellinen › vertaisarvioitu
Tutkimustuotos: Artikkelijulkaisu › Artikkeli › Tieteellinen › vertaisarvioitu
Tutkimustuotos: Artikkelijulkaisu › Artikkeli › Tieteellinen › vertaisarvioitu
01/01/2014 → 31/12/2017
Projekti: Tutkimusprojekti
01/09/2011 → 31/08/2015
Projekti: Tutkimusprojekti
01/07/2008 → 30/06/2013
Projekti: Tutkimusprojekti
Ovaskainen, Otso (Vastaanottaja), 2009
Palkinto: Palkinnot ja kunnianosoitukset
T Matthew Robson (Järjestäjätoimikunnan puheenjohtaja), Maxime Durand (Järjestäjätoimikunnan jäsen), Yann Salmon (Järjestäjätoimikunnan jäsen), Zsofia Reka Stangl (Puhuja: pääpuhuja (keynote)), Marta Benito Garzon (Puhuja: pääpuhuja (keynote)), Karen Sims-Huopaniemi (Järjestäjätoimikunnan sihteeri), David Israel (Puhuja: esitelmän pitäjä), Xin Zhuang (Puhuja: esitelmän pitäjä), Teemu Ville Santeri Paljakka (Puhuja: esitelmän pitäjä), Teemu Hölttä (Puhuja: pääpuhuja (keynote)), Emy Paulette Guilbault (Puhuja: esitelmän pitäjä), Otso Ovaskainen (Puhuja: pääpuhuja (keynote)), Raisa Makipaa (Puhuja: pääpuhuja (keynote)), Antti Takolander (Puhuja: esitelmän pitäjä), Laura Leites (Puhuja: pääpuhuja (keynote)), Santa Neimane (Osallistuja), Maxime Durand (Puhuja: esitelmän pitäjä), Zsofia Reka Stangl (Puhuja: esitelmän pitäjä), Yann Salmon (Puhuja: pääpuhuja (keynote)) & T Matthew Robson (Puhuja: pääpuhuja (keynote))
Aktiviteetti: Tapahtumaan osallistumisen ja tapahtuman järjestämisen tyypit › Konferensseihin, kursseille ja seminaareihin osallistuminen ja näiden järjestäminen
Juri Kurhinen (Puhuja: esitelmän pitäjä), Otso Ovaskainen (Osallistuja), Tomas Roslin (Osallistuja), Maria del Mar Delgado (Osallistuja), Jaana Kekkonen (Osallistuja), Hanna Susi (Osallistuja) & Vladimir Karpin (Osallistuja)
Aktiviteetti: Tapahtumaan osallistumisen ja tapahtuman järjestämisen tyypit › Konferensseihin, kursseille ja seminaareihin osallistuminen ja näiden järjestäminen
Juri Kurhinen (Puhuja), Otso Ovaskainen (Puhuja), V. Bolshakov (Puhuja) & Oksana Yancer (Puhuja)
Aktiviteetti: Puhe- tai esitystyypit › Suullinen esitys
Bess Hardwick (Osallistuja), Laura Antao (Osallistuja), Viia Forsblom (Osallistuja), Maria Hällfors (Osallistuja), Pauliina Hyttinen (Osallistuja), Malcolm Itter (Osallistuja), Elina Kaarlejärvi (Osallistuja), Anna-Liisa Laine (Osallistuja), Øystein Opedal (Osallistuja), Otso Ovaskainen (Osallistuja), Marjo Saastamoinen (Osallistuja), Jarno Vanhatalo (Osallistuja), Benjamin Weigel (Osallistuja) & Tomas Roslin (Osallistuja)
Aktiviteetti: Muiden aktiviteettien tyypit › Tyypit: Muut aktiviteetit - Muut
Otso Ovaskainen (Toimittaja (editor))
Aktiviteetti: Julkaisun vertaisarvioinnin ja toimituksellisen työn tyypit › Tiedelehden toimittaja