I am a post-doctoral researcher in the Computational Ecology and Environmental Science Group, a part of the European Science Initiative at Microsoft Research Cambridge.

I use computational and mathematical models and tools to study population dynamics of plants, animals and humans. Particularly, my interests lie in understanding how population dynamics evolve in a spatial arena, and how behaviour of individuals affects possible outcomes. I develop ecological models using a mix of mathematical, statistical and simulation approaches.

Applications I am interested in include

• predicting spread of invasive species
• estimating effects of habitat fragmentation on persistence of animals and plants, including how that translates into designing optimal natural reserves
• understanding potential consequences of climate change on natural and human populations

Projects

Below are three main projects that I am involed in at the moment:

Computational Tools for Biodiversity Science. This project aims to develop computational tools for better evaluation of present biodiversity in cloud forests of South America. In particular, if focuses on better understanding of the potential effects of climate change and land use on the biodiversity in the forests.

Toolbox for Spatial Analysis of Invasive Species Spread. Invasive species are causing significant economic and environmental damages worldwide. This project will develop a toolbox to calculate the rate of spatial spread of an invasive species though habitat, and to determine the factors that determine that rate.

Spatial Modelling and Optimization Tools for Conservation Science. This project will develop a spatial modelling and optimization tools for optimal marine reserve design and other optimization problems in ecology and biology.

Publications

Pachepsky, E., Murdoch, W. W. and Nisbet, R. M. 2008. Between discrete and continuous. Consumer-resource dynamics with synchronized reproduction. Ecology 89: 280-288.

Bown, J. L., Pachepsky, E., Eberst, A., Bausenwein, U., Millard, P., Squire, G. R. and Crawford, J. W. 2007. Consequences of intraspecific variation for the structure and function of ecological communities: Part 1. Model development and predicted patterns of diversity. Ecological Modelling 207: 264-276.

Pachepsky, E., Bown, J. L., Eberst, A., Bausenwein, U., Millard, P., Squire, G. R. and Crawford, J. W. 2007. Consequences of intraspecific variation for the structure and function of ecological communities Part 2: Linking diversity and function. Ecological Modelling 207: 277-285.

Levine, J. M., Pachepsky, E., Kendall, B. E., Yelenik, S. G. and Hille Ris Lambers, J. 2006. Plant-soil feedbacks and invasive spread. Ecology Letters 9: 1005-1014.

Wonham, M. and Pachepsky, E. 2006. Accumulation of introduced species: a null model of temporal patterns. Ecology Letters 9: 663-672.

Lutscher, F., Pachepsky, E. and Lewis, M. A. 2005. The effect of dispersal patterns on stream populations. SIAM Applied Math 65: 1305-1327.

         also appeared in December 2005 issue of SIGEST section of SIAM (outstanding, general interest papers collected from SIAM's specialized research journals), SIAM REVIEWS 47: 749-772.

Pachepsky, E., Lutscher, F., Nisbet, R. M. and Lewis, M. A. 2005. Persistence, spread and the drift paradox. Theoretical Population Biology 67: 61-73.

Pachepsky, E., Taylor, T., and Jones, S. 2002. Mutualism promotes diversity and stability in a simple artificial ecosystem. Artificial Life 8: 5-24.

Pachepsky, E., Crawford, J. W., Bown, J. L. and Squire, G. R. 2001. Towards a general theory of biodiversity. Nature 410: 923-926.

Ten, A., Yuen, D. A., Podladchikov, Yu. Yu., Larsen, T. P., Pachepsky, E. and Malevsky, A. V. 1997. Fractal features in mixing of non-Newtonian and Newtonian mantle convection. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 146: 401-414.

Pachepsky, E. 1997. Fractal and multifractal analysis of convection in Newtonian and non-Newtonian rheologies, MSI (Minnesota Supercomputer Institute) Reports, August 1997.

Contact

leeza at microsoft dot com
+44 (0) 1223 479 822
Roger Needham Building
7 JJ Thomson Ave
Cambridge CB3 0FB
UK

My external webpage