SCIENTIFIC INTERESTS

I am broadly interested in all fields of biodiversity research, particularly in macroecology, biogeography, conservation biology and ornithology.

Climate change impacts on global amphibian distributions

There is ample evidence that species across a range of taxonomic groups are changing their geographical distributions in response to observed climate changes. During the course of my PhD an attempt will be made to estimate the impact of climate change on global amphibian distributions and to measure the effectiveness of protected areas to conserve species under a range of climate change scenarios.

Freshwater macroecology

Although they are of major conservation concern, freshwater ecosystems are by far underrepresented in macroecological research. Furthermore, freshwater provides a good opportunity to investigate diversity patterns related to the organisms' ecological traits. Therefore, freshwater macroecology has been the research focus of my work at the Department of Animal Ecology at the University of Marburg and is still of much interest for my current scientific activities - in close collaboration with Matthias Dehling, Martin Brändle and Roland Brandl.
In particular, we are interested in the following topics:
- Historical biogeography of the European freshwater fauna
- Patterns of species richness, endemism and beta-diversity in European freshwaters
- Macroecology and biogeography of dragonflies (Insecta: Odonata)
- The interplay of habitat preference and dispersal ability and their impact on patterns of range size and diversity

Students seminar, Bayreuth, Germany.

PUBLICATIONS

Scientific publications (peer-reviewed)

Hof, C., Brändle, M. & Brandl, R. (2008) Latitudinal variation of diversity in European freshwater animals is not concordant across habitat types. Global Ecology and Biogeography 17, 539-546.

Hof, C., Brändle, M. & Brandl, R. (2006) Lentic odonates have larger and more northern ranges than lotic species. Journal of Biogeography 33, 63-70.



Thesis
Hof, C. (2006) Macroecology of the European freshwater fauna. � Diploma Thesis, Department of Animal Ecology, Faculty of Biology, University of Marburg, Germany.


Conference participations, oral presentations and posters (selection)

Hof, C. (2008) Climatic niche conservatism among the world's amphibian species. Oral presentation, 2nd joint meeting of the Center of Macroecology and Evolution (University of Copenhagen) and the Biodiversity and Global Change Lab (Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Madrid) in San Juan de la Peña (Spain), 16-21 June 2008.

Hof, C. (2008) Climatic niche conservatism in amphibians - a global perspective. Oral presentation, Seminars of the Department of Animal Ecology, University of Marburg (Germany), 14 May 2008

Hof, C. (2008) The climatic niches of amphibians � a global analysis. Oral presentation, 2nd annual conference of the Macroecology Specialist Group of the Ecological Society of Germany, Austria and Switzerland (GfÖ) in Bonn (Germany), 10-11 March 11, 2008.

Hof, C., Brändle, M. & Brandl, R. (2007) Macroecology of freshwater animals: Differences between habitats. Oral presentation, 37th annual meeting of the Ecological Society of Germany, Austria and Switzerland (GfOe) in Marburg (Germany), 10-14 September 2007.

Hof, C., Brändle, M. & Brandl, R. (2007) Latitudinal variation of European freshwater diversity is not concordant across habitat types. Oral presentation, 92nd annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America in San Jose, California (USA), 5-10 August 2007.

Hof, C. (2007) Distributions, diseases, and dispersal. Predicting the impacts of climate change on global amphibian distributions - an impossible task? Oral presentation, Seminars of the Department of Animal Ecology, University of Marburg (Germany), 25 July 2007.

Hof, C. (2007) Climate change impacts on global amphibian distributions. Oral presentation, Workshop "A New Research Agenda for Palaeoecology and Macroecology", promoted by the BIOCHANGE Lab, in Noudar (Portugal), 26-30 March 2007.

Hof, C., Brändle, M. & Brandl, R. (2007) Latitudinal patterns in species richness of European freshwater animals are not concordant across habitat types. Poster, 3rd biennial conference of the International Biogeography Society (IBS) in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife (Spain), 9-13 January 2007.

Hof, C., Brändle, M. & Brandl, R. (2006) Lentic dragon- and damselflies have larger and more northern ranges than lotic species. Poster, International conference "Macroecological Tools for Global Change Research" - in Potsdam (Germany), 21-23 August 2006.

Hof, C., Brändle, M., Marten, A. & Brandl, R. (2006) Latitudinal patterns of species richness in the European freshwater fauna: dispersal matters. Oral presentation, 91st annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Memphis, Tennessee (USA), 6-11 August 2006.

Hof, C. (2003) Protected areas of the future: man or nature? Oral presentation, EOS Seminary, Department of Geography, University of California Los Angeles (USA), November 2003.



Scientific publications (non-peer-reviewed)

Hof, C. (2005) Wissenschaftler in turbulenten Zeiten (book review). Ornithologischer Anzeiger 44: 55.

Dietzen, C., Folz, H.-G., Henss, E., Eisloeffel, F., Joenck, M. & Hof, C. (2003) Ornithologischer Sammelbericht 2002 fuer Rheinland-Pfalz. Fauna und Flora Rheinland-Pfalz, Beiheft 30: 5-194.

Dietzen, C., Muellen, T. & Hof, C. (2002) Ornithologischer Jahresbericht 1999 und 2000 fuer den ehemaligen Regierungsbezirk Koblenz. Fauna und Flora Rheinland-Pfalz, Beiheft 27: 7-154.

Hof, C. (2000) Aus dem Brutvogelbericht 1999 für das Naturschutzgebiet Asselersand. Seevögel 21: 112-114.


Non-scientific publications (selection)

Hof, C. (2008) Widerspruch: Farbenspiele. Die Medien ignorieren die Inhalte der SPD. DIE ZEIT 27: 11.

Hof, C. (2005) Von Sozialverträglichkeit, staatlicher Verantwortung und kurzlebigem Mainstream. Ein Plädoyer für gebührenfreie Bildung. CusanerCorrespondenz 01/05: 30-32.

Hof, C. (2005) Darf ein Studium Geld kosten? Contra! Marburger UniJournal 12: 54.

Hof, C. (2005) Hochschulpakt, Zentrenbildung, Zielvereinbarungen. AStA:Zeitung - Zeitung des Allgemeinen StudentInnenausschusses der Philipps-Universität Marburg, Oktober 2005: 6-7.

Hof, C. (2005) "Wir sollten heute nichts beschließen" - Die Gremien des Fachbereichs Biologie in Aktion. Eine RealSatire. KAKTUS - Zeitschrift der Fachschaft Biologie der Philipps-Universität Marburg, November 2005.



CV

Education, professional experience

Since 2007      Ph.D. student at the Center for Macroecology and Evolution, University of Copenhagen (Denmark) and the Biodiversity and Global Change Lab, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Madrid.

2006    Scientific assistant at the Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research (UfZ) - Working within the European project �ALTERNet� � WP R3: �Impacts of the main natural and anthropogenic drivers and pressures of biodiversity�.

2006    Graduation as �Diplom-Biologe� (diploma degree).

2005-2006       Diploma thesis "Macroecology of the European Freshwater Fauna" in Animal Ecology under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Roland Brandl.

2004    Internship at the German Federal Agency for Nature Conervation (Bundesamt für Naturschutz), Bonn (Department for Protected Areas)

2003    Studies and research internship at the Department of Geography, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), (advanced animal geography; conservation of the Salton Sea ecosystem; effectiveness of protected areas) - supervised by Prof. Dr. Hartmut S. Walter

1999-2006       Studies of Biology: University of Marburg, Germany. Majors: Animal Ecology, Nature Conservation, Zoology.

1998-1999       Civilian Service with the Verein Jordsand e.V. (Jordsand Society for the Protection of Seabirds and the Conservation of Nature), working as a ranger in a nature reserve.

1998    Abitur, Westerwald-Gymnasium Altenkirchen, Germany



Grants

since 2007      International Ph.D. scholarship granted by the International School of Biodiversity Sciences (ISOBIS), and the University of Copenhagen, Denmark

2006-2007       Ph.D. scholarship granted by the Cusanuswerk � the German Catholic scholarship foundation

2006    Travelling grant by the DFG (German Research Foundation), to attend the 91st annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Memphis, Tennessee (USA), 6-11 August 2006

since 2004      Scholarship granted by e-fellows.net

2001-2006       Student Scholarship granted by the Cusanuswerk � the German Catholic scholarship foundation



Teaching

September 2007  M.Sc. course �Numerical Analyses in Biodiversity studies� (Department of Population Biology, University of Copenhagen) � responsible for the part �Basic and advanced regression analyses�

January 2007    B.Sc. course �Macroecology� (Faculty of Biology, University of Marburg) � responsible for the part �species-area relationship and island biogeography�

2001-2007       Teaching assistant at the Faculty of Biology, University of Marburg (various courses in Zoology, Botany and Ecology)



Selected memberships


Ecological Society of Germany, Switzerland and Austria (GfÖ) www.gfoe.org

The International Biogeography Society (IBS) www.biogeography.org

Society for Nature Conservation and Ornithology Rheinland-Pfalz (GNOR) www.gnor.de

Jordsand Society for the Protection of Seabirds and Nature (Verein Jordsand) www.jordsand.de

German Society for Nature Conservation (NABU) www.nabu.de

�Fachkraft� - an independent forum for open politics www.open-politix.de

"Choronal forte" - an exceptional a-cappella ensemble www.choronal.de