Research

I am generally interested in large-scale biogeographical patterns, macroevolution and global conservation prioritisation. My special interest is ecology, evolution and conservation of amphibians.

My PhD thesis, “Comparative analyses of extinction risk in vertebrates”, investigated the processes behind current global patterns of species’ extinction risk. Many species today are threatened with extinction, and the pattern of extinction risk is complex both phylogenetically and geographically. Why are some species and clades more threatened than others? Is it just where they live, so due to spatial variation in anthropogenic threats, or is there something about their biology that makes them more vulnerable?

I investigated three aspects of current global species extinction risk, using novel phylogenetic and spatially-explicit comparative methods. First, I developed a new measure of the phylogenetic-signal strength in extinction risk, and used it to show that the non-randomness in global mammalian extinction risk differs with threatening processes. Second, I investigated the focus of current extinction risk, both spatially and in terms of biological traits increasing risk. My results indicated high heterogeneity in traits that increase risk and in their interactions with anthropogenic threats, across mammals, birds and frogs. Finally, I estimated possible global impacts of current extinction risk in mammals, which highlighted that future losses of functional diversity may be much more severe than losses of species richness and phylogenetic diversity. The selectivity of current extinction risk means that we stand to lose a very biased sample of global diversity, with potentially severe consequences for ecosystem functioning.

My PhD was supervised by Professor Andy Purvis and Professor Ian Owens, both at Imperial College London, UK. In March 2009, I handed in my PhD thesis. I am now working as a post-doctoral researcher at the Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Curriculum Vitae

Since April 2009: Postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

2006-2009: PhD student and Marie-Curie Early Stage Researcher, Imperial College London, UK. PhD thesis “Comparative analyses of extinction risk in vertebrates” as part of the Marie Curie Early-Stage Research and Training Network “HOTSPOTS: Understanding and Conserving the Earth’s Biodiversity Hotspots”, financed by the FP6 of the European Commission

1999-2005: Undergraduate and graduate studies, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Germany, including exchange year at the University of Aberdeen, UK. Diplom (German MSc) thesis “Predator-induced plasticity in the development of morphological and behavioural characteristics in tadpoles of the neotropical frog species, Hyla minuta and Physalaemus lisei” at the Pró-Mata research station, South Brazil, partly financed by a personal grant from the state of Baden-Württemberg.

Publications

*  paper financed or co-financed by the HOTSPOTS project
§  paper recommended by the Faculty of 1000 Biology

* Turvey, S. T. & Fritz, S. A. (in review) The ghosts of mammals past: biological and geographical patterns of global mammalian extinction across the Holocene. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Purvis, A., Fritz, S. A., Rodríguez, J. & Grenyer, R. (in review) The shape of mammalian phylogeny: patterns, processes and scales. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

* Fritz, S.A. & Purvis, A. (2010) Phylogenetic diversity does not capture body size variation at risk in the world’s mammals. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 277:2435-2441

* Fritz, S.A. & Purvis, A. (2010) Selectivity in mammalian extinction risk and threat types: a new measure for phylogenetic signal strength in binary traits. Conservation Biology 24:1042-1051

Pecher, C., Fritz, S. A., Marini, L., Fontaneto, D. & Pautasso, M. (2010) Scale-dependence of the correlation between human population and the species richness of stream macro-invertebrates. Basic and Applied Ecology 11:272-280

* Jones, K. E., Bielby, J., Cardillo, M., Fritz, S. A., O’Dell, J., Orme, C. D. L., Safi, K., Sechrest, W., Boakes, E. H., Carbone, C., Connolly, C., Cutts, M. J., Foster, J. K., Grenyer, R., Habib, M., Plaster, C. A., Price, S. A., Rigby, E. A., Rist, J., Teacher, A., Bininda-Emonds, O. R. P., Gittleman, J. L., Mace, G. M. & Purvis, A. (2009) PanTHERIA: A species-level database of life-history, ecology and geography of extant and recently extinct mammals. Ecology 90:2648.

*§ Fritz, S.A., Bininda-Emonds, O. R. P. & Purvis, A.. (2009) Geographical variation in predictors of mammalian extinction risk: Big is bad, but only in the tropics. Ecology Letters 12: 538-549.

* Davies, T.J., Fritz, S.A., Grenyer, R., Orme, C.D.L., Bielby, J., Bininda-Emonds,O. R. P., Cardillo, M., Jones, K.E., Gittleman, J.L., Mace, G.M. & Purvis, A. (2008) Phylogenetic trees and the future of mammalian biodiversity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 105:11556-11563.

Scientific awards

Chimaira Science Award 2006 for herpetological MSc and PhD theses, 3rd place (awarded by DGHT, German Herpetological Society, for the MSc thesis)

Presentations at scientific conferences and workshops

Annual Conference of the German Society for Ecology (GfÖ), Giessen, Germany. September 2010
Evolution 2010, Portland, USA. June 2010
Workshop of the Specialist Group Macroecology of the German Society for Ecology (GfÖ), Uder, Germany. March 2010
Annual Conference of the German Herpetological Society (DGHT), Karlsruhe, Germany. September 2009 (poster)
Student Conference for Conservation Biology, Cambridge, UK. March 2009 (poster)
Evolution 2008, Minneapolis, USA. June 2008
Student Conference for Conservation Biology, Cambridge, UK. March 2008

Professional memberships

Society for Conservation Biology
DGHT (German Society for Herpetology)

Contact details

Susanne Fritz
Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate
Department of Biology
University of Copenhagen
Universitetsparken 15
DK-2100 København Ø

Phone: +45 3532 1258
Email: SFritz -at- bio.ku.dk