Chaz Hyseni

US Forest Service, Center for Bottomland Hardwoods Research, ORISE Postdoctoral Fellow

Yale University, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Research Assistant

Uppsala University, Department of Ecology and Genetics, Postdoctoral Researcher

Followers

Following

Co-authors

Public Views

I am an evolutionary biologist and population geneticist with extensive experience in molecular techniques and statistical analyses, including next-generation sequencing and bioinformatics. I use a multi-disciplinary approach to address questions in ecology and evolution, by adapting methods from spatial and multivariate statistics, as well as machine learning. I use both empirical data and spatial eco-evolutionary modeling to understand the distribution of genetic variation in natural environments. The modeling component involves new ways to assess the role spatial heterogeneity of environments plays in generating genetic variation and biological diversity at multiple levels of organization, from alleles to communities. Timescales of evolution is a unifying theme of my research. At the historical timescale, I have examined geographic and environmental influences on changes in DNA sequence. At the contemporary timescale, I have investigated how epigenetic mechanisms–specifically, DNA methylation–facilitate rapid responses to human-mediated disturbance, both in forest and urban environments.

less

Interests

Uploads

Papers by Chaz Hyseni

The importance of blue and green landscape connectivity for biodiversity in urban ponds

Basic and Applied Ecology, 2021

The negative impact of urbanization on biodiversity can be buffered by blue (e.g., rivers, ponds)... more The negative impact of urbanization on biodiversity can be buffered by blue (e.g., rivers, ponds) and green (e.g., parks, forests) spaces. However, to prevent biodiversity loss and reduce the risk of local extinctions, blue and green spaces need to be connected by corridors, so that organisms may disperse between sites. Landscape connectivity affects local community composition and metacommunity dynamics by facilitating dispersal. The goal of this study was to test the relative roles of pond environmental properties, spatial structure, and functional landscape connectivity on differentiation of invertebrate metacommunities in urban ponds in the city of Stockholm, Sweden. We characterized functional connectivity as blue connectivity (distance to water bodies), green connectivity (land use), and combined blue-green connectivity. We estimated functional connectivity by using electrical circuit theory to identify dispersal corridors. Interestingly, while circuit theory is often used in single-taxon studies, this method has rarely been applied to multiple taxa forming a metacommunity, as we have done in this study. Indeed, our study contributes toward an increased focus on the role of dispersal at the metacommunity level. We determined that functional connectivity was the most important factor in explaining community differentiation, with the local environment contributing comparatively little, and spatial structure the least. Combined blue-green functional connectivity had a major influence on structuring urban pond communities, explaining 7.8% of the variance in community composition across ponds. Furthermore, we found that increased functional connectivity was associated with an increase in the number of species. In summary, our results suggest that to preserve biodiversity in urban ponds, it is important to enhance functional connectivity, and that open green spaces could augment blue corridors in maintaining functional connectivity in urban pond metacommunities. To generalize these findings, future urban biodiversity studies should compare how functional connectivity affects metacommunities across multiple major cities.

format_quoteFunctional connectivity accounted for 7.8% of community differentiation, outperforming spatial structure (1.4%) and local environment (1.3%).format_quote

Chaz Hyseni

Uploads

Papers by Chaz Hyseni

Log In