Benjamin Dignal, BSc

Room 518
Benjamin.Dignal@student.uibk.ac.at

I have been captivated by nature and especially animals at an early age. Before and during my Bachelor´s degree in Biology at the University of Würzburg, I deepened my knowledge and excitement for birds and insects. Understanding and preserving the complex interactions between animal species and their surrounding environment and habitats are a very fascinating topic for me.

My previous research in Würzburg focused on avian acoustic monitoring and ornithological niche analysis of temperate forest bird species in Germany. In my Master´s thesis project, together with the national park Berchtesgaden, TU München and the Molecular Ecology Group at the University of Innsbruck, I am studying the breeding bird community at the National Park Berchtesgaden (Königssee). I will investigate the influence of abiotic and biotic drivers (such as habitat types, insect biomass and co-occurring bird species) on the occurrence probabilities of all breeding bird species at the national park. Additionally, I am also interested whether closely related bird species tend to be influenced by the same environmental drivers. My aim is to better understand the reason where and how bird species occur, to help develop even more targeted conservational actions in the future.

Research topics
Alpine ecology
Biodiversity
Conservation biology
Ecological niche modelling
Ornithology
Trophic ecology