Research interests

The best thing about ecology is that it gives the opportunity to continuously ask questions about the relationships between biotic and abiotic factors influencing abundances of species. My research is mostly involving population abundances and how these are affect by external abiotic factors, like climate or biotic factors like interactions between species.

What drives my research is how human influence through habitat fragmentation and climate change can cause disruption of these population dynamics and species interactions, possibly resulting in different patterns in population fluctuations. I am interested in connecting a mechanistic approach to species responses with the population responses.

Currently, my research focuses on insect outbreaks and outbreak species in the context of climate change.  I am interested in questions on outbreak population dynamics under climate change scenario’s and the possibility of differential effect on outbreak species and their natural enemies and other interesting questions related to expansion of outbreak range, life history and natural enemies.

Publications

Klapwijk, M. J., & Lewis, O.T. Host–parasitoid dynamics in a fragmented landscape: Holly trees, holly leaf miners and their parasitoids. Basic and Applied Ecology (2012), doi:10.1016/j.baae.2011.12.002

Klapwijk, M.J., Battisti, A., Ayres, M.P., & Larsson, S. (2012.). Assessing the impact of climate change on outbreak potential. In Insect Outbreaks Revisited (ed. by P. Barbosa, J.C. Schultz & D. Letourneau). Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Oxford. Expected publication date 23 March 2012

Koricheva, J., Klapwijk, M.J., & Björkman, C. (2012). Implications of life history traits and host plant characteristics for insect herbivore population dynamics. In Insect Outbreaks Revisited (ed. by P. Barbosa, J.C. Schultz & D. Letourneau). Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Oxford. Expected publication date 23 March 2012

Klapwijk, M.J., & Lewis, O.T. (2011). Spatial ecology of multiple parasitoids of a patchily-distributed host: implications for species coexistence. Ecological Entomology, 36, 212-220.

Björkman, C., Bylund, H., Klapwijk, M.J., Kollberg, I., & Schroeder, M. (2011). Insect Pests in Future Forests: More Severe Problems? Forests, 2, 474-485.

Klapwijk, M.J., Grobler, B.C., Ward, K., Wheeler, D., & Lewis, O.T. (2010) Influence of experimental warming and shading on host-parasitoid synchrony. Global Change Biology, 16, 102-112.

Klapwijk, M.J. and Lewis, O.T. (2008). Effects of Climate change and Habitat Fragmentation on Trophic Interactions. In: Tropical Biology and Conservation, edited by Arturo Bonet and Glória Carrion Villarnovo. Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), UNESCO, Eolss Publishers, Oxford, UK. http://www.eolss.net/