Member biographies
Meet the GLOSAM team!
Co-Chairs
John Simaika, IHE Delft, The Netherlands
Andreas Bruder, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland
Members
Angélica María Batista-Morales, Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute, Colombia
Alejandra Correa-Bedoya, Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia
Aventino Kasangaki, Institute of Tropical Forest Conservation, Uganda
Craig Macadam, BugLife, United Kingdom
James Stribling, Tetra Tech Inc., Unites States of America
Jennifer Lento, Canadian Rivers Institute, Canada
Koji Toji, Shinsu University, Japan
Marcelo S. Moretti, Universidade Vila Velha, Brazil
Mary Seddon, IUCN Mollusc Specialist Group, United Kingdom
Sandra Poikane, EC Joint Research Centre, Belgium
Sanjay Molur, Zoo Outreach Organization, India
Séverin Tchibozo, Research Center for Biodiversity Management, Benin
Nick Rivers-Moore, Rivers-Moore Aquatics, South Africa
Purevdorj Surenkhorloo, World Wildlife Fund for Nature, Mongolia
Advisors
Bruce Chessman, Monash University, Australia
Ken Irvine, Institute for Water Education, The Netherlands
Kristian Meissner, Finnish Environment Institute, Finland
Astrid Schmidt-Kloiber, University of Natural Resources & Life Sciences, Austria
Eren Turak, New South Wales Department of Planning and Environment, Australia
Andreas Bruder (Co-Chair)
Andreas is a freshwater ecologist with a focus on functional biodiversity and ecosystem processes. He mainly uses detritus-based food webs in streams to study how these elements of ecosystems are interlinked and modified by anthropogenic change. He established a laboratory to study all aspects of the biodiversity, ecology and biogeography of aquatic hyphomycetes, a diverse but understudied group of freshwater saprobic fungi. He applies the knowledge gained from these studies in collaborative projects with stakeholders, for instance to develop functional bioindicators or knowledge on understudied organism groups. He’s also Co-Chair of the Freshwater Biodiversity Observation Network, a part of GEOBON.
Angélica María Batista-Morales
Angélica has a graduate degree in Biological Sciences from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and an MSc in Biological Sciences at the Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia. Angelica does research in Ecology, Limnology, and Genetics. She currently works at the Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute as a researcher of freshwater ecology, in the Research program of monitoring and evaluation of biodiversity. She works in the design of protocols, programs, and indicators of aquatic biodiversity and ecosystems. She supports the national mercury research plan in the expert committee for biota monitoring of the Minamata Convention, and the national monitoring ecosystem program of Colombia. She is one of the Latin America coordinators for Freshwater BON (FWBON) - GEOBON. She is interested in deepening the role of the dendritic structure of river networks on their biodiversity, the use of eDNA to analyze metacommunities, restoration, ecological connectivity, and developing strategies from macroecology to address management.
Aventino Kasangaki
An Ugandan ecologist, conservationist, consultant and academic, Aventino’s ecology and conservation work focuses on the integrity of freshwater ecosystems especially on how humans impact aquatic ecosystems and development of monitoring tools for assessing these impacts. He is passionate about the ecosystem goods and services communities derive from aquatic habitats. Over the last 23 years Aventino has worked as a wildlife researcher, consultant and lecturer in various fields of ecology and conservation of freshwater systems in Uganda and neighbouring countries. He has authored over 20 publications in peer reviewed journals and written several technical reports for various projects. Born 52 years ago in rural western Uganda, he continues to champion biodiversity research and conservation through community outreach, teaching and development of biodiversity indicators aimed at assessing attainment of sustainable development goals.
Craig Macadam
Following 11 years in the water industry as an Engineering technician, Environmental Policy Officer and Drinking Water Scientist and time as a Biodiversity Officer and independent Consultant, I now head up the Conservation team with Buglife – The Invertebrate Conservation Trust. I have been studying freshwater invertebrates, particularly mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies (the ‘riverflies’) for over 30 years and regularly deliver training on the identification of freshwater invertebrates. My particular interests are the effects of climate change on riverfly populations, the life histories of mayfly and stonefly species, and various aspects of urban biodiversity. I am co-chair of the IUCN Mayflies, Stoneflies and Caddisflies Specialist Group, a founder member of the Riverfly Partnership, a fellow of the Freshwater Biological Association, and a Scientific Associate of the Natural History Museum, London.
James Stribling
I am an aquatic ecologist with Tetra Tech, Inc.’s Center for Ecological Sciences, Owings Mills, Maryland, USA. I have >30 years of experience in developing aquatic monitoring and assessment datasets for use in environmental management decision-making. Much of my work has been assisting with continuous implementation of the United States’ Clean Water Act, using indicators of biological and ecological integrity as objective statements of ecological health. My academic background is in insect taxonomy and phylogenetic systematics, though in recent years have focused on developing a framework and procedures for defining data quality and performance measures. I developed an objective approach for quantifying taxonomic identification error rates associated with benthic macroinvertebrate data in monitoring and assessment datasets, and have been leading quality control (QC) analyses for the US Environmental Protection Agency in most of its National Aquatic Resources Surveys (NARS) since 2004.
Jennifer Lento
Dr. Jennifer Lento is a Research Scientist with the Canadian Rivers Institute at the University of New Brunswick (Fredericton, Canada). She is the Science Coordinator of the Freshwater Steering Group of the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program (CBMP), the Arctic BON of GEO BON and part of the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) working group of the Arctic Council. She is also a co-chair of the Freshwater Biodiversity Observation Network (FW BON). Her research focuses on patterns in biodiversity and ecological function of freshwater food webs, particularly benthic macroinvertebrates. Her research evaluates structural and functional biotic responses to natural drivers and anthropogenic stressors as a way to inform practical applications of biomonitoring, including the development of biomonitoring designs and testing of appropriate biotic response metrics. Through her Arctic research, she has worked on developing and promoting harmonized sample collection and large-scale coordination of biodiversity assessment.
John Simaika (Co-Chair)
John is a Senior Lecturer/Researcher for Aquatic Ecology and Conservation at IHE Delft Institute for Water Education in Delft, The Netherlands. He has interests in both aquatic and landscape ecology and restoration. John has more than a decade experience working in African rivers, lakes, wetlands and artificial ponds. He has worked on the development of a new freshwater biomonitoring index for South Africa which has earned him the Marsh Award for Early Career Research in Entomology (2017). He has coordinated research on the impact of alien vegetation on the water quality and ecological integrity of streams in South Africa, and held an EU COFUND research project on the comparative assessment of bioindicators of wetland health in Uganda. John is a founding member of the IUCN Freshwater Conservation Sub-Committee, and Africa Coordinator of the Freshwater Biodiversity Observation Network (FWBON). He has authored 50 peer-reviewed publications in international journals, two in local journals, five book chapters, and three books. John is a Handling Editor for Conservation Biology.
Marcelo S. Moretti
Dr. Marcelo S. Moretti holds a Bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (2002), a Master's degree (2005), and a Ph.D. (2009) in Ecology from the Graduate Program in Ecology, Conservation and Management of Wildlife at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. He has experience in the area of Limnology, with emphasis on Ecology of Benthic Invertebrates and Processing of Organic Matter in Streams, working mainly on the following subjects: benthic macroinvertebrate communities, leaf litter decomposition, the behavior of invertebrate shredders, and bioindicators of water quality. He is currently a professor at Universidade Vila Velha, where he leads the Laboratory of Aquatic Insect Ecology.
Nick Rivers-Moore
With a PhD in environmental hydrology, and as an established researcher and consulting aquatic ecologist, I have built up extensive expertise and professional experience working in river systems over the past 20 years. My research interests primarily focus on the field of environmental hydrology, where I have applied my skills across disciplines including freshwater conservation planning; climate change; ecological modelling; pest blackfly and trout ecology; and catchment-level predictions of wetland occurrence, types and ecological condition. A core research area for the past 15 years has been on river ecology and blackfly dynamics, where I have published work on system switches (clear to turbid conditions) and how this promotes pest outbreaks. I have considerable experience in fish and aquatic macroinvertebrate sampling, and collection and analysis of water temperature data, facilitated through a suite of metrics I developed to assess changes in magnitudes, frequency, duration and timing of thermal stress events. These skills are complemented by extensive experience in water temperature modelling, and development of ecological response models based on flow and water temperature inputs, also applied in climate change scenario impacts. I am currently co-editor for the African Journal of Aquatic Science, and subject editor for Water SA.
Purevdorj Surenkhorloo
A Hydrobiologist, he conducts research on the systematics of benthic insects (especially stoneflies) and water quality analysis using the macro-invertebrates (EPT) as freshwater indicators. Purevdorj has also researched food web relationships between macro-invertebrates and selected freshwater fish species. Since 2012, Purevdorj works at the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Mongolia in Ulaanbaatar as a freshwater specialist and has been leading the Specialist Group of the Mongolian Benthological Society since 2009. Since 2013, he is also a formal member of the Mongolian Committee of UNESCO-IHP (International Hydrological Programme). He has authored and co-authored 20 peer-reviewed publications in international journals and 10 book chapters.
Sandra Poikane
I am an aquatic ecologist, currently employed at Sustainable Resources, Joint Research Centre of European Commission in Ispra, Italy. My research covers several aspects of applied ecology, focusing on aquatic bioassessment and the definition of biological integrity and ecosystem health. Currently, I am leading a pan-European intercalibration work, which has resulted in harmonization of ecological assessment of lakes, rivers and coastal waters. I am involved in a project focusing on nutrient thresholds associated with good ecological quality in lakes and rivers of Europe. I have authored 45 papers on these topics in peer-reviewed journals.
Séverin Tchibozo
Séverin is an expert on natural resources and biodiversity. For more than 20 years he has actively worked in French-speaking countries in Africa. His focus is on threatened species of Benin’s flora and fauna. He has several years of professional experience on natural resources like biodiversity evaluation, estimating forest stock, conservation action and habitat restoration, mammals and invertebrate fauna research and monitoring, environmental impact assessments and the protection of the biological resources in Africa. He is an advisor for several organization: EU / SOPEX / CEDEAO, GEF / PNUD / UNOPS / Baastel, GTZ) and member of the CRGB France, the IUCN/SSC Dragonfly Specialist Group and the African Freshwater Entomology (AFRESH) network.
Alejandra Correa Bedoya
Alejandra is a junior lecturer at Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Biology from the Universidad de Antioquia and a Master's degree in Applied Aquatic Ecology from the Institute for Water Education IHE. She has ten years of experience in aquatic entomology, freshwater ecology, and bioassessment. Her work, mainly on Colombian streams, has focused on protocols and metrics for freshwater ecological assessment using freshwater invertebrates. Alejandra is an active member of the Latin American network for research on aquatic macroinvertebrates and freshwater ecosystems MACROLATINOS.
Astrid Schmidt-Kloiber
Dr. Astrid Schmidt-Kloiber is a river ecologist with a background in benthic invertebrates. She has extensive expertise in database design, development and management. She founded and maintains freshwaterecology.info, a European trait database for invertebrates, fish, macrophytes, diatoms and phytoplankton. Together with three European institutes she founded and maintains the Freshwater Information Platform (FIP), which aims at pooling freshwater related research information from multiple projects and initiatives to make it easily accessible for scientists, water managers, conservationists and the interested public. Over the past decade she has been working in the field of freshwater biodiversity, focusing amongst others on data mobilisation, quality control and online presentation of data. She is experienced in handling all kinds of freshwater-related (meta)data, she manages the Freshwater Metadatabase and has founded the Freshwater Metadata Journal. Astrid is co-chair of the IUCN Mayfly, Stonefly, Caddisfly Specialist Group, regional coordinator of Freshwater BON and steering group member of the Alliance for Freshwater Life.
Bruce Chessman
Dr Bruce Chessman graduated from Monash University, Victoria, Australia, with a B.Sc. Honours degree (1972) and Ph.D. (1979) in Zoology. Between 1974 and 2013 he was employed as a research scientist, supervisor and project manager by several government water resource and environmental conservation agencies in Victoria and New South Wales, Australia. Currently, Bruce is a self-employed environmental consultant, an Adjunct Associate Professor with the University of New South Wales, and a member of the editorial board for the journal Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. Bruce has published 93 peer-reviewed journal papers and 5 book chapters, and also written numerous technical reports. His research interests and experience include the development and application of novel methods for using diatoms and aquatic invertebrates as ecological indicators, the ecology and conservation of freshwater algae, plants, invertebrates, fishes and turtles, and the impacts of climate change, hydrological variation and pollution on aquatic organisms.
Eren Turak
Eren Turak is the founding chair and current co-chair of the Freshwater Biodiversity Observation Network (FWBON). He has also been a member of the steering and implementation committees of GEOBON since 2009. He has recently led initiatives and publications aimed at establishing a rigorous approach to assessing global change in freshwater biodiversity based on the Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBV) Framework. He is also Principal Scientist at the Department of Planning and Environment in NSW, Australia where he has been working on a biodiversity monitoring programs focussed on multiple taxonomic groups including freshwater macroinvertebrates, fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians, mammals and plants. He is currently working with Aboriginal and other local communities across south east Australia to build a large number of locally-based and co-designed biodiversity monitoring initiatives which explicitly integrate indigenous and local ecological knowledge and build local capacity for monitoring, protecting and restoring biodiversity.
Kenneth Irvine
Kenneth Irvine has a broad range of multidisciplinary experience working on aquatic ecology, ecological assessment of surface waters, especially lakes and wetlands, and policy and related policies and management. After gaining a PhD in 1987 at the University of East Anglia (U.K) for a study on trophic ecology of shallow lakes, he worked for the U.K. Nature Conservancy Council, before moving to study ecosystem structure of Lake Malawi in Africa. He moved to Trinity College Dublin in 1994 Ireland. There, he continued work on the African Great Lakes, as well as building a research group working on ecological assessment in support of the EU Water Framework Directive. In 2011 he moved to IHE Delft Institute of Water Education, the Netherlands as Chair of Aquatic Ecosystems. Current work focuses on wetlands and capacity development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Recent work also includes a review of hydromorphology and links to policy.
Kristian Meissner
I am the director of the research program Environmental information at the Finnish Environment Institute, SYKE and have over 20 years of work experience in environmental science and management. At SYKE, I work on improving monitoring methods , the implementation process and impact of international environmental legislation and agreements. I have coordinated and am involved in European research projects that develop foresight and novel solutions to aquatic monitoring. I recently coordinated the renewal of the national environmental monitoring strategy of Finland until 2030. I was SYKE’s coordinator of the European Network of Freshwater Research Organisations (www.euraqua.org) and am SYKE’s coordinator in the Partnership for European Environmental Research,PEER (www.peer.eu). I have worked over 10 years in international environmental standardization (CEN and ISO), I currently chair the working group on eDNA and DNA method standardization under the the technical committee “water quality “ for the European Committee for Standardization (CEN).