PD Dr.Mark-Oliver Rödel

Scientific Head of Collection

Mo.Roedel@mfn.berlin+49 0 30 889 140 - 8571
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Department:
Evolutionary Diversity Dynamics

As the Curator of Herpetology, I am responsible for the maintenance, the development and the access to and use of the herpetological collection. I am teaching ecology and herpetology at the Humboldt University Berlin and the Gorongosa Restoration project in Mozambique. With my research group I investigate the systematics, taxonomy, and biology of amphibians and reptiles (and some other taxa from time to time). Our main research goal is to understand the impact of environmental change on species and ecosystems, mainly using anuran amphibians as a model system. The factors which we investigate are man-made activities such as logging of rainforests, the use of frogs as food, diseases and climate change. In order to meaningfully conduct our ecological research and to understand the history of our study organisms, we also clarify their taxonomy (incl. the description of new species), systematics and biogeography; and we research specific aspects of our study species’ biology. For our research we use the herpetological collection of the museum and collect data in the field. Apart from several long-term projects in Germany, our geographical focus is on West Africa and Ecuador. My group comprises undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate researchers from Europe, but particularly also from the tropical countries where we are active.

I work in the collections:
Herpetology

Vita

I studied biology (diploma) at the University of Tübingen. My major topic was zoology, minor subjects were botany, palaeontology and parasitology. My diploma thesis was on the biology and behaviour of a West African savanna frog. For my PhD I moved to the Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology at the University of Würzburg. There I studied the composition of tadpole assemblages in the northern savannas of Ivory Coast. Then I spend several years as a Post-Doc, first at Mainz University, researching the impact of logging on amphibians in West Africa; before I returned to Würzburg University to finish my habilitation and to take over an interim professorship. Since 2007 I am working with my lab at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, and I am habilitated at the Humboldt University. Apart from my tasks as the Curator of Herpetology, I headed the department of Diversity Dynamics for more then ten years and acted many years as the ombudsperson for good scientific practise. Since 6 years I serve in the selection committee ‘Zoology’ of the German Research Foundation.

Further information

Apart from the normal activities as a researcher, serving as reviewer and editor for scientific journals, funding agencies and other scientific actors, I am the president of the NGO Frogs & Friends e.V.: www.frogs-friends.org/de/; a member of the directorate of an initiative for Captive Breeding of threatened species, linking professional institutions with amateur experts: Citizen Conservation (https://citizen-conservation.org/); the vice-president for field herpetology in the NGO Vipera e.V. (https://www.vipera-ev.de/), a NGO focusing on research and the conservation of the European Common Viper.