2009-2012
LINC-Global Post-doc (JAE doc)
Profile
I started out as an experimental plant ecologist, but as time went by the scales kept widening and my PhD thesis was already titled “Macroecological approach in vegetation science: generality of ecological relationships at the global scale”, which I defended in July 2008 in University of Tartu, Estonia, and what was supervised by prof. Meelis Pärtel.
Majority of my studies have concentrated on the global shapes of relationships between plant diversity and some essential environmental parameter (like primary productivity and soil heterogeneity); how those, often textbook determined relationships put up with new qualities and quantities of data. Because during the 20th century, ecological research on diversity and richness concentrated mainly on small-scale local processes occurring in ecological time, and differences in species richness were associated with competition avoiding mechanisms or environmental stress. But I have tried to ask questions about the influences of spatiotemporally large-scale processes, like different aspects of evolution, geological history, dispersal etc, to diversity and richness patterns, mainly in the context of species pool theory.
During my career as an ecologist, I have participated in projects Natura 2000, EcoChange, different grants by Martin Zobel, Kristjan Zobel and Meelis Pärtel. I have also collaborated with Scott D. Wilson from University of Regina, José María Fernández-Palacios and Island Ecology and Biogeography Research Group of La Laguna University.
Selected publications
Pärtel, M.; Laanisto, L.; Zobel, M. (2007). Contrasting plant productivity-diversity relationships in temperate and tropical regions: the role of evolutionary history. Ecology, 88(5), 1091-1097.
Laanisto, L.; Urbas, P.; Pärtel, M. (2008). Why does the unimodal species richness-productivity relationship not apply to woody species: a lack of clonality or a legacy of tropical evolutionary history? Global Ecology and Biogeography, 17(3), 320-326
Pärtel, M.; Laanisto, L.; Wilson, S.D. (2008). Soil nitrogen and carbon heterogeneity in woodlands and grasslands: contrasts between temperate and tropical regions. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 17(1), 18-24
For my full CV (in English) read here
