Derek Tittensor

I am a postdoctoral scientist based jointly at the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) and the Computational Ecology and Environmental Science group at Microsoft Research. I am interested in human impacts on biodiversity in the oceans, the distribution and biogeography of marine species, and the effects of sampling and scale. Results from my 2010 Nature paper were used in a National Geographic map poster and also covered by Science. My work is a combination of statistical analyses, theoretical modelling, field observation, and experiments.

My role at UNEP-WCMC is to contribute to the global biosphere model, particularly the marine component of this model. Our aim is to provide scientifically robust, policy-relevant projections based on the underlying mechanisms of nutrient and energy flow in ecosystems. In addition, I am working on mapping and analyzing functional richness for marine taxa, to assess where, why, and how species richness and functional richness are related, and how they compare to similar patterns for terrestrial organisms.

PUBLICATIONS

Peer-reviewed journals

1. Yesson, C., Taylor, M. L., Tittensor, D. P., Davies, A. J., Guinotte, J., Baco, A., Black, J., Hall-Spencer, J. M. & Rogers, A. D. (2012). Global habitat suitability of cold-water octocorals. Journal of Biogeography, 39: 1278-1292.

2. Mora, C., Treml, E. A., Roberts, J., Crosby, K., Roy, D. Tittensor, D. P. (2012). The lack of isolation in the ocean precludes the effect of dispersal on the range size of tropical reef fishes. Ecography. 35: 89-96.

3. Kaschner, K., Tittensor, D. P., Ready, J., Gerrodette, T. & Worm, B. (2011). Predicting the impact of climate change on global hotspots of marine mammal biodiversity. PLoS One, 6: e19653.

4. Stuart, C. T., Rex, M. A, Tittensor, D. P. & Smith, C. R. (2011). Elevated species diversity in abyssal gastropods off Newfoundland: the potential role of food supply. Marine Biodiversity, 41: 537-544.

5. Tittensor, D. P., Rex, M. A., Stuart, C. T., Smith, C. R. & McClain. (2011). Species-energy relationships in deep-sea mollusks. Biology Letters, 7: 718-722.

6. Mora, C. et al. (inc. Tittensor, D. P.). (2011). Global human footprint on the linkage between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in reef fishes. PLoS Biology, 9: e1000606, 1-9.

7. Tittensor, D. P., Mora, C., Jetz, W., Lotze, H. K., Ricard, D., Vanden Berghe, E., Worm, B. (2010) Global patterns and predictors of marine biodiversity across taxa. Nature, 466: 1098-1101.

8. Ramirez-Llodra, E., Brandt, A., Danovaro, R., Escobar, E., German, C. R., Levin, L. A., Martinez Arbizu, P., Menot, L., Buhl-Mortensen, P., Narayanaswamy, B. E., Smith, C., Tittensor, D. P., Tyler, P. A., Vanreusel, A. & Vecchione, M. (2010), Deep, diverse, and definitely different: unique attributes of the world’s largest ecosystem. Biogeosciences,7: 2851-2899.

9. McCauley, D. J., Micheli, F., Young, H., Tittensor, D. P., Brumbaugh, D. R., Madin, E. M. P., Holmes, K. E., Dunbar, R., Smith, J., Lotze, H. K., Arnold, S. N., Worm, B. (2010). Acute effects of removing large fish from a near-pristine coral reef. Marine Biology, 157: 2739-2750.

10. Tittensor, D. P., Baco, A. R., Hall-Spencer, J. M., Orr, J. C. & Rogers, A. D. (2010). Seamounts as refugia from ocean acidification for cold-water stony corals. Marine Ecology, 31: 212-225.

11. Clark, M. R. & Tittensor, D. P. (2010). An index to assess the risk to stony corals from bottom trawling on seamounts. Marine Ecology, 31: 200-211.

12. O'Hara, T. & Tittensor, D. P. (2010). Environmental drivers of ophiuroid species richness on seamounts. Marine Ecology, 31: 26-38.

13. Tittensor, D. P., Baco, A., Brewin, P., Clark, M. R., Consalvey, M., Hall-Spencer, J., Rowden, A. A., Schlacher, T., Stocks, K. and Rogers, A. D. (2009). Predicting global habitat suitability for stony corals on seamounts. Journal of Biogeography, 36: 1111-1128.

14. Boyce, D., Tittensor D. P. and Worm, B. (2008). Effects of temperature on global patterns of tuna and billfish. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 355: 267-276.

15. Mora, C., Tittensor, D. P. and Myers, R. A. (2008). The completeness of taxonomic inventories for describing the global diversity and distribution of marine fishes. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 275: 149-155.

16. Tittensor, D. P., Micheli, F., Nystrom, M. and Worm B. (2007). Human impacts on the species-area relationship in reef fish assemblages. Ecology Letters, 10: 760 – 772.

17. Tittensor, D. P., deYoung, B. and Tang, C. (2003). Modelling the distribution, sustainability and diapause emergence timing of the copepod Calanus finmarchicus in the Labrador Sea. Fisheries Oceanography 12: 299-316.

In preparation

18. McClain, C. R., Allen, A. P., Tittensor, D. P. & Rex, M. A. In prep. The energetics of life on the deep seafloor: implications for climate change.

19. Tittensor, D. P., Schlacher, T., Smith, C. R. & Susko, E. In prep. Endemism at low levels of sampling effort: real or artifact?

Book chapters

20. Tittensor, D. P., Myers, R. A. and Worm, B. (2009). Macroecology of exploited marine systems. In: Marine Macroecology (eds. Witman J. and Roy, K.) University of Chicago Press.

Public interest

21. Solow, A. & Tittensor, D. P. (2010). The sea, the Census, and statistics. Significance, 7: 146-192.