Potapov, Anton

Now I’m working at the University of Göttingen in the EFForTS B08 project as a postdoc. In the framework of the project, I’m studying soil fauna in tropical rainforest and managed ecosystems, such as oil palm plantations, in Sumatra, Indonesia. I’m interested how soil biodiversity affect functioning of ecosystems and I’m keen on searching macroecological patterns in nature. My particular interest is devoted to stable isotope analysis and springtails, but I’m building bridges across scales in soil, from microorganisms to macrofauna.

I was graduated from Moscow State University in 2011 and got my PhD in ecology and microbiology in 2015. During that time, I was exploring feeding habits of springtails (Collembola) and their role in food webs and ecosystem processes. From 2016 on, I’m working with all groups of meso- and macrofauna to uncover drivers of soil-food web organisation across ecosystems.

The following main questions I ask:
(1) How the energy from primary produces and detritus flow through soil food webs? What is the role of different resources, such as plant roots? How we can predict the interactions between organisms in this cryptic system?
(2) How body size of organism affects its position in a food web? Is this effect different in terrestrial (in particular, soil) and aquatic ecosystems?
(3) How diversity of species and traits affect food-web organisation and performance of ecosystem functions?
(4) What is the role of life history and recent morphological adaptations in the ecosystem roles animals play?


We are also developing Ecotaxonomy database to link traits and other information to taxa, check it out.
ecotaxonomy.org
https://www.researchgate.net/project/Ecotaxonomy-database

My RG profile:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anton_Potapov