Research interests
I’m particularly interested in the origin, the present, and the future of tropical biodiversity, and how to ensure sustainable development without affecting biodiversity and life support systems. I cover a wide range of fields including ecology, biogeography, evolutionary biology and conservation biology. My passion and main study group are the birds. Some examples of questions I’m intended to answer with my research are: how do tropical birds persist in agricultural landscapes?, what are their habitat requirements?, how do bird communities respond to global environmental change?, does bird diversity influence ecosystem resilience and functioning?, what are the drivers behind the structure and diversity of tropical bird communities? Although I have a special interest into the birds of my country Colombia, I have a pantropical perspective and the birds from Africa (Cameroon) and Asia (Indo Burma and Sundaland) also have a place in my heart. My PhD project aims to understand the drivers of diversity and assembly of bird communities in a regional environmental gradient in Cameroon and to assess the combined impacts of climate change and land use on Afrotropical birds. I’m open to research collaborations and will be happy to be approached for projects involving birds, and people in tropical regions.

Projects
Ecological and Socioeconomic Functions of Tropical Lowland Rainforest Transformation Systems (EFForTS project), B09 - Aboveground biodiversity patterns and processes across rainforest transformation landscapes in Jambi Sumatra, Indonesia (within this research module , I have explored bird diversity in different plots representing different land uses and experiments)

PhD Topic

  • Diversity and assembly of forest bird communities across a rainfall gradient in Central Africa


    Curriculum Vitae

    Since 2021 PhD student
    Department of conservation biology, University of Göttingen, KAAD scholarship holder

    2017-2020 Master in science in forest sciences and forest ecology
    Göttingen University

    2005-2011 Bachelor in Biology
    Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogota, Colombia

    Work experience
    2020-2021 Research Assistant, Department of Conservation Biology, University of Göttingen
    2020 Research assistant, Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, Animal Ecology Group, University of Göttingen
    2020 Research Assistant, Agroecology Group, University of Göttingen
    2016-2018 Ornithologist, Consultoria Colombiana (CONCOL), Colombia
    2014-2016 Zoologist, Bogota Environment Secretary, Colombia
    2013-2014 Biologist, Botanical Garden José Celestino Mutis, Colombia
    2013 Ornithologist, Art collegium Foundation, Colombia
    2013 Biologist, Conservation International Colombia
    2012-2013 Biologist, Alcaldía Local de Suba, Colombia


    Publications

    Iddris, N.A., Formaglio, G., Paul, C., von Groß, V., Chen, G., Angulo-Rubiano, A., Berkelmann, D., Brambach, F., Darras, K.F.A., Krashevska, V., Potapov, A., Wenzel, A., Irawan, B., Damris, M., Daniel, R., Grass, I., Kreft, H., Scheu, S., Tscharntke, T., Tjoa, A., Veldkamp, E., & Corre, M.D. 2023. Mechanical weeding enhances ecosystem multifunctionality and profit in industrial oil palm. Nature Sustainability (online). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01076-x

    Ocampo-Ariza C., Toledo-Hernández M., Librán-Embid F., Armenteras D., Vansynghel J., Raveloaritiana E., Arimond I., Angulo-Rubiano A., Tscharntke T., Ramírez-Casta V., Wurz A., Marcacci G., Anders M., Urbina-Cardona N., de Vos A., Devy S., Westphal C., Toomey A., Sheherazade, Chirango Y., Maas B. 2023. Global South leadership towards inclusive tropical ecology and conservation. Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation (online). , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pecon.2023.01.002

    Kevin F.A. Darras, Franziska Deppe, Yvonne Fabian, Agus P. Kartono, Andres Angulo, Bjørn Kolbrek, Yeni A. Mulyani, Dewi M. Prawiradilaga.2020. High microphone signal-to-noise ratio enhances acoustic sampling of wildlife. PeerJ. Vol.8:e9955. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.9955

    Kevin F. A. Darras, Marife D. Corre, Greta Formaglio, Aiyen Tjoa, Anton Potapov, Fabian Brambach, Kibrom T. Sibhatu, Ingo Grass, Andres Angulo, Damayanti Buchori, Jochen Drescher, Riko Fardiansah, Dirk Hölscher, Bambang Irawan, Thomas Kneib, Valentyna Krashevska, Alena Krause, Holger Kreft, Kevin Li, Mark Maraun, Andrea Polle, Aisjah R. Ryadin, Katja Rembold, Christian Stiegler, Stefan Scheu, Suria Tarigan, Alejandra Valdés-Uribe, Supri Yadi, Teja Tscharntke and Edzo Veldkamp. 2019. Reducing Fertilizer and Avoiding Herbicides in Oil Palm Plantations—Ecological and Economic Valuations. Frontiers in Forest and Global Change. 5 November. https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2019.00065


    Citizen Science Initiatives
    Xenocanto
    ebird