Steffen Pauls

Steffen U. Pauls

pauls497(at)umn.edu

Diploma (MSc) Ecology, University of Essen, 2001

PhD, University of Duisburg-Essen, 2004

My research focusses evolutionary ecology of aquatic insects. I am interested in how present-day species distributions came to be and how these were affected by historical processes. In particular I examine what evolutionary and ecological processes are driving differentiation in populations and species to understand how endemism evolved in selected groups of aquatic insects. To study these questions I analyze molecular, ecological, and morphological data using state of the art phylogenetic, phylogeographic, and population genetic methods.

As a Leopoldina Postdoctoral Fellow, I am currently working on a group of Chilean caddisflies from the genus Smicridea. The main goals of the project are to:

study the phylogeography of aquatic insects in the Chilean Subregion of South America,

develop evolutionary hypotheses on the diversification of caddisflies in the Chilean Subregion, and

use DNA assisted taxonomy to make an identification key for Smicridea larvae.

I am also interested in applied stream assessment using benthic invertebrates. My research in this field involves developing new multi-metric assessment schemes based on reference communities; testing and standardizing field and laboratory protocols for stream assessment; identifying and quantifying errors in assessment results to help assess their reliability.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS - complete list

Pauls, S.U., Graf, W., Haase, P., Lumbsch, H.T. & Waringer, J. (2008) Grazers, shredders and filtering carnivores – The evolution of feeding ecology in the Drusinae (Trichoptera: Limnephilidae): insights from a molecular phylogeny. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 46 (2), 776-791.[request PDF][Abstract]

Waringer, J., Graf, W., Pauls, S.U., Vincentini, H. & Lubini, V. (2008) DNA based association and description of the larval stage of Drusus melanchaetes McLachlan, 1876 (Trichoptera: Limnephilidae: Drusinae) with notes on ecology and zoogeography. Limnologica, 38 (1), 34-42.[request PDF][Abstract]

Pauls, S.U., Feldheim, K.A. & Haase, P. (2007) Isolation and characterisation of microsatellite markers in the caddisfly Drusus discolor (Trichoptera: Limnephilidae). Molecular Ecology Notes, 7 (1): 150-152.[request PDF][Abstract]

Haase, P., Murray-Bligh, J., Gunn, R., Lohse, S., Pauls, S. & Sundermann, A. (2006) An assessment of the impact of sorting and identification errors of macroinvertebrate samples. Hydrobiologia, 566 (1): 505-521.[request PDF][Abstract]

Pauls, S.U., Lumbsch, H.T. & Haase, P. (2006) Phylogeography of the montane caddisfly Drusus discolor: evidence for multiple refugia and periglacial survival. Molecular Ecology, 15 (8): 2153-2169. [request PDF][Abstract]

Graf, W., Lubini, V. & Pauls, S. (2005) Larval description of Drusus muelleri McLachlan, 1868 (Trichoptera: Limnephilidae) with some notes on its ecology and systematic position within the genus Drusus. Annales de Limnologie – International Journal of Limnology, 41 (2): 93-98.[PDF]

CURRICULUM VITAE

CURRENT PROJECTS

Phylogeography, molecular phylogenetics and larval taxonomy of Chilean Smicridea

Evolution and larval taxonomy of the Drusinae

Comparative phylogeography of montane aquatic insects in Europe
[DFG page - German][Senckenperg page - English]

Caddisflies of the eastern DR Congo

LINKS

The Field Museum Collaborations the DR Congo
German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina

Send comments on this web site to holze001@umn.edu

pauls497(at)umn.edu Diploma (MSc) Ecology, University of Essen, 2001 PhD, University of Duisburg-Essen, 2004 My research focusses evolutionary ecology of aquatic insects. I am interested in how present-day species distributions came to be and how these were affected by historical processes. In particular I examine what evolutionary and ecological processes are driving differentiation in populations and species to understand how endemism evolved in selected groups of aquatic insects. To study these questions I analyze molecular, ecological, and morphological data using state of the art phylogenetic, phylogeographic, and population genetic methods.




As a Leopoldina Postdoctoral Fellow, I am currently working on a group of Chilean caddisflies from the genus Smicridea. The main goals of the project are to: study the phylogeography of aquatic insects in the Chilean Subregion of South America, develop evolutionary hypotheses on the diversification of caddisflies in the Chilean Subregion, and use DNA assisted taxonomy to make an identification key for Smicridea larvae. I am also interested in applied stream assessment using benthic invertebrates. My research in this field involves developing new multi-metric assessment schemes based on reference communities; testing and standardizing field and laboratory protocols for stream assessment; identifying and quantifying errors in assessment results to help assess their reliability.