Our laboratory studies how animal populations respond to environmental change, colonize new habitats, and adapt to spatial and temporal variation in their environments.

We combine long-term field observations with modern approaches in population ecology, behavioural ecology, genetics, and parasitology to understand the mechanisms shaping animal populations. Our research spans a wide range of organisms, including birds, rodents, insectivores, and large mammals, but is united by a common focus: how individuals, populations, and communities change through time.

A major strength of our laboratory is the long-term nature of our field studies. At the Yenisei Ecological Station ("Mirnoye") in Central Siberia and in the grazing ecosystems of Kalmykia, we have established monitoring programmes that have continued for decades. These unique datasets allow us to investigate population dynamics, life-history evolution, dispersal, range expansion, and responses to climate and landscape change.

Our research addresses fundamental questions in ecology and evolution:

• How do populations respond to climate change and environmental transformation?
• How do animals colonize new territories and establish viable populations?
• What mechanisms maintain species coexistence within communities?
• How do individual differences in behaviour, physiology, and genetics influence population processes?
• How can long-term ecological knowledge contribute to biodiversity conservation?

By combining detailed individual-based observations with demographic modelling, molecular methods, telemetry, and spatial analysis, we aim to understand the processes that determine the persistence, expansion, and evolution of animal populations in a rapidly changing world.