Surkova Elena

Ph.D.
Research Scientist

Research interests:

My research explores how environmental change influences the population dynamics of small mammals. Since 2014, I have participated in long-term ecological monitoring of grazing ecosystems in the Republic of Kalmykia, where historical changes in land use and repeated cycles of desertification have transformed the landscape between steppe and desert conditions.

These unique long-term observations provide an exceptional opportunity to investigate how rodent communities respond to environmental change across multiple spatial and temporal scales. My work focuses on the population dynamics of rodents, community reorganization, and the demographic consequences of habitat transformation.

A major direction of my current research is the ecology of biological colonization during range expansion. Using the Midday Gerbil (Meriones meridianus) as a model species, I investigate how newly established populations develop after colonization, how demographic structure changes over successive generations, and how dispersal influences population persistence. I am also interested in host–parasite interactions during colonization, particularly the dynamics of ectoparasite infestation and their implications for plague epidemiology in newly colonized areas.

My research integrates long-term field observations with demographic, behavioural, ecological, and epizootological approaches to better understand the mechanisms driving species responses to rapidly changing environments.