Goethe-Universität — Prof. Dr. Severin Irl

Prof. Dr. Severin Irl

Personal interests

I’m Professor of Biogeography, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and Head of the Biogeography and Biodiversity Lab at the Institute of Physical Geography

My main research interests include:

Island biogeography and ecology, especially focusing on the endemic plant species
Global treeline patterns with a particular (but not exclusive) focus on islands
Biogeography and ecology of high-elevation ecosystems on oceanic islands and other mountainous systems
Invasion biology
Plant-herbivore interactions with a focus on introduced herbivores and endemic plants on islands
Spatial and ecological distribution of endemic and insular species and the possible effects of climate change on this distribution
Dynamics of succession
Functional island biogeography
Global and macroecological patterns of all sort mainly revolving around diversity, rarity, endemism and invasion

AK Biogeographie des VGDH: http://biogeographie.org/

Associated Editor for Diversity and Distributions

orcid.org/0000-0002-1734-8607

Google Scholar

Research Gate

Awards

Eduard-Strasburger Award 2017 donated by the German Botanical Society (DBG) and Springer Spektrum. See here (German), here (German) and here (English).

Frithjoff Voss Award for Physical Geography 2019 donated by the Frithjoff Voss Stiftung. See here and here.

Selected publications

Eibes PM, Schmiedel U, Oldeland J, Irl SDH (2025). Specific island biogeographic and landscape features shape plant diversity and habitat specialism on edaphic quartz islands in an arid ocean. Scientific Reports, 15, 1. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-94562-5

Otto, R., Cabrera Rodríguez, F., Schrader, J., Sierra Cornejo, N., Barajas Barbosa, M. P., Kreft, H., Irl SDH, ... & Fernández‐Palacios, J. M. (2025). Primary succession and plant functional traits on an oceanic island. Journal of Ecology, 113, 1475-1490. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.70033

Gallou A, Jump AS, Lynn JS, Field R, Irl SDH, Steinbauer MJ, ... & Grytnes JA (2023). Diurnal temperature range as a key predictor of plants' elevation ranges globally. Nature Communications, 14, 7890. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-43477-8

Hanz DM, Cutts V, Barajas‐Barbosa MP, Algar A, Beierkuhnlein C, Collart F, ... & Irl SDH (2023). Effects of climate change on the distribution of plant species and plant functional strategies on the Canary Islands. Diversity and Distributions, 29, 1157-1171. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.13750

Eibes PM, Schaffrath F, Oldeland J, Thormählen W, Schmiedel U, Irl SDH (2022) Testing the concept of edaphism for the quartz island flora of the Knersvlakte, South Africa. South African Journal of Botany 151, 555-564. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0254629922005427

Hanz DM, Cutts V, Barajas‐Barbosa MP, Algar AC, Beierkuhnlein C, Fernández‐Palacios JM, Field R, Kreft H, Steinbauer MJ, Weigelt P, Irl SDH (2022) Climatic and biogeographical drivers of functional diversity in the flora of the Canary Islands. Global Ecology and Biogeography 31. 1313-1331. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/geb.13507

Fernández-Palacios JM, Kreft H, Irl SDH, Norder S, Ah-Peng C, Borges PA, Burns KC, de Nascimento L, Meyer JY, Montes E & Drake DR (2021). Scientists' Warning-The Outstanding Biodiversity of Islands is in Peril. Global Ecology and Conservation, e01847. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989421003978