Welcome 🌍

I am Johannes Nauta, and I am a postdoctoral researcher studying complex systems. I am currently a member of the Dept. of Physics of the University of Padua, Italy.

Current research

My work aims to unravel how local (microscopic) feedback mechanisms influence global (meso- and macroscopic) dynamics of (meta)populations. More specifically, I am developing general multi-scale models that define ecolical reaction-diffusion systems on networks. These models show that long-term stability can emerge from local interactions, both between competing species (reaction) and between the nodes (diffusion).

My trajectory

Early 2022 I finished my Ph.D. thesis on computational models of optimal foraging patterns. During my Ph.D. I studied the effects of intra- and interspecific interactions of foragers and focused on how the characteristics of the interaction graph influences (group-) optimal froaging behavior. I additionally studied the influence of the spatial distribution of resources on the foraging efficiency population dynamics. The latter research is in line with my current interests in ecosystem function. I am pursuing an interdisciplinary approach to complex (eco)systems with specific focus on the long-term stability of ecosystems.

For more information on my research interests, please see ~/research.

Current position (as of January 1st, 2023)

Postdoctoral researcher, Dept. of Physics, University of Padua, Italy.
Member of the CoMuNe Lab research group, lead by Manlio De Domenico. For more information on the other members of my lab, please check out the short bio’s of my colleagues.

Interests

• Complex systems
• Population dynamics
• Effects of perturbations on system stability

Suggested reads

The suggestions below are works that I personally find particularily interesting. They do not contain any personal work of which I am the first author. For a list of my personal publications, please see ~/publications.

• P.L. Wennekes et al. (2012). "The neutral-niche debate: a philosophical perspective". Acta Biotheoretica, 60.
  ⤷ Philosophical perspective on the debate between niche- and dispersal-assembly. Additionally contains very interesting section on instrumentism vs. realism.

• M. Rietkerk et al. (2021). "Evasion of tipping in complex systems through spatial pattern formation". Science, 374(6564).
  ⤷ Very interesting work on how spatial pattern formation (such as Turing patterns) might aid complex systems to avoid tipping.

• Vitali, A. et al. (2022). "Invasive species modulate the structure and stability of a multilayer mutualistic network". bioRxiv.
  ⤷ A. Vitali and colleagues study how an invasive species can disrupt a multilayer network that contains a specific keystone interaction. They show that the invasive species reduces the connectivity between the species present in the keystone interaction and thereby increases disturbance propagation and reducing network robustness.

Updates

• 2023/06/19 Research
• 2023/03/24 Contact information
• 2023/01/29 Stable communities
• 2023/01/11 Publications
• 2022/09/01 Curriculum Vitae
• 2022/03/24 Multilayer networks