Prof. Dr. Alexander Zizka

I am a botanist and biogeographer, researching on the macroevolution and geographic distribution of flowering plants. I develop algorithms and software to use "big data", often from specimens in natural history collections, in Biodiversity research and conservation. Furthermore, I am fascinated by tropical savannas and the role of growth form in plant evolution and diversification.

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Selected publications

Zizka A, Andermann T, & Silvestro D (2022). IUCNN–Deep learning approaches to approximate species’ extinction risk. Diversity and Distributions, 28(2), 227–241.[pdf]
Zizka A, Silvestro D, Vitt P & Knight, TM (2021). Automated conservation assessment of the orchid family with deep learning. Conservation Biology, 35(3), 897–908. [pdf]
Zizka A, Carvalho-Sobrinho JG, Pennington RT, Queiroz, LP, Alcantara S, Baum DA, Bacon CD & Antonelli, A. (2020). Transitions between biomes are common and directional in Bombacoideae (Malvaceae). Journal of Biogeography.[pdf]
Zizka A, Silvestro D, Andermann T, Azevedo J, Duarte Ritter C, Edler D, Farooq H, Herdean A, Ariza M, Scharn R, & others. (2019). CoordinateCleaner: Standardized cleaning of occurrence records from biological collection databases. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 10(5), 744–751.[pdf]
Antonelli A*, Zizka A*, Carvalho FA, Scharn R, Bacon CD, Silvestro D & Condamine FL (2018). Amazonia is the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(23), 6034–6039.[pdf]