How can we predict the future of biodiversity? What are the challenges in analysing cause and effect in ecological studies? And is species decline directly linked to climate change? In the new episode of our podcast series Bench Talks, macroecologist and Humboldtian Brian McGill (University of Maine) and science journalist Sahana Ghosh (Nature India) get together in Berlin to talk about global data collection, attribution and how smart investments and better communication can help protect life on earth.  

Brian McGill is a Professor of Ecological Modelling at the University of Maine. He works at the intersection of biodiversity, human-caused global change, and big data approaches. He is a recipient of the Humboldt Research Award (2023) and was Editor-In-Chief of the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography. He is also one of three co-authors of the popular academic ecology blog, Dynamic Ecology. 

Sahana Ghosh is an Associate Editor at Nature India. Trained in microbiology she now reports on science and environment with a special interest in the history of science. She is a founding member of the Science Journalists’ Association of India and a member of the Oxford Climate Journalism Network.  

Bench Talks is part of the Communication Lab, a joint programme of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the International Journalists’ Programmes.

Voiceover by Amie Liebowitz
Editing by Ellery Studio