• 2025: Invited talk at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv).
• 2025: Invited talk "Introduction to meta-analysis" at the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research - HCMR (Greece).
• 2022: Invited talk “Hutchinson’s ecological niche for individuals” at the Technical University of Munich (N. Dingemanse’s Lab).
• 2022: “NC³ - Individualized niches; theory and practices”, talk on the 05th of April 2022 in the Symposium InChangE, NC3 and JICE (Bielefeld University, Germany).
• 2018: ERASMUS placement in the University of Glasgow (Scotland).
  

Esguerra, J. (2025). Habitat selection of northern lapwing (Vanellus vanellus) during breeding season in Europe. [MSc thesis, Hochschule für Technik Stuttgart].

Ferdous, J. (2025). Individual-Based Modelling Application for Intraspecific Variation in Habitat Selection of White Storks (Ciconia ciconia) in Central Europe. [MSc thesis, TU Dresden].

I use meta-analyses and evidence syntheses to examine the relationships between organisms and their environment. My past research was revolving around Behavioural Ecology and niche individual specialization. My current research focuses on exploring the impact of landscape heterogeneity on species' resource use and how this ultimately affects biodiversity patterns. In addition, I am interested in unveiling how landscape dynamics affect the effectiveness of conservation measures. My goal is to help bridging the conservation gap and produce useful research.


I am a strong advocate of open science practices and an active member of the Society for Open Reliable Transparent Ecology and Evolutionary biology-SORTEE (since 2021). I believe that knowledge should be free and accessible to everyone. Since science and ecology are inherently political, we should coordinate our efforts to protect the environment from corporate depredation and administrational lethargy. My research is committed to promoting inclusion, accessibility and interdisciplinarity, while renouncing helicopter research and scientific misconduct.

Takola, E. (2024) Debunking myths around open data. Available at: https://www.sortee.org/blog/2024/04/12/2024_open_data_myths/

Contribution to the translation of CRediT statement in Greek.

Takola, E. (2025). Organising projects for reproducibility. In N. Cooper & P.-Y. Hsing (Eds.), A Guide to Reproducible Code in Ecology and Evolution (pp. 3-9). British Ecological Society. https://www.britishecologicalsociety.org

Links to data and code are provided, wherever applicable.

Takola, E., Korell, L., Bonfanti, J., Beckmann, M., Reitz, T. & Tamburini, G. (2024). Does sustainable agriculture promote biodiversity and yield? A second-order meta-analysis. (under review)

Anochirim, M., Grainger, M., Stewart, G. & Takola, E. (2024). The implementation of network meta-analysis in Ecology; a case study using crop yield data. (under review)

[Data & code available here.]

Shcherbinina, E., Doktor, D. & Takola, E. (2024). decimatoR: an R package to convert heterogeneous coordinate formats into decimal degrees. (under review)

[Data & code available here.]

Lagisz, M., Bairos-Novak, K. R., Martinig, A. R., Bertram, M., Mizuno, A., Sabet, S. S., ..., Takola, E., ... & Nakagawa, S. (2025). Priced out of belonging? Insufficient concessions on membership fees across international societies in ecology and evolution. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 292: 20241430. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2024.1430

Noble, D. W., Xirocostas, Z. A., Wu, N. C., Martinig, A. R., Almeida, R. A., Bairos-Novak, K. R., ..., Takola, E., ... & Lagisz, M. (2025) The promise of community-driven preprints in ecology and evolution. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 292, no. 2039. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2024.1487

Ivimey-Cook, E., Sanchez-Tojar, A., Culina, A., Roche, D., Berberi, I., Almeida, R. A., ..., Takola, E., ... & Moran, N. P. (2024). The state of code-and data-sharing policies across journals in ecology and evolution. OSFRegistries. https://osf.io/zxurh/resources

Gould, E., Fraser, H.S., Parker, T.H., Nakagawa, S., Griffith, S.C., Vesk, P.A., Fidler, F.,..., Takola, E.,... & Tompkins, E. (2025). Same data, different analysts: variation in effect sizes due to analytical decisions in ecology and evolutionary biology. BMC Biology 23, 35. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-024-02101-x

[Data & code available here.]

Takola, E., Bonfanti, J., Seppelt, R. & Beckmann, M. (2023). An open-access global database of meta-analyses investigating yield and biodiversity responses to different management practices. Data in Brief, p. 109696. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2023.109696

[Data and code available here.]

Takola, E. & Schielzeth, H. (2022). Hutchinson’s ecological niche for individuals. Biology & Philosophy, 37, 25. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-022-09849-y



Trappes, R., Nematipour, B., Kaiser, M. I., Krohs, U., van Benthem, K. J., Ernst, U. R., Gadau, J., Korsten, P., Kurtz, J., Schielzeth, H., Schmoll, T. & Takola, E. (2022). How Individualized Niches Arise: Defining Mechanisms of Niche Construction, Niche Choice and Niche Conformance. BioScience, 2022, biac023, https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biac023



Takola, E., Krause, E., Müller, C. & Schielzeth, H. (2021). Novelty at second glance: a critical appraisal of the novel object paradigm based on meta-analysis. Animal Behaviour, 180, 123-142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2021.07.018

[Data and code available here.]

Moran, N., Caspers, B., Chakarov, N., Ernst, U., Fricke, C., Kurtz, J., Lilie, N., Ka Lo, L., Müller, C., R, R., Takola, E., Trimmer, P., van Benthem, K., Winternitz, J. & Wittmann, M. (2021). Shifts between cooperation and antagonism driven by individual variation: a systematic synthesis review. Oikos. https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.08201

Shcherbinina, E., Doktor, D. & Takola, E. (2025). decimatoR: an R package to convert heterogeneous coordinate formats into decimal degrees (Version 1.0). Zenodo. https://zenodo.org/records/14855698

I am co-organizing the Open CLE Forum, which is one of the regular get-togethers of the CLE Department.
It is open not only to Department members, but also external guests.
The Open CLE Forun comprises of conventional presentations (progress reports or discussion of future plans/brainstorming sessions), round-table discussions, games and many more types of activities. It also includes snacks!

The goal is to sit together, discuss science and ultimately increase the scientific exchange within UFZ. 

Open CLE Forum Programme (UFZ intranet).

If you have a project idea and want to work with us, please do not hesitate to contact Dr. Elina Takola.

There are also some ongoing projects, in which we always need extra workforce:

•  Can we implement network meta-analysis to uncover the effects of conservation measures on biodiversity?

        ⇒ Statistically demanding project that explores uncharted territories.

• Evidence syntheses and lessons learned by conservation efforts.
  

       ⇒ Detective work and a deep dive in published documents about the effectiveness of conservation efforts in different countries. Not too statistically demanding.

•  How does landscape heterogeneity affect population persistence?

        ⇒ Data-intensive and statistics-heavy project. Requires experience with R or some other programming language.

•  How does the change of land-use affect dispersal patterns of animals?

        ⇒ Data-intensive and statistics-heavy project. Requires experience with R or some other programming language.

• Synergies and trade-offs between biodiversity and productivity in human-modified landscapes.