Elisabeth Klara Viktoria Kalko (10 April 1962 – 26 September 2011 in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

) was a German tropical scientist and

ecologist Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels. Ecology overlaps with the closely re ...

working at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

and the

University of Ulm Ulm University () is a public university in Ulm, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The University was founded in 1967 and focuses on natural sciences, medicine, engineering sciences, mathematics, economics and computer science. With 9,891 studen ...

Life

Elisabeth Kalko grew up in the Heilbron area and studied

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

up from 1981 at

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (; ), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The University of Tübingen is one of eleven German Excellenc ...

, Germany and graduated with a diploma. She gained a doctorate (Ph.D.) in 1991. The topic of her Ph.D. thesis was ''The ecolocation and hunting behaviour of three European dwarf bat species Pipistrellus pipistrellus (Schreber, 1774), Pipistrellus nathuslii (Keyserling et Blasius, 1839) and Pipistrellus kuhli (Kuhl, 1819), in the wild''. Her doctoral studies were conducted as fellow of the National Merit Foundation ('Studienstiftung', 1984–1987, 1988–1990). From 1991 to 1993, Kalko held a NATO post-doctoral fellowship for research at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. (USA) and at the

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI, ) is located in Panama and is the only bureau of the Smithsonian Institution based outside of the United States. It is dedicated to understanding the past, present, and future of tropical ecosyst ...

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

. From 1993 to 1997, she worked on the DFG programs 'Mechanism maintaining tropical diversity' (research group) and 'Diversity, structure and dynamics of neotropical bats' and held a DFG Heisenberg fellowship from 1997 to 1999. The fellowship was completed in 1999 in Tübingen. Elisabeth Kalko memorial plaque Tirimbina

Elisabeth Kalko memorial plaque Tirimbina

In 1999, Kalko was appointed staff scientist at the

. She spent considerable time on expeditions and at scientific institutions in the US, including

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. With 4.4 ...

in Washington, D.C., in the Congo and many other countries. Beginning in 2000, Kalko held a joint appointment not only at STRI but also as director and full professor at the Institute of Experimental Ecology at the

in Germany. Her scientific team included a leading German entomologist, Heiko Bellmann. She also maintained relations with the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) as a Research Associate.Nachruf auf Elisabeth Kalko 10.4.1962–26.9.2011
/ref> Kalko was a member of the German National Committee on

Global Change Global change in broad sense refers to planetary-scale changes in the Earth system. It is most commonly used to encompass the variety of changes connected to the rapid increase in human activities which started around mid-20th century, i.e., the G ...

Research (2002–2011), and was elected for life to the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences (2006). From 2005 to 2011, she was vice-president of the Society of Tropical Ecology (GTOE), and from 2008 on she was a member of the Senate Commission on Biodiversity of the German Research Foundation (DFG). The same year, Kalko became Head Elect of DIVERSITAS Germany. As editor-in-chief of the international tropical ecology journal

Ecotropica Ecotropica is the peer-reviewed international scientific journal of the European Society for Tropical Ecology, GTOE. The journal first appeared in 1995 and received an impact factor in 2011. Ecotropica covers all aspects of tropical ecology, and n ...

, she strengthened the journal's profile considerably. During the early 2000s, she was a prominent expert in the areas of bat community ecology, echolocation and

bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

behaviour Behavior (American English) or behaviour (British English) is the range of actions of Individual, individuals, organisms, systems or Artificial intelligence, artificial entities in some environment. These systems can include other systems or or ...

. Kalko died during a visit in

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

on 26 September 2011. The cause of her death is unknown.

Research

Kalko's research highlighted the importance of bats for maintenance of tropical forests and revealed that ecolocation signal intensity has been a largely underestimated aspect in echolocation research (links below). Kalko initiated and led a series of German Research Foundation (DFG) projects into tropical bat ecology, biodiversity and

zoonoses A zoonosis (; plural zoonoses) or zoonotic disease is an infectious disease of humans caused by a pathogen (an infectious agent, such as a virus, bacterium, parasite, fungi, or prion) that can jump from a non-human vertebrate to a human. When h ...

on all continents, and spearheaded EU-funded research in bioacoustics.

References

External links

Elisabeth Kalko STRI publication list

* ttp://www.planet-wissen.de/pw/Artikel,,,,,,,D9496A8F2837B4E1E030DB95FBC350CC,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,.html Planet Knowledge, Portrait of Elisabeth Kalko (in German)
3Sat Nano, 'The bat researcher' (in German)

Bats cry out loud to detect their prey (PLoS One, 30 April 2008)

Bats limit arthropods and herbivory in a tropical forest (Science, 4 April 2008)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kalko, Elisabeth 1962 births 2011 deaths German ecologists German naturalists Scientists from Berlin University of Tübingen alumni Academic staff of the University of Ulm German women academics Women ecologists Women naturalists 20th-century German scientists 20th-century German women scientists 21st-century German scientists 21st-century German women scientists Smithsonian Institution people