The Crafoord Prize in Biosciences 2011

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Crafoord Prize in Biosciences 2011 to

Ilkka Hanski
University of Helsinki, Finland,

“for his pioneering studies on how spatial variation affects the dynamics of animal
and plant populations”.

Patches of diversity in increasingly fragmented habitats

This year’s Crafoord Prize Laureate has established
himself, in his more than 30-year career, as
one of the world’s most eminent ecologists. He
receives the prize for developing a range of new
analytical methods and mathematical models
in ecology. These are today widely used to help
scientists investigate how animal and plant species
are affected when their habitats undergo splitting
owing, for example, to urbanization, deforestation
and climate change.

Ilkka Hanski’s studies – on animals ranging from butterflies,
dung beetles and water fleas to voles, lemmings and
bears – have made metapopulation ecology a substantial
research area. It focuses on species that inhabit fragmented
habitats, in order to assess the risk of local extinction
and discern what may help the species to survive in a
landscape subject to growing human influence. Today,
Hanski’s metapopulation theories are among the cornerstones
of research on biodiversity, and also have a major
bearing on practical management of the natural environment
and on conservation policy.

Despite Hanski’s numerous expeditions to such exotic
places as Borneo, Madagascar and Greenland, his most
acclaimed studies have been carried out virtually on his
own home ground, the Åland islands in the Baltic Sea.
There, his research team has spent more than 20 years
conducting extensive surveys of the Glanville Fritillary
(Melitaea cinxia), which has been declining in Northern
Europe over the past few decades owing to the transformation
of the landscape due to modern farming. Today,
the species is no longer found on the Finnish mainland,
but survives in split metapopulations in the dry meadows
of the Åland islands, where Spiked Speedwell (Veronica
spicata) and Ribwort Plantain (Plantago lanceolata) are the
key host plants for the butterfly larvae.

One of the best-known phenomena in Hanski’s research
is extinction debt. This means that species may persist for
a while in fragmented, isolated populations despite being
doomed to become extinct in time, owing to the great
changes in their habitats that have already taken place.
The butterflies Hanski himself has long studied have,
for example, suffered from inbreeding and deteriorating
flying ability when their subpopulations have become too
isolated. This has impaired the long-term survival potential
of the species and its capacity to cope with environmental
changes. Similar patterns have been observed for
many other species when human land use has resulted in
progressive disintegration of the landscape and splitting
of habitats.

______________________________________________

Ilkka Hanski, Finnish citizen. Born in 1953 in Lempäälä, Finland.
PhD in Zoology from Oxford University (1979). His positions have
included Acting Professor of Zoology (Animal Ecology) and Professor
of Zoology (Animal Ecology) at the University of Helsinki (in
1988–91 and since 1993 respectively), and Research Professor at
the Academy of Finland (National Research Council) since 1996.
www.helsinki.fi/~ihanski/
______________________________________________

Prize amount: SEK 4 million.
The Prize award ceremony is to be held at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on 10 May 2011,
in the presence of Their Majesties the King and Queen of Sweden.
Crafoord Days, 9–11 May 2011:
Stockholm (at the Academy): Prize Symposium in Biosciences on Monday 9 May and Prize award ceremony on
Tuesday 10 May;
Lund (Lund University): Prize Lecture on Wednesday 11 May.
Prize amount: SEK 10 million to be shared equally between the Laureates.
Further information: http://kva.se/crafoordprize and www.crafoordprize.se

Contacts:
Erik Huss, Press Officer, +46 8 673 95 44, +46 70 673 96 50, erik.huss@kva.se;
Annika Moberg, Editor, +46 8 673 95 22, +46 70 673 96 90, annika.moberg@kva.se;
Experts (members of the Prize Committee):
Professor Ove Eriksson, +46 8 16 12 04, +46 73 394 18 56, ove.eriksson@botan.su.se;
Professor Lennart Persson, +46 90 786 63 16, +46 70 205 30 03, lennart.persson@emg.umu.se;
Chair: Professor Birgitta Bergman, +46 8 16 37 51, +46 70 644 13 05, bergmanb@botan.su.se

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, founded in 1739, is an independent organization whose overall objective is to promote the sciences and strengthen their influence in society. The Academy takes special responsibility for the natural sciences and mathematics, but endeavours to promote the exchange of ideas between various disciplines.

Tags: