GELIFES Seminars - Sebastian Steibl

Sebastian Steibl (Naturalis Biodiversity Center)

Life on transient islands

Evolution, connectivity, and the future of coral atolls

Islands are widely known for their remarkable biodiversity that accumulated in isolated, persistent environments over millions of years. The low-lying atoll islands of the tropical Indo-Pacific, however, challenge this familiar picture and provide strikingly different conditions for evolutionary and ecological processes to unfold. In this seminar, I will explore how the transient, dynamic nature of atolls creates a distinctive evolutionary arena for island biota, and how these biota in turn create a unique, coupled continuum of energy, nutrient, and material flows between land and ocean. I will then discuss how understanding the transient and interconnected nature of atolls can inform conservation and community-engaged adaptation to climate change across the Indo-Pacific.

Biosketch:
Sebastian developed a deep fascination for atolls after joining a research expedition during his M.Sc. studies, an experience that has since grown into a career studying the ecosystem ecology and conservation of these remote island systems. His doctoral research at the University of Bayreuth investigated how traditional and Western-urban land uses create contrasting impacts on the biodiversity and ecosystem functioning of atoll islands, which received both the faculty’s and the city’s prize for best PhD thesis in 2021. As a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Auckland, with guest research positions at UC Berkeley and the University of Oxford, Sebastian expanded this work to examine how ecological restoration can rebuild ecosystem functioning and strengthen atoll resilience to climate change, for which he was awarded as a national champion of the 2025 Frontiers Planet Prize. Since 2026, he holds a Veni fellowship at Naturalis Biodiversity Center, where his research focuses on the evolutionary and biogeographic processes underlying atoll biodiversity. His work has taken him to some of the most remote corners of the tropical Indo-Pacific, where he works with local governments, Indigenous communities, and non-profit organisations toward the protection and ecological restoration of atolls.