Chhaya Chaudhary, PhD

My research focuses on unravelling the mechanisms driving marine biodiversity patterns and species diversity distribution in a changing climate. I employ habitat modelling and spatial prioritization frameworks to identify critical conservation areas, optimize marine protected area networks, and forecast how climate change may reshape biodiversity hotspots. By integrating ecological theory, biogeographic data, and computational tools, I aim to uncover the processes underpinning species coexistence and ecosystem resilience, while advancing science-based strategies for marine conservation planning that balance ecological integrity with human needs.

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I am employed as a Research Associate in the project Integrative Mapping of Atlantic Protection Areas (IMAPP). My research centers on advancing marine conservation through IMAPP, where I aim to map biodiversity hotspots, decode species diversity distribution patterns, and evaluate how climate change reshapes marine ecosystems of the Atlantic high seas. At the heart of my work is IMAPP’s first phase: building and harmonizing novel, multi-trophic datasets—from phytoplankton and zooplankton to fish and marine mammals—to quantify ecological interactions and pinpoint critical biodiversity hotspots across space and time. By applying habitat modelling and biodiversity analysis, I project how climate change may destabilize species distributions and erode hotspot integrity. These insights allow me to anticipate future ecological “winners and losers” and prioritize regions where conservation interventions could buffer climate impacts. My approach merges cutting-edge computational tools with decades of biological data to bridge the gap between theoretical ecology and actionable marine spatial planning.

May. 2014- Feb.2019
The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Ph.D. thesis “Global-scale distribution of marine species diversity: An analysis of latitudinal, longitudinal and depth gradients”

Analysed, modelled, and interpreted marine species distribution data (including 23 million observation records) to test the theoretical global marine species biogeographic hypothesis.

July 2009- July 2011
Master of Science in Environmental Management
Forest Research Insititute University, Dehradun, India
Dissertation “Simulation of spatial distribution of fish species in 200 km stretch of Tungabhadra River on the basis of oxygen variability”
Predicted species distribution under varied environmental conditions.

July 2006- June 2009
Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology (Hons.)
Banasthali University, Rajasthan, India

Oct. 2024- Present
Post-Doctoral Researcher
University of Hamburg,Hamburg, Germany
Project – IMAPP
Integrative Mapping of Atlantic Protection Areas (IMAPP)

Oct. 2021- Sept. 2024
Post-Doctoral Researcher
Alfred-Wegener-Institute, Bremerhaven, Germany
INSPIRES Program
Eco physiological aspects of species to understand the mechanisms behind marine biodiversity distribution patterns.

Sept. 2020- Sept.2021
Post-Doctoral Researcher
Goethe University & Senckenberg Natural History Museum, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Predicted the distribution of corals and their associated species globally under present and future climate scenarios.

Feb. 2019- Aug. 2020
Post-Doctoral Researcher
The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Cluster analysis to Identify the biogeographic realms using ants’ locations from the GABI (Global Ants Biogeographic Information System) database.

1. Wang, R., Kass, J. M., Chaudhary, C., Economo, E. P., & Guénard, B. (2024). Global biogeographic regions for ants have complex relationships with those for plants and tetrapods. Nature Communications, 15(1), 5641.
2. Alfaro-Lucas, J. M., Chaudhary, C., Brandt, A., & Saeedi, H. (2023). Species composition comparisons and relationships of Arctic marine ecoregions. Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers, 104077. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2023.104077.
3. Chaudhary, C., Alfaro-Lucas, J.M., Brandt, Simoes, M., A., & Saeedi, H. (2023). Potential geographic shifts in the coral reef ecosystem under climate change. Progress in Oceanography. 103001. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2023.103001.
4. Chaudhary, C., & Costello, M. J. (2023). Marine species turnover but not richness, peaks at the Equator. Progress in Oceanography. 102941. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2022.10294.
5. Yasuhara, M., Huang, H.H.M., Reuter, M., Tian, S.Y., Cybulski, J.D., …Chaudhary, C., Rillo, M.C., .. Hong, Y. (2022) Hotspots of Cenozoic tropical marine biodiversity. Oceanography and Marine Biology: an Annual Review. Volume 60 (1st ed.). CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003288602.
6. Cermeño, P., García-Comas, C., Pohl, A., Williams, S., Benton, M.J., Chaudhary, C., Le Gland, G., Müller, R.D., Ridgwell, A., & Vallina, S.M. (2022). Post-extinction recovery of the Phanerozoic oceans and biodiversity hotspots. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04932-6.
7. Chaudhary, C., Richardson, A. J., Schoeman, D. S., & Costello, M. J. (2021). Global warming is causing a more pronounced dip in marine species richness around the equator. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(15).
8. Richardson, A. J., Chaudhary, C., Schoeman, D. S., & Costello, M. J. (2021). Sea creatures at the equator move to cooler places. History shows this can lead to mass extinction. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/marine-life-is-fleeing-the-equator-to-cooler-waters-history-tells-us-this-could-trigger-a-mass-extinction-event-158424.
9. Chaudhary, C., Alfaro-Lucas, J.M., Brandt, A., & Saeedi, H. (2021). Marine species distribution along the NW-Pacific and the Arctic Ocean. Deep-Sea life, 16. https://www.dosi-project.org/wp-content/uploads/DSL16_Small.pdf.
10. Costello, M. J., Tsai, P., Cheung, A. K. L., Basher, Z., & Chaudhary, C. (2018). Reply to ‘Dissimilarity measures affected by richness differences yield biased delimitations of biogeographic realms’. Nature communications, 9(1), 5085.
11. Costello MJ, Arifanti T, Chaudhary C, Jayathilake D, Lin H, Pagès M, Pamungkas J, Saeedi H, Sucharitakul P, Zhao Q. (2018). Mapping marine species richness and endemicity at global scales. PeerJ Preprints 6:e26501v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.26501v1
12. Costello, M. J., Tsai, P., Wong, P. S., Cheung, A. K. L., Basher, Z., & Chaudhary, C. (2017). Marine biogeographic realms and species endemicity. Nature Communications, 8(1), 1057.
13. Costello, M. J., & Chaudhary, C. (2017). Marine Biodiversity, Biogeography, Deep-Sea Gradients, and Conservation. Current Biology, 27(11), R511-R527.
14. Chaudhary, C., Saeedi, H., & Costello, M. J. (2017). Marine Species Richness Is Bimodal with Latitude: A Reply to Fernandez and Marques. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 32(4), 234-237.
15. Chaudhary, C., Saeedi, H., & Costello, M. J. (2016). Bimodality of latitudinal gradients in marine species richness. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 31(9), 670-676.
16. Chaudhary, C. (2014) Simulation of spatial distribution of fish species in 200 km stretch of Tungabhadra River on the basis of oxygen variability. Journal of Ecosystem and Ecography, 4(2), 1. https://doi.org/10.4172/2157-7625.1000143.

1. December 16- 19, 2023: organised a symposium and presented at “Paleo and macroecology in tropical Asia” at the3rd AsiaEvo International Conference, held in National University of Singapore, Singapore.
2. December 16.19, 2023 organised a symposium and presented at“Paleo and macroecology in tropical Asia” at the3rd AsiaEvo International Conference, held in National University of Singapore, Singapore.
3. July 5-6, 2023: attended (online) “2013 – 2023: 10 years of the Galway Statement. Celebrating a decade of marine research cooperation along and across the Atlantic Ocean – Our Shared Resource”, hybrid organised in Galway, Ireland.
4. September 29, 2022: presented poster entitled “Global range shifts of marine species across life stages and climatic scenarios” at Science week organised at AWI, Bremerhaven.
5. June 21-22, 2022: presented poster entitled “Global range shifts of marine species across life stages and climatic scenarios” in annual Topic 6 Symposium on Marine and Polar Life Sustaining Biodiversity, Biotic Interactions, Biogeochemical Functions, organized by GEOMAR, Kiel, Germany.
6. September 12-17, 2021: online presentation “Coral reef and their inhabitant's distribution under climate change” in hybrid 16th Deep-Sea Biology Symposium organised by Ifremer, Brest, France.
7. Benton, M., Cermeño, P., García-Comas, C., Pohl, A., Williams, S., Chaudhary, C., Le Gland, G., Müller, D., Ridgwell, A., and Vallina, S.: The shape of biodiversity through deep time: fossils vs. mechanistic models, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 24–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-2617, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-2617, 2023.
8. December 13- 16, 2020: Poster presentation “Marine species distribution along the NW-Pacific and the Arctic Ocean” at 5th WCMB, organized by the University of Auckland.
9. November 21– 25, 2019: Presented “Latitudinal gradient in marine species diversity”, at Paleobiology as the Synthetic Ecological, Evolutionary and Diversity Science (P-SEEDS) workshop at University of the Ryukyus, Japan.
10. June 20- 22, 2018: Presented “The effect of temperature on species diversity and change in latitudinal gradients in species diversity over time”, in the Role of temperature on marine biodiversity workshop, at the University of Auckland.
11. September 25- 28, 2017: Presented “Latitudinal gradients in marine species richness” as a contributed speaker, at International Biogeographic meeting 2017, Bangalore, India.
12. August 3, 2016: Presented talk entitled “Latitudinal gradients in marine species richness and its possible reasons”, at CSIRO, Brisbane, Australia.
13. July 4-8, 2016: Conference talk entitled “Bimodality of latitudinal gradients in marine species richness”, at GEO BON Open Science Conference and all Hands Meeting, Leipzig, Germany
14. February 9-12, 2016: Poster presented (online) entitled “Bimodality of latitudinal gradients in marine species richness”, at “Species on the move” conference, Tasmania, Australia.
15. July 6-9, 2015: Conference talk entitled “Latitudinal gradients in marine species richness at a global scale”, at an annual conference associated with the New Zealand Marine Sciences Society hosted by The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

Invited talks

1. June 22-23, 2023: early career researcher talk “Dynamics of marine biogeography and climate change- a global perspective” in annual Topic 6 Symposium on Marine and Polar Life Sustaining Biodiversity, Biotic Interactions, Biogeochemical Functions at AWI, Bremerhaven, Germany.
2. June 6- 9, 2023: online “Global to regional shifts in marine biodiversity” in a hybrid workshop on “Climate Information for Risk Assessment and Regional Adaptation from Global Scale Climate Projections to Local Scale Climate Hazards | (smr 3844)”, organised by ICTP - The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Italy.
3. November 12 -13, 2021: as an invited speaker, online talk “Global warming- a cause for dip in marine species richness at the equator at 4th KRIPIK – SciFiMaS 2021 (Scientific Communication in Fisheries and Marine Sciences), Innovation and Reinforcement for Fisheries and Marine Sustainability in the Covid-19 Pandemic Era, organised by Fisheries and Marine Science Faculty Jenderal Soedirman University, Purwokerto, Indonesia.
4. June 5, 2021: as expert speaker, online talk “Global warming- a cause for dip in marine species richness at the equator” on the celebration of “WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY: अशक्यम प्रकृते: रीते जीवनम (There is no life without nature)“ organised by the Department of Chemistry, JECRC University, Jaipur (Rajasthan), India.