Dr. Aline Frossard

Funktion

Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin

Waldböden und Biogeochemie

Rhizosphären-Prozesse

Kontakt

aline.frossard(at)wslto make life hard for spam bots.ch

+41 44 739 28 07+41 44 739 28 07

Eidg. Forschungsanstalt WSL
Zürcherstrasse 111
8903 Birmensdorf

Standort

Birmensdorf Bi MG D 33

Research Interests

My main research interest is in unraveling relationship between ecosystem functioning and microbial diversities and activities. Trained as a microbial ecologist with experience in soil and freshwater systems, I am exploring microbial communities and their biogeochemical functions in relation to the cycling of major elements such as carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus. I am especially interested in the effect of climate changes on microbial diversity and functions. As these effects are particularly strong in certain extreme environments such as high alpine, polar, or hot deserts regions, I focused part of my work on these environments.

Current Research Projects

Long- and short-term effects of mercury contamination on the soil microbiome.

KEYSOM (Soil Fauna - Key to Soil Organic Matter Dynamics and Modelling). Research project within the framework of the Cost Action ES1406. http://www.keysom.eu/

CLIMARCTIC: Climate change impacts on Arctic soil and lake microbiomes. Research project within the BiodivERsA consortium (European research on biodiversity and ecosystem services). http://www.climarctic.ugent.be/index.php

CryoLink: Understanding the impacts of climate change on Arctic, Antarctic and Alpine permafrost microbiomes. (SNF Swiss - South Africa Joint Research Programme).

Academic Experiences

2018 (October) – Present: Tenure-track research scientist

Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), Birmensdorf, Switzerland.

2015 (October) – 2018 (August): Post-doctoral fellow

Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), Birmensdorf, Switzerland.

2013 (March) – 2015 (September): Post-doctoral fellow (NRF Innovation Fellowship, SA)

Centre for Microbial Ecology and Genomics (CMEG), University of Pretoria, South Africa.

Main project: Spatio-temporal patterns of microbial communities in the Namib Desert and effect of water events on hot desert soil microbial communities. Advisor: Prof. Don Cowan.

2011 (September) – 2012 (August): Post-doctoral Fellow

Experimental Limnology, Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Berlin, Germany.

Main project: Bacterial community assembly of stream sediment bacterial communities assessed by amplicon DNA sequencing. Advisor: Prof. Mark Gessner.

2007 (August) – 2011 (July): PhD of Sciences

Eawag / ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Date of oral defense: 24.06.2011.

Title of thesis: Microbial dynamics during stream ecosystem succession: community structure and enzyme activities.

Advisors: Prof. Mark Gessner, Eawag/ETH and PD Dr. Michael Mutz, BTU Cottbus (Germany).

PhD project carried out as part of an integrative project (SFB TRR 38) funded by the German Research Council (DFG).

2004 (October) – 2006 (December): Master of Sciences in Biogeosciences (Magna Cum Laude)

University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

Title of thesis: Structure and activities of rhizosphere microbial communities along a recent glacier forefield in the Swiss Alps. Advisors: Prof. Michel Aragno, Dr. Jakob Zopfi and Dr. Sonia Tarnawski.

2001 (October) – 2004 (September): Bachelor of Sciences in Biology

University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Projects

Species interactions in beaver engineered habitats

The overarching goal of this project is to assess how habitat heterogeneity caused by beaver engineering influences the diversity, strength and nature of interactions within and between aquatic and terrestrial communities, and how changes in species assemblages relate to ecosystem processes.

GRADCATCH - Using natural environmental GRADients to decipher the adaptation of soil microbial Communities to climATe CHange

GRADCATCH will assess how soil microbial abundance, diversity, activity and functions change along four natural gradients

Kritische Belastungsgrenzen von Quecksilber in Böden

Wir erforschen die kritischen Belastungsgrenzen von Quecksilber (Hg) in Böden mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des Bodenmikrobioms und Beeinträchtigungen von Funktionen. Diese Studie wird im Rahmen der Minamata Konvention durchgeführt, mit der die Emissionen von Hg eingedämmt werden sollen.

Charakterisierung der Biodiversität in Waldböden mittels DNA-Metabarcoding

Wir untersuchen die Biodiversität in Waldböden entlang eines europäischen Transekts von Südeuropa bis in das subarktische Finnland (durch 5 Klimatypen). Wichtige funktionelle Gruppen des Nahrungsnetzes im Boden werden taxonomisch und mittels DNA-Metabarcoding erfasst.

Einfluss des Klimawandels auf das Mikrobiom von Böden und Seen (CLIMARCTIC)

Wir untersuchen den Einfluss des Klimawandels auf die Biodiversität und Funktion arktischer terrestrischer Mikrobiome, insbesondere deren Ökosystemprozesse. Mit diesen Daten lassen sich die Rolle der arktischen Ökosysteme unter sich verändernden Umweltbedingungen besser vorhersagen.

Publications WSL

Scientific publication article peer reviewed

Doetterl, S.; Alexander, J.; Fior, S.; Frossard, A.; Magnabosco, C.; Van de Broek, M.; Westergaard, K.B., 2022: Will accelerated soil development be a driver of Arctic Greening in the late 21st century?^#. Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science, 185, 1: 19-23. doi: 10.1002/jpln.202100334

Heděnec, P.; Jiménez, J.J.; Moradi, J.; Domene, X.; Hackenberger, D.; Barot, S.; Frossard, A.; Oktaba, L.; Filser, J.; Kindlmann, P.; Frouz, J., 2022: Global distribution of soil fauna functional groups and their estimated litter consumption across biomes. Scientific Reports, 12, 1: 17362 (14 pp.). doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-21563-z

Gfeller, L.; Caplette, J.N.; Frossard, A.; Mestrot, A., 2022: Organo-mercury species in a polluted agricultural flood plain: combining speciation methods and polymerase chain reaction to investigate pathways of contamination. Environmental Pollution, 311: 119854 (11 pp.). doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119854

Frossard, A.; De Maeyer, L.; Adamczyk, M.; Svenning, M.; Verleyen, E.; Frey, B., 2021: Microbial carbon use and associated changes in microbial community structure in high-Arctic tundra soils under elevated temperature. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 162: 108419 (11 pp.). doi: 10.1016/j.soilbio.2021.108419

Schreckinger, J.; Mutz, M.; Mendoza-Lera, C.; Frossard, A., 2021: Attributes of drying define the structure and functioning of microbial communities in temperate riverbed sediment. Frontiers in Microbiology, 12: 676615 (15 pp.). doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.676615

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