Community Ecology

The Research Unit focuses on functional interactions between communities of plants (producers), herbivores (primary consumers), predators (secondary consumers), and soil biota (decomposers) with regard to critical ecosystem services such as productivity, protection, nutrient cycling and storage. Environmental factors considered include direct and indirect anthropogenic impacts with global relevance such as land-use change (e.g. land abandonment, fragmentation, urban sprawl, eutrophication, trivialization of herbivore communities), natural disturbances (e.g. avalanches, landslides, fire) or climatic changes. Particular emphasis is given to sensitive natural, semi-natural and urban ecosystems, among many others wetlands, treeline ecotones and insubric ecosystems. Comparing history and modeling functional processes in and between these systems provides clues for predicting biodiversity changes, the evolution of ecosystems, and consequences for ecosystem services in the context of future global change.

The Unit has partners both within WSL and the wider scientific community. Stakeholders are mainly the forest and agricultural services, nature conservation, forest owners, regional and federal agencies.

Projects

Research Groups and Staff

Community Ecology

Marco Conedera

Head of Research Unit

Martin Schütz

Temporary employee

Plant-Animal Interactions

Anita Christina Risch

Member of Directors Board, Senior Scientist, Groupleader

Majid Ajorlo

Visiting scientist

Pia Anderwald

Visiting scientist

Emanuele Aucone

PhD student guest

Cristina Caetano Sanchez

Visiting scientist

Leonardo Capitani

Postdoc

Irene Cordero Herrera

Scientific staff member

Marco Fioratti

Postdoc

Christian Geckeler

PhD student guest

Luca Girardi

PhD student guest

Rye Gleason

Master student

Sophie Gombeer

Technical staff member

Sophia Heinrich

Master student

Steffen Kirchgeorg

PhD student guest

Xue Xian Lim

Master student

Itzel Lopez Montoya

PhD student guest

Gabriel Maquignaz

PhD student guest

Stefano Mintchev

Visiting scientist

Valentin Moser

PhD student

Christian Rossi

PhD student guest

Corinne Schlierenzauer

PhD student guest

Adam Seewald

Visiting scientist

Josef Senn

Visiting scientist

Rui Wu

Visiting scientist

Insubric Ecosystems

Hermès Ammon

Civil service employee

Mark Bertogliati

Visiting scientist

Némo Choulat

Master student

Vincent Fehr

PostDoc, Tel. 091 821 52 41

Jeremy Feusi

Visiting scientist

Daniela Furrer

Administrative staff member

Eric Gehring

Scientific staff member

Enea Gessler

Bachelor student

Antoine Jousson

Visiting scientist

Sandra Kolarek

Temporary employee

Giovanni Kraushaar

Temporary employee

Patrik Krebs

Scientific staff member

Andrea Minetti

Software developer

Alan Oggier

Temporary employee

Gianni Boris Pezzatti

Scientific staff member

Ginevra Rattalino

Trainee

Attilio Rizzoli

Visiting scientist

Jonas Wiget

Bachelor student

Functional Plant Ecology

Mathieu Argenta

Christoph Bachofen

Scientific staff member

Maxwell Bergström

PhD student guest

Giovanni Bortolami

Visiting scientist

Rita Bütler Sauvain

Administrative staff member

Alexandre Buttler

Visiting scientist

Janisse Deluigi

PhD student guest

Margaux Didion-Gency

Visiting scientist

Patrick Favre

Guest technician

Alice Gauthey

Visiting scientist

Charlotte Grossiord

Joint Professorship

Kate Johnson

Postdoc

Thibaut Juillard

PhD student guest

Sandra Levin Zürcher

Administrative staff member

Eugénie Isabelle Mas

PhD student guest

Laura Mekarni

PhD student guest

Arianna Milano

Visiting scientist

Philipp Schuler

Visiting scientist

Dominic Tinner

Bachelor student

Pascal Turberg

Visiting scientist

Helena Vallicrosa Pou

Postdoc