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

Visiting scientist

Functional Plant Ecology

Charlotte Grossiord

Groupleader, Head of Lausanne location

Christoph Bachofen

Scientific staff member

Maxwell Bergström

Visiting scientist

Rita Bütler Sauvain

Administrative staff member

Alexandre Buttler

Senior Scientist, Visiting scientist

Janisse Deluigi

PhD student guest

Margaux Didion-Gency

Visiting scientist

Patrick Favre

Alice Gauthey

Visiting scientist

Kate Johnson

Postdoc

Thibaut Juillard

PhD student guest

Sandra Levin Zürcher

Administrative staff member

Eugénie Isabelle Mas

PhD student guest

Valentin Meister

Civil service employee

Laura Mekarni

PhD student guest

Arianna Milano

Visiting scientist

Philipp Schuler

Visiting scientist

Dominic Tinner

Bachelor student

Alex Tunas Corzon

Visiting scientist

Pascal Turberg

Visiting scientist

Jolan Wicht

Visiting scientist

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

Leonardo Capitani

Postdoc

Irene Cordero Herrera

Marco Fioratti

Postdoc

Yuki Fukatsu

Master student

Christian Geckeler

PhD student guest

Luca Girardi

PhD student guest

Sophie Gombeer

Technical staff member

Sophia Heinrich

Master student

Julia Holmes Martin

Steffen Kirchgeorg

PhD student guest

Itzel Lopez Montoya

PhD student guest

Maurus Meyer

Master student

Silvan Minnig

Visiting scientist

Stefano Mintchev

Visiting scientist

Valentin Moser

PhD student

Christian Rossi

PhD student guest

Corinne Schlierenzauer

PhD student guest

Josef Senn

Visiting scientist

Rui Wu

Visiting scientist

Insubric Ecosystems

Melina Jeanette Aranda

Visiting scientist

Bruno Bellosi

Temporary employee

Mark Bertogliati

Visiting scientist

Pietro Bizioli

Visiting scientist

Némo Choulat

Master student

Fabiano Cortinovis

Trainee

Vincent Fehr

PostDoc, Tel. 091 821 52 41

Davide Ferriroli

Master student

Jeremy Feusi

Visiting scientist

Daniela Furrer

Administrative staff member

Eric Gehring

Scientific staff member

Enea Gessler

Antoine Jousson

Visiting scientist

Shah Khalid

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

Attilio Rizzoli

Visiting scientist

Davide Vecchio

Visiting scientist

Antonio Violante

Temporary employee