Chair of Ecosystem Management

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Welcome to the Chair of Ecosystem Management

Introduction

We work on ecological processes in the context of land cover change in both tropical and temperate localities. How landscapes are managed, why they are managed in this way, and what the implications are for biodiversity, plant productivity, and people in these landscapes are the kinds of issues that interest us.

The Forest Management and Development (ForDev) group is affiliated to the Chair of Ecosystem Management.
 

EM group

Highlights

Our Landscapes as Carbon Sinks project is working with the Scottish Government’s Land Commission to develop regional land-use partnerships that connect local communities to regional governments for more equitable landscape decision making.

Threatened giants from the Amazon

How does forest degradation affect the genetic resources and reproductive capacity of remaining tree species? Here one example, focused on the highly valuable Brazil nut tree, from a recent publication by the just EM graduated Dr. Fidel Chiriboga and colleagues. Check out the video here

Maike Nesper

Managing Trade-Offs in Coffee Agroforestry

Ecosystem Management alum Dr. Maike Nesper presents the findings from her PhD thesis project in India. Check out the video here.

Recent Books

Ecology Jaboury

Ecology: A Very Short Introduction

August 2020

Available from Oxford University Press

Dipterocarp Biology

Dipterocarp Biology, Ecology, and Conservation

June 2016

Available from Oxford University Press

Reviewed by Richard Primack (PDF, 449 KB)

Forests for the Future

August 2021

Edited by Jaboury Ghazoul and Daniella Schweizer

Available here

Highlighted Publications

Ghazoul, J. (2020) Ecology: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. 163 pages.

Ghazoul, J. and Schweizer, D. (eds.) (2021) Forests for the Future: Restoration success at landscape scale - what will it take and what have we learned? Prince Bernhard Chair Reports (Issue 1). Series editors Almond, R.E.A., Grooten, M. and Van Kuijk, M., WWF-Netherlands, Zeist and Utrecht University, Netherlands. 178 pages.

Kleinschroth, F., Goetz, S.J., Laporte, N., Laurance, W.F., and Ghazoul, J. (2019) Road expansion and persistence in forests of the Congo Basin. Nature Sustainability, 2, 628-634. DOI

Löfqvist, S. and Ghazoul, J. (2019) Leveraging investments for forest and landscape restoration. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 3, 1612–1615. DOI

Tito de Morais, C.M.D., Kettle, C.J., Philipson, C., Maycock, C.R., Burslem, D.F.R.P., Khoo, E., Ghazoul, J. (2020) Exploring the role of genetic diversity and relatedness in tree seedling growth and mortality: a multi-species study in a Bornean rain forest. Journal of Ecology, 108, 1174-1185. DOI

 

Recent Publications

2021

Dharmawan, A.H., Mardiyaningsih, D.I., Rahmadian, F., Yulian , B.E., Komarudin, H., Pacheco, P., Ghazoul, J., and Amalia, R. (2020) The agrarian, structural and cultural constraints of smallholders' readiness for sustainability standards implementation: The case of Indonesian sustainable palm oil in East Kalimantan. Sustainability, 13, 2611, doi.org/10.3390/su13052611.

Ghazoul, J. and Schweizer, D. (eds.) (2021) Forests for the Future: Restoration success at landscape scale - what will it take and what have we learned? Prince Bernhard Chair Reports (Issue 1). Series editors Almond, R.E.A., Grooten, M. and Van Kuijk, M., WWF-Netherlands, Zeist and Utrecht University, Netherlands. 178 pages.

Ghazoul, J. and Toteva, G. (2021) Prospects and challenges for a wood-based construction sector. Trees (Summer 2021), 28-29.

Keller, N., van Meerveld, I., Ghazoul, J., Chiew, L.Y., Philipson, C.D., Godoong, E., Slade, E.M. (2021) Dung beetles as hydrological engineers: Effects of tunnelling on soil infiltration. Ecological Entomology, in press.

Kleinschroth, F., Winton, S.E.R., Calamita, E., Niggemann, F., Botter, M., Wehrli, B., and Ghazoul, J. (2021) Living with floating vegetation invasions. Ambio, 50, 125-137.

Olsthoorn, F., Sprong, H., Fonville, M., Rocchi, M., Medlock, J., Gilbert, L., and Ghazoul, J. (2021) Occurrence of tick‑borne pathogens in questing Ixodes ricinus ticks from Wester Ross, Northwest Scotland. Parasites and Vectors, 14, 430.

Schweizer, D., van Kuijk, M., and Ghazoul, J. (2021) Perceptions from non-governmental actors on Forest and Landscape Restoration: Challenges and strategies for successful implementation across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Journal of Environmental Management, 286, 112251, doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112251.

Timmers, R., van Kuijk, M., Verweij, P.A., Ghazoul, J., Hautier, Y., Laurance, W.F., Arriaga-Weiss, S.L., Askins, R.A., Battisti, C., Berg, A., Daily, G.C., Estades, C.F., Frank, B., Kurosawa, R., Pojar, R.A., Woinarski, J.C.Z., Soons, M.B. (2021) Conservation of birds in fragmented landscapes requires protected areas. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, in press.

Waeber, P.O., Stoudmann, N., Langston, J.D., Ghazoul, J., Wilmé, L., Sayer, J., Nobre, C., Innes, J.L., Fernbach, P., Sloman, S.A., Garcia, C.A. (2021) Choices we make in times of crisis. Sustainability, 13, 3578, doi.org/10.3390/su13063578.

News

Three new articles on water infrastructure construction, indigenous settlements, and ecosystem services in the Omo-Turkana basins in Ethiopia and Kenya

26.01.2022

A set of two articles and one book chapter led by Fritz Kleinschroth highlight the multiple facets and narratives that emerged during our interdisciplinary work on the water-energy-food-nexus. At the core of this research is the highly debated construction of hydropower dams and large-scale irrigation projects for sugarcane production in the remote Omo-Turkana region.

Welcome to new PhD students

17.11.2021

We are pleased to welcome four new PhD students into the group over the coming months. Yuxian Wang will be working on how artificial light affects plant reproductive fitness, Yuyang Chang will study how ecological restoration affects human-environment relations, William Verbiest is exploring how plant functional traits affect ecosystem function in coffee agroforestry, and Stefanie Grimm will be developing participatory modelling approaches for negotiating land cover transitions.

Opportunities

17.11.2021

Have you considered developing a postdoc project at ETH Zurich? The Ecosystem Management group is keen to hear from you if you have interests in agroforestry, plant traits and ecosystem functions, plant-​pollinator networks, eDNA, or complex socioecological systems modelling.

Forests for the Future

10.11.2021

Our new book, titled Forests for the Future is published. This collaboration with Utrecht University and WWF Netherlands draws on over 20 case studies to address critical issues in forest and landscape restoration, including governance, financing, capacity building, and social engagement. Edited by Jaboury Ghazoul and Daniella Schweizer, the book encompasses lessons from across the world on the management and implementation of restoration efforts.

Media Coverage

Ansätze für eine nachhaltige Palmölproduktion (k4d)

Die afrikanische Ölpalme Elaeis guineensis ist eine hoch produktive Lieferantin von pflanzlichem Fett. Gleichzeitig steht sie für Vernichtung von Regenwald und Gewinnmaximierung multinationaler Konzerne. Auf dem Weg zu einer nachhaltigeren Palmölproduktion müssen unterschiedliche Anbau- und Absatzbedingungen und die Verknüpfung von Mensch und Umwelt mit dem Weltmarkt berücksichtigt werden. In Zusammenarbeit mit Bevölkerung, Politik und Wirtschaft erarbeiten Forschende differenzierte Lösungsansätze für einen nachhaltigen Palmölanbau.

We're losing species at shocking rates – so why is conservation failing? (The Guardian)  

Mammals, insects, amphibians, fish and birds are in steep decline, the world’s forests are on fire and the abundance of life is diminishing at rates unprecedented in human history. Faced with stark and mounting evidence of nature’s precipitous decline, leading natural and social science researchers, philosophers, anthropologists and conservationists have come together to ask why conservation is failing, and to call for an urgent re-think of how the natural world should be protected.

An agroforestry scientist’s notes on Kodagu, coffee and climate change (Mongabay)

04.09.2019 Much of the blame for the drought-flood-drought-flood trend in Kodagu has been laid on coffee plantations. ETH Zurich’s Maike Nesper says that it’s not coffee itself that is the problem here. She says traditional coffee agroforests remain an important refuge for native biodiversity. However, her studies have shown that there is indeed a grave problem with the way coffee is being grown today.

Wälder können einen riesigen Beitrag zum Klimaschutz leisten (NZZ)

Article (in German) on Forest and Landscape Restoration and the Latsis Symposium 2018

Other Publications

2020

Correa, D., Beyer, H., Possingham, H., Garcia Ulloa, J., Ghazoul, J., and Schenk, P. (2020) Freeing land from biofuel production through microalgal cultivation in the Neotropical region. Environmental Research Letters, in press.

Dharmawan, A.H., Mardiyaningsih, D.I., Komarudin, H., Ghazoul, J., Pacheco, P., and Rahmadian, F. (2020) Dynamics of rural economy: A socio-economic understanding of oil palm expansion and landscape changes in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Land, 9, 213; https://doi.org/10.3390/land9070213

Garcia, C.A., Savilaakso, S., Verburg, R.W., Gutierrez, V., Wilson, S.J., Krug, C.B., Sassen, M., Robinson, B.E., Moersberger, H., Naimi, B., Rhemtulla, J.M., Dessard, H., Gond, V., Vermeulen, C., Trolliet, F., Oszwald, J., Quétier, F., Pietsch, S.A., Bastin, J.-F., Dray, A., Araujo, M.B., Ghazoul, J., and Waeber, P.O. (2020) The Global Forest Transition as a Human Affair. One Earth. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2020.05.002

Garcia, C.A., Vendé, J., Konerira, N., Kalla, J., Nay, M., Dray, A., Delay, M., Waeber, P.O., Stoudmann, N., Bose, A., Le Page, C., Raghuram, Y., Bagchi, R., Ghazoul, J., Kushalappa, C.G., and Vaast, P. (2020) Coffee, farmers, and trees—Shifting rights accelerates changing landscapes. Forests, in press.

Ghazoul, J. (2020) Ecology: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. 163 pages.

Kehoe, L., et al. (604 signatories) Make EU trade with Brazil sustainable. Science, 364, 341. DOI: 10.1126/science.aaw8276.

Kleinschroth, F., Goetz, S.J., Laporte, N., Laurance, W.F., and Ghazoul, J. (2019) Road expansion and persistence in forests of the Congo Basin. Nature Sustainability, 2, 628-634. DOI

Ocampo-Peñuela, N., Garcia-Ulloa, J., Kornecki, I., Philipson, C.D., and Ghazoul, J. (2020) Impacts of four decades of forest loss on vertebrate functional habitat on Borneo. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2020.00053

Tito de Morais, C.M.D., Kettle, C.J., Philipson, C., Maycock, C.R., Burslem, D.F.R.P., Khoo, E., Ghazoul, J. (2020) Exploring the role of genetic diversity and relatedness in tree seedling growth and mortality: a multi-species study in a Bornean rain forest. Journal of Ecology, 108, 1174-1185. DOI

Viswanathan, A., Ghazoul, J., Lewis, O., Honwad, G., and Bagchi, R. (2020) Effects of forest fragment area on interactions between plants and their natural enemies: consequences for plant diversity at multiple spatial scales. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 2, UNSP 88.

Wanger, T.C., DeClerck, F., Garibaldi, L.A., Ghazoul, J., Kleijn, D., Klein, A-M., Kremen, C., Mooney, H., Perfecto, I., Powell, L.L., Settele, J., Solé, M., Tscharntke, T. and Weisser, W. (2020) Integrating agroecological production in a robust post-2020 global biodiversity framework. Nature Ecology and Evolution. 10.1038/s41559-020-1262-y

 

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