The Group

Group Lead

Prof. Dr. Jaboury Ghazoul
Jaboury Ghazoul is a tropical plant ecologist, working on plant reproductive ecology and land use change. Jaboury's main research interests are pollination ecology and plant reproduction, ecosystem services in agroforestry systems and, more generally, conservation ecology of tropical trees in landscape mosaics. 

Dr. Florian Knaus (deputy)
Florian's work consists mostly of teaching and supervising theses in the context of conservation, monitoring, landscape evaluation and rural development. He also runs the Applied Ecosystem Management field course in Serbia, his new second home. Florian is currently the coordinator of the Forest and Landscape curriculum at D-​USYS and the deputy of the chair.

Administration

Ankara del Carmen Marjatshang-​Chen
Ankara runs the institute secretariat for ITES and is administrative assistant for two Professorships within the Institute, including the Chair of Ecosystem Management. Ankara provides day-to-day administrative support, her responsibilities include reporting to the management, handling human resources and finances, organising and scheduling events, and acting as the point of contact between employees, guests and the various ETH bodies and services.

Senior Scientists

Dr. Anne Giger Dray
Anne works on applied research projects dedicated to renewable resources management and conflict resolution with a strong emphasis on community participation and engagement in order to promote ecological sustainability. She develop and use dedicated tools to support stakeholders’ engagement such as agent-​based models and role-​playing games. Besides that, she is a dedicated lecturer for various Bachelor and Master.

Dr. Claude Garcia
I work at the interface of ecological dynamics, stakeholder strategies, and public policies, creating bridges between disciplines using participatory modelling tools such as Companion Modelling (ComMod). I have 20 years experience in South and South East Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

Dr. Giacomo Vaccario
Trained as a physicist, Giacomo dedicates himself to developing data-driven models of economic and social systems. The application of these models contributes to comprehending relevant societal issues, such as the emergence and stability of collaboration and the resilience of socio-economic systems. Currently, he works on a theoretical framework to understand and incentivize socio-environmental transitions toward wood construction for climate mitigation (see external page MainWood Project)

 

Postdoctoral Reserchers

Dr. Ivan Novotny
Ivan is an agroecologist who is passionate about addressing food security concerns, promoting sustainable food production systems, fostering household economy, and advocating for collective land use management. His approachis characterized by a transdisciplinary mindset, emphasizing active engagement with social actors. At present, Ivan is engaged in a project that employs serious games as a tool to facilitate discussions on potential landscape alternatives, aiming to achieve net zero carbon emissions in Scotland. Ivan is also invested in various teaching activities, including a field course in Scotland.

Dr. Xuezhu Zhai
Xuezhu, with her background in landscape architecture, concentrates her research on the interaction between people and landscapes, with a focus on ecological restoration and nature-based solutions. Her work delves into public perceptions of landscapes and aims to enhance understanding and support for ecosystems and nature-based solutions through innovative strategies, thereby promoting environmental sustainability and human well-being. Currently, Xuezhu is working on a project that engages stakeholders in rethinking, co-designing, and evaluating river restoration scenarios by visualizing the strategic use of daylight. See external page Project re∙flect  

Doctoral researchers

Yuyang Chang
In response to the challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss due to urbanization, Yuyang is primarily focused on identifying effective pathways for urban natural space planning from a land system science perspective. His doctoral project mainly investigates the dynamic interplay between natural spaces and the climate-society-ecology nexus in urban settings, especially concerning the demands of urban climate-vulnerable groups and non-human stakeholders (i.e., biodiversity) for natural spaces. This project aims to develop urban landscapes that are not only sustainable but also inclusive and responsive to diverse societal needs. Additionally, he has a keen interest in the management and restoration of land resources within agricultural and forestry fields.

Chiara Durrer
My research project is on functional biodiversity and ecosystem services of pollination in agroecosystems. I investigate how biodiversity enhancement practices improve diversity and abundance of wild bees, and how these pollinator communities react to climate and land-​use changes. I aim to model pollinator communities under different scenarios, and explore how biodiversity enhancement practices could stabilise food yield and quality by ensuring pollination success.

Maura Katinka Ganz
My research explores the effectiveness of agri-​environmental farming techniques in terms of their impact on biodiversity as well as productivity. I investigate how integrated pest management (no chemical pesticides, wildflower strips) in crops and oilseed rape affects biological control of major pests (cabbage stem flea beetle, cereal leaf beetle, aphids). Combining molecular gut content analysis of generalist predators with monitoring of specialist control by parasitic wasps allows the evaluation of pest control services in relation to habitat management.  

Sebastian Ruile
My doctoral research is based on the PAPPUS project and is committed to understand the role of human decision-making in the plant assembly process and its impact on the plant-insect interaction within an urban context. To unravel the underlying drivers of plant diversity within cities, I aim to incorporate both environmental and social factors into the analysis.

Adelaide Sander
My research consists of building an agend-based model describing the socio-ecological landscape in the context of Scottish restoration with the aim of modeling implications of changing policy and financing.
I hold a Msc from ETH Zurich, and have been previously working with FAO on global water use water use accounting.

Alexandra Werner
Alexandra is passionate about plant-soil interactions in peatlands of the northern hemisphere. In her PhD project she will try to entangle the (a)biotic drivers that influence greenhouse gas emissions from organic-rich soils in Scotland and how they change once forest restoration schemes are implemented on these soils. Specifically, she will focus on how this land cover change affects biogeochemical processes, belowground vegetation traits and microbial communities.

Erika Berith Soans
I am currently a PhD candidate researching below-ground soil processes that influence greenhouse gas emissions from peaty soils in the Scottish Highlands. My work aims to deepen our understanding of these critical processes to inform climate change mitigation strategies. Organic soils are crucial carbon stores in both temperate and tropical regions, and the recent expansion of forest restoration schemes has led to substantial areas of organic-rich soils being planted with trees, especially in Scotland’s upland regions. My research investigates the impact of woodland establishment on soil biota and structure and its consequent effect on soil greenhouse gas fluxes. Beyond my academic pursuits, I am deeply interested in the intersection of science and policy.

Rama Narayanan Harihara Subramanian
My research work broadly aims to investigate the effect of land use in shaping plant-pollinator interactions in Indian coffee agroforestry. This involves understanding various local and landscape level factors that governs the complex plant-pollinator dynamics of this tropical agroforestry. I strongly believe that my doctoral research work will highlight the pathways that affect these interaction networks and subsequent emergent properties of these production landscape which has a significant ecological, conservation and economic relevance. Apart from academics, I enjoy playing Indian classical flute and illustrating nature.

Daisy Furrokh
My doctoral research will utilise eDNA and pollen metabarcoding to build ecological networks relating native plants and trees to pollination and productivity of coffee crops, in multi-scale agroforests in Kodagu, Western Ghats of India. It will also integrate the influence of farm management practices on the resilience of these networks. Understanding the ecology of land use dynamics will help inform land management to protect biodiversity and crop security.

Staff

Maaike Goedkoop
Maaike is the project manager for external page MainWood, a research consortium for the wood production chain (from forest to building), nationally and internationally. MainWood consists of researchers from EPFL, WSL, Empa and ETH-Zurich.

Kirsti Määttänen
Kirsti is the Lab Manager for Ecosystem Management group.

Scientific assistants

Agarwal Shreyas
My research focuses on the development of computational models to analyze and simulate plant-pollinator networks within Indian coffee agroforestry systems. With a strong theoretical and computational background, I will be creating detailed interaction models to explore how these networks function across different temporal and spatial scales. My work aims to uncover key features such as stability and resilience within these ecological systems. Outside of research, I enjoy immersing myself in nature through long walks and hikes.