I am an ecosystem ecologist interested in how vegetation communities respond to environmental change and disturbance, and what determines their resilience and functioning. Much of my research focuses on understanding why species respond differently: which traits and ecological strategies influence their survival, recruitment and ability to become dominant under changing environmental conditions. I use trait-based approaches, field experiments, remote sensing and ecological modelling to study these questions across ecosystems ranging from temperate grasslands and African savannas to Antarctic terrestrial communities.
Within the SalGo team, I work on the ERC-funded ResIntegrate project, using the DRAGNet grassland experiment to investigate how plant traits and demographic processes influence resilience to interacting disturbances. I will combine UAV imagery and AI-based plant identification with demographic approaches to understand how individual plant responses to disturbance translate into changes in species abundance, community composition and grassland resilience.
