Research
How species and communities interact and respond to their environment simply fascinates me. I am particularly interested in the links connecting terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. In my research, I therefore address some of the open questions around these links.
In my current position as PostDoc at WSL, I investigate how artificial light at night (ALAN) impacts arthropods on land and water.
During my previous PostDoc at the University of Hamburg, my research focused on biodiversity at the interface between freshwater, marine and terrestrial ecosystems in one of the greatest estuaries in Europe.
During my PhD, my main goal was to assess the influence of the riparian vegetation on the freshwater biodiversity, ecosystem functions and aquatic-terrestrial linkages. With field and lab experiments as well as literature-based methods, I assessed how land-cover changes in the watershed and riparian zone influence freshwater detrital food webs.
All publications are open access. Data and code can be found on Dryad, Zenodo, and GitHub.
Publications
Here you find the most recent publications. All papers are open access, however if you would need a PDF, just let me know.
For a more extensive list visit: WebOfScience, Orcid, GoogleScholar
Latest News
We investigated the effects of facemask-derived polypropylene particles of different sizes and their leachates on fungal communities and detritus decomposition in a pond.
Here, we use the benthic invertebrate fauna of the Vjosa River as a model system to infer metacommunity processes from biodiversity patterns at river network scale.
Preprints
Estuaries are dynamic transition zones linking terrestrial, freshwater, and marine environments. Their steep environmental gradients govern the distribution and diversity of multiple taxonomic groups.
We experimentally tested how artificial dragonflies, as standardised visual predation cues, shape the foraging behaviour of pollinators on Nuphar lutea and assessed whether these behaviours were related to natural variation in odonate abundance.
Collaborations/Side Projects
In this Brazilian study we quantified how deforestation influence stream ecosystem processes and community composition of invertebrates.
In this global meta-analysis we quantified how different human drivers influence biodiversity and community composition.
In this Swiss-wide project we studied how nutrients scale with biodiversity of arthropods on land and water.
PhD
In this project we studied how biological drivers influence multiple ecosystem functions in headwater streams in Switzerland and Brazil.
Here we investigated how riparian forests influence dietary imbalances of three main shredder taxa.
In this global meta-analysis including over 100 studies, we quantified the impact of land-cover changes on aquatic food webs.
In this study we assessed how community composition and leaf litter decomposition rates depend on riparian forests.
Master thesis
Here we investigated how fish community and morphology influence zooplankton.
In this field study we assessed how predatory fish influence zooplankton pigmentation.
International Collaborations
Here we studied biodiversity patterns along the Vjosa river network.
In this project we examined abundance and distribution patterns of a highly endangered mayfly species.
PhD Thesis
During my PhD research, I examined how riparian forests influence the connections between and terrestrial environments, as well as effects on biodiversity and ecosystem functions within stream detrital food webs. My goal was to better understand the ecology of these special ecosystems and the implications of changes in their surrounding terrestrial environments. I combined various ecological and evolutionary theories to contextualise my findings.
Cross-ecosystem flows and ecosystem functions in the riverine zone
The freshwater detrital food web and stages within the decomposition process
Aquatic-terrestrial ecotones as biodiversity hotspots
aquatic-terrestrial continuum in environmental factors, ecosystem functions and biodiversity
Meta-ecosystem theory
A holistic framework for understanding and integrating spatial flows between different ecosystems (Gounand et al. 2018, Harvey et al. 2023)
River continuum concept
Description of the gradients of abiotic and biotic changes along the length of a river (Vannote et al. 1980)
Stoichiometric theory
The balance of multiple chemical elements in ecological interactions and processes, particularly carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) (Sterner and Elser 2002)
BEF-Framework
Examination of the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (Tilman et al. 2014)
Ecotone Theory
Ecotone theory predicts that at the interface between two ecosystems, biodiversity is higher than in each ecosystem individually (Risser 1995, Kark 2013)