Division leader

Franz Essl

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  • Interests:Biological Invasions – Macroecology – Conservation Biology – Biodiversity Policy – Climate Change

Senior Scientist

Bernd Lenzner

Postdocs

Michael Glaser

Daijun Liu

  • Webpage:
  • Interests:Experimental Ecology – Biodiversity – Functional Traits – Biological Invasions – Ecosystem functions

Lisa Tedeschi

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  • Interests:Alien Mammals – Macroecology – Drivers of Global Change – Conservation Biology – Protected Areas

PhD students

Anna Schertler

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  • Interests:Biogeography – Macroecology – Conservation Biology – Wildlife Ecology – Fungal invasions
  • Thesis:Macroecological perspectives in invasion biology – drivers of plant and fungal invasion patterns.

Ekin Kaplan

  • Interests:Macroecology – Invasion biology – Conservation – Plant Biodiversity
  • Thesis:Assessing the trajectories of local plant community change
Tom Vorstenbosch

Tom Vorstenbosch

  • Interests:Polar Invasions – Macroecology – Plant Biodiversity – Island Biogeography – Climate Change
  • Thesis:Modelling future biological invasions in the sub-Antarctic under climate change.

Gilles Colling

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  • Interests:Biological Invasions – Spatio-Temporal Spread – Macroecology
  • Thesis:Alien Species Accumulation Across Scales.

Ana Isabel Martinez-Richart

  • Interests:Ecological connectivity – Forest Biodiversity – Conservation biology
  • Thesis:Landscape connectivity in forests. A multi-taxa case study on stepping stones between the Dürrenstein-Lassingtal Wilderness Area, and the Kalkalpen and Gesäuse National Parks, Austria.

Jennifer Hennenfeind

  • Interests:Human-nature interactions – Macroecology – Global Change
  • Thesis:How biodiversity and climate change influence human conflicts
Picture of PhD student Cornelia Amon

Cornelia Amon

  • Interests:Vegetation Ecology – Forest Connectivity – Conservation Biology – Climate Change
  • Thesis:Determinants of understory alpha diversity and interrelations between tree alpha diversity and carbon stock depending on stand structural characteristics in unmanaged forests of Austria
Ruiling Liu

Ruiling Liu

  • Interests:Biological Invasions – Phenology – Community dynamics – Macroecology – Ecological Interactions
  • Thesis:The impact of phenology on the community dynamics of invasive plants in mountainous regions

Research assistant

Julia Fugger

  • Interests:Climate Change – Conservation Policy – Biological Invasions – Sustainable Development Goals

Former team members

Janine Oettel

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  • Interests:Forest Biodiversity – Forest management – Deadwood – Saproxylic Insects – Habitat Trees
  • Thesis:Deadwood characteristics, its dynamics, and feeding traces of saproxylic insects in the context of forest management and conservation.

Guillaume Latombe

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Visiting researcher

Gabriel Petuel [February-March 2024]

  • Interests:Alien and Invasive plants – Biodiversity – Plant Ecology – Conservation Biology
  • Thesis:The role of alien plant species in tropical rainforest succession in Papua New Guinea.

Intern