Welcome to the new Conservation Biology Lab ! 

A key challenge is to halt biodiversity loss in a changing world. We aim at providing scientific knowledge to guide biodiversity conservation in the face of climate and land-use changes. We work in temperate and tropical regions, at local to global scales. Our methodological approach relies on fieldwork, remote sensing and advanced statistical modeling. We value interdisciplinary and intercultural collaborations.

Our main topics of interest are: 

Importance of biodiversity for ecosystem functions and services: We study how various facets of biodiversity affect ecosystem functioning and the contributions of ecosystems to people. To understand the underlying mechanisms, we rely on the largest network of tree diversity experiments worldwide TreeDivNet. Our aim is to provide knowledge relevant for the restoration of degraded forest landscapes, mainly in the tropics.

Biodiversity monitoring across scales: We develop methods to monitor biodiversity at various spatial scales (from plot to landscapes), across taxonomic groups (from bacteria to mammals) and at various levels of biological organization (from species to ecosystems). This is done by combing remote sensing methods such as terrestrial laser scanning, drone and satellite imagery with field work. We apply our monitoring framework to various places such as the Swiss Jura or oceanic islands. Our research aims to provide useful knowledge to monitor biodiversity at the scale relevant for decision makers.

Evidence-based conservation: We study the effectiveness of conservation actions focusing on endangered species of vertebrates and invertebrates, and their habitats. We aim to provide scientific evidences to guide conservation in practice.