Welcome

We are part of the Institute of Integrative Biology (IBZ) and the Department of Environmental Sciences (D-UWIS) at ETH Zürich. Our group is hosted by Eawag in Kastanienbaum, where our offices and labs are based. We are interested in ecology and evolution of aquatic ecosystems. Food webs exhibit remarkable structural diversity, but how does this influence the functioning of ecosystems? To predict how ecosystems will respond to global environmental change, we need to understand the processes that maintain food web diversity and functioning of ecosystems. This requires a more complete integration of ecology, evolution, and ecosystem science.

We focus on the ecological, evolutionary, and anthropogenic processes that create, maintain, and change biodiversity and how these processes affect the functioning of aquatic ecosystems (e.g. productivity, nutrient cycling, organic matter flux).

We approach these questions using large scale mesocosm experiments, and a combination of comparative field surveys, modeling, and lab studies.

M.Sc. students and undergraduates are welcomed. For further information please contact Blake Matthews.