I am a community ecologist fascinated by plant-plant and plant-soil interactions.
One of my main research interests is to better understand the mechanisms that moderate plant-plant and plant-soil interactions in natural and managed ecosystems, as well as their implications for species coexistence, assembly, and biodiversity in the context of global change.
I use experiments to study how interacting factors of global environmental change (particularly nutrient enrichment) can drive biodiversity loss, both above- and belowground. I believe that such knowledge is key to develop effective strategies to protect and restore biodiversity. Although most of my research has focused on grassland ecosystems, I am also involved in projects investigating biodiversity and multifunctionality in temperate production forests (BETA-FOR).
Since my PhD, I have been particularly interested in the roles played by soil chemical compounds in mediating belowground interactions between neighbouring plants, but also between plants and other soil organisms. I am currently leading a research project that aims to test a functional trait-based framework to predict how plant species alter the soil metabolome and respond to soil metabolites (ChemLEGACY). I have also worked extensively on how plant order of arrival during assembly (so called ‘priority effects’) affect the structure and functioning of grassland communities, with a strong focus on root distribution (POEM experiment).
In my research, I use a variety of methods, from conceptual synthesis to manipulative experiments in the field and under controlled environmental conditions, as well as plant phenotyping (including image analysis) and metabolomic approaches. I am also very interested in functional-structural plant modelling and how it could be used to complement experimental approaches and help us better understand species interactions.
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