Coordination Team
Ilse Storch studied biology at the universities of Aachen (RWTH) and Munich (LMU), Germany. After a research year in Sweden and a Ph.D. in the Alps, both on wildlife ecological topics, she worked as a researcher and lecturer at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), where she received a postdoctoral degree (habilitation) in conservation biology. She has also worked as an international consultant on almost all continents, and chaired the IUCN Grouse Specialist Group. She became a professor of Wildlife Ecology and Management at Freiburg University in 2004. Ilse and her team are focusing on human impacts on wildlife and aim to contribute to a scientifically sound basis for wildlife management and biodiversity conservation.
Ilse Storch is the spokesperson of ConFoBi. As such, she oversees the coordination and administration, as well as supervising the research on birds and mammals. Ilse Storch believes that ConFoBi forms close links among the participating researchers, triggering interdisciplinary thinking between professors and also the ConFoBi Ph.D. students. She enjoys working with a diversity of people to tackle diverse, inter- and transdisciplinary questions on forest biodiversity. According to Ilse Storch, the biggest strength of ConFoBi is the “all-measurements-on-all-plots” approach, which is also the biggest challenge. This approach ensures that there are continuous and intensive exchanges among disciplines, projects, and the participants involved.
Jürgen Bauhus is Professor of Silviculture at the Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources at Freiburg University, Germany. Jürgen studied forest sciences in Freiburg, Vienna, and Göttingen. He received his Ph.D. from Göttingen University and spent 2 years as a post-doc at the University of Québec in Montréal to work on the dynamics of mixed-species boreal forests and solutions for their sustainable management. From 1996 to 2003, he worked as a lecturer and senior lecturer in silviculture and tree physiology at the Australian National University, where dynamics of mixed-species plantations and native forests were a focus of his research.
In 2003, he took up the Chair of Silviculture at Freiburg University, where he developed a research program on the structure and dynamics of forests, carbon and nutrient cycles, ecological interactions in forest ecosystems, as well as the adaptation of forests to global change. At Freiburg University, Jürgen established an international M.Sc. Program in Forest Sciences, the graduate school “Environment, Society and Global Change” and served as Dean of the Faculty of Forest and Environmental Sciences from 2011-2013. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board on Forest Policy at the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture. In 2014, he received the IUFRO scientific achievement award as the first German forest scientist.
In ConfoBi, Jürgen supervises project A2, Retention of Structural Elements in Selectively-Used Forests and serves as the deputy spokesperson. What he likes most about ConfoBi is the inter- and transdisciplinary approach that is used to study the conservation of biodiversity in managed forests.
Dr. Michael Wohlwend
Scientific Coordinator
michael.wohlwend@confobi.uni-freiburg.de
Tel.: 0049 761 203 96851
www.wildlife.uni-freiburg.de
Michael Wohlwend studied geoecology and global change ecology at the universities of Bayreuth. In his inter-disciplinary studies, he had the unique opportunity to work in many different fields and with scientists from many different backgrounds, which makes ConFoBi and its diverse study questions an ideal continuation to his training. In his studies and later in his PhD at the University of Halle-Wittenberg/ the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig he focussed on vegetation ecology, macroecology and non-native species. He studies the regeneration and dispersal of the North American Tsuga heterophylla in Germany, then moved on to study the experimental restoration of the North American Prairie in face of the invasion of an aggressively spreading legume from Asia, Lespedeza cuneata. In his last chapters, he studied the distribution patterns of non-native plant species in the Pacific, harmonizing large databases. Michael worked in many ecosystems, especially islands, but is very thankful to focus his research interests back on the local biodiversity. As former PhD representative at the iDiv in Leipzig, he knows the challenges students face in the field, lab and data analysis from recent experiences and looks forward to offering his support. Knowing that his work directly supports conservation research is rewarding for him.
Dr. Susanne Hartmann
Project Office Manager
susanne.hartmann@wildlife.uni-freiburg.de
Tel.: 0049 761 203 3668
