In his ERC project OPENRING, Rubén D. Manzanedo aims to improve our understanding of how biodiversity supports the stability of ecosystems over the long term and across scales, particularly in forests. While we have a good grasp of this idea from small-scale and short-term studies, we lack crucial insights into long-term and broader processes that are crucial to forest dynamics.
“My research combines paleo- and neo-ecological methods, such as tree ring analyses, big open data, bias analyses, direct forest sampling across Europe, and remote sensing data; to examine the relationships between European forests' diversity and composition and their reaction to historical climates and extreme weather events”, says Dr Manzanedo, explaining his project.
Ultimately, this work will allow to identify patterns of stability and more resilience species combinations to our forests. “We hope to pave the way to develop more accurate predictions of how forests react to ongoing and future changes in climate, including also increasing frequency of extreme weather events”, he explains.
About
Rubén D. Manzanedo studied Forestry and Global Change at the University of Córdoba, Spain. He obtained his PhD in Ecology and Evolution at the University of Bern in Switzerland in 2017. He then spent three years leading projects at Harvard University and the University of Washington, USA. Since 2020, he has been a Senior Scientist at the Institute of Integrative Biology at ETH Zürich.