Caroline Daniel
About me
I am broadly interested in the mechanisms of biodiversity maintenance. I use theoretical frameworks such as the Modern Coexistence Theory (Chesson, 2000) and the Structural stability approach (Saavedra et al., 2017), coupled with experimental data, to investigate how species interactions are modified by global changes drivers (temperature, nitrogen deposition, etc.) and how these changes lead to consequences for species coexistence and ecosystem functioning.
I currently work at the University of Bern, as a post-doctorate researcher in the Terrestrial Ecology group. My current project aims to understand how interactions beyond the pairwise level (higher-order, indirect interactions) link to ecological stability.
Plant coexistence in an experimental grassland
(photo credit: Dr. Hugo Vincent) Modern coexistence theory relies on two main explanatory processes: stabilizing niche differences and equalizing fitness differences. However, little is known about how environmental factors affect these processes, and this is therefore limiting our ability to understand the impacts of global change on biodiversity...
Stability/diversity mechanisms in a changing wolrd
(photo credit: Prof. Ed Hawkins) Previous studies have found inconsistent links between biodiversity and ecosystem stability, highlighting the need to understand more about the mechanisms of biodiversity maintenance in the context of species diversse environments and how they are modify by different types of disturbance...