Biography
Madhav P. Thakur leads the Terrestrial Ecology Group at the University of Bern, where his team investigates how extreme climatic events (e.g. heat waves and drought) reshape terrestrial biodiversity through shifts in biotic interactions within and across trophic levels. Their research combines indoor and outdoor experiments across below-ground organisms, plants, and above-ground insects in grassland systems to address two central questions: (1) how do extremes alter ecological interactions (e.g. competition, predation) and shape population and community responses, and (2) how do short-term responses cascade into long-term ecological dynamics? Recent work from his group shows that life-history and functional traits predict short-term resistance and long-term recovery, while intraspecific competition and symbiotic partnerships link these two processes. Their research has further advanced the concept of ecological debt, the latent functional erosion following extreme events that compromises future ecosystem performance, thereby connecting immediate stress responses to delayed, legacy effects on soil biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.
