Education

2010: Habilitation, ETH Zurich, Department of Environmental Sciences
Supervisor: Peter J. Edwards

2004 - 2006: Post-doc in Ecosystem Ecology, Department of Biology, Syracuse University,
Supervisor: Douglas A. Frank

2003: Ph.D. Degree in Forest Ecology, WSL, ETH Zurich
Thesis: Successional patterns and processes following land use change in subalpine forests of the Central European Alps.
Supervisor: Martin Schütz, Harald Bugmann

2000: Masters Degree in Forestry, School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, USA
Thesis: Vegetation - environment relationships within small tributary watersheds of an old-growth forest in Upper Michigan, USA.
Supervisor: Kurt S. Pregitzer, Margaret R. Gale, Martin F. Jurgensen, Casey F. Huckins

1999: Masters Degree in Ecology and Systematics, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Thesis: Raum-Zeit-Modell der Vegetationsentwicklung auf zwei subalpinen Kleinweiden im Schweizerischen Nationalpark.
Supervisor: Martin Schütz, Bertil O. Kruesi

Professional experience

2023 - present: member of the board of directors WSL

2018 - present: Senior scientist at WSL (Switzerland)

2010 - present: Private Lecturer (PD) at ETH Zürich (Switzerland)

2009 - present: Graduate Faculty and Adjunct Professor, MTU (USA)

2008 - present: Lecturer at department of Environmental Sciences of ETH Zurich (Switzerland)

2006 - present: Head of plant-animal interactions group (formerly animal ecology) within research unit community ecology at WSL (Switzerland)

2019 - 2024: Visiting Fellow (Adjunct), Queensland University of Technology,QUT (Australia)

2006 - 2009: Adjunct Assistant Professor, MTU (USA)

2006: Research scientist for vegetation-soil interaction at WSL (Switzerland)

2004 - 2006: Research associate for ecosystem CO 2 fluxes in a temperate grassland (Yellowstone National Park) at Syracuse University (USA)

2000 - 2004: Research scientist for vegetation dynamics at WSL (Switzerland)

2000: Research scientist for soil science and wetland science at MTU (USA)

1996 - 1999: Graduate research assistant at the Geobotanical Institute of ETH Zurich and at the entomological collection of ETH Zurich (Switzerland)

1994 - 1999: Part time assistant and secretary at Union Bank of Switzerland, Zurich (Switzerland)

Projects

The overarching goal of this project is to assess how habitat heterogeneity caused by beaver engineering influences the diversity, strength and nature of interactions within and between aquatic and terrestrial communities, and how changes in species assemblages relate to ecosystem processes.

In this project we evaluate the effects of multiple combined perturbations on soil biodiversity and functioning. We evaluate perturbations related with climate change (drought and heat wave) and grassland management (fertiliser addition, pesticides, trampling, grazing effects, etc.). We hypothesise that combined perturbations will have synergistic effects with cascading negative effects on soil fauna and microbial communities biodiversity and functionality.

The project examines how warmer winters and hot-dry summers affect the growth of potential future tree species during the advanced regeneration stage and how this response is modulated by soil properties and soil biotic communities.

We aim to understand how above- and belowground communities (invertebrates, plants, soil microbes) interactively respond to livestock removal and how these changes affect biotic interaction networks, ecosystem functioning and services.

Publications

Cheaib A., Waring E.F., McNellis R., Perkowski E.A., Martina J.P., Seabloom E.W., … Smith N.G. (2025) Soil nitrogen supply exerts largest influence on leaf nitrogen in environments with the greatest leaf nitrogen demand. Ecol. Lett. 28(1), e70015 (13 pp.). doi:10.1111/ele.70015 Institutional Repository DORA

Borer E.T., Risch A.C. (2024) Planning for the future: Grasslands, herbivores, and nature-based solutions. J. Ecol. 112(11), 2442-2450. doi:10.1111/1365-2745.14323 Institutional Repository DORA

Ferretti M., Fischer C., Gessler A., Graham C., Meusburger K., Abegg M., … Shackleton R.T. (2024) Advancing forest inventorying and monitoring. Ann. For. Sci. 81(1), 6 (25 pp.). doi:10.1186/s13595-023-01220-9 Institutional Repository DORA

Knollová I., Chytrý M., Bruelheide H., Dullinger S., Jandt U., Bernhardt-Römermann M., … Essl F. (2024) ReSurveyEurope: a database of resurveyed vegetation plots in Europe. J. Veg. Sci. 35(2), e13235 (18 pp.). doi:10.1111/jvs.13235 Institutional Repository DORA

MacDougall A.S., Esch E., Chen Q., Carroll O., Bonner C., Ohlert T., … Seabloom E.W. (2024) Widening global variability in grassland biomass since the 1980s. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 8, 1877-1888. doi:10.1038/s41559-024-02500-x Institutional Repository DORA

Zhang Y., Zhao F., Sun Z., Bai W., Feng C., Risch A.C., … Frey B. (2024) Maize–peanut intercropping and N fertilization changed the potential nitrification rate by regulating the ratio of AOB to AOA in soils. Clim. Smart Agric. 1(2), 100023 (10 pp.). doi:10.1016/j.csag.2024.100023 Institutional Repository DORA

Zhang Y., Resch M.C., Schütz M., Liao Z., Frey B., Risch A.C. (2024) Strengthened plant-microorganism interaction after topsoil removal cause more deterministic microbial assembly processes and increased soil nitrogen mineralization. Sci. Total Environ. 950, 175031 (10 pp.). doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.175031 Institutional Repository DORA

Zhu Y., Li X., Tu X., Risch A.C., Wang Z., Ma Q., … Zhong Z. (2024) Behavioural responses to mammalian grazing expose insect herbivores to elevated risk of avian predation. Proc. R. Soc. B. 291(2032), 20241112 (10 pp.). doi:10.1098/rspb.2024.1112 Institutional Repository DORA

Chen Q., Wang S., Borer E.T., Bakker J.D., Seabloom E.W., Harpole W.S., … Hautier Y. (2023) Multidimensional responses of grassland stability to eutrophication. Nat. Commun. 14(1), 6375 (9 pp.). doi:10.1038/s41467-023-42081-0 Institutional Repository DORA

Daleo P., Alberti J., Chaneton E.J., Iribarne O., Tognetti P.M., Bakker J.D., … Hautier Y. (2023) Environmental heterogeneity modulates the effect of plant diversity on the spatial variability of grassland biomass. Nat. Commun. 14(1), 1809 (11 pp.). doi:10.1038/s41467-023-37395-y Institutional Repository DORA

Frey B., Moser B., Tytgat B., Zimmermann S., Alberti J., Biederman L.A., … Risch A.C. (2023) Long-term N-addition alters the community structure of functionally important N-cycling soil microorganisms across global grasslands. Soil Biol. Biochem. 176, 108887 (11 pp.). doi:10.1016/j.soilbio.2022.108887 Institutional Repository DORA

Lebbink G., Risch A.C., Schuetz M., Firn J. (2023) How plant traits respond to and affect vertebrate and invertebrate herbivores—are measurements comparable across herbivore types? Plant Cell Environ. 47(1), 5-23. doi:10.1111/pce.14738 Institutional Repository DORA

Li T., Zhong Z., Pearson D.E., Ortega Y.K., Li W., Li Y., … Wang D. (2023) Parasites as ecosystem modulators: foliar pathogens suppress top-down effects of large herbivores. New Phytol. 239(1), 340-349. doi:10.1111/nph.18912 Institutional Repository DORA

Ochoa-Hueso R., Delgado-Baquerizo M., Risch A.C., Ashton L., Augustine D., Bélanger N., … Bremer E. (2023) Bioavailability of macro and micronutrients across global topsoils: main drivers and global change impacts. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles. 37(6), e2022GB007680 (14 pp.). doi:10.1029/2022GB007680 Institutional Repository DORA

Risch A.C., Zimmermann S., Schütz M., Borer E.T., Broadbent A.A.D., Caldeira M.C., … Ochoa-Hueso R. (2023) Drivers of the microbial metabolic quotient across global grasslands. Glob. Ecol. Biogeogr. 32(6), 904-918. doi:10.1111/geb.13664 Institutional Repository DORA

Seabloom E.W., Caldeira M.C., Davies K.F., Kinkel L., Knops J.M.H., Komatsu K.J., … Borer E.T. (2023) Globally consistent response of plant microbiome diversity across hosts and continents to soil nutrients and herbivores. Nat. Commun. 14(1), 3516 (10 pp.). doi:10.1038/s41467-023-39179-w Institutional Repository DORA

Siebert J., Sünnemann M., Hautier Y., Risch A.C., Bakker J.D., Biederman L., … Eisenhauer N. (2023) Drivers of soil microbial and detritivore activity across global grasslands. Comm. Biol. 6, 1220 (10 pp.). doi:10.1038/s42003-023-05607-2 Institutional Repository DORA

Spohn M., Bagchi S., Biederman L.A., Borer E.T., Bråthen K.A., Bugalho M.N., … Yahdjian L. (2023) The positive effect of plant diversity on soil carbon depends on climate. Nat. Commun. 14(1), 6624 (10 pp.). doi:10.1038/s41467-023-42340-0 Institutional Repository DORA

Vázquez E., Borer E.T., Bugalho M.N., Caldeira M.C., McCulley R.L., Risch A.C., … Spohn M. (2023) The synergistic response of primary production in grasslands to combined nitrogen and phosphorus addition is caused by increased nutrient uptake and retention. Plant Soil. 490, 371-385. doi:10.1007/s11104-023-06083-7 Institutional Repository DORA

Carroll O., Batzer E., Bharath S., Borer E.T., Campana S., Esch E., … MacDougall A.S. (2022) Nutrient identity modifies the destabilising effects of eutrophication in grasslands. Ecol. Lett. 25(4), 754-765. doi:10.1111/ele.13946 Institutional Repository DORA

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