Marcin Churski

• Community ecology
• Effects of large mammals on ecosystem functioning
• Plant-herbivore interactions
• Consumer-resource interactions
• Behavioural ecology
• Effects of predation on plant-herbivore interactions
• Experimental ecology
• Development of methods and applications to analyse, store and manage photo- and video-trapping data

Europe is currently experiencing a strong wildlife revival and populations of mammalian herbivores are increasing strongly. Although large mammalian fauna is suggested to be a central driver of ecosystem functioning, we actually have a very poor understanding of the impact of these increasing populations. How will increasing populations of mammalian herbivores shape the future European forest ecosystems? Most of the knowledge on consumer-controlled woody vegetation comes from southern hemisphere grasslands and savannas, where combined effects of fire and herbivory has been shown to shape the structure and function of this biome. This view acknowledges that in many parts of the world strongly contrasting vegetation states, open grassland or closed forest, may occur under the same climatic conditions. These areas are also termed ‘ecosystems uncertain', where ‘uncertainty' is attributed to the potentially strong, controlling role of biomass consumers in these ecosystems - fire and/or herbivores. In my research I attempt to understand what are the effects of top down forces, such as large herbivores and fires on woody vegetation in the temperate zone.