Current research
I am an applied ecologist with a strong interest in biological control, invasion biology and nature conservation. The central question of my research is when are populations regulated and what are the conditions under which populations escape such regulation. These questions are not only relevant for advancing our understanding of many ecological processes, but also have a huge application potential.
We use a wide array of systems and methods to answer these questions. The majority of our work is done on herbivorous insects and the organisms they interact with (plants, predators, parasitoids), but we also work on invasive mammals and even on plant pathogenic fungi. More details on specific projects can be found on our research webpage
Curriculum vitae
| 2007-present | Group leader, University of Fribourg (CH) |
| 2003-2007 |
Group leader, University of Bern (CH) |
| 2003 |
Habilitation, University of Bern (CH) |
| 1996 |
PhD, Swiss Federal
Institute of
Technology (ETH) Zurich |
| 1993 |
MSc, University of
Kiel (D) |
| 1991-1993 |
Project
entomologist, CABI
Delémont (CH) |
Representative publications (full list with pdfs)
Sol D, Bacher S, Reader SM & Lefebvre L (2008) Brain size predicts the success of mammal species introduced into novel environments. American Naturalist S172, S63-S71.Hulme PE, Bacher S, Kenis M, Klotz, S, Kühn I, Minchin D, Nentwig W, Olenin S, Panov V, Pergl J, Pyšek P, Roques A, Sol D, Solarz W, Vilà, M (2008) Grasping at the routes of biological invasions: a framework for integrating pathways into policy. Journal of Applied Ecology 45, 403–414.
Nentwig W., Bacher S., Brandl R. (2007) Ökologie kompakt. Elsevier.
Tschanz B., Bersier L.F., Bacher S. (2007) Functional responses - a question of alternative prey and predator density. Ecology 88, 1300-1308.
Schenk D., Bersier L.F., Bacher S. (2005) An experimental test of the nature of predation: neither prey- nor ratio-dependent. Journal of Animal Ecology 74, 86-91.
Bacher, S. and Friedli, J. (2002) Dynamics of a mutualism in a multi-species context. Proceedings of the Royal Society, London, Series B: Biological Sciences 269, 1517-1522.