Advisory Board and Editors Forestry
Teri Balser
Professor Teri Balser is Dean of Teaching and Learning for the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Curtin University, where she came after having been Dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Florida. She received a Ph.D. in soil microbiology came from the University of California at Berkeley, and she completed postdoctoral research in ecosystem ecology at Stanford University. She is a Fellow of the Soil Science Society of America, and was recently named to the Australian Research Council College of Experts.
Her research centers on understanding microbial community-level ecophysiological responses to stress, disturbance, and change, and the consequences of these for ecosystem functioning. She has worked in countries worldwide studying restoration, carbon sequestration, invasive species, biodiversity, and land use/land cover.
In addition to international recognition as an accomplished research scholar, Dr. Balser is widely known in higher education as a change agent and leader in Science, Technology Engineering and Math education (STEM). She is a co-founder of the Society for Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER), a National Vision and Change Fellow with the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education (PULSE), and was a Fulbright-Nehru Distinguished Chair to India in 2015 to help build capacity at the national level for pedagogically advanced and responsive STEM education.
Renato Benesperi
Associate Professor at the Department of Biology of the University of Florence.
His main research activity focuses on ecology, diversity and systematic of lichens. Research topics include the assessment and management of impacts of human activities (e.g. forest management, invasive alien species, climate changes) on lichen and plant communities.
Viktor V. Brygadyrenko
Dr. Viktor Brygadyrenko is an Associate Professor in the Department of Zoology and Ecology at Oles Honchar Dnipro National University.
His main scientific projects include:
- Effect of heavy metal ions on the development of invertebrates.
- Morphological variability in populations of beetles in conditions of anthropogenically altered ecosystems.
- Trophic relations of species in litter macrofauna of Ukraine.
- Structure of litter macrofauna communities in forest ecosystems of Ukraine.
- Influence of medicinal plants, flavourings and source materials, approved for use in and on foods, on eggs and larvae of nematodes of mammals.
- Ecological niches of ground beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae) in Ukraine.
- Morphometric variation in ground beetles.
Guillermo Castilla
I am a remote sensing research scientist at the Canadian Forest Service. I integrate geospatial technologies to map and monitor land cover, forest structure and composition, and natural (e.g., fire, insect outbreaks) and anthropogenic (forestry, oil and gas) disturbances in support of forest ecosystems and climate change science and policy.
Chih-Hsin Cheng
Dr. Chih-Hsin Cheng is a soil biogeochemist who focuses on soil physicochemical properties and carbon and nutrient cycles in agro- and forest ecosystems. His research includes (1) natural and anthropogenic influences on carbon stocks and carbon cycle; (2) characterization of biochar and soil organic matter and their roles in stabilization of organic carbon; and (3) assessment of carbon sequestration in afforestation/reforestation.
Jorge Curiel Yuste
Dr. Jorge Curiel Yuste, leads the group of "Terrestrial Ecology" within the BC3. He obtained his doctorate from the University of Antwerp (UA, Belgium) in 2004. Since then, he has been a postdoctoral researcher at the Biometeorology (Biometlab) lab at the University of California, Berkeley (Prof. Dennis D Baldocchi, 2004-2007) a Marie Curie fellow (Intra-European Fellowship (IEF)) in the Global Ecology Unit at the Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF) of Barcelona (2007-2009), a postdoctoral researcher at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB; Contractes doctoral D'Intensificatió I3, 2009-2011) and a "Ramón y Cajal" research fellow at the Museum of Natural History (MNCN, CSIC). Since 2017 he holds an Ikerbasque Research Professorship at the Basque Center for Climate Change (BC3). At the moment he is also responsible for the group of "Plant and soil Interactions" (PlanSoil within the Asociaciión Española de Ecología Terrestre (AEET)
Lucía DeSoto
Lecturer in Botany at Complutense University of Madrid
Luis E Eguiarte
Professor of the Evolutionary Ecology Department at the Institute of Ecology of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
Maria Luisa Fernandez-Marcos
Maria Luisa Fernandez-Marcos graduated in Chemical Sciences from the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain) in 1976. She obtained her PhD in Chemistry from the University of Santiago de Compostela in 1985, specializing in Soil Science. Between 1979 and 1987 she was a secondary school teacher.
Since 1987 she is a professor at the University of Santiago de Compostela, in the area of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, where she has taught Soil Science, Environmental Pollution and related subjects. Her main research lines are: soil chemistry, soil fertility and management, biogeochemical cycles, soil and water pollution, environmental soil science, waste management and recycling, tropical soils, climate change mitigation and adaptation.
She is a member of the Spanish Society of Soil Science, Soil Science Society of America, International Union of Soil Sciences and Ibero-American Society of Environmental Physics and Chemistry.
Scott Ferrenberg
I am a terrestrial population, community, and ecosystem ecologist interested in understanding how global change pressures influence biotic populations and community states, and how potential shifts in trait and/or species distributions will affect ecological functioning in arid, semiarid, and subalpine ecosystems. I am currently an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at New Mexico State University where I am the PI of the Global Change Ecology Lab (GCEL).
Paolo Giordani
Associate Professor of Botany in the Department of Pharmacy, University of Genoa.
My current research interests focus on the study of lichen ecology and biology. Research topics include the effects on sensitive organisms of anthropogenic disturbances, e.g. air pollution, forest management, fires, pastures, and climate change. I was in charge of developing European standard protocols on lichen biomonitoring of air quality.
Ioannis Gitas
Ioannis Gitas is a Professor at the Laboratory of Forest Management and Remote Sensing, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and an elected fellow of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. His research has focused on remote sensing and GIS applications in environmental monitoring, with emphasis on forest fire management and land cover/land use mapping and change detection. He has been involved in various national and international projects and has long experience working as a consultant in GIS/RS issues for national and international organisations, as well as for the industry. Also, he has served as a project proposal reviewer for a number of national and international research organisations. Dr. Gitas received his PhD and M.Phil. degrees in GIS and Remote Sensing from the Department of Geography, Cambridge University, U.K., and a B.Sc. degree in Forestry and Natural Environment from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. He is an Associate Editor of Remote Sensing and has edited special issues for a number of high impact factor journals. In addition, he has substantial experience in organising international workshops and conferences. Ioannis Gitas is currently the Chair of the Special Interest Group on Forest Fires of the European Association of Remote Sensing Laboratories (EARSeL, FFSIG), the FAO Forest Resources Assessment - Remote Sensing Survey contact point for Greece, and is a member of the GOFC-GOLD Fire Implementation Team.