Academic Career and Research Areas

Prof. Rupert Seidl (*1979) studies the dynamics of ecosystems and harnesses an improved understanding of ecological processes for sustainable forest management. A focus of his work is disturbance and resilience of forest ecosystems. He combines different methodological approaches – from empirical work and experiments to remote sensing and simulation modeling – to understand changes in ecosystems in space and time. These insights provide the foundation for the development of management approaches aiming to sustainably provide a wide variety of ecosystem services and safeguard the diversity of ecosystems in a changing world.

Prof. Seidl received his PhD from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) Vienna in 2008. After PostDocs at Oregon State University (USA) and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (Sweden) he became assistant professor at BOKU Vienna in 2013. He completed his habilitation (venia docendi) in the field of forest ecosystem management in 2014. From 2015 onwards Seidl was associate professor, and served as deputy head of the institute of silviculture at BOKU Vienna since 2018. In 2019 Seidl was named full professor of ecosystem dynamics and forest management in mountain landscapes at TUM. In 2021, he was awarded a Consolidator Grant of the European Research Council ERC.

Prof. Seidl is among the 1% most cited scientists in the field and was listed in the top 100 of Reuters’ list of the 1000 most influential climate scientists. He is a contributing author of the current assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Awards

  • Consolidator Grant of the European Research Council ERC (2021)
  • Elected into the Austrian Academy of Sciences (2016)
  • START-Prize of the Austrian Science Fund FWF (2015)
  • Schweighofer-Innovation Prize (2009)
  • PhD sub auspiciis praesidentis rei publicae (2008)

Senf C, Seidl R: “Mapping the forest disturbance regimes of Europe”. Nature Sustainability. 2021; 4: 63-70.

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Albrich KA, Rammer W, Seidl R: “Climate change causes critical transitions and irreversible alterations of mountain forests”. Global Change Biology. 2020; 26: 4013-4027.

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Seidl R, Thom D, Kautz M, Martin-Benito D, Peltoniemi M, Vacchiano G, Wild J, Ascoli D, Petr M, Honkaniemi J, Lexer MJ, Trotsiuk V, Mairota P, Svoboda M, Fabrika M, Nagel TA, Reyer CPO: “Forest disturbances under climate change”. Nature Climate Change. 2017; 7: 395-402.

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Seidl R, Spies TA, Peterson DL, Stephens SL, Hicke JA: “Searching for resilience: Addressing the impacts of changing disturbance regimes on forest ecosystem services”. Journal of Applied Ecology. 2016; 53: 120-129.

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Seidl R, Schelhaas MJ, Rammer W, Verkerk PJ: “Increasing forest disturbances in Europe and their impact on carbon storage”. Nature Climate Change. 2014; 4: 806-810.

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