Gessner, Mark

Biography

Mark Gessner has been Adjunct Professor at the Department of Environmental Sciences of ETH Zurich since September 2005. As senior scientist he leads a research group on ecosystem processes in the Department of Aquatic Ecology at Eawag. Mark Gessner was born in 1960 in Dusseldorf and is a German citizen. He studied biology from 1980 to 1987 at the Universities of Dusseldorf and Freiburg, Germany, and at Trent University in Ontario, Canada. Based on research conducted at the Centre d'Ecologie des Ressources Renouvelables of the CNRS in Toulouse, he received his PhD degree from the University of Freiburg in 1991. A short postdoctoral stay followed at the CNRS before he moved to the University of Kiel where, in 1996, he earned his habilitation in limnology. The same year he was appointed as research scientist at Eawag and became affiliated with ETH as a lecturer.

Research Interest

Mark Gessner's research revolves around ecosystem processes in streams and wetlands. Special attention is given to plant litter decomposition by fungi, bacteria and detritivorous animals, to consequences of global environmental change on ecosystems, effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning, the productivity and structure of benthic microbial communities, and stream bioassessment based on functional criteria.