Kienast, Felix
Professor
Department of Environmental Systems Science
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich
Switzerland
Biography
Felix Kienast has been Titular Professor for Landscape Ecology at the Department of Environmental Sciences at ETH Zurich since March 2007. Felix was born in 1958 in Switzerland. He studied geography at the University of Zürich, writing his PhD on the influences of site and weather properties on tree ring formation. He graduated in 1985 and spent the next two years at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA, where he supervised a modeling project addressing impacts of changing climate on tree growth, forest succession and land-use. He was appointed Senior Lecturer in Landscape Ecology at the University of Bern in 1996, and in 2005 at ETHZ. Since 1988 he has been with the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL in Birmensdorf.
Research Interest
His research concentrates on: (a) the evaluation of historic and present landscape patterns and processes; (b) landscape models designed for simulating potential future landscape development; and (c) the interactions between landscape change and ecological as well as socio-economical properties. Felix Kienast is actively involved in several national projects on landscape development and restoration, e.g. the search for biosphere reserves or river restoration sites.
Publications
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Assessing landscape functions with broad-scale environmental data: insights gained from a prototype development for Europe. Kienast F, Bolliger J, Potschin M, de Groot RS, Verburg PH, Heller I, Wascher D, Haines-Young R. Environ Manage. 2009 Dec;44(6):1099-120. doi: 10.1007/s00267-009-9384-7. Epub 2009 Oct 24.
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Balancing forest-regeneration probabilities and maintenance costs in dry grasslands of high conservation priority. Bolliger J, Edwards TC Jr, Eggenberg S, Ismail S, Seidl I, Kienast F. Conserv Biol. 2011 Jun;25(3):567-76. doi: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2010.01630.x. Epub 2010 Dec 22.
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Landscape genetics as a tool for conservation planning: predicting the effects of landscape change on gene flow. van Strien MJ, Keller D, Holderegger R, Ghazoul J, Kienast F, Bolliger J. Ecol Appl. 2014 Mar;24(2):327-39.
