Plant-Soil Ecology - PSE
Environmental Stress & Functional Ecology - ESFE
SymAction

Florian Ulm

Researcher

Plant-Soil interaction Nutrient stoichiometry Plant Invasion Sustainable agriculture Reforestation

I received a Ph.D. in Biodiversity, Genetics and Evolution from the University of Lisbon in 2019 and I am currently working in the Environmental Stress & Functional Ecology group of cE3c. My research focuses on plant-soil interaction, symbiosis, nutrient stoichiometry, plant nutrition as well as agroecological topics such as sustainable urban agriculture and reforestation. For many years I have been involved in research on plant - soil interaction using Acacia longifolia invasion into dune systems as a model system. Subsequently, during my PhD, I shifted from fundamental science of invasion towards solution-oriented topics, such as using invasive species compost in agricultural and reforestation settings. I worked as the main researcher for severeal years in the R3forest project (https://r3forest.weebly.com/) on using a combination of best practice methods to increase plant survival and regeneration post-fire and in degraded ecosystems. I am also founding member of the PermaLab (https://ciencias.ulisboa.pt/pt/permalab), a living lab for researching urban permaculture issues. My current research is driven by three overarching objectives: 1. Fundamental understanding of plant nutrition and plant-soil interaction via symbiosis (mycorrhiza); 2. Integrating knowledge on nutrient and carbon pools on micro and macroscopic level (from community-level to rhizosphere); 3. Finding practical solutions to move forward the transition to regenerative agriculture and forestry.