Patrice Descombes
Patrice Descombes is a botanist specializing in Swiss flora, with expertise in plant community ecology and biotic interactions, particularly in alpine environments.
After studying at the University of Lausanne, where he wrote a master’s thesis on the dynamics of invasive plants in the Lausanne region, he began his doctoral research in 2014 at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich). His work focuses on the impact of climate change and plant–herbivore interactions on alpine plant communities. Beginning in 2018, he continued his research as a postdoctoral fellow at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) in Birmensdorf, where he contributed to projects aimed at improving biodiversity monitoring in Switzerland. In 2020, he joined the Naturéum as curator of the herbariums, before being appointed, in 2023, chief curator and head of the botany department.
His research, which combines field monitoring, experimental approaches, and statistical modeling, lies at the intersection of community ecology and biogeography, with a strong focus on how ecosystems respond to climate change. He develops integrative approaches that combine functional trait analysis, metabolomics, and spatial modeling to link ecological processes to biodiversity dynamics at various scales. His work aims to better understand community responses to global changes and to anticipate shifts in biodiversity, with the goal of identifying conservation priorities. He also pays particular attention to the long-term monitoring of plant communities, which is essential for understanding and predicting their evolution.