Dr. Reto Schmucki

• Community & Population Ecology
• Trophic interactions
• Ecosystem Services & Global changes
• Conservation biology
• Plant-insect interactions

RESEARCH PROJECTS

SABIOMA (Safeguarding Biodiversity and Climate Resilience) is an international partnership between Argentina and the UK, working on nature-based solutions to tackle the challenge of biodiversity loss, climate change and social wellbeing. Our main objectives are to develop knowledge, build capacity and define tangible actions for conservation, restoration and sustainable use of land and the environment. Through our research activities, our consortium focuses on providing knowledge to food producers, policy-makers, land managers and the public who need better evidence-based tools to support decision-making for sustainable outcomes. Funded by Defra Global Centre on Biodiversity for Climate (GCBC) fast track research scheme, via UKRI [Grant no. 2022GCBCSABIOMA]. 

SPRING (Strengthening Pollinator Recovery through INdicators and monitorinG) The EU-funded SPRING project started in May 2021 and will run until November 2023. The project will support the preparation for implementing the EU Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (EU PoMS) for wild bees, butterflies, hoverflies and moths using volunteer and professional recorders, building on the work of the ABLE project citizen science butterfly monitoring. I work on the European Butterfly Monitoring Scheme, a project that builds on work initiated at the CESAB, and a former project, ABLE (Assessing ButterfLies in Europe). SPRING harness the strength of an international network of Butterfly Monitoring Schemes (eBMS) and expand the monitoring coverage across the EU, focusing on southern and eastern European countries. ABLE will produce high-quality information on butterfly populations and trends across Europe to provide the state of Europe's butterflies and help assess the health of the environment and inform EU policies, including the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 and the Common Agricultural Policy.

SURPASS2 (Safeguarding Pollination Services in a Changing World: theory into practice) This 3-year project builds on the SURPASS project (Newton Phase 1). The SURPASS2 goal is to deliver evidence for creating resilient pollination services for sustainable economic growth, improved human health and well-being, and positive environmental and agricultural outcomes. This will be addressed by five main objectives, co-designed with academics and stakeholders, establishing interconnected work packages that build capacity to manage pollination services and provide tangible outcomes. This will be delivered through 4 work packages with specific aims; WP1) monitoring populations and understanding their distributions, WP2) understanding how the environment in which pollinators live affects them and how it affects their capacity to provide crop pollination, WP3) understanding national scale deficits in pollination for key crops and identifying areas where pollination services are at high risk, WP4) develop a national scale predictive framework to support policy goals of maximising benefits for agricultural productivity provided by pollination and enhance the sustainability and resilience of socio-ecological systems. SURPASS2 is a co-funded project involving four research councils and foundations, NERC (UK), CONICET (Argentina), FAPESP (Brazil) and CONICYT (Chile). NERC grant no. NE/S011870/1.

Biotic interactions, together with PhD candidate Katerina Christou (Reading University & UKCEH) and former postdoc Dr Hélène Audusseau, we work on a mathematical model of biotic interactions between butterfly hosts and parasitoids. This project aims to develop a spatially explicit model linking parasitoids and butterflies through apparent competition. This research project is funded through a doctoral training fellowship granted to Katerina Christou by the NERC Centre for Doctoral Training in Quantitative and Modelling (QMEE).

• 2016 - now      Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford, UK
• 2013 - 2015    Centre for Synthesis and Analysis of Biodiversity, France
• 2012 - 2013    McGill University, Canada
• 2009 - 2012    Stockholm University, Sweden

EDUCATION

• 2009     PhD, McGill University, Canada
• 2000     MSc, Université de Montréal, Canada
• 1997     BSc, Université de Montréal, Canada

PUBLICATIONS (ORCID - Publons)

• Cunha, N.L., Chacoff, N. P., Sáez, A., Schmucki, R., Galetto, L., Devoto, M., Carrasco, J., Mazzei, M. P., Castillo, S. E., Palacios, T. P., Vesprini, J. L., Agostini, K., Saraiva, A. M., Woodcock, B. A., Ollerton, J., & Aizen, M. A. (2023). Soybean dependence on biotic pollination decreases with latitude. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 347, 108376. [access] - [dataset & code]
• R Schmucki, D.A Bohan, M.J.O Pocock (2020). Combined effect of crop rotation and carabid beetles on weed dynamics in arable fields. preprint - BioRxiv, 2020.12.04.411918v1 [access]
• Lemke I.H, A Kolb, B.J Graae, P De Frenne, K Prasad Acharya, C Blandino, J Brunet, O Chabrerie, S AO Cousins, G Decoqc, T Heinken, M Hermy, J Liira, R Schmucki, A Shevtsova, K Verheyen, M.R Diekmann. (2015) Patterns of phenotypic trait variation in two temperate forest herbs along a broad climatic gradient. Plant Ecology 216(11), pp 1523-1536 [access]
• Rader R, K Birkhofer, R Schmucki, H.G Smith, M Stjernman and R Lindborg. (2014) Organic farming and heterogeneous landscapes positively affect different measures of plant diversity. Journal of Applied Ecology 55(6), pp 1544-1553. [access]
• Schmucki R, J Reimark, R Lindborg and S.A.O Cousins. (2012) Landscape context and management regime structure plant diversity in grassland communities. Journal of Ecology 100(5), pp 1164–1173. [access]
• Auffret A.G, R Schmucki, J Reimark, and S.A.O Cousins. (2012) Animal movement provides useful functional connectivity for plants in fragmented systems. Journal of Vegetation Science 23(5), pp 970-977. [access]
• Schmucki, R, and S de Blois. (2009) Pollination and reproduction of a self-incompatible forest herb in hedgerow corridors and forest patches. Oecologia 160, pp 721-733. [access]
• Schmucki R, and S de Blois. (2009) Population structures and individual performances of Trillium grandiflorum in hedgerow and forest habitats. Plant Ecology 202, pp 67-78. [access]
• Schmucki R, S de Blois, A Bouchard, and G Domon. (2002) Spatial and temporal dynamics of hedgerows in three agricultural landscapes of southern Quebec, Canada. Environmental Management 30, pp 651-664. [access]