Katharina is an Associate Professor in the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience. She is a plant ecologist with a background in vegetation science and nature conservation. Her research projects focus on the prevention, management and impacts of biological invasions for nature conservation, horticulture and agriculture. Before joining Coventry University she has worked at the Universities of Warwick and York and holds a PhD from the Technical University of Berlin. Katharina collaborates as a lead author in the IPBES Assessment of invasive alien species and has been a member of the Plant Health Panel of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) from 2015-2021. Katharina coordinates the Plant Alert citizen science project in collaboration with the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. 

Ecology and environmental change

Biological invasions

Citizen science

Weed ecology

I am an ecologist interested in understanding environmental change and how it is driven by human activities in the past, present and future. Biological invasions are one example to study this relationship with interdisciplinary research approaches and how it affects agriculture or forestry, but also urban ecosystems across the globe. My research vision is that this work contributes to the protection of biological diversity and the creation of resilient ecosystems.