Born and raised in Wilhelmshaven, Germany, Dr. Mario Bretfeld studied Landscape Ecology
at the Carl-von-Ossietzky University of Oldenburg. During an exchange year in Colorado,
he studied aspen (Populus tremuloides) regeneration in response to different disturbances,
including fire and conifer mortality due to mountain pine beetles. After graduating
in 2010, he returned to Colorado to pursue a Ph.D. at the University of Northern Colorado
in the Franklin lab. His dissertation research included long-term aspen community
changes in and around Rocky Mountain National Park, responses to the mountain pine
beetle outbreak, and resource sharing through the connected root system of aspen (i.e.
clonal integration). He received his Ph.D. in Biological Education in 2014.
After graduation, Dr. Bretfeld moved to Panama as part of a post-doctoral fellowship
with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and the University of Wyoming.
In Panama, he worked primarily in the Agua Salud project and measured plant water
use (i.e. transpiration) in regrowing tropical forests of different ages, as well
as in a cattle-pasture and a coffee plantation. From April 2017 to July 2019, he lived
and worked in Laramie as a post-doctoral fellow in the Ewers lab at the University
of Wyoming. Since August 2019, he has served as assistant professor of biology in
the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology at 肉肉传媒.
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