About

I am an Associate Professor of Ecology and Sustainability Science and the Director of the Research Centre for Ecological Services of the University of Bucharest. There is a long-standing association between the Bio-Geo group headed by me at the University of Bucharest and the Bio-Geo Interactions group at the Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena.

My academic background includes Biochemistry (biophysical methods to study the permeability of liposomes to water), Ecology (biogeochemistry and ecotoxicology of heavy metals in large river systems), and Philosophy (philosophy of science and moral and political philosophy, with a focus on the philosophy of biology and the evolution of culture and institutions). The biochemical knowledge catalyzed the upscaling of toxicological mechanisms to the ecosystem and landscape scales. The knowledge of the philosophy of science proved helpful in integrating scientific traditions for interdisciplinary research. The moral and political philosophy was relevant for the social and political application of scientific knowledge and sustainability science.

To decompose the complexity of socio-ecological and biogeochemical processes, I developed and used a variety of research strategies. My achievements can be historically grouped into three phases (Figure 1): a starting phase (Odum style biogeochemistry), a transition phase, and a phase with coupled abiotic and biotic processes. In the holistic phase, the main achievements are 1) a monograph about the ecotoxicology of heavy metals (code F1-Exp.1 in figure 1) 2) an international chapter conceptualizing the structure of larger river systems (TEB1), 3) two articles about restoration and integrated monitoring in a supplement of Archiv fur Hydrobiologie (Mng.1). In the second part of the holistic phase, I acquired formal competence in the philosophy of science and started a second Ph.D.

Figure 1. Distribution in time and relations between scientific achievements. Legend: achievements based on field research (F1-F6), on experimental research (Exp.1-Exp.6), achievements in theoretical aspects and biogeochemistry (TEB1-TEB7), achievements in support activities for the main research (management and institutional development, economics – Mng1- Mng4, philosophy of science PS1-PS4).

In the transition phase, I looked for conceptual solutions between full biogeochemical cycles and analytic investigations of separate processes in cooperation with mathematicians (concept of integrated modeling in biogeochemistry PS1), and with experts in soil groups of organisms (structural model of optimized complexity for the role of ectomycorrhizal fungi). I produced a reconstruction of the ecological productive processes in Darwin’s “Origin a species” (PS2), which was then used for a Springer chapter about foundations of integrated modeling in biogeochemistry (PS3).

Also, in the transition phase, I coordinated the reintegration of a Marie-Curie Post-Doc from the Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena, with expertise in experiments in mining areas (Mng.2). In 2009, we used budgets of elements and ecological succession in the design and interpretation of lysimeter experiments (Exp2). In our new fieldwork, a milestone related scales of organisms with their distribution in mining areas (F2). Meanwhile, an article about denitrification at the European scale was published, including some of the work done in the holistic phase.

In 2010 I became director of our research center and catalyzed a research network that since 2018 transformed into a formal ecosystem of innovation (Mng.3 with research agenda for 2021-2030). As an informal leader, I have coordinated the literature reviews for interdisciplinary Springer chapters published as primary author (role of mineralogy, organic matter, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, ectomycorrhizal fungi, TEB4), or single author (succession and biogeochemical processes in mining areas, TEB6). We applied the methodological conclusions of these theoretical contributions in our field and experimental research.

In experiments, my lines of achievements were:

1) To account for the role of N and P in the uptake of heavy metals and their toxic effects in plants (Neagoe et al., 2013 Exp.3, 2014 Exp.4, Neagoe and Iordache 2023 Exp6 in the journal Plants), and

2) To explicitly account for the role of time and time scale of processes in predicting plant variables at individual and community scales (Nicoară et al., 2014 Exp.4, Constantinescu et al., 2019 Exp.5).  In the field research, the results published by now (there are also large sets of data in the publication phase) focused on the scale specific relation between the distribution of polluting metals and a group of soil invertebrates (Manu et al., 2016, 2017, 2019 F3-5 in figure 1).

In modeling, we produced tools for linking variables between scales (TEB4), and to include vegetation as a spatially distributed variable in erosion models. In 2021 I communicated a reconstruction of the concept of time used in Darwin’s Origin of Species (PS4), which pointed out some convergences with the conceptualizations of time in ecology, for instance in the phenology context. From here, the idea was to look for the order of stressors and the overall effects of multiple stressors on ecological processes.

In 2021, based on my interdisciplinary background and a previous contribution to the evolution of institutions (a book in Romanian about F. A. Hayek and D. C. North published in 2008) I was coopted by a leading social scientist, Paul Dragoș Aligică, in an exploratory research project dealing with the “Resilience and stability in polycentric governance systems.” In this frame, I contributed with a comprehensive analysis of resilience in physics, biology, and environmental sciences. The result was a chapter in a Routledge Encyclopedia co-authored with Prof. Aligica and published in 2023 (Mng 3 in Figure 1).  The most important and original contribution to date is applying this general concept of resilience in a conceptual, methodological framework for the resilience of biogeochemical services published in 2023 as the first author in the Journal of Environmental Management.

In addition to academic activity, I was involved in Romanian civil society, working for the reform of academic organizations (academic integrity) and the popularization of science (teaching). These activities came naturally to me because of my interest in sustainability.