The founder and leader of the team, Jacob Keizer, has a long-standing research experience on hydrological and erosion processes as well as an extensive experience on coordinating national and international research projects. He has also supervised numerous PhD students and post-doctoral researchers, and is currently the Chair of CESAM’s EcoHydrology laboratory. Throughout the years a great number of researchers were associated with the ESP team, which favoured the scientific development of the team and greatly contributed to an improvement of our knowledge and expertise. The focus of the team research is on:
- fire ecology
- forest hydrology (at different spatial scales)
- soil (fertility) losses (in burnt forest and agricultural areas
- carbon and nutrient cycling, particularly in burnt areas
- soil water repellency and its implications on hydrological and erosion processes
- off-site fire effects of wildfires, namely the impacts on aquatic ecosystems
- nonpoint source pollution
- ecotoxicology
- eco-hydrological modelling
- climate change impacts on watershed processes and on the ecological status of water bodies
