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Technical University of Munich

Cornelius Senf

Fellowship
Rudolf Mößbauer Tenure Track

Appointment
2024

Institution
Technical University of Munich

Department
TUM School of Life Sciences

Focus Group
Earth Observation for Ecosystem Management

Short CV

Prof. Senf (*1988) studied geography and physics at Humboldt-University of Berlin and obtained a doctorate in geography with specialization in remote sensing in 2016. After two postdocs at Vienna’s University of Life Sciences and Natural Resources (BOKU) and the Integrative Research Institute on Transformations of Human-Environment Systems (IRI THESys) in Berlin he joined TUM in 2020 as a senior researcher. After completing his habilitation in 2023, Senf was appointed as assistant professor in 2024.

Selected Awards

  • Austrian Science Fund (FWF) Lise Meitner Fellow (2019)
  • Organizer of the International Tree Mortality Network (2018)
  • Best-paper award of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) Vienna (2018)
  • German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) P.R.I.M.E. Fellow (2016)

Research Interests

Prof. Cornelius Senf's research is located at the interface of Earth observation and ecology. His current research focuses on the remote sensing of ecosystems under climate and land use change. The overarching goal of his research is to provide scientific insights that improve the sustainable management of ecosystems. From a methodological perspective, Senf covers a wide range of tools, including spaceborne remote sensing and active methods such as laser-scanning.

Selected Publications

  • Senf, C. (2022) Seeing the system from above – The use and potential of remote sensing for studying ecosystem dynamics. Ecosystems, 25, 1719–1737. Abstract

  • Senf, C. and Seidl, R. (2021) Mapping the forest disturbance regimes of Europe. Nature Sustainability, 4, 63-70. Abstract

  • Senf, C., Buras, A., Zang, C. S., Rammig, A., and Seidl. R. (2020) Excess forest mortality is consistently linked to drought across Europe. Nature Communications, 11, 6200. Abstract

  • Senf, C., Pflugmacher, D., Zhiqiang, Y., Sebald, J., Knorrn, J., Neumann, M., Hostert, P. and Seidl, R. (2018) Canopy mortality has doubled across Europe’s temperate forests in the last three decades. Nature Communications, 9, 4978. Abstract

  • Senf, C., Seidl, R. and Hostert, P. (2017) Remote sensing of forest insect disturbances: current state and future directions. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geo-information, 60, 49-60. Abstract

Publications as TUM-IAS-Fellow

2026

  • Cherlet, Wout; Dayal, Karun; Chen, Shilin; Cooper, Zane; Disney, Mathias; Hanzl, Andreas; Levick, Shaun; Nightingale, Joanne; Origo, Niall; Senf, Cornelius; Soenens, Luna; Terryn, Louise; Van den Broeck, Wouter A.J.; Calders, Kim: Benchmarking tree instance segmentation of terrestrial laser scanning point clouds. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 231, 2026, 230-247 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )

2025

  • Towards a global understanding of tree mortality. New Phytologist 245 (6), 2025, 2377-2392 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )
  • Assmann, Jakob J.; Pedersen, Pil B. M.; Moeslund, Jesper E.; Senf, Cornelius; Treier, Urs A.; Corcoran, Derek; Koma, Zsófia; Nord‐Larsen, Thomas; Normand, Signe: Temperate forests of high conservation value are successfully identified by satellite and LiDAR data fusion. Conservation Science and Practice 7 (2), 2025 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )
  • Braziunas, Kristin H.; Rammer, Werner; De Frenne, Pieter; Díaz-Calafat, Joan; Hedwall, Per-Ola; Senf, Cornelius; Thom, Dominik; Zellweger, Florian; Seidl, Rupert: Microclimate temperature effects propagate across scales in forest ecosystems. Landscape Ecology 40 (2), 2025 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )
  • Calders, Kim; Herold, Martin; Adams, Jennifer; Armston, John; Brede, Benjamin; Cherlet, Wout; Cooper, Zane T.; Dayal, Karun; Frenne, Pieter De; Levick, Shaun R.; Meir, Patrick; Origo, Niall; Senf, Cornelius; Soenens, Luna; Terryn, Louise; Van den Broeck, Wouter A.J.; Vastaranta, Mikko; Verbeeck, Hans; Villard, Ludovic; Disney, Mathias: Realistic virtual forests for understanding forest disturbances and recovery from space. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 227, 2025, 501-507 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )
  • Engle, Brittany; Bratoev, Ivan; Crowley, Morgan A.; Zhu, Yanan; Senf, Cornelius: Distribution and characteristics of lightning-ignited wildfires in boreal forests – the BoLtFire database. Earth System Science Data 17 (6), 2025, 2249-2276 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )
  • Graser, Anne; Frank, Claudia; Kunz, Friederike; Schuldt, Andreas; Senf, Cornelius; Sudfeldt, Christoph; Trautmann, Sven; Kamp, Johannes: Increase in disturbance-induced canopy gaps leads to reorganization of Central European bird communities. Basic and Applied Ecology 83, 2025, 88-97 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )
  • Krüger, Kirsten; Senf, Cornelius; Hagge, Jonas; Seidl, Rupert: Setting aside areas for conservation does not increase disturbances in temperate forests. Journal of Applied Ecology 62 (5), 2025, 1271-1281 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )
  • Mandl, Lisa; Cerioni, Matteo; Bače, Radek; Bončina, Andrej; Brůna, Josef; Chećko, Ewa; de Koning, Johannes H. C.; Diaci, Jurij; Dobrowolska, Dorota; Fidej, Gal; Garbarino, Matteo; Jansons, Āris; Keren, Srdjan; Kitenberga, Māra; Klopčič, Matija; Konôpka, Bohdan; Kopecký, Martin; Köster, Kajar; Kucbel, Stanislav; Lingua, Emanuele; Macek, Martin; Marzano, Raffaella; Metslaid, Marek; Panayotov, Momchil; Pittner, Ján; Šebeň, Vladimír; Socha, Jarosław; Svoboda, Miroslav; Szwagrzyk, Jerzy; Tsvetanov, Nickolay; Urbinati, Carlo; Vencurik, Jaroslav; Vitali, Alessandro; Vodde, Floortje; Wild, Jan; Nagel, Thomas A.; Senf, Cornelius: The amount of undisturbed forest in proximity of severe disturbance patches enhances their recovery in temperate Europe. Landscape Ecology 40 (11), 2025 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )
  • Mohr, Johannes S.; Bastit, Félix; Grünig, Marc; Knoke, Thomas; Rammer, Werner; Senf, Cornelius; Thom, Dominik; Seidl, Rupert: Rising cost of disturbances for forestry in Europe under climate change. Nature Climate Change 15 (10), 2025, 1078-1083 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )
  • Richter, Tobias; Seidl, Rupert; Geres, Lisa Samira; König, Sebastian; Mandl, Lisa; Senf, Cornelius; Keller, Alexander; Seibold, Sebastian: Landscape context modulates the effect of local canopy cover on forest multidiversity across elevations. Journal of Applied Ecology 62 (12), 2025, 3537-3549 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )
  • Senf, Cornelius; Geres, Lisa; Richter, Tobias; Braziunas, Kristin; Glasmann, Felix; Seidl, Rupert; Seibold, Sebastian: Spaceborne remote sensing effectively maps species richness across taxonomic groups in a mountain landscape. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation 143, 2025, 104797 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )
  • Senf, Cornelius; Seidl, Rupert; Knoke, Thomas; Jucker, Tommaso: Taylor’s law predicts unprecedented pulses of forest disturbance under global change. Nature Communications 16 (1), 2025 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )
  • Sevastopolsky, Artem; Grassal, Philip-William; Giebenhain, Simon; Athar, ShahRukh; Verdoliva, Luisa; Nießner, Matthias: HeadCraft: Modeling High-Detail Shape Variations for Animated 3DMMs. 2025 International Conference on 3D Vision (3DV), IEEE, 2025, 1551-1561 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )
  • Suvanto, Susanne; Esquivel‐Muelbert, Adriane; Schelhaas, Mart‐Jan; Astigarraga, Julen; Astrup, Rasmus; Cienciala, Emil; Fridman, Jonas; Henttonen, Helena M.; Kunstler, Georges; Kändler, Gerald; König, Louis A.; Ruiz‐Benito, Paloma; Senf, Cornelius; Stadelmann, Golo; Starcevic, Ajdin; Talarczyk, Andrzej; Zavala, Miguel A.; Pugh, Thomas A. M.: Understanding Europe's Forest Harvesting Regimes. Earth's Future 13 (2), 2025 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )
  • Viana-Soto, Alba; Senf, Cornelius: The European Forest Disturbance Atlas: a forest disturbance monitoring system using the Landsat archive. Earth System Science Data 17 (6), 2025, 2373-2404 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )

2024

  • Acil, Nezha; Sadler, Jonathan P.; Senf, Cornelius; Suvanto, Susanne; Pugh, Thomas A. M.: Landscape patterns in stand-replacing disturbances across the world’s forests. Nature Sustainability 8 (1), 2024, 86-98 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )
  • Bathiany, Sebastian; Bastiaansen, Robbin; Bastos, Ana; Blaschke, Lana; Lever, Jelle; Loriani, Sina; De Keersmaecker, Wanda; Dorigo, Wouter; Milenković, Milutin; Senf, Cornelius; Smith, Taylor; Verbesselt, Jan; Boers, Niklas: Ecosystem Resilience Monitoring and Early Warning Using Earth Observation Data: Challenges and Outlook. Surveys in Geophysics 46 (2), 2024, 265-301 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )
  • Braziunas, Kristin H.; Geres, Lisa; Richter, Tobias; Glasmann, Felix; Senf, Cornelius; Thom, Dominik; Seibold, Sebastian; Seidl, Rupert: Projected climate and canopy change lead to thermophilization and homogenization of forest floor vegetation in a hotspot of plant species richness. Global Change Biology 30 (1), 2024 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )
  • Graser, Anne; Georg, Malte; Kallmayer, Josef; Marten, Andreas; Pertl, Caren; Rumpf, Hendrik; Senf, Cornelius; Kamp, Johannes: Large‐scale forest disturbance and associated management shape bird communities in Central European spruce forests. Journal of Applied Ecology 62 (2), 2024, 329-343 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )
  • Kowalski, Katja; Senf, Cornelius; Okujeni, Akpona; Hostert, Patrick: Large‐scale remote sensing analysis reveals an increasing coupling of grassland vitality to atmospheric water demand. Global Change Biology 30 (5), 2024 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )
  • Krüger, Kirsten; Senf, Cornelius; Jucker, Tommaso; Pflugmacher, Dirk; Seidl, Rupert: Gap expansion is the dominant driver of canopy openings in a temperate mountain forest landscape. Journal of Ecology 112 (7), 2024, 1501-1515 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )
  • Lecina‐Diaz, Judit; Senf, Cornelius; Grünig, Marc; Seidl, Rupert: Ecosystem services at risk from disturbance in Europe's forests. Global Change Biology 30 (3), 2024 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )
  • Mandl, Lisa; Viana-Soto, Alba; Seidl, Rupert; Stritih, Ana; Senf, Cornelius: Unmixing-based forest recovery indicators for predicting long-term recovery success. Remote Sensing of Environment 308, 2024, 114194 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )
  • Richter, Tobias; Geres, Lisa; König, Sebastian; Braziunas, Kristin H.; Senf, Cornelius; Thom, Dominik; Bässler, Claus; Müller, Jörg; Seidl, Rupert; Seibold, Sebastian: Effects of climate and forest development on habitat specialization and biodiversity in Central European mountain forests. Communications Biology 7 (1), 2024 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )
  • Seibold, Sebastian; Richter, Tobias; Geres, Lisa; Seidl, Rupert; Martin, Ralph; Mitesser, Oliver; Senf, Cornelius; Griem, Lukas; Müller, Jörg: Soundscapes and airborne laser scanning identify vegetation density and its interaction with elevation as main driver of bird diversity and community composition. Diversity and Distributions 30 (12), 2024 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )
  • Seidl, Rupert; Senf, Cornelius: Changes in planned and unplanned canopy openings are linked in Europe’s forests. Nature Communications 15 (1), 2024 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )
  • Stritih, Ana; Senf, Cornelius; Kuemmerle, Tobias; Munteanu, Catalina; Dzadzamia, Lasha; Stritih, Jernej; Matijašić, Dragan; Cortner, Owen; Seidl, Rupert: Same, but different: similar states of forest structure in temperate mountain regions of Europe despite different social-ecological forest disturbance regimes. Landscape Ecology 39 (6), 2024 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )
  • Stritih, Ana; Senf, Cornelius; Marsoner, Thomas; Seidl, Rupert: Mapping the natural disturbance risk to protective forests across the European Alps. Journal of Environmental Management 366, 2024, 121659 more… BibTeX Full text ( DOI )
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