Research

The Landscape Ecology and Vegetation Science group (320A) studies ecological processes in spatially and temporally variable environments. A key research topic is the dynamics of biodiversity under environmental change (such as climate change, land use change, biological invasions and eutrophication). Understanding this dynamics requires the integration of landscape ecology and vegetation science with evolutionary and functional ecology, biogeography, macroecology and environmental science. We work on this integration by using a wide range of methods from experimental ecology, on-farm field research, remote sensing, applied statistics and ecological modelling. Our research thus aims at a fundamental understanding of ecological processes but is also closely linked to applied questions concerning conservation, land use and the management of natural resources.

Research at the Chair of Plant Ecology (320B) is focussing on two major areas:

• effects of climate change on ecosystems,
• ecotoxicological effects of xenobiotics.

Research area is dealing with atmospheric carbon dioxide enrichment, alone and in combination with other climatic variables and stress, and its effects on terrestrial ecosystems. In research area we focus on atmospheric deposition of pollutants from agriculture, industry, traffic and other sources and their potentially adverse effects at various scales from ecophysiology to ecosystems processes.

The following list is an overview of current research projects

Further information on our research can be found on the webpages of the Departments of

• Landscape Ecology and Vegetation Science
• Plant Ecology