The group Plant Evolutionary Ecology was established in November 2005, as one of the five major groups in the newly founded 'Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity' at University of Münster.


NEWS
Thorsten Reusch (former chair of the group Plant Evolutionary Ecology) has moved to the Leibniz-Institute of Marine Sciences where he will establish the new group Evolutionary Ecology of Marine Fishes. Major topics will include the analysis of host-pathogen interactions, the analysis of contemporary (rapid) evolutionary processes as consequence of human exploitation and species invasions, the application of genomics and transcriptomic tools in ecology / evolutionary genetics and the evolutionary consequences of global warming.

Thorsten B H Reusch
Professor in Marine Ecology
Evolutionary Ecology of Marine Fishes
Leibniz-Institut fuer Meereswissenschaften (IFM Geomar)
Duesternbrooker Weg 20
24105 Kiel
Germany

phone. +49-431-600-4550 (-4551 secretary)
e-mail (effective 2 Sept 2008!): treuschifm-geomar.de


Please note, the remainder of the group will continue to do their beautiful research in Münster (see the personal homepage of Gisep Rauch, Troy Wood, Katharina Oetjen and Nina Bergmann).

Research concept

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Biology is the lead science of the 21st century, and evolution is the most fundamental theory of biological science. At the same time, it is the biological theory that has repeatedly and most often resisted falsification. The idea of organismic evolution is implicitly contained in many biological fields and approaches. Biodiversity at all levels that we observe (and destroy)today has arisen through evolution.

Our group envisages evolutionary biology to be a key field of biology that will experience significant progress in the decade to come. This is largely due to a well-developed body of theory on one hand that benefits tremendously from rapid progress in the development of genomics and transcriptomic tools on the other. For example, for many ecologically important traits, molecular genetic correlates of adaptive evolution will be identified in the near future. The adaptive potential of wild populations will soon become predictable. Increasingly sophisticated bioinformatic models on metabolic networks or protein evolution are now becoming testable in experiments, or based on large data repositories. Host-parasite interactions will soon be understood at the molecular genetic level, complementing and testing a large body of coevolutionary theory and the evolution of virulence. The evolution of genomes across entire phylogenetic branches with associated developmental, physiological and morphological changes that underlie bursts of speciation can soon be reconstructed and analysed.

Accordingly, research conducted in our department needs to be interdisciplinary both in terms of concepts and methodology. Although technically devoted to plant evolutionary biology, many members of our group have been involved in projects with heterotrophic organisms, and will do so in the future on a collaborative basis.