Research

The Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research Group studies the structure, function and change of terrestrial ecosystems by using plants, vegetation and soil as integrative key features in landscape ecology. Processes of global change especially of man-made climate and land use changes as well as changes in biogeochemical cycles are studied on local and regional scale with regard to their importance for conservation of biodiversity and sustainable use of natural resources.

Main Research Topics

• floodplain ecology
  nutrient- and hydrodynamics, soil seed banks, dispersal processes, establishment
• grassland ecology
  site conditions, diversity, management
  project Biodiversity in Urban Grasslands
• restoration ecology
  project Rapid evolution in novel environment: a multispecies approach
• functional biodiversity research
  project STOICHIO - Land-use effects on plant–herbivore stoichiometry: micro- and macronutrients
  project ESCAPE - Effects of disturbance and seed addition on plant community assembly and ecosystem functions
• monitoring and evaluation of nature conservation measures
  project Roads to diversity - Lifelines on sand
  project Year-round grazing projects in Northwestern Germany
  project Effects of grazing on calcareous grasslands in limestone querries of the Teutoburg Forest
• bog ecology
  project CANDYbog - Carbon, water and nutrient dynamics in vascular plant- vs. Sphagnum-dominated bog ecosystems in southern Patagonia
  project Establishment of hummock peat mosses in rewetted cutover bogs
• forest ecology
  project BiCO² - Biodiversity and carbon storage along a forestry intensity gradient
• effects of Climate Change on biodiversity
  project Scientific steering and evaluation of the "Waldklimafonds" project: Fit for climate change - measures for a sustainable, near-natural adaptation of wet forests in the Münsterland to climate change
  project Climate Change and Biodiversity NRW
• ecological consequences of land use changes on local and regional scale
  project CopWoods - The biodiversity of traditional socio-ecological systems: Large coppiced woods in Germany
  project SASCHA - Sustainable land management and adaptation strategies to climate change for the Western Siberian Grain Belt
  project BALTRAK - Balancing trade-offs between agriculture and biodiversity in the steppes of Kazakhstan
  project Steppe Ecosystems in Kazakhstan
• animal migration
  project Messengers of a changing world - the migration ecology of Asian land birds
• use of near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) in ecology
  project BioComp - Biodiversity Exploratories