Institute of Biodiversity

The objective of our research is to assess the role of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. We focus on agrobiodiversity, which denotes a part of the overall biodiversity with high economic and ecological importance. The aim of our research is to better understand the functional role of biodiversity and to assist its protection in order to contribute to a sustainable use of agroecosystems. This requires a more profound knowledge of the interactions between agrobiodiversity, management measures and environmental factors. Particularly, we investigate how changes in land use and land use intensity, changes of climatic factors, input of substances and the use genetically modified crops may affect biodiversity in agroecosystems and landscapes, respectively.

We are addressing structural and functional aspects of biodiversity from the scale of microhabitats to the field and landscape scale using methodological approaches ranging from molecular biology tools, ecosystem manipulation experiments to GIS-based landscape assessments. With these research activities we contribute to the understanding and protection of mechanisms of self regulation of agricultural production systems for a sustainable land use in the future.