Landscape ecology

Many ecological processes act simultaneously at different spatial scales: from local habitat to large-scale landscape context. The research focus ‘landscape ecology’ studies the effects of landscape composition and configuration pattern on patterns of faunal biodiversity and associated ecosystem functions.
 

Main research

• Effects of mass-flowering crops on reproductive success, abundnace and species richness of social and solitary wild bees
• Evaluating the efficacy of subsidized wildflower areas in agri-environment schemes (HIAP) in fostering agro-biodiversity in a landscape context (in cooperation with “Amt für Ländlichen Raum des Landkreises Marburg-Biedenkopf”)
• Balancing services and disservices of subsidized wildflower areas in a landscape contex
• Effects of landscape structure on phylogenetic diversity of ground beetles, wild bees and hoverflies