Forests Facing Environmental Change

Our group is interested in the processes that maintain biodiversity in natural ecosystems (particularly in the tropics) and how human activity might affect this biodiversity. We also investigate the role of biodiversity in the provision of ecosystem functions and services. Our research focuses on four, interconnected, questions:

1. What mechanisms maintain biodiversity in natural systems?
2. How is anthropogenic environmental change affecting biodiversity?
3. How does anthropogenic environmental change affect the processes that maintain species coexistence?
4. How does biodiversity influence ecosystem functioning and in particular the simultaneous provision of multiple ecosystem services?