How does vegetation react to environmental change? To understand this, we use ecological field methods, remote sensing and numerical modeling. Besides basic research we develop methods that are applied in land use management or nature conservation.
Active research projects

A long-term landscape ecological experiment and monitoring programme to determine the impact of elephants on a savanna ecosystem.
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A long-term project studying spatio-temporal population dynamics of exotic plant species in the Drakensberg, South Africa.
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Das Projekt ErWiN zielt auf ein verbessertes Verständnis von Waldbranddynamiken in Zentraleuropa und untersucht die Effizienz von Präventationsmaßnahmen mit Laserscanning und Waldbrandmodellen.
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Mapping the impacts of soil fertility gradients and long-term soil development on natural forests and shrublands via the relationship between soil resources and plant traits.
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Understanding temporal and spatial effects of vegetation and other biotic processes on sediment dynamics in the three EarthShape focus catchments in Chile.
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Medicinal plants play an important role in areas where access to medical supplies is limited. This project studies the environmental conditions and distribution of such plants in Samburu, Kenya.
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The project aims at an operationalisation of vegetation mapping by reference data collection via UAV and cloud-based analysis of earth observation data
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In collaboration with Slovenian colleagues, the INSANE project aims to improve the link between scientific development of remote sensing techniques and applied forest management.
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In SYSSIFOSS we seek to improve remote sensing based forest inventory approaches by coupling forest growth simulators with tree models obtained from airborne laserscanning.
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