Animal Population Ecology Working Group (Prof. Dr. Heike Feldhaar)

The research focus of Feldhaar group is on the effects of various factors of global change on populations and communities of terrestrial invertebrates and their biotic interactions, as well as on the evolutionary ecology of insect - bacteria - symbioses.

In field experiments in different forest ecosystems, we investigate how forest age, forest structure or tree species diversity affect arthropod communities and associated ecosystem functions such as deadwood decomposition or seed dispersal.

Using terrestrial model organisms (ants, bumblebees, earthworms), we investigate in laboratory and field experiments how multiple stressors of global change (pollutants such as microplastics, particulate matter or heat stress) affect their fitness and how these effects are mechanistically mediated.