Forschungsgebiete der AG Beck

In 2004 and 2005 we established and continued several focal areas of research which comprise a great variety of methods:

Phylogeny and systematics of animals:

1. Phylogeny, systematics and biogeography of hydrothermal deep-sea molluscs. (Mathias Rath).
2. Systematics, allometry und behaviour of tropical crabs of the families Ocypodidae and Grapsidae (Genera Ocypode, Uca, Sesarma) (Caren Tautz-Kopania).
3. Phylogeny and Phylography of  serpents (Christian Neumann, Mathias Rath).
4. How to make Ancistrinae monophyletic? An attempt using morphological, nuclear and mitochondrial data (Christian Cramer, in cooperation with the Laboratory of Ichthyology Porto Alegre, Brasilia).
5. Die Bedeutung des Physiologen und Universalgelehrten Lorenz Oken für die Evolutionstheorien während der frühen Genese der Päläontologie und Paläoanthropologie (Felicitas Farrenkopf).

Biodiversity:

1. Fish as bioindicators of the status of  rivers and lakes (River Eder, Christoph Dümpelmann)
2. Ecological-faunistical investigations on the invertebrate fauna (with special focus on molluscs) of the river Lahn. (Sarah Wenz).
3. Assessment of  running waters with macrozoobenthos (Andrea Sundermann). In cooperation with Dr. P. Haase Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural Museum, Departement of Limnology and Conservation, Biebergemünd, Germany.

Etho-evolution, Etho-ecology:

1. Behaviour of mammals in captivity, especially of Ungulates (pigs, sheep, cows, donkeys, horses) mostly in cooperation with scientists of zoological gardens. (Anja Wasilewski, Matthias Piontek, Silke Walter).
2. Extensive pigfarming and its implication for landscape conservation –  Beetles of the family Carabidae as an indicator of the effects of extensive pigfarming on epigeic arthropod associations (Benjamin Hill, Heiko Köstermeyer)
3. Impacts of tourism on Adélie-penguins: an etho-physiological study during incubation (Kathrin Schuster). In cooperation with HD Dr. Sigrid Schmitz (Freiburg).

 

Zoological collection:

1. Mummy skulls of the zoological collection – paleo-pathological and molecular studies (Jan Harbort).
2. Studies on artificial mother of pearl at Philipps-University Marburg (Ellen Gausmann).
3. Revision of the Riehl-Collection (Sarah Jacobi).

Didactics of Biology:

1. Advancement of highly talented pupils in cooperation with the Gesellschaft für das Hochbegabte Kind e.V. (Jan Harbort)
2. Man – animal interrelations: companion animals at schools, animal collections and vivaria at schools (Sina Becker, Andrea Rüsseler, Annika Gebauer, Mathias Rath).