Main Content

Ecological Plant Geography

Research

The research group Ecological Plant Geography studies the ecology of plants from the level of the individual (Ecophysiology, funtional Ecology) to the ecosystem (community ecology, spatial ecology). We are particularly interested in studying how spatial distribution patterns of functional plant groups, e.g. epiphytes, trees, or poikilohydric plants like bryophytes, can be explained and predicted based on their physiological, physoignomical, and ecological characteristics and on biotic interactions.

Central questions include:

• Where and why do plant groups reach their distributional limits?
• How do such limit change when conditions, e.g. the climate, changes?
• What role do plant-plant interactions play in determining the dynamics of plant distributional boundaries? 

Our favorite study systems are located in mountains and in the tropics and include the alpine treeline, epiphytic plants and bryophytes (mosses and liverworts).

Themes

• Oak leaf traits and their interaction with the leaf microbiome, part of the Tree-M project (1 project starting 2023, 2x PhD position available!)
• Nature-Based Solutions in the cloud-forest and paramo zones of Colombia, part of the NISANSA project (1 current project, PhD student: Diana Jimenez)
• Large-scale vascular epiphyte diversity patterns (Postdoc: Dr. Glenda Mendieta-Leiva, PhD student: João Costa)
• Ecology and ecophysiology of alpine treelines (several current and finished projects, PhD students: Dr. Hannah Loranger, Nishtha Prakash, Lirey Ramirez, Lukas Flinspach)
• Climate-change effects on tropical bryophytes (1 finished and 1 current project, PhD students: Elodie Moureau, Nada Nikolic)
• Bryophytes and other epiphytes in tropical lowland cloud forests (1 current project, Postdoc: Dr. Monica Berdugo)
• Elevational gradients in bryophyte diversity and functional composition (1 finished project, Postdoc: Dr. Eyvar Rodríguez)
• Climate and plant-trait effects on plant productivity and litter decomposition (1 finished project, Postdoc: Dr. Rafaella Canessa)
• Life on a leaf: community dynamics of epiphylls (1 finished project, Postdoc: Dr. Anna Mezaka)
• Islands in the sky: island biogeography of epiphytes as spider habitats (1 finished project, Postdoc: Dr. Francisco Mendez)
• Bryophyte functional-trait relationships (1 finished project, Postdoc: Dr. Wang Zhe)
• Ecological roles of epiphytes in cloud-forest ecosystems (1 finished project, Postdoc: Dr. Diana Gómez)
• Interactions among alpine plants (1 finished project, Postdoc: Dr. Carolina García)