Plant and Ecosystem Physiology, Functional Plant Diversity

Understanding how ecosystems function needs detailed knowledge about the underlying processes at plant, community and ecosystems scales as well as functional plant diversity. Their interactions are the basis for the many services we obtain from ecosystems. In our research, we focus on linking plant ecophysiology and biogeochemistry to environmental factors and species interactions. Often, the respective research questions are linked to our field observations. In addition, we participated in the Jena Experiment, Europe's largest biodiversity experiment in grasslands, for more than 17 years.