Mission Statement

The Department of Functional and Evolutionary Ecology within the Faculty of Life Sciences aims at a mechanistic understanding of ecological and evolutionary patterns and processes from organismic to ecosystem scale. Specifically, we study and teach biodiversity, symbioses, metabolic pathways, ecophysiology and ecosystem functioning in light of environmental change.

Units

Archaea Biology and Ecogenomics

Christa Schleper - Archaea Ecology and Evolution
Silvia Bulgheresi - Environmental Cell Biology
Simon Rittmann - Archaea Physiology & Biotechnology
Filipa Sousa - Genome Evolution and Ecology
Isabelle Zink - Archaea Immunity and Molecular Tools

 

Limnology

Christian Griebler - Groundwater Ecology
Katrin Attermeyer - Carbocrobe
Hubert Keckeis - Fish Ecology
Michael Schagerl - Phycology

 

 

Molecular Systems Biology

Wolfram Weckwerth - Systems Theory in Ecology and Biology
Palak Chaturvedi - Crops in a Changing Climate Environment
Ingeborg Lang - Structural and functional plant cell biology
Markus Teige - Plant signalling
Steffen Waldherr - Computational methods for systems biology
Stefanie Wienkoop - Plant-Microsymbiont Interaction


Marine Ecology

Monika Bright - Marine Benthic Ecology
Gerhard Herndl - Microbial Oceanography
Frank Melzner - Marine Experimental Ecology
Thomas Reinthaler - Marine Microbial Biogeochemistry

Facilities and Research Platforms

News

05.05.2026
 

Cilia-driven surface currents characterize specific cnidarian groups and lifecycle stages

28.04.2026
 

The Microbial Oceanography Working Group is hosting an oceanography symposium on May 7.

 

We hope to see you there!

 

24.04.2026
 

"HOT, COOL und (fast) AUSSERIRDISCH: Wie können Mikroorganismen in extremen Lebensräumen leben?"

20.04.2026
 

"Let's talk about Symbiosis 2026"

02.04.2026
 

New Publications!

We’ve been busy doing great research. Check out our newest papers.

27.03.2026
 

2. KMW-Tagung

Tagung zu Thema, welche den Weinbau, die Önologie und insbesondere den Pflanzenschutz auf die neuen und künftig zu erwartenden Herausforderungen...