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

11.12.2025
 

"Tracing Biliverdin Metabolism in Bacteria and Archaea"

09.12.2025
 

We are pleased to announce that Manuela Quiroga Pérez has successfully defended her MSc thesis.

 

Congratulations to Manuela, and best of luck for...

06.12.2025
 

Marine fungi are emerging as key yet understudied contributors to carbon turnover in the ocean. Zihao Zhao’s FWF project offers the first global...

01.12.2025
 

"Investigation of the Host-Associated and Environmental Microbiomes to the Mercury Detoxification Strategies of Two Caiman Species in French Guiana"

01.12.2025
 

We are happy to welcome Akangkha as a Master Student to the group!

19.11.2025
 

"Redefining AOA Ecophysiology: From Biofilm Formation to Oxygen Production"