Biotic Interactions between Forest and Agricultural Land

 

The focus of the working group Biotic Interactions between Forest and Agricultural Land (InterFAL) is on the interactions between natural and anthropogenic habitats and the resulting effects on plant and animal species. With this research, the working group supports a balanced land use and thus contributes to the 15th UN Sustainability Goal. The working group will answer the following research questions; (i) How do spatio-temporal patterns of wild plant and animal species change in a landscape with increasingly intensified land use and fragmented habitats? (ii) Can the effects of land use history on the current biodiversity of wild plant and animal species in agricultural landscapes be demonstrated? (iii) Which sustainably oriented land use options are available for improved management of wild animals in agricultural landscapes? The following methods are used in the working group to answer these research questions;; (i) Reconstruction and analysis of long-term land use changes with the help of historical sources and GIS, (ii) Collection of plant and site data, (iii) Data analysis with the help of statistical methods with R, (iv) Population genetic analyses of plant and insect populations based on microsatellites (cooperation with Senckenberg German Institute of Entomology), (v) Spatiotemporal analysis of habitats and food patterns of selected wild animals and (vi) Socio-economic analyses of stakeholders in the context of human-wildlife conflicts.