Agroecology and Applied Entomology
Our projects aim at providing information for sustainable crop plant protection by plant- and environment-related pest management. We study the effects of agri-environmental measures (flowering strips and hedgerows), agricultural management (organic, integrated and conventional farming) and landscape characteristics on pest arthropods and their natural enemies. Specifically, we are interested how specific environmental parameters and management measures affect biodiversity of herbivores (potential pests) and their antagonists in different cropping systems, and how organismal diversity is related to crop damage and production.
Our group participates in the BiodivERsA - ECOFRUIT research initiative (2015-2018), which investigates how agri-environmental measures, landscape patterns and climate influence arthropod communities in intensive fruit production systems. The ECOFRUIT Project unites research in Germany, Sweden and Spain to improve management of ecosystem services. In Darmstadt, we focus on how to enhance living-conditions for biocontrol agents.